Lifeboat Foundation

In our latest Short-Term Energy Outlook, we forecast that U.S. energy-related carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions will increase in both 2022 and 2023 but remain below 2019 levels. In 2020, U.S. energy-related CO₂ emissions decreased by 11% as energy use declined during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the U.S. economy began to return to pre-COVID activity, CO₂ emissions increased by an estimated 6% in 2021. We expect increasing economic activity, along with other factors, will result in those emissions increasing by another 2% in 2022 and remaining virtually flat in 2023.

We forecast that, by 2023, U.S. energy-related CO₂ emissions will total 4,971 million metric tons (MMmt) — still 3% below the 5,144 MMmt of CO₂ emissions generated in 2019 and 17% below the peak level of 6,016 MMmt in 2007.

U.S. petroleum-related CO₂ emissions increased 8% in 2021, and we forecast that they will increase by another 5% in 2022 and an additional 1% in 2023 as travel activity continues to increase. We forecast that in 2022, the number of vehicle miles traveled in the United States, which affects motor gasoline and diesel consumption, will return to 2019 levels and that air travel will increase by 4% over 2019.

Ultra-yacht launches all-electric Duffy Bayshore 18 boat with solar charging at the St. Petersburg boat show.

Today Ultra-Yacht announced its first-ever All-Electric Duffy Boat featuring a solar charging option at the St. Petersburg Power and Sailboat Show in Florida. The Duffy Bayshore 18 is a zero-emission, low-maintenance boat that offers up to 12 hours of fun on the water.

Continue reading “Ultra-yacht launches all-electric Duffy boat with solar charging at St. Petersburg show” »

The world’s most commonly used system of measurement, the International System of Units (SI), was redefined in 2019. Since then, units have needed to be defined in terms of the constants of nature—that is, nature’s rules that are fixed and of no uncertainty, such as the speed of light—and not in terms of arbitrary references.

This has meant that new research for relating the many units of the system to the constants through experimental realizations has been called for.

“The redefinition has caused a need for new realizations,” says Professor Jukka Pekola.

High-tech missiles, sensors, aircraft, ships, and artillery all rely on atomic clocks on GPS satellites for nanosecond timing accuracy. A timing error of just a few billionths of a second can translate to positioning being off by a meter or more. If GPS were jammed by an adversary, time synchronization would rapidly deteriorate and threaten military operations.

To address this scenario, DARPA has announced the Robust Optical Clock Network (ROCkN) program, which aims to create optical atomic clocks with low size, weight, and power (SWaP) that yield timing accuracy and holdover better than GPS atomic clocks and can be used outside a laboratory. ROCkN will leverage DARPA-funded research over the past couple decades that has led to lab demonstration of the world’s most precise optical atomic clocks. ROCkN clocks will not be as precise as the best lab optical clocks, but they will surpass current state-of-the-art atomic clocks in both precision and holdover while maintaining low SWaP in a robust package. https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2022-01-20

Agreement will finance sales of Class 8 battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles to customers

PHOENIX 0, Jan. 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Nikola Corporation (Nasdaq: NKLA), a global leader in zero-emissions transportation and energy infrastructure solutions, and Corcentric Fleet Funding Solutions, a leading provider of leasing and financing solutions, today announced a signed agreement to facilitate sales of Class 8 Nikola Tre battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) and Nikola Tre hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). Pursuant to the agreement, Corcentric will purchase vehicles and related assets (e.g., charging assets) directly from Nikola to offer Nikola customers a bundled lease that provides Nikola trucks and related equipment, as well as fuel and maintenance, in a single agreement.

“We believe this partnership will allow Nikola to reach more customers by offering solutions to those who otherwise may not have access to financing options,” said Nikola Chief Financial Officer, Kim Brady. “The agreement will provide Corcentric a launching point to expand its offerings into the electric vehicle space. Together we expect to provide funding resources, multiple options to tailor leases to customer needs, and best-in-class customer care for fleet customers and owner/operators.”

General Motors Ultium batteries.

“When you need to put much more energy into the storage form, you get to a point where it’s no longer economical with the batteries, and that’s where the hydrogen comes in,” Freese explained to Green Car Reports. “So there will be a need for both.”

“Grid buffering is more than just the 24-hour cycle…it’s even more than what we talk about with wind, which might flow for a week and then not flow for two weeks,” he argued, noting that if the sources on the grid follow a seasonal nature and loads change quite a bit, it makes sense.

Scientists have discovered a huge store of hidden water on Mars — and it could be the key to human survival on the Red Planet.

The challenge: Researchers have already discovered ice water on Mars at or near the surface of its frigid poles. They’ve also found evidence of water — either in the form of ice or bound to minerals in the soil — deep underground closer to the Red Planet’s equator.

What they really want, though, is near-surface water closer to the equator. That’s where future Mars explorers are likely to land, and an accessible source of water would be hugely useful for their missions, not only for drinking and growing food, but also for creating oxygen and fuel.

The next flight on Mars marks the first of 2022 and the nineteenth for NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. The current mission goal is to reach the Jezero river delta to aid the Perseverance rover in path planning and scientific discovery. This flight, which will take place no earlier than Friday, Jan. 7, takes the scout vehicle out of the South Séítah basin, across the dividing ridge, and up onto the main plateau. The precise landing target for Flight 19 is near the landing site of Flight 8. Images taken during Flight 9 by the rotorcraft’s high-resolution Return-To-Earth (RTE) camera were used to select a safe landing zone.

While short, the flight has a challenging start due to featureless sandy terrain that the helicopter currently sits on. Initially chosen for the lack of rocks to land safely, the area is actually so devoid of rock that warnings were reported during Flight 18 landing due to insufficient features to track in the vision navigation. As a result, fault protection parameters will be updated to mitigate the risk of a premature landing mid-ascent.

Flight 19 is the third necessary to cover the same ground flown during Flight 9 — in the opposite direction. This slower approach was taken due to the lack of large landing sites in this portion of Séítah and lower atmospheric density in the summer months which requires higher rotor speeds and power draw from the motors. Spanning 207 feet (63 meters), this flight will last about 100 seconds at a groundspeed of 2.2 mph (1 meter per second) and altitude of 33 feet (10 meters) while taking 9 new RTE images. The final act of the flight is to turn nearly 180 degrees to flip the RTE camera to a forward-facing orientation for future flights toward the river delta.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has forecast in its January Short-Term Energy Outlook that rising electricity generation from clean energy such as solar and wind will reduce generation from fossil fuel-fired power plants over the next two years.

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The EIA is forecasting the share of generation for US clean energy, excluding hydropower, to grow from 13% in 2021 to 17% in 2023.