Lifeboat Foundation

Rory McCarthy, senior storage analyst for Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables, illustrated for attendees how the business case for using renewables in place of natural gas is becoming more compelling following declines in solar and wind costs.

That business case is also improving as a result of massive increases in battery storage, where the U.S. leads the world in terms of operational and planned capacity.

Today, storage capacity amounts to around 6 gigawatt-hours worldwide, but Wood Mackenzie predicts a more than tenfold increase, to at least 65 gigawatt-hours, by 2022. The U.S. will continue to lead this build-out, thanks to its more mature market.

Continue reading “6 Charts Showing the Renewables Threat to Natural Gas” »

The United States uses more energy for HVAC than Africa uses for all of their energy needs.

The starry night sky seems remarkably distant from the topic of air conditioning, but it’s revolutionizing the field in quite an unexpected way. In this episode of “The Spark,” watch how scientists from across the globe are harnessing natural phenomena to drastically redesign this century-old technology.

Continue reading “This New Space Tech Could Someday Replace A/C” »

Spacecraft and satellites could in future be launched into space without the need for fuel, thanks to a revolutionary new theory.

Dr Mike McCulloch, from the University of Plymouth, first put forward the idea of quantised inertia (QI) – through which he believes light can be converted into thrust – in 2007.

Continue reading “Scientists receive $1.3 million to study new propulsion idea for spacecraft” »

Vector today launched a new programme to raise awareness of the need to keep trees well clear from power lines, by planting thousands more of them to launch the initiative.

The Vector Urban Forest initiative means the power company will replace every tree it must cut down for network management or safety purposes, with two new natives, planted in areas that help with local ecological restoration schemes.

“The Vector Urban Forest is a promise from Vector to plant two native seedlings where they are needed most, and far away from Auckland’s powerlines which will mean Aucklanders’ power supply is better protected”, said Andre Botha, Vector’s Chief Networks Officer.

Wireless startup WiTricity wants cars to power up without human help and feed utilities energy during peak demand.

A devastating solar storm which could wipe out communications on Earth and fry power grids is a matter of ‘when not if’ the head of the Met Office’s Space Weather Monitoring centre has warned.

Extreme space weather has already caused widespread disruption, with a geomagnetic storm leaving six million people without power in 1989 while Apollo astronauts narrowly missed being exposed to deadly radiation in 1972 and solar flares in 2003 forced the crew of the International Space Station to take cover.

The largest solar storm ever recorded, The Carrington Event in 1859, knocked out Telegraph systems and even set fire to paper in offices.

Continue reading “Devastating solar storm is a matter of ‘when not if’ warns Met Office as Solar Orbiter begins testing” »

Carbon dioxide is society’s ultimate waste product: We inject billions of tons of it into the air every year. Now, researchers have found two efficient ways to recycle CO₂ into energy-rich fuels. # Science MagArchives

Carbon dioxide–splitting techniques could store excess electricity from renewable sources.

Filling up a hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) is one of those unknowns that many buyers might not consider until it’s time to actually head to a station and fill up for the first time. We are in the unique position to try out many of the latest and greatest vehicles, including a handful of FCEVs.

A key part of the ownership experience is the fueling experience, including finding stations and the physical process of fueling up the vehicle. Thankfully, filling up is a fairly painless experience, but it is different enough to warrant a quick introduction.

Continue reading “A Look At Hydrogen Fueling Infrastructure In 2018” »

Engineers at the University of Maryland have created a thin battery, made of a few million carefully constructed “microbatteries” in a square inch. Each microbattery is shaped like a very tall, round room, providing much surface area – like wall space – on which nano-thin battery layers are assembled. The thin layers together with large surface area produces very high power along with high energy. It is dubbed a “3D battery” because each microbattery has a distinctly 3D shape.

These 3D batteries push conventional planar thin-film solid state batteries into a third dimension. Planar batteries are a single stack of flat layers serving the roles of anode, electrolyte, cathode and current collectors.

But to make the 3D batteries, the researchers drilled narrow holes are formed in silicon, no wider than a strand of spider silk but many times deeper. The battery materials were coated on the interior walls of the deep holes. The increased wall surface of the 3D microbatteries provides increased energy, while the thinness of the layers dramatically increases the power that can be delivered. The process is a little more complicated and expensive than its flat counterpart, but leads to more energy and higher power in the same footprint.