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Category: energy – Page 70

Earth will be struck today by a coronal mass ejection from a huge solar flare that erupted from the sun on New Year’s Eve.

The New Year’s Eve flare created a CME, a huge bubble of plasma from a region of the sun called the corona, which is equivalent to the sun’s outer atmosphere, and this has an Earth-directed component. Though this massive ejection of plasma will only graze the magnetic bubble surrounding our planet Tuesday (Jan. 2), the magnetosphere, it could trigger a geomagnetic storm that could affect communications and power infrastructure.

The coronal mass ejection CME was hurled into space by an X-class solar flare that burst from the surface of the sun at 4:55 p.m. EST (2155 GMT) on Sunday (Dec. 31). It is the most powerful flare that has happened on the sun during the current solar cycle, solar cycle 25, which began in Dec. 2019. In fact, the flare that ended 2023 with a bang is the largest that has been observed since Sept. 10, 2017, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center of the National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

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An international research group has engineered a novel, high-strength flexible device by combining piezoelectric composites with unidirectional carbon fiber (UDCF), an anisotropic material that provides strength only in the direction of the fibers. The new device transforms kinetic energy from human motion into electricity, providing an efficient and reliable means for high-strength and self-powered sensors.

Details of the group’s research were published in the journal Small on Dec.14, 2023.

Motion diction involves converting energy from human motion into measurable electrical signals and is something that may be crucial for ensuring a .

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On every count, nanoelectrofuel flow batteries appear to beat lithium-ion batteries for use in EVs and larger systems. Influit expects that its current generation of nanoelectrofuel, together with the entire ecosystem needed to produce, distribute, and recycle the fuel that the company is building around it, should cost $130/kWh when used in an EV. In comparison, lithium-ion batteries cost around $138/kWh. True, lithium-ion’s costs should drop below $100/kWh in a few years, but Influit expects its next-generation nanoelectrofuel to fall even further, to around $50 to $80/kWh. That next-gen system should have 5 times the energy density of present Li-ion systems.

Here’s what that means for an EV.

A typical EV battery today occupies about the same volume as would a flow battery with 400 liters of nanelectrofuel. If nanoparticles made up 30 percent of the weight of that fuel, the EV would have a range of only 105 km. Raise that to 40 percent, and the range would climb to 274 km. At 50 percent, it hits 362 km. And at 80 percent, it’s 724 km (450 miles). And that’s all assuming the flow battery’s tank remains the same size.

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Tesla recorded $500M+ in gross profit from its Energy and Services (Supercharging) segments in Q3 2023. Elon Musk noted how strong energy gross margins were on the call, and insinuated strength in these businesses will continue. I think this is a super exciting development for Tesla investors as the company can smooth out cyclicality in it’s automotive business with consistent profits from its Energy and Services.

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JAC Motors, a Volkswagen-backed Chinese automaker, is set to launch the first mass-produced electric vehicle (EV) with a sodium-ion battery through its new Yiwei brand. Although sodium-ion battery tech has a lower density (and is less mature) than lithium-ion, its lower costs, more abundant supplies and superior cold-weather performance could help accelerate mass EV adoption. CarNewsChina reports that the JAC Yiwei EV hatchback deliveries will begin in January.

Yiwei is a new brand in 2023 for JAC. Volkswagen has a 75 percent stake in (and management control of) JAC and owns 50 percent of JAC’s parent company, Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Holdings (JAG). The Chinese government owns the other half of JAG, making for one of the auto industry’s stranger pairings.

The Yiwei EV appears to be a rebranded version of the Sehol E10X hatchback (above), announced earlier this year. CarNewsChina describes the Sehol model as having a 252 km (157 miles) range with a 25 kWh capacity, 120 Wh / kg energy density, 3C to 4C charging, and a HiNa NaCR32140 cell. When JAC revealed the Yiwei brand in May, it said it would drop the Sehol label and rebrand all its vehicles to either JAC or Yiwei, leading us to this week’s EV reveal. JAC hasn’t yet said whether the Yiwei-branded model will keep the E10X moniker.

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When two new Montana wind farms come online, the state will have more nameplate capacity in wind than in coal.

Nameplate capacity is the maximum rated output in megawatts when a source of power operates in optimal conditions.

According to US Energy Information Administration (EIA) data, Montana coal plants provided 1,631 megawatts (MW) of nameplate capacity in October. In the same period, Montana’s wind capacity provided 1,479 megawatts.

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