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Category: solar power – Page 159
World’s first “aqueous solar flow battery” outperforms traditional lithium-iodine batteries
The scientists who last year revealed the world’s first solar battery that essentially combines a battery and solar cell, are now reporting its first significant performance milestone. Tested against traditional lithium-iodine batteries, the researchers are claiming energy savings of 20 percent.
Phosphorene could lead to ultrathin solar cells
Scientists at Australian National University (ANU) have used simple transparent sticky (aka “Scotch”) tape to create single-atom-thick layers of phosphorene from “black phosphorus,” a black crystalline form of phosphorus similar to graphite (which is used to create graphene).
Japan is building solar energy plants on abandoned golf courses—and the idea is spreading — Steve Mollman | Quartz
“[Kyocera] announced an even larger project that will begin construction next year in the Kagoshima prefecture on land that had been designated for a golf course more than 30 years ago but subsequently abandoned. The 92-megawatt plant will include more than 340,000 solar modules and is expected to generate nearly 100,000 megawatt hours per year, or enough to power about 30,500 households when it goes operational in 2018.” Read more
Renewable energy boom will mean vastly cheaper electricity
Renewable energy boom will mean vastly cheaper electricity
Renewable energy, combined with prolific battery storage, will soon result in vastly cheaper electricity — and solar power that’s less expensive than what fossil fuel-based power plants can produce.
Additionally, solar power with lithium-ion and flow-battery storage systems will make the combination of renewable energy so inexpensive that it will surpass nuclear power and obviate the need for futuristic power sources such as fusion, according to Tesla CTO JB Straubel.
“I think we’re at the beginning of a new cost decline curve. Almost no one today would have predicted photovoltaic prices would have dropped as fast as they have, and storage is right at the cliff heading down that price curve,” Straubel said.
Elon Musk: The World’s Raddest Man By Tim Urban | Wait But Why
Tim Urban, of Wait But Why, recently received a phone call from Elon Musk’s staff asking if he would like to write about the automotive, aerospace, and solar power industries through personal interviews with Elon Musk and his teams. Tim Urban said yes, and the first three of essays / articles are already posted on his site.
Elon Musk Rebuffs Critics with Fundamentals
“If he was paid by the oil and gas industry lobby he couldn’t have written a more favorable article for them.”—Elon Musk
New Book: An Irreverent Singularity Funcyclopedia, by Mondo 2000’s R.U. Sirius.
Quoted: “Legendary cyberculture icon (and iconoclast) R.U. Sirius and Jay Cornell have written a delicious funcyclopedia of the Singularity, transhumanism, and radical futurism, just published on January 1.” And: “The book, “Transcendence – The Disinformation Encyclopedia of Transhumanism and the Singularity,” is a collection of alphabetically-ordered short chapters about artificial intelligence, cognitive science, genomics, information technology, nanotechnology, neuroscience, space exploration, synthetic biology, robotics, and virtual worlds. Entries range from Cloning and Cyborg Feminism to Designer Babies and Memory-Editing Drugs.” And: “If you are young and don’t remember the 1980s you should know that, before Wired magazine, the cyberculture magazine Mondo 2000 edited by R.U. Sirius covered dangerous hacking, new media and cyberpunk topics such as virtual reality and smart drugs, with an anarchic and subversive slant. As it often happens the more sedate Wired, a watered-down later version of Mondo 2000, was much more successful and went mainstream.”
Read the article here >https://hacked.com/irreverent-singularity-funcyclopedia-mondo-2000s-r-u-sirius/
Elon Musk named Lifeboat Foundation 2014 Guardian Award winner
The Lifeboat Foundation Guardian Award is annually bestowed upon a respected scientist or public figure who has warned of a future fraught with dangers and encouraged measures to prevent them.
The 2014 Lifeboat Foundation Guardian Award has been given to Elon Musk in recognition of his warnings about artificial intelligence, his promotion of space exploration including the creation of self-sustaining space colonies, and his efforts to improve our environment with electric cars and to expand solar energy generation.
Elon is often likened to a real-life Tony Stark from Marvel’s Iron Man comics for his role in cutting-edge companies including SpaceX, a private space exploration company that holds the first private contracts from NASA for resupply of the International Space Station, and the electric car company Tesla Motors. Watch Elon in Iron Man 2!
Artificial Intelligence
Elon recently described his investments in AI research as “keeping an eye on what’s going on” rather than aiming for a viable return on capital. He said, “I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I had to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that. So we need to be very careful.”
Considering that oversight of AI development by governmental and nongovernmental agencies is about zero, it is helpful for Elon to bring attention to this matter. For example, thanks to warnings like his, Google now has an AI Ethics Board. (This matters since Google is putting a lot of resources into creating smarter and smarter AIs.)
Self-Sustaining Space Colonies
There are many existential risks that could be survived if we had self-sustaining colonies outside of the Earth. Elon said, “What matters is being able to establish a self-sustaining civilization on Mars, and I don’t see anything being done but SpaceX. I don’t see anyone else even trying.” He also said, “Sooner or later, we must expand life beyond this green and blue ball — or go extinct.”
Elon is CEO and CTO of SpaceX. Historic achievements by SpaceX, among others, include the first privately funded, liquid-fueled rocket (Falcon 1) to reach orbit in September 2008; the first privately funded company to successfully launch (Falcon 9), orbit, and recover a spacecraft (Dragon) in December 2010; and the first private company to send a spacecraft (Dragon) to the International Space Station in May 2012. The launch of SES-8 in December 2013 was the first SpaceX delivery into geosynchronous orbit.
Sustainable Energy
Elon is CEO, Chairman, and Product Architect of Tesla Motors. Tesla first gained widespread attention following their production of the Tesla Roadster, the first fully electric sports car. The company’s second vehicle is the Model S, a fully electric luxury sedan, and its next two vehicles are the Models X and 3 respectively.
Tesla also markets electric powertrain components, including lithium-ion battery packs to automakers including Daimler and Toyota. Elon has said that he envisions Tesla as an independent automaker, aimed at eventually offering electric cars at prices affordable to the average consumer.
Elon is Chairman of SolarCity, the second largest provider of solar power systems in the United States. Continuing its strong growth, the United States installed 1,354 megawatts of solar photovoltaics in Q3 2014, up 41 percent over the same period last year. Only 440 megawatts had been installed in all of 2009 to show how fast this market is growing.