Lifeboat Foundation

Long charging times and limited access to fast chargers can be the dealbreakers for electric vehicle buyers today. But technology advancements are often fast-paced, and it’s hard to predict how close, or far, we are from the next big breakthrough. However, battery scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) might have a solution for charging speeds.

ORNL’s paper highlights a new lithium-ion battery that can not only recharge to 80 percent in 10 minutes but also sustain the fast charging ability for 1,500 cycles. For those new to the EV language, battery charge, and discharge occur when ions travel between the positive and negative electrodes through a medium called an electrolyte.

Getting to fifteen hundred charging cycles isn’t a new development. Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted in 2019 that the Model 3’s battery modules were designed to last 1,500 cycles or between 300,000 and 500,000 miles.

Most adhesives are made from fossil fuels and take thousands of years to biodegrade, but a new alternative derived from soya plants bonds metal, wood and synthetic surfaces just as strongly.

By Christa Lesté-Lasserre

An exploration of The AI Farm Hypothesis and what it might mean for alien life and the Fermi Paradox.

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Continue reading “Fermi Paradox: The AI Farm Hypothesis” »

In the first and second parts of this series, pv magazine reviewed the productive lifespan of residential solar panels and inverters. Here, we examine home batteries, how well they perform over time, and how long they last.

Residential energy storage has become an increasingly popular feature of home solar. A recent SunPower survey of more than 1,500 households found that about 40% of Americans worry about power outages on a regular basis. Of the survey respondents actively considering solar for their homes, 70% said they planned to include a battery energy storage system.

Besides providing backup power during outages, many batteries are integrated with technology that allows for intelligent scheduling of the import and export of energy. The goal is to maximize the value of the home’s solar system. And, some batteries are optimized to integrate an electric vehicle charger.

Tesla suspends the base Model Y AWD in the United States. This might have to do with the upcoming Cybertruck and 4680-cell shortage at Giga Texas.

Tesla has built new in-car software specifically for Hertz’s growing fleet of Tesla vehicles for rent around the world.

Back in 2021, Hertz announced an important effort to electrify its fleet of rental cars, led by a massive purchase of 100,000 Tesla Model 3 vehicles. More recently, the company added Model Y vehicles to the order.

The rental company’s Tesla fleet has been growing over the last few years, and it reported that Tesla vehicles are increasing Hertz’s customer satisfaction.

Sunlight is an inexhaustible source of energy, and utilizing sunlight to generate electricity is one of the cornerstones of renewable energy. More than 40% of the sunlight that falls on Earth is in the infrared, visible and ultraviolet spectra; however, current solar technology utilizes primarily visible and ultraviolet rays. Technology to utilize the full spectrum of solar radiation—called all-solar utilization—is still in its infancy.

A team of researchers from Hokkaido University, led by Assistant Professor Melbert Jeem and Professor Seiichi Watanabe at the Faculty of Engineering, have synthesized tungstic acid–based materials doped with copper that exhibited all-solar utilization. Their findings are published in the journal Advanced Materials.

“Currently, the near-and mid-infrared spectra of solar radiation, ranging from 800 nm to 2,500 nm, is not utilized for energy generation,” explains Jeem. “Tungstic acid is a candidate for developing nanomaterials that can potentially utilize this spectrum, as it possesses a crystal structure with defects that absorb these wavelengths.”

China is looking for a clean, sustainable energy source and is turning to the power of nuclear fusion.

What is a clean source of power that could provide clean and unlimited energy? Nuclear energy, which uses nuclear fission, comes to mind. But there is another potential source of energy that would promote sustainability – nuclear fusion.

Nuclear fusion is the opposite of nuclear fission. Fission means splitting atoms apart, which results in the release of energy. Fusion is when two atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus. Fusion is the process that powers the Sun and the stars.

‘Antarctica could transform from Earth’s refrigerator to a radiator’ as Earth is losing sea-ice that helps maintain balance in the planet’s temperature.

Recently, satellite data depicted that the sea ice in and around the Antarctica region reached record-low levels during winter.

This is a concerning development, given Antarctica’s historical resistance to global warming, BBC reported on Sunday (September 17). Scientists caution against unstable consequences of climate change in the polar regions.