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Category: sustainability – Page 184

MilliMobile is a tiny, self-driving robot powered only by light and radio waves

Small mobile robots carrying sensors could perform tasks like catching gas leaks or tracking warehouse inventory. But moving robots demands a lot of energy, and batteries, the typical power source, limit lifetime and raise environmental concerns. Researchers have explored various alternatives: affixing sensors to insects, keeping charging mats nearby, or powering the robots with lasers. Each has drawbacks: Insects roam, chargers limit range, and lasers can burn people’s eyes.

Researchers at the University of Washington have now created MilliMobile, a tiny, self-driving robot powered only by surrounding light or radio waves. Equipped with a solar panel-like energy harvester and four wheels, MilliMobile is about the size of a penny, weighs as much as a raisin and can move about the length of a bus (30 feet, or 10 meters) in an hour even on a cloudy day. The robot can drive on surfaces such as concrete or packed soil and carry three times its own weight in equipment like a camera or sensors. It uses a to move automatically toward light sources so it can run indefinitely on harvested power.

The team will present its research Oct. 2 at the ACM MobiCom 2023 conference in Madrid, Spain.

Google Maps can now tell exactly where solar panels should be installed

Google Maps can now calculate rooftops’ solar potential, track air quality, and forecast pollen counts.

The platform recently launched a range of services like Solar API, which calculates weather patterns and pulls data from aerial imagery to help understand rooftops’ solar potential. The tool aims to help accelerate solar panel deployment by improving accuracy and reducing the number of site visits needed.

As seasonal allergies get worse every year, Pollen API shows updated information on the most common allergens in 65 countries by using a mix of machine learning and wind patterns. Similarly, Air Quality API provides detailed information on local air quality by utilizing data from multiple sources, like government monitoring stations, satellites, live traffic, and more, and can show areas affected by wildfires too.

World-first Dutch program will use ride-share cars as a grid battery

Renewable energy grids need lots of energy storage – and EVs plugged into charging stations represent a huge, city-wide battery just waiting to help out. The Dutch city of Utrecht is about to pioneer a clever way to kickstart two-way charging.

The idea has been done plenty at the domestic level – where devices like Toyota’s V2H (vehicle-to-home) charging system can turn an electric car into a high-powered backup power supply capable of running your whole home for days at a time.

And people have been talking about it on a broader, city-wide scale since the dawn of the EV revolution; the same high power density batteries that makes EVs so quick to accelerate make them perfect for quickly sending power back into the grid to smooth out demand spikes.

Around the world with no emissions with Solar Airship One

Solar Airship One embarks on a 24,854-mile zero-emissions world tour powered by the Sun and hydrogen. A game-changer in sustainable aviation.

Euro Airship unveiled its groundbreaking project, Solar Airship One, in a historic move towards sustainable aviation in a press release. This innovative venture promises to revolutionize long-distance aviation by completing a non-stop world tour spanning over 24,854 miles (40,000 kilometers), all while producing zero emissions. Set to take flight in 2026, Solar Airship One represents a significant leap forward in the quest for environmentally friendly transportation.

A massive ship in the sky

Solar Airship One, a massive 495 feet (151 meters) in length, is a rigid airship boasting a helium expansion volume of 53,000 cubic meters. The key to its sustainability lies in its envelope, with an impressive 4,800 square meters of solar film. These solar panels harness sunlight during the day to power the airship’s electric propulsion systems while storing excess energy in fuel cells. By night, the stored energy is utilized as the fuel cells convert hydrogen produced through water electrolysis into electricity.

Indian research team develops fully indigenous gallium nitride power switch

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have developed a fully indigenous gallium nitride (GaN) power switch that can have potential applications in systems like power converters for electric vehicles and laptops, as well as in wireless communications. The entire process of building the switch—from material growth to device fabrication to packaging—was developed in-house at the Center for Nano Science and Engineering (CeNSE), IISc.

Due to their and efficiency, GaN transistors are poised to replace traditional silicon-based transistors as the in many , such as ultrafast chargers for , phones and laptops, as well as space and military applications such as radar.

“It is a very promising and disruptive technology,” says Digbijoy Nath, Associate Professor at CeNSE and corresponding author of the study published in Microelectronic Engineering. “But the material and devices are heavily import-restricted … We don’t have gallium nitride wafer production capability at commercial scale in India yet.” The know-how of manufacturing these devices is also a heavily-guarded secret with few studies published on the details of the processes involved, he adds.

Marin transportation agency backs faster electric-vehicle transition

The Transportation Authority of Marin board has voted to accept a framework to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles, in some cases faster than required under state law.

The “Marin Countywide Electric Vehicle Acceleration Strategy,” developed by the interagency Marin County Climate and Energy Partnership, is meant to provide a playbook of policies and actions for jurisdictions to employ to ready their communities for a growing number of electric vehicles.

Several Marin communities have already accepted the strategy, and the Transportation Authority of Marin board did so on Thursday. The authority is a state-managed congestion management agency that also provides rebates to public agencies for installing charging stations and electrifying their vehicle fleets.

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