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Category: sustainability – Page 210

Clean energy will reduce dependency on Russia and Arab countries for oil and gas.

What if the weight could instead be distributed between multiple support poles? That’s the design Eolink has in mind; its floating turbine swaps out the single large pole for four thinner ones angled towards each other in a pyramid shape. This not only distributes the weight of the turbine’s pieces, it allows the whole structure to be lighter.

The turbine Eolink plans to build as a proof of concept will have a generating capacity of five megawatts and weigh 1,100 tons. Its base will be a square with each side 171 feet (52 meters) long, and its rotor’s diameter will be 469 feet (143 meters). For reference, that’s about one and a half Big Bens, or four-fifths of the Washington Monument.

You wouldn’t think that such a huge piece of machinery would be simple to build and transport. But compared to conventional offshore turbines, Eolink’s design does carry a myriad of advantages in terms of both cost and ease.

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Solar cell technology is a seen as a key pillar in our transition to cleaner forms of energy, but within this field there is all kinds of room for experimentation. Solar cells that are thin and flexible hold unique promise in the area, as they could be applied to all kinds of irregular, curvy or otherwise unsuitable surfaces. Thinner than a human hair, a new lightweight solar cell from MIT scientists continues to push the envelope in this space.

The MIT team behind the technology sought to build on its previous advances in material science, which in 2016 culminated in ultra-thin solar cells light enough to sit atop a soap bubble without breaking it. As is the case with other thin, light and flexible solar cells we’ve looked at over the years, this pointed to all kinds of possibilities, from paper-based electronics to lightweight wearables that harvest energy throughout your day.

Despite the potential, the team still had some problems to solve, with the fabrication technique for the solar cells requiring vacuum chambers and expensive vapor deposition methods. In order to scale the technology up, the scientists have now turned to ink-based printable materials to streamline the process.

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The technology could help make EVs more affordable as well as easier to charge.

A collaboration between researchers at the Yokohoma National University in Japan and the University of New South Wales Sydney, Australia has led to the development of a new electrode material that can be used in solid-state batteries. Thus the electrode doesn’t diminish after multiple charges and discharge cycles and can help in manufacturing durable batteries for electric vehicles.

As the world is turning over to electric modes of transportation in its bid to reduce carbon emissions, the battery has become a focal area of development.

Black_Kira/iStock.

While high charging times make the shift to electric vehicles unattractive, as the crucial component, the battery must also be cheap enough to encourage EV adoption. Although progress has been made in developing lithium-ion batteries, solid-state batteries (SSBs) have also gained traction as an alternative.

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World Food Day, celebrated every year on 16 October, marks the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in 1945 as an organization that deals with global food and agricultural issues. The number of people going hungry has increased since 2014 and the prevalence of undernourishment has remained virtually unchanged in the past 3 years. This reversal in progress sends a clear warning that more must be done urgently if the Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger is to be achieved by 2030.

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The ultralight solar cells are made of semiconducting inks using printing processes that can be scaled in the future to large-area manufacturing.

A group of engineers at MIT have developed a rather interesting solution to be deployed in remote locations or for assistance in emergencies: solar cells made of ultralight fabric that can turn any surface into a power source.

The research is published in Small Methods.

Melanie Gonick, MIT

Thinner than human hair, the durable, flexible solar cells are stuck on a strong, lightweight fabric that makes them very easy to affix to a surface, just like a sticker.

Continue reading “Video: MIT engineers develop paper-thin solar cells that can power any surface” | >

Environmentalists, however, argue that the process may not be a good thing.

University of Colorado researchers have conceived of a method of making useful materials out of some of the plastics that are inundating landfills everywhere, according to a report by the Colorado Sun.

The end result is a series of polycyanurate networks which have been used for decades in electronic devices, automobiles, circuit boards, the space industry and more.

AzmanJaka/iStock.

The novel process uses ethanol to break down plastics to their smallest molecules. Those molecules are then used as starting blocks to make a new plastic product equally as useful and durable as the recycled one.

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While Elon Musk’s Tesla has been making waves in the global auto industry, China has also become the center of action in the EV space! One company in China has recorded.

A breakthrough in battery technology so huge that even Musk is impressed! Which.

Chinese company has recorded this feat? What does the revolutionary battery offer?

Join us as we dive into how China just shocked the entire EV industry with a new battery!

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“The likelihood of a cyber-attacks on Twitter feel very high right now and their ability to be able to counteract that feels very low,” Radcliffe said. “The amount of information that they have on users is considerable and I think that that’s a potential source of concern, particularly in countries in the Middle East and other places where once the information is on the open market and in the public domain it could potentially be harmful to users.”

Partnering with individuals or groups close to authoritarian regimes raises concerns over how Twitter might react should it be pressured by supply information on dissidents or to quell opposition speech. They also raise questions about Musk’s potential conflict of business interests concerning Tesla and Space X’s availability in certain markets.

Such questions have already been brought up by at least one member of the US Congress. But experts say they’re much more concerned about data security should Twitter go under.

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Pelorus, a provider of experiential travel and yachting, has partnered with Swedish aviation company OceanSky Cruises, the “airline of airships,” to promote the advancement of ultra-sustainable airship travel.

Pelorus will provide thorough research, planning, and logistics as OceanSky’s “expedition partner” to create individualized private experiences before, after, and onboard OceanSky Cruises’ fleet of premier “lighter than air” airships, according to a press release by the company last week.

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