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Archive for the ‘sustainability’ category: Page 247

Feb 24, 2022

Kenya tests new solar panels to generate power and enhance food security

Posted by in categories: food, solar power, sustainability

Feb 24, 2022

Tesla is rumored to be building new factory adjacent to Gigafactory Shanghai to double production to two million cars

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

A new report claims that Tesla is starting work on building a new factory adjacent to Gigafactory Shanghai in order to double production capacity to two million cars annually.

Tesla currently operates two main factories, Tesla Fremont and Gigafactory Shanghai, and it has Gigafactory Texas and Gigafactory Berlin slowly starting to ramp up production.

Those four projects alone should push Tesla’s production capacity beyond three million vehicles annually by the end of next year, but the automaker has much greater ambitions for this decade that will require several more factories. The company recently confirmed that it plans to announce a new location for a factory by the end of this year.

Feb 24, 2022

A step closer to biodegradable household batteries

Posted by in categories: chemistry, nanotechnology, sustainability

Fully organic rechargeable household batteries are an ideal alternative to traditional metal-based batteries, in particular for reducing pollution to landfill and the environment.

Now researchers at Flinders University, with Australian and Chinese collaborators, are developing an all-organic polymer battery that can deliver a cell voltage of 2.8V—a big leap in improving the energy storage capability of organic batteries.

“While starting with small household batteries, we already know organic redox-active materials are typical electroactive alternatives due to their inherently safe, lightweight and structure-tunable features and, most importantly, their sustainable and environmentally friendly,” says senior lecturer in chemistry Dr. Zhongfan Jia, a research leader at Flinders University’s Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology.

Feb 23, 2022

Elon Musk’s Lawyer Accuses Government of “Leaking” Information About Him

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, government, sustainability, transportation

Elon Musk’s back at it again, folks — and this time, his attorney is accusing the federal government of leaking.

Following up on his claim that the Securities and Exchange Commission was trying to harass him into silence, Musk’s attorney accused the commission of “leaking certain information” in an ongoing retaliation campaign against the Tesla and SpaceX CEO.

This alleged campaign supposedly began back in 2018, when the SEC investigated Musk for tweeting about selling Tesla stock at $420 a share and taking the company private, eventually charging him with misleading investors. Though that case was settled in 2018 after Musk and Tesla paid $20 million each in fines, new reporting about the commission subpoenaing the CEO in recent months has reignited the debacle.

Feb 23, 2022

Risks of using AI to grow our food are substantial and must not be ignored, warn researchers

Posted by in categories: existential risks, information science, robotics/AI, sustainability, transportation

Imagine a field of wheat that extends to the horizon, being grown for flour that will be made into bread to feed cities’ worth of people. Imagine that all authority for tilling, planting, fertilizing, monitoring and harvesting this field has been delegated to artificial intelligence: algorithms that control drip-irrigation systems, self-driving tractors and combine harvesters, clever enough to respond to the weather and the exact needs of the crop. Then imagine a hacker messes things up.

A new risk analysis, published today in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence, warns that the future use of artificial intelligence in agriculture comes with substantial potential risks for farms, farmers and that are poorly understood and under-appreciated.

“The idea of intelligent machines running farms is not science fiction. Large companies are already pioneering the next generation of autonomous ag-bots and decision support systems that will replace humans in the field,” said Dr. Asaf Tzachor in the University of Cambridge’s Center for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER), first author of the paper.

Feb 23, 2022

What Is the Ocean Battery? It Could Be Crucial for Renewable Energy Storage

Posted by in categories: climatology, sustainability

“Ocean Battery resolves a societal challenge to provide access to renewable power generation without destabilizing the power grid and meet our climate goals. The Dutch Water engineers resolved this problem in a brilliant yet simple way with a tremendous amount of creativity, innovation power and Dutch entrepreneurship,” the press release continues.

Keep reading for more on this exciting new piece of technology, that could be revolutionary for the transition to cleaner means of energy.

Feb 23, 2022

Bacteria upcycle carbon waste into valuable chemicals

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biological, chemistry, sustainability

Feb 23, 2022

Manhattan Island extension could provide homes for 250,000 people

Posted by in categories: climatology, economics, habitats, sustainability

Rutgers professor Jason Barr has proposed adding 1,760-acres of reclaimed land, named New Mannahatta, to the tip of Manhattan to provide housing and combat climate change.

Called New Mannahatta in reference to the indigenous name for the island in New York, the plan would extend Manhattan Island into New York Harbor beyond the Statue of Liberty.

Barr, a professor of economics at Rutgers University, outlined his plan in an opinion piece directed at the city’s mayor Eric Adams, which was recently published in the New York Times.

Feb 22, 2022

LG axes solar panel business in midst of rising material costs and supply contraints

Posted by in categories: business, mobile phones, solar power, sustainability

LG’s solar business panel business joins the company’s smartphone business in the graveyard, with the latter business being canned last April as it could not compete with other smartphone brands in the market. Prior to the smartphone business closing shop, it had recorded 23 consecutive quarters of loss.

The decision was approved by the board of directors on Monday night, LG said.

LG’s solar panel production will start winding down next month, the company said, with the business to officially shut down at the end of June.

Feb 22, 2022

Tesla pushes back

Posted by in categories: climatology, Elon Musk, space travel, sustainability

Tesla asks for help… SpaceX stacks… Elon Musk pays in Doge. It’s the free edition of Musk Reads #286.

And for our premium members — last week, you learned about Moon Bikes. This week, you will hear from author Jimmy Soni about what Musk’s earliest success reveals about his management style.

Continue reading “Tesla pushes back” »