More companies are thinking about ways they can change their business processes to be green and combat global warming. But what about giving employees incentives to also go green?
Practices in the workplace to lower carbon emissions can be carried over to employees’ homes through company incentives and programs.
Save your solar panels from the shade.
Currently, solar power accounts for 3.3 percent of the total energy produced in the US, and it has become the fastest-growing source of clean energy in the country. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that by 2050, the share of solar energy in America’s total electricity production could reach 45 percent. However, in order to achieve this milestone, solar energy experts will have to make photovoltaic systems more efficient and advanced than ever.
Scientists analyze the role of shadows in decreasing the power output of solar panels for small solar systems. This could tell us how shade from objects ranging from clouds to dust affects the amount of electricity produced by a solar panel.
The AWWA Sky Whale concept represents luxurious and greener aviation.
AWWA Sky Whale, a large, intriguing-looking flying machine, is meant to represent the pinnacle of luxury, performance, and sustainability.
At a recent exhibition on future transportation hosted at Kuwait’s Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Center, the design of Oscar Vinals was on display.
The Sky Whale concept focuses on the “green” aircraft designs of the future for the ordinary airliner planes of the twenty-first century, which might profit from technological solutions that are more eco-friendly, most efficient, and offer maximum performance.
As electric vehicles grow in popularity, the spotlight shines more brightly on some of their remaining major issues. Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin are tackling two of the bigger challenges facing electric vehicles: limited range and slow recharging.
The researchers fabricated a new type of electrode for lithium-ion batteries that could unleash greater power and faster charging. They did this by creating thicker electrodes—the positively and negatively charged parts of the battery that deliver power to a device—using magnets to create a unique alignment that sidesteps common problems associated with sizing up these critical components.
The result is an electrode that could potentially facilitate twice the range on a single charge for an electric vehicle, compared with a battery using an existing commercial electrode.
Regent’s electric seaglider successfully completed its first series of flights and demonstrated her ability to fully fulfill its “float-foil-fly” mission.
A video of Regent’s unique Seaglider prototype in flight testing has just been released. The machine offers breakthrough speed and range in coastal locations as the first to combine the efficiency benefits of ground effect with hydro-foiling in a single design.
Assets.
Although wing-in-ground effect (WIG) aircraft like the Soviet-era Ekranoplan had previously shown promise, they haven’t quite taken off as a standard mode of transportation. As long as they keep within their wingspan of the surface below, the air cushion between the wings and the surface gives these low-flying birds a significant lift and efficiency gain over ordinary planes flying higher in the air.
The electric vehicle also offers the first full-scenario driver assistance.
In an attempt to tackle range anxiety, Chinese automaker XPeng has revealed the fastest charging electric vehicle, G9, which also features industry-first full-scenario driver assistance.
The G9 model from XPeng features a brand-new powertrain system built on China’s first 800 V Silicon Carbide (SiC) mass production platform. The 4C version of the G9 can add up to 160 miles (200 km) of CLTC range in as little as five minutes, thanks to the company’s new 480 kW S4 supercharging stations, which means it can charge from 10–80 percent in just 15 minutes.
Volkswagen’s charging unit Elli and re.alto, a startup owned by Brussels-based Elia, signed a memorandum of understanding on Friday to collaborate on ways to integrate EVs into the electricity system in order to fight global warming.
A route to abating climate change
“The wide-spread adoption of EVs will be one of society’s fastest and most effective routes to abating climate change in the coming decade. Additionally, EV batteries will be able to contribute to keeping the grid in balance as the share of renewables in the energy mix increases. This can only occur if consumers are encouraged to valorize their flexibility, aligning their charging behavior with the availability of affordable green energy,” said the statement.
“I need to have the processes in place for rapid fielding and acceptance of these things, and that’s not getting a lot of traction right now,” Space RCO Director Kelly Hammett said Sept. 12 at the Air, Space and Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Md.
The Space RCO aims to develop the first few units of a defense system and then hand them off to Space Systems Command, the Space Force’s acquisition arm, to manage production. Hammett said his team is on track to deliver 10–12 projects over the next three years.
Because most of its programs are classified, the office has not revealed details on the technology and scope of its first deliveries. According to fiscal 2023 budget documents, the Space RCO is supporting an Air Force Research Laboratory effort to use solar energy to provide “logistically agile power” to forces on the ground. Its unclassified budget request included $36 million for that effort and about $9 million to support space capability studies.
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, discovered a key material needed for fast-charging lithium-ion batteries. The commercially relevant approach opens a potential pathway to improve charging speeds for electric vehicles.
Lithium-ion batteries, or LIBs, play an essential role in the nation’s portfolio of clean energy technologies. Most hybrid electric and all–electric vehicles use LIBs. These rechargeable batteries offer advantages in reliability and efficiency because they can store more energy, charge faster and last longer than traditional lead-acid batteries. However, the technology is still developing, and fundamental advances are needed to meet priorities to improve the cost, range and charge time of electric-vehicle batteries.
“Overcoming these challenges will require advances in materials that are more efficient and synthesis methods that are scalable to industry,” said ORNL Corporate Fellow and corresponding author Sheng Dai.
Desalination will be key to success in maintaining civilizations. Also other technologies like water from air machines. But I also do believe that creating water with some sorta light into matter device like from star trek will make us able to travel anywhere even the stars. Furthermore fusion is key to maintaining civilization as well as it will stem the need for oil or even natural gas which finite and fusion is near infinite.
For years, the energy sector, and almost every other sector, has taken water for granted, viewing it as an abundant resource. But as we move into a new era of renewable energy, the vast amounts of water required to power green energy operations may not be so easy to find. And it’s not just renewables that are under threat from water scarcity, as it also hinders fossil fuel production and threatens food security.
In recent months, we have seen extreme droughts across Europe and the U.S., which are finally making people realise the significance of water security. Stefano Venier, CEO of the Italian energy infrastructure company Snam, highlights the huge impact recent droughts have had on both food security and energy production. Labelled as ‘Europe’s worst drought in 500 years’, the low water levels have restricted shipping capabilities, as well as drying up soil and reducing summer crop yields.
Venier explains, “For a long time, water was considered [as being] for free, as something that is fully available in any quantity.” He went on to say, “Now, we are discovering that with climate change … water can become scarce.” And so, “we have to regain the perception of importance, and the value [that] … the water has, also, with respect to … energy production… we have discovered that without water, enough water, we cannot produce the energy we need, or we can’t ship the fuels for filling the power plants,” he added.