Even in the driest climates, though, there is a considerable amount of moisture in the air. The researchers note that even in places like the Sahel desert, relative humidity is still around 20 percent on average. So they set about finding a way to use this untapped water resource to produce hydrogen.
Their device consists of a water harvesting unit that houses a sponge soaked in a water-absorbing liquid that can pull moisture from the air. On either side of this reservoir are electrodes that can be powered by any renewable energy source. When a current runs through the circuit, the water is split via electrolysis into its constituent oxygen and hydrogen atoms, which can then be collected as gas.
The team showed that the device could run efficiently for 12 consecutive days and produced hydrogen with 99 percent purity. What’s more, the device continues to work in relative humidity as low as four percent.
London-based SolarBotanic Trees (SBT) unveiled its solar and storage system that is shaped liked a tree. The company aims to deploy its technology to charge electric vehicles (EVs) to begin with, Electrek.
With the world moving towards less-carbon emissions, there is a rush toward harnessing renewable sources of energy. Not only do these technologies need improvements in their power generation efficiencies, but they also need to be aesthetically pleasing.
Nuro, a Softbank-backed developer of street-legal autonomous, electric delivery vehicles, has struck a long-term partnership with Uber to use its toaster-shaped micro-vans to haul food orders, groceries and other goods to customers in Silicon Valley and Houston using the Uber Eats service starting this year.
People using the Uber Eats app in Houston and Mountain View, California (where Nuro is based) will be able to order deliveries using the new autonomous service this fall, with plans to expand the program to other parts of the San Francisco Bay Area in the months ahead, the companies said.
The SoftBank-backed developer of street-legal autonomous, electric vehicles, has a long-term partnership with Uber to use its toaster-shaped micro-vans to haul food orders, groceries and other goods in Silicon Valley and Houston.
Ray Kurzweil predicted Technological Singularity nearly 20 years ago. Elon Musk could enable a world of economic abundance with real world AI. Robotaxi and Teslabot will transform the world more than car and the first industrial revolution.
Tesla sells Model Ys for about $60000, but it currently costs them about $30000–40000 to make them. A Teslabot is 1/30th of the mass of a Model Y. It will use 1/30th of the batteries. The software is an overall cost of development. If billions of bots are produced then the cost would trend toward the cost of the hardware plus Apple iPhone-like margins including the software (say 40% gross margin). At Model Y cost of $30k then the hardware cost for Teslabot will go to $1000. $2000 with margins and software. A bot can work for 8,000 hours in a year. 8,760 hours in a year. $2000 divided by 8,000 hours is $0.25. If you add 10 cents per hour for electricity then it is $0.35 per hour. Going beyond that is bots can work in the factory and work cheaper than humans. Currently 15,000 workers in Tesla China factory. Replace all of them with $0.35 per hour bots. Reduce labor cost component. If a lot of bots can increase production rates. by 2X then all costs spread over more units. Bot-produced solar and batteries can lower the cost of energy by vastly increasing the supply. Those trends could get us to $500‑1000 per bot costs and lower energy costs. Having virtually unlimited labor costing less than 35 cents per hour will be transformational.
The Technological Singularity is a predicted point when technological growth becomes radically faster.
Real World AI would be general artificial human-level intelligence. Capabilities to provide broad levels of human jobs and tasks.
Teslabots able to perform loading and deliveries to massively boost the supply chain. Teslabots able to perform manufacturing tasks in the factory. Teslabots able to use machines built for humans. Teslabots able to work in factories to make factories self replicating. Teslabots able to perform mining.
These capabilities would make economic growth massively exponential.
Space is no longer a remote and special place – it is becoming a part of our life and economy.
In parallel with technological advances such as space travel, lunar exploration and next-generation spacecraft, the number of businesses that utilize space has grown. Space has become an indispensable part of our lives.
The Nikkei Virtual Global Forum “The Future of Space 2022” will explore the possibilities of space, from Earth’s orbit to the Moon, Mars and beyond, and the global benefits and impacts on the economy, business and society. We will also discuss such issues as international collaboration, sustainable space utilization and policy responses.
Researchers have created a solar-powered device that produces hydrogen fuel directly from moisture in the air.
According to its inventors, the prototype produces hydrogen with greater than 99% purity and can work in air that is as dry as 4% relative humidity. The device would allow hydrogen to be produced without carbon emissions even in regions where water on land is scarce, they say.
Were you unable to attend Transform 2022? Check out all of the summit sessions in our on-demand library now! Watch here.
Editorial Disclosure: The author of this article has a business relationship with James Phare, CEO and founder of Neural Alpha.
What does sustainability actually mean for organizations? Can it be measured, and if yes, how so? Often, these are obvious questions with less-than-obvious answers, even for sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) professionals like James Phare.
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have made a technological breakthrough and constructed a perovskite solar cell with the dual benefits of being both highly efficient and highly stable.
The work was done in collaboration with scientists from the University of Toledo, the University of Colorado-Boulder, and the University of California-San Diego.
A unique architectural structure enabled the researchers to record a certified stabilized efficiency of 24% under 1-sun illumination, making it the highest reported of its kind. The highly efficient cell also retained 87% of its original efficiency after 2,400 hours of operation at 55 degrees Celsius.
Scalable technology can work in relative humidity of four percent too.
An international collaboration of researchers has successfully demonstrated the production of green hydrogen directly from the air, a press release said.
Solar and wind installations are picking up steam as the world looks toward greener energy sources. Although energy is generated in an emission-free way in these methods, energy storage requires large batteries, which do not fit into the idea of sustainable living.
A relatively new kind of semiconductor, layered atop a mirror-like structure, can mimic the way that leaves move energy from the sun over relatively long distances before using it to fuel chemical reactions. The approach may one day improve the efficiency of solar cells.
“Energy transport is one of the crucial steps for solar energy harvesting and conversion in solar cells,” said Bin Liu, a postdoctoral researcher in electrical and computer engineering and first author of the study in the journal Optica.
“We created a structure that can support hybrid light-matter mixture states, enabling efficient and exceptionally long-range energy transport.”
