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Category: sustainability – Page 285

There is nothing more essential to life on Earth than water. It’s a cruel irony that the majority of the world’s surface is covered in water, yet only a fraction of it is suitable for human consumption. Around 785 million people globally still lack access to clean, safe drinking water.

With an aim to provide drinking water where no other sources of water are available, a Spanish company, Aquaer, has devised a machine capable of extracting drinking water from thin air. Invented by Enrique Veiga, the 82-year-old engineer, the machine can operate even in areas where humidity is low, as in the desert.

The machines utilize the same principle that causes condensation in air-conditioning units. It uses electricity to cool the surrounding air, and then it takes the process a step further by condensing the water vapor.

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World Economic Forum.

It could help the country cut its reliance on Russian oil. The plant will open 24 May.

Take a look here: http://ow.ly/EteQ50IJILv

A German company will switch on a floating solar power plant it has built on a quarry lake, a rapidly-installed, renewable technology it says could help wean the country off Russian fossil fuels.

BayWa r.e. said the photovoltaic (PV) plant at the family-owned Quarzwerke in the western German town of Haltern am See will be able to provide 3 megawatts (MW) of power, equivalent to a typical onshore wind turbine.

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One of the big problems with solar vehicles is that there’s just not much room on a car to make that much power. With a super efficient car like an Aptera, you can get a meaningful amount of power from solar panels, mostly because the car doesn’t use that much power. But, if you don’t want your car to look like an airplane without wings or a weird science project, you can’t get that much actual range per hour of solar charging. However, an Australian professor came up with a better idea to power his Tesla off of solar panels alone: a printed solar panel that rolls up.

The Charge Around Australia project doesn’t aim to be the first EV excursion around Australia, or even the first trip around Australia on solar power. The point is to be the first vehicle that has gone around the continent in a normal car powered by an innovative new solar technology.

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Please welcome a second posting here at 21st Century Tech Blog, from Katie Brenneman. Katie’s previous contribution looked at how individuals can practice sustainability to mitigate the threat of climate change. Her many interests include writing on lifestyle, mental health, and sustainability. You can follow her on Twitter.

In this contribution, Katie has chosen a timely topic: the increasing consumer interest in electric vehicles (EVs). The recent stratospheric rise in gasoline and diesel prices because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made EVs far more attractive. That plus more announcements about new EV models, i.e., The Ford Lightning (an EV version of the F-150) may prove to be the moment when North Americans begin a rapid move away from fossil-fuel-powered vehicles?

As fuel prices continue to rise around the world, many consumers are taking another look at EVs as a potential solution for their transportation needs. This follows historical trends that show whenever there is a spike in gas and diesel costs it is accompanied by an increase in EV sales. Online searches for EVs continue to double with many in the renewable energy sector wondering if this is the watershed moment that will finally move us to take zero-emission actions seriously.

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Architect Andreas Tjeldflaat from design and research studio, Framlab, has his head high up in the clouds.

His latest project, titled Oversky, was recently on display at an exhibition on architecture and climate change at Sweden’s Bildmuseet art museum.

Oversky deals with a series of semi-floating structures in the ariel space between roads and buildings. The modular structures would be based on the technology that allows zeppelins to float, known as the lighter-than-air technology, and would be interconnected and supported by various infrastructural links that connect the street, known as “the cloudscape”.

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