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Archive for the ‘sustainability’ category: Page 306

Jan 4, 2021

This Wind-Powered Vertical Farm In Denmark Produces 1,000 Tons Of Greens Each Year

Posted by in categories: food, sustainability

The new facility is a product of the partnership between Danish startup Nordic Harvest and Taiwanese tech company YesHealth Group. It’s an indoor farm that covers an area of over 75000 square feet, situated just on the outskirts of Copenhagen. Featuring a 14-shelf grow rack system, it boasts an annual production capacity of about 1000 tons of greens. That’s almost equivalent to the capacity of farms covering an area that’s the size of 20 soccer fields!

Jan 4, 2021

First glimpse of polarons forming in a promising next-gen energy material

Posted by in categories: solar power, sustainability

Polarons are fleeting distortions in a material’s atomic lattice that form around a moving electron in a few trillionths of a second, then quickly disappear. As ephemeral as they are, they affect a material’s behavior, and may even be the reason that solar cells made with lead hybrid perovskites achieve extraordinarily high efficiencies in the lab.

Now scientists at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have used the lab’s X-ray laser to watch and directly measure the formation of polarons for the first time. They reported their findings in Nature Materials today.

“These materials have taken the field of solar energy research by storm because of their high efficiencies and low cost, but people still argue about why they work,” said Aaron Lindenberg, an investigator with the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences (SIMES) at SLAC and associate professor at Stanford who led the research.

Jan 4, 2021

The Sustainable Development Goals Explained Clean Water And Sanitation

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, education, sustainability

The world is far from perfect, and 2020 did throw the proverbial spanner is the works, but the improvements we have made are not to be ignored!!

We are winning…

Continue reading “The Sustainable Development Goals Explained Clean Water And Sanitation” »

Jan 3, 2021

The Orion: an aircraft that could take people to the edge of space

Posted by in categories: space, sustainability

The Orion is a sub-orbital electric aircraft equipped with an air-breathing magneto-plasma jet propulsion engine that could go from the tarmac to an altitude of 24000 metres and cruise at about 800 km/h.

It would bring passengers to the edge of black space with stunning views from its ultra-wide panoramic windows. Its new plasma pulse detonation engine could become the standard of this nascent industry.

It’s obvious that sub-orbital jets will become in demand as Earth’s population and wealth continues to rise. There’s already a lot of demand for jets capable of reaching this kind of altitude, but one major barrier has been the engine’s performance and overall costs. The Orion concept is all about introducing a new type of propulsion (plasma jet) and seeing how it could benefit various industries.

Jan 3, 2021

NASA backs development of cryogenic hydrogen system to power all-electric aircraft

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

Circa 2019


The University of Illinois has announced that NASA is underwriting a project to develop a cryogenic hydrogen fuel cell system for powering all-electric aircraft. Funded by a three-year, US$6 million contract, the Center for Cryogenic High-Efficiency Electrical Technologies for Aircraft (CHEETA) will investigate the technology needed to produce a practical all-electric design to replace conventional fossil fuel propulsion systems.

The jet engine in all its variations has revolutionized air travel, but with airline profit margins running wafer thin in these ecologically conscious times, there’s a lot of interest in moving away from aircraft powered by fossil fuels and toward emission-free electric propulsion systems that aren’t dependent on petroleum and its volatile prices.

Continue reading “NASA backs development of cryogenic hydrogen system to power all-electric aircraft” »

Jan 3, 2021

Nestron Cube Two Is the Tiny House With Its Own AI Assistant

Posted by in categories: habitats, robotics/AI, space, sustainability

The tiny house we’re going to discuss today won’t buy you freedom like trailer-based models, but it compensates for that with its own AI assistant. It’s smart, it’s tiny, it can be solar powered if you want, and it’s still very chic. It’s dubbed the next-generation tiny house: the Cube Two from Nestron.


You don’t have to actually live large in order to live large. Tiny houses are a good option when it comes to minimizing your footprint, downsizing costs and not sacrificing anything but space you probably wouldn’t be using either way.

Jan 3, 2021

Desalination Breakthrough Could Lead to Cheaper Water Filtration

Posted by in categories: chemistry, energy, food, health, nanotechnology, sustainability

AUSTIN, Texas — Producing clean water at a lower cost could be on the horizon after researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and Penn State solved a complex problem that had baffled scientists for decades, until now.

Desalination membranes remove salt and other chemicals from water, a process critical to the health of society, cleaning billions of gallons of water for agriculture, energy production and drinking. The idea seems simple — push salty water through and clean water comes out the other side — but it contains complex intricacies that scientists are still trying to understand.

The research team, in partnership with DuPont Water Solutions, solved an important aspect of this mystery, opening the door to reduce costs of clean water production. The researchers determined desalination membranes are inconsistent in density and mass distribution, which can hold back their performance. Uniform density at the nanoscale is the key to increasing how much clean water these membranes can create.

Jan 3, 2021

Atlantic discovery: 12 new species ‘hiding in the deep’

Posted by in categories: climatology, sustainability

A dozen ocean species new to science could already be threatened by climate change, scientists find.

Jan 3, 2021

Abu Dhabi is going to build the world’s largest indoor farm

Posted by in categories: climatology, sustainability

Considering the innovations in vertical farming, it seems indoor farming is gaining even more steam.

Abhu Dhabi is now about to build the world’s largest indoor farm; overcoming their desert climate and making efficient use of their limited water supply. It will be able to produce 10000 tonnes of fresh vegies every 12 months.

Continue reading “Abu Dhabi is going to build the world’s largest indoor farm” »

Jan 2, 2021

Desalination Is Booming as Cities Run out of Water

Posted by in category: sustainability

Circa 2019 o.o


In California alone there are 11 desalination plants, with 10 more proposed. But there are big downsides to making seawater drinkable.