Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: sustainability – Page 383

No matter the price tag, the industry also has to convince consumers it’s worth their time to upgrade to new technologies.

“It’s difficult to get homeowners to change from the technology that they’re used to, especially in staid devices like water heaters, because they think of it as a utility: open the faucet, water comes out,” Callahan told Freethink. “There’s an education process to get them to understand that there’s a better, cheaper, faster, cooler way to [heat water].”

Tankless systems like the Model 3 aren’t the only new instant hot water-heating technologies aiming to reshape the industry. Solar-powered water heaters can reduce your utility bill by 50 to 80%, according to the U.S. Energy Department. Heat pump water heaters — which extract heat from the air, store it in tanks, and use it to heat water — are estimated to be at least twice as efficient as conventional systems, partly because they can store midday heat and use it later that night.

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Researchers have developed a new method that can automatically produce clear images through murky water. The new technology could be useful for searching for drowning victims, documenting submerged archaeological artifacts and monitoring underwater farms.

Imaging clearly underwater is extremely challenging because the and the particles in it tend to scatter light. But, because scattered light is partially polarized, imaging using a camera that is sensitive to polarization can be used to suppress scattered light in underwater .

“Our new method overcomes the limitations of traditional polarimetric underwater imaging, laying the groundwork for taking this method out of the lab and into the field,” said research team leader Haofeng Hu from Tianjin University in China. “Unlike previous methods, there’s no requirement for the image to include a background area to estimate the backscattered light.”

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A new electric solar car project with a living extension and expandable solar panels is giving us a glimpse into what the future might hold for RV/van life.

Solar Team Eindhoven, a group of engineering students from the Technical University of Eindhoven (Netherlands), is probably the most famous team that has competed in the World Solar Challenge, a competition to create super-efficient solar cars.

The people behind Lightyear came up from that team, and now they are trying to use the knowledge acquired through the creation of the original Stella and Stella Lux solar cars to bring to market a road-legal solar car.

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Puncture-proof tires have been an intriguing concept for many years. Tire maker, Michelin, has been working on it since 2005 and after more than a decade of work, it is now closer to reality. The company took its puncture-proof tires for a spin for the first time, on an electric vehicle, in line with the company’s goals of being more sustainable in the future.

More than three billion tires are produced annually around the world. Once beyond their lifetime, these tires usually end up in landfills. They are also at risk of catching fire and releasing toxic fumes into the atmosphere. Like with other things manmade, one way of making tires more eco-friendly is to make them out of naturally occurring material. The second is to reduce instances that cause wear and tear and render the tires useless. French tire manufacturer, Michelin, is using both these approaches to make its tires more ‘green’ in the future.

Through its Vision Concept, the company wants to make tires that are airless, rechargeable, connected, and sustainable. The Unique Punctureproof TIre System (UPTIS) is the airless tire that, thanks, to its unique design, does not require air filling and, never gets punctured either.

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Tesla may already have a lot of projects on its plate, but the company still appears to be exploring other projects for its product lineup in the future. Among these is a “Robo Van” that’s optimized to transport people with disabilities, among others.

References to the Tesla “Robo Van” were reportedly shared by CEO Elon Musk during the company’s recent all-hands meeting, according to individuals familiar with the topics covered in the event. Apart from the “Robo Van” being capable of transporting large numbers of people, Musk reportedly highlighted that the upcoming vehicle would be designed to address the needs of passengers with disabilities.

This suggests that the Tesla “Robo Van” would be optimized for easy ingress and egress, making it perfect for passengers who may have difficulty getting into conventional vehicles. Features such as active air suspension, similar to the one used in the Cybertruck, would be particularly useful for disabled passengers as well, as they would make it easier for items such as wheelchairs to be loaded and unloaded from the Tesla “Robo Van.”

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When it comes to innovation in the auto industry, Tesla is seemingly always at the forefront. They popularized electric cars, shifting public view on them from a failed fad of the past to an essential way forward. Tesla also led the way when it came to autonomy; in late 2014 the addition of Hardware 1 to the Model S saw consumers experience levels of driver assistance previously never seen in a mass-produced car. And as Tesla grows in size they continue to invest in R & D, always looking at smarter and more efficient ways of doing things. Now it seems they have turned their attention towards windshield wipers.

Tesla has successfully patented an idea for laser windshield wipers which would remove debris from cars.

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Simply by adding sugar, researchers from the Monash Energy Institute have created a longer-lasting, lighter, more sustainable rival to the lithium-ion batteries that are essential for aviation, electric vehicles and submarines.

The Monash team, assisted by CSIRO, report in today’s edition of Nature Communications that using a glucose-based additive on the positive electrode they have managed to stabilize lithium-sulfur battery technology, long touted as the basis for the next generation of batteries.

“In less than a decade, this technology could lead to vehicles including electric busses and trucks that can travel from Melbourne to Sydney without recharging. It could also enable innovation in delivery and agricultural drones where light weight is paramount,” says lead author Professor Mainak Majumder, from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Associate Director of the Monash Energy Institute.

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