Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: sustainability – Page 504

Tesla’s next vehicles have the potential to usher in the extinction of gas cars

Goodbye gas stations.

During the second quarter earnings call, Elon Musk tentatively confirmed that Tesla would be making a compact car and a vehicle with high capacity. Granted, it would probably take a few more years before such vehicles are produced, but one thing seems certain. Considering Tesla’s speed and pace, it would not be surprising if Tesla’s compact car and high capacity EV causes the extinction of the internal combustion engine.

Tesla’s current lineup of vehicles, which comprise the Model S, Model 3, Model X, and Model Y, are great EVs, but they are still fairly large for their class. This includes the Model 3 and the Model Y, Tesla’s “smaller” vehicles in its lineup. This, together with the vehicles’ premium price, end up blocking the company from reaching its full potential in the auto market. With a compact car and a high capacity vehicle, however, things could drastically change for Tesla.

Compact and High Capacity EVs

Tesla has mentioned the creation of a smaller car in the past, and more recently, the company has tapped into China’s creative minds for help in designing its compact car. This vehicle is expected to be designed and manufactured in China, but the opportunities for such a car go far beyond the country. Compact cars have a dedicated following, after all, and for good reason.

Tesla Van With Camping & SpaceX Packages Brings It All Together — Could It Replace Your Home?

After Elon Musk mentioned that Tesla was working on a couple more vehicles, a compact car and “high capacity” vehicle, my mind started to race about how this van-like vehicle could use all of the technologies that Elon has mentioned in various interviews. First, let’s cover the basics that I’m 99% sure the vehicle will have. I got some of these ideas from one of my Cybertruck articles. After that, I’ll take things in a little different direction than our previous “Tesla Cybervan” article.

Audi is testing out bidirectional charging technology for electric vehicles

Interesting.

Audi has announced that it is testing out bidirectional charging technology for electric cars, this would incorporate the electric car into the domestic power grid and could provide additional power to the grid when not in use.

What this would do is make electric vehicles a storage unit for energy to be drawn on by the grid or the owners house when needed, for example when a vehicle was parked overnight or not in use.

World population projected to reach 9.8 billion in 2050, and 11.2 billion in 2100

The current world population of 7.6 billion is expected to reach 8.6 billion in 2030, 9.8 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion in 2100, according to a new United Nations report being launched today. With roughly 83 million people being added to the world’s population every year, the upward trend in population size is expected to continue, even assuming that fertility levels will continue to decline.

The World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision, published by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, provides a comprehensive review of global demographic trends and prospects for the future. The information is essential to guide policies aimed at achieving the new Sustainable Development Goals.

How to build a Dyson sphere in five (relatively) easy steps

We are closer to being able to build a Dyson Sphere than we think. By enveloping the sun in a massive sphere of artificial habitats and solar panels, a Dyson Sphere would provide us with more energy than we would ever know what to do with while dramatically increasing our living space. Implausible you say? Something for our distant descendants to consider? Think again. We could conceivably get going on the project in about 25 to 50 years, with completion of the first phase requiring only a few decades.

Charging hundreds of EVs parked at a condo is a solvable problem, here’s how

Skeptics like to point out that most EV drivers live in single-family homes that make charging easy. And they point to the current lack of charging stations at condos as an impenetrable obstacle to EV adoption. But this viewpoint reflects a lack of understanding of how daily EV charging works. I recently chatted with Jason Appelbaum, chief executive of EverCharge — the biggest EV charging network you never heard of.

Several hundred electric cars, all parked in the same condo garage, can easily get their daily dose of electricity. It requires a smart load-balancing system.

Creating Water From Thin Air

About 2.1 billion people around the world do not have immediate access to clean drinking water.

The Water Abundance XPrize competition rewards innovators who come up with new ways to harvest clean water from the atmosphere.

This year, the winning design can produce at least 2,000 litres of water per day, which would satisfy the needs of 100 people.… See More.

These two designers have created a device that can pull clean drinking water out of thin air

By: PETER KOTECKI, Businessinsider.com

Continue reading “Creating Water From Thin Air” | >

German NGO Cites Passive Cooling as Vital to Sustainable Buildings

German Sustainable Building Council also highlighted importance of NatRefs in ACs at ATMO/DTI Conference.

Using shading for passive cooling, © Simy27, 2020.

Passive cooling design, as well as natural refrigerant-based air conditioning, are vital to achieving sustainable cooling in buildings, according to Anna Braune, Director of Research and Development at the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB), a Stuttgart, Germany-based NGO.

/* */