Lifeboat Foundation

Using sugarcane waste as bricks for construction.

Architecture studio Grimshaw and the University of East London have collaborated to create Sugarcrete, a biomaterial construction block with an interlocking shape made from the sugarcane by-product bagasse.

Sugarcrete was developed to be a low-cost and low-carbon reusable construction-material alternative to brick and concrete.

Continue reading “Grimshaw and UEL develop sugarcane-waste construction blocks” »

Like a certain Pixar movie come to life, Nio — China’s answer to Tesla, basically — has unveiled in a video that its flagship electric car can literally shake snow and ice off itself in seconds, like a Siberian Husky who’s done running the Iditarod Race.

In a video posted to Weibo this past weekend and spotted by Business Insider, Nio showcased this cool ability in its upcoming, ultra-luxurious ET9, which is set to be delivered in early 2025.

The premium four-door electric vehicle, which will cost an eyewatering $112,000, is able to do this doggy snow shake due to its advanced suspension system, dubbed Sky Ride, which includes independent hydraulic pumps for each wheel.

A new study from UC Berkeley confirms what EV fans already know: EV adoption does, in fact, make the air cleaner. Perhaps even more importantly, the study offers some quantifiable, granular data about how much electric vehicles are impacting emission rates in the here and now, not just in the foreseeable future.

Not that these numbers will blow you away, mind you, but still, it’s good news.

Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, found that between 2018 and 2022, CO₂ emission from all sources (industries, homes, traffic) across the San Francisco Bay Area dropped around 1.8% per year – a difference the researchers attribute to widespread EV adoption in the area. For vehicle emission rates, those numbers dropped 2.6% annually. EVs made up nearly 40% of new auto registrations in San Jose and 34% in San Francisco last year.

Our everyday electronic devices, such as living room lights, washing machines, and televisions, operate thanks to electrical currents. Similarly, the functioning of computers is based on the manipulation of information by small charge carriers known as electrons. Spintronics, on the other hand, introduces a unique approach to this process.

Instead of the charge of electrons, the spintronic approach is to exploit their magnetic moment, in other words, their spin, to store and process information – aiming to make the computers of the future more compact, fast, and sustainable. One way of processing information based on this approach is to use the magnetic vortices called skyrmions or, alternatively, their still little understood and rarer cousins called ‘merons’. Both are collective topological structures formed of numerous individual spins. Merons have to date only been observed in natural antiferromagnets, where they are difficult to both analyze and manipulate.

The upcoming entry-level Mercedes-Benz EV dubbed the “one-liter car” for its long-range capabilities, was finally caught out in the wild. In a new video, the electric Mercedes CLA was spotted testing near the Arctic Circle. The new EV is Mercedes-Benz’s answer to the Tesla Model 3.

Mercedes unveiled the electric CLA Concept in September, the first model in a new series of entry-level EVs.

Continue reading “Mercedes-Benz’s sleek new entry-level CLA EV spotted as a Tesla Model 3 rival [Video]” »

As electric vehicle sales slow, Colorado wants the new faster-charging stations to serve as an answer to consumer “range anxiety.”

A battery cathode in development in labs at the University of California San Diego has Wolverine-like self-healing properties.

Better yet, the regenerative ability of the lithium-sulfur electrode could help to unlock chemistry that doubles electric vehicle range, according to the experts. It’s a promising breakthrough with fascinating potential.

Continue reading “Scientists develop new material that could allow rechargeable batteries to ‘self-heal’: ‘We are very excited about the discovery’” »

Leading EV battery maker CATL released its new breakthrough battery pack with up to a nearly 1 million mile (1.5 million km), 15-year warranty.

CATL launched the battery pack with Yutung Bus Co to power commercial vehicles like buses and different classes of trucks.

Yutong, one of China’s largest bus makers, said the new battery packs will be used in upcoming electric vehicles. According to the company, the new long-lasting EV battery has zero degradation through the first 1,000 cycles.

In an effort to bring clean, renewable energy to some of the world’s more remote islands — many of which are powered by old diesel generators — a pan-European consortium of seven companies has designed a device capable of turning seawater into electricity.

The Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion, or OTEC, technology consists of three main parts that are being built all over the world: a cold-water riser pipe, which is being fabricated in Austria, a cylindrical hull, which is being built in the Canary Islands (a Spanish autonomous community, where the OTEC will be assembled and tested), and a gimbal connection point.

Continue reading “Consortium of companies design oceanic energy-creation technology that can bring power to remote islands: ‘The perfect opportunity’” »