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Archive for the ‘energy’ category: Page 244

May 5, 2020

Tesla improves on its ‘million-mile battery’ with less cobalt and higher energy density

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability, transportation

Tesla has made even more battery improvements on its new ‘million-mile battery’ now with less cobalt, which could result in lower cost and even more energy density.

Last year, we were the first to report on Tesla’s battery research partner, Jeff Dahn and his team at Dalhousie University, unveiling the impressive results of tests on a new battery cell that could last over 1 million miles in an electric vehicle.

Continue reading “Tesla improves on its ‘million-mile battery’ with less cobalt and higher energy density” »

May 5, 2020

America’s renewable energy sources have produced more electricity than coal every day for 40 days straight

Posted by in categories: economics, energy, finance, sustainability

Renewable sources including solar, wind and hydropower generated more electricity than coal-based plants every single day in April, a new report says.

Analysis shared by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEFA), based on data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), said the finding marks a major “milestone” in an energy transition that is now underway.

Continue reading “America’s renewable energy sources have produced more electricity than coal every day for 40 days straight” »

May 4, 2020

The Army Is Testing Handheld Ray Guns

Posted by in categories: energy, engineering, military

https://youtube.com/watch?v=h5jBjso6l6I

Circa 2015


Fittingly, these rifle-sized weapons would gun for other electronics.

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May 4, 2020

More than 14,000 without power after strong storms move through the metro

Posted by in category: energy

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Thousands of Evergy customers in the metro are without power Monday after strong storms move through the metro.

According to the outage map on Evergy’s website there were 133 active outages at 11:40 a.m., and those 133 outages were impacting 14,296 customers.

There is no word yet on how long it will take crews to fully restore power.

May 4, 2020

Inspired by ‘Back to the Future,’ this machine turns food waste into energy

Posted by in categories: business, energy, food

Many people in the Northwest separate out their table scraps, wilted leaves and old fruit, carting them off eventually to a compost bin or joining their grass clippings and pruning remains in the green waste bin. In the City of Seattle, food waste is required to be separated from garbage.

But most of our actions still revolve around a simple concept: Collect your household waste, sit it on the curb, and somebody will come and pick it up. Businesses do the same thing, just on a larger scale. We have applied industrial-age logic to waste: create a production line that starts at a home or business, automate as many of the tasks as possible, and coordinate through centrally managed processes and destinations.

This centralized approach to waste collection is labor and energy intensive, and it doesn’t give back much.

May 3, 2020

Tesla applies to become UK electricity provider

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability, transportation

The US firm, known for its electric vehicles, also has operations in battery energy storage and solar panel manufacturing.

May 2, 2020

New technology quickly turns food waste into fuel

Posted by in categories: energy, food

Circa 2017


The process is so efficient it extracts all of the potential energy from the food scraps.

May 2, 2020

First direct look at how light excites electrons to kick off a chemical reaction

Posted by in categories: chemistry, energy

The first step in many light-driven chemical reactions, like the ones that power photosynthesis and human vision, is a shift in the arrangement of a molecule’s electrons as they absorb the light’s energy. This subtle rearrangement paves the way for everything that follows and determines how the reaction proceeds.

Now scientists have seen this first step directly for the first time, observing how the molecule’s electron cloud balloons out before any of the in the molecule respond.

While this response has been predicted theoretically and detected indirectly, this is the first time it’s been directly imaged with X-rays in a process known as molecular movie-making, whose ultimate goal is to observe how both electrons and nuclei act in real time when chemical bonds form or break.

May 2, 2020

Today in 1888, Nikola Tesla’s patent has been granted for “electrical transmission of power.” 😍

Posted by in categories: energy, innovation

As the holder of more than 270 patents in 27 countries—including 112 in the US alone—Tesla rightfully earned his place in history, but not every invention of Tesla made it to production. With that in mind, we combed through the records and found 7 of Tesla’s most substantial inventions that never got built.

To find out: https://bit.ly/2y7SpuA 🚀.

May 1, 2020

‘Hydrogen-On-Tap’ Device Turns Trucks Into Fuel-Efficient Vehicles

Posted by in categories: energy, transportation

A cherry-red pickup truck in Carmel, Indiana runs on hydrogen without carrying any fuel cells. The engineer who developed this “hydrogen-on-tap” system hopes it can someday power cargo trucks and cruise ships worldwide.


The city of Carmel, Ind., has trucks for plowing snow, salting streets, and carrying landscaping equipment. But one cherry-red pickup can do something no other vehicle can: produce its own hydrogen.

A 45-kilogram metal box sits in the bed of the work truck. When a driver starts the engine, the device automatically begins concocting the colorless, odorless gas, which feeds into the engine’s intake manifold. This prevents the truck from guzzling gasoline until the hydrogen supply runs out. The pickup has no fuel cell module, a standard component in most hydrogen vehicles. No high-pressure storage tanks or refueling pumps are needed, either.

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