Menu

Blog

Archive for the ‘sustainability’ category: Page 120

Oct 13, 2022

This Startup Builds Houses

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, sustainability, transportation

The form gets rolled out on a concrete slab or other foundation, then inflated with an air pump; at this point, it may look a little like one of those bouncy houses you see at children’s parties. Then a ready mix truck shows up—these trucks can mix concrete on their way to a site or at the site itself—and pumps concrete into the form. The company’s website says they can use local ready mix concrete, aircrete (a lightweight version of concrete that incorporates air bubbles instead of traditional aggregate), sustainable cement, and other “pumpable building materials.”

The concrete-pumping step is a bit like 3D printing, though 3D printed homes use concrete as printer “ink” to put walls down layer by layer rather than spitting all the concrete into a form at once. This is even faster; Bell told New Atlas, “For our 100-square-foot and 200-square-foot prototypes, the inflation took 7 to 10 minutes with air. Then the concrete pump filled them in 1.5 hours.”

Once the concrete has dried, the form isn’t stripped away; it stays right where it is, serving as an airtight barrier for waterproofing and insulation. The final step is to add all the things that make a house look and function like a house rather than a giant clay art project, that is, a facade, windows, doors, drywall, HVAC, and plumbing.

Oct 12, 2022

NASA says its space tech could cut electric car charging times to 5 minutes or less

Posted by in categories: space, sustainability

Experimental technology used to cool equipment in space might soon be able to cut the charging times of electric vehicles to five minutes or less, American space agency NASA said this week.

The federal space agency-funded technology, in partnership with Purdue University, says the research they’re planning for future space missions shows its tech could charge an electric car within minutes instead of hours, according to an Oct. 5 blog by NASA.

Using a technique known as “subcooled flow boiling,” the tech could boost the amount of electrical current EV chargers by roughly 1,400 amps, nearly five times the rate of up to 520 amps currently supplied to EVs, NASA said.

Oct 12, 2022

Battery tech breakthrough paves way for mass adoption of affordable electric car

Posted by in categories: energy, engineering, sustainability, transportation

A breakthrough in electric vehicle battery design has enabled a 10-minute charge time for a typical EV battery. The record-breaking combination of a shorter charge time and more energy acquired for longer travel range was announced today (Oct. 12) in the journal Nature.

“The need for smaller, faster-charging batteries is greater than ever,” said Chao-Yang Wang, the William E. Diefenderfer Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Penn State and lead author on the study. “There are simply not enough batteries and critical raw materials, especially those produced domestically, to meet anticipated demand.”

In August, California’s Air Resources Board passed an extensive plan to restrict and ultimately ban the sale of gasoline-powered cars within the state. By 2035, the largest auto market in the United States will effectively retire the internal combustion engine.

Oct 12, 2022

Greece runs entirely on renewables for the first time in its history

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability

Greece was entirely powered by renewables for the first time in its history last week, according to the country’s independent power transmission operator (IPTO).

On Friday (7 October), for a period of around five hours, the country was running off entirely renewable power, reaching a record high of 3,106MWh at eight o’clock (GMT).

“For the first time in the history of the Greek electricity system, the demand was covered 100% from renewable energy sources,” its IPTO wrote.

Oct 12, 2022

Tesla’s new energy app gives you range advice and more

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability, transportation

Tesla has updated its in-car energy app to give a comparison between real energy use and the projected range, and it even gives you range advice to get closer to the optimal range.

Range calculations are difficult regardless of the type of powertrain – electric or internal combustion engine.

There are just so many factors that can affect the efficiency of a vehicle on a road that it is hard to determine how far it can go on a full battery pack or tank of gas.

Oct 12, 2022

A turbine prototype just broke a 24-hour wind power world record

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability, transportation

Siemens Gamesa’s 14–222 DD offshore wind turbine prototype has, according to the Spanish-German wind giant today, set a world record for the most power output by a single wind turbine in a 24-hour period: 359 megawatt-hours.

UnderstandSolar is a free service that links you to top-rated solar installers in your region for personalized solar estimates. Tesla now offers price matching, so it’s important to shop for the best quotes. Click here to learn more and get your quotes. — *ad.

This would be enough energy, according to the company, for a mid-sized electric vehicle – think a Tesla Model 3 – to drive around 1.12 million miles (1.8 million km).

Oct 12, 2022

Giga Montreal? Canadian Government Opens Talks With Tesla Over New Factory

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, government, sustainability, transportation

Tesla is considering several sites in Canada for its next Gigafactory according to reports. This comes as Francois-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s industry and innovation minister, recently confirmed talks with Tesla over a new factory. He stated the following (via Reuters):

“Yes, I’m talking to them,” Champagne said, in response to a question about reports of Tesla looking to build a factory in Canada. “I’m talking also to all the automakers around the world.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has hinted at a Canadian Gigafactory on numerous occasions, most recently at the automaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting last month. And now reports from Canada suggest representatives from Tesla have already visited numerous locations in Ontario and Quebec. Moreover, Tesla is currently looking for a high-volume recruiter in the Quebec area, indicating the automaker could be on the verge of hiring several thousand Canadian workers.

Oct 11, 2022

Caltech’s New Space-Based Solar Project Could Power Our Entire Planet

Posted by in categories: solar power, space, sustainability

It’s the stuff of science fiction: Solar panels in space that beam power directly to Earth equipping the planet with clean renewable and affordable energy. Yet, it could soon be reality.

Caltech has just received $100 million in funding for their Space Solar Power Project (SSPP). The project is described by Caltech as: “Collecting solar power in space and transmitting the energy wirelessly to Earth through microwaves enables terrestrial power availability unaffected by weather or time of day. Solar power could be continuously available anywhere on earth.”

Oct 11, 2022

Web3, The Metaverse: Exploring A Fast, Sustainable, And Operationally Secure “QNTYM Railway” For The Masses

Posted by in categories: quantum physics, robotics/AI, sustainability

QNTYM Railway is a ‘software level’ application that can be deployed on current hardware meaning there will be no need for changes in physical network infrastructure (hardware). The QNTYM Railway is an inherently quantum secure, self-defending, resilient, digital infrastructure capable of lightning-fast speed with a significant sustainability proposition. From a command & control standpoint, the QNTYM Railway is also integrated with leading vendors where users can benefit from having threat intel, vulnerability, device & incident response management capabilities all automated and in one place, hence reducing complexity.

In terms of speed, the QNTYM Railway has demonstrated consistent throughput speeds of 350+ Mbit/s, (and above). The QNTYM Railway provides integration and interoperability that is in a class of its own allowing technology to reach new levels. For the past year, QDEx Labs has been stress-assessing the QNTYM Railway across three interconnected cloud environments (AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure); they found that not only are they consistently experiencing the minimum requirement of 250 Mbit/s for 8k video streaming, but they are also, in fact, recording data streams reaching 3 to 4 times that amount with little to no processor load and added latencies in the microsecond (NOT millisecond) range.

The bottom line is that this architecture has now proven capable of hosting an ultra-realistic 3D metaverse. Results like these are something that Web3 and Metaverse projects currently lack and will require.

Oct 11, 2022

These land-based algae farms could feed 10 billion humans by 2050

Posted by in categories: food, sustainability

The naturally ‘carbon-eating’ microorganisms could mean the farms will be carbon negative too.

Cultivating marine algae on land-based farms could meet future nutritional demands from society and enhance environmental sustainability, according to a new study published in Oceanography.

Protein-rich microalgae could be the answer to food insecurity.

Continue reading “These land-based algae farms could feed 10 billion humans by 2050” »