Lifeboat Foundation

An intrepid DIY Tesla Model Y owner has done what many dream of doing — directly powered his Tesla with solar panels. That’s right, not happy with simply powering his car with house rooftop solar panels, he’s doing it with a solar panel array on the roof of his crossover.

This Tesla Model Y Performance owner created a folding solar array capable of charging 20-60mi per day via a 2000W-4000W system.

“This research highlights the relatively rapid insect community responses to habitat restoration at solar energy sites,” said Leroy Walston.

How could solar energy facilities contribute to insect populations? This is what a recent study published in Environmental Research hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated how insect and plant populations in re-established habitats comprised of wildflowers and native grasses changed during a five-year period in the vicinity of photovoltaic (PV) solar array parks. This study holds the potential to help scientists, engineers, and conservationists gain greater insight into the ecological impact of solar farms on newly planted vegetation.

For the study, the researchers surveyed two solar sites located approximately 100 miles (160 km) apart in southern Minnesota, Eastwood Solar Site and Atwater Solar Site, between 2018 and 2022 for changes in insect and plant populations on restored land with native forbs and grasses. After conducting 358 observations of across sites, the researchers found increases in the biodiversity of both sites, including plant species and total insect abundance.

Continue reading “Insect Conservation and Solar Energy: A Five-Year Study Reveals Surprising Results” »

Solar energy is traditionally known for using massive solar panels that collect sunlight and convert it into clean energy, but what if this same energy was instead beamed from satellites in orbit around the Earth, known as space solar power? This is the goal of Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD-1), which is a 110-pound (50-kilogram) project run by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). SSPD-1 was launched onboard the SpaceX Transporter-6 mission on January 3, 2023, and recently concluded its mission after conducting a series of experiments, including the ability to wirelessly beam solar power from space to Earth, which it accomplished in early 2023.

“Solar power beamed from space at commercial rates, lighting the globe, is still a future prospect. But this critical mission demonstrated that it should be an achievable future,” said Dr. Thomas F. Rosenbaum, who is the President of Caltech and the Sonja and William Davidow Presidential Chair and professor of physics.

SSPD-1 successfully demonstrated three experiments during its one-year mission: DOLCE (Deployable on-Orbit ultraLight Composite Experiment), ALBA, and MAPLE (Microwave Array for Power-transfer Low-orbit Experiment). DOLCE demonstrated the architecture necessary for developing space solar power, ALBA demonstrated how to harness solar energy in space, and MAPLE demonstrated how this energy could be wirelessly beamed to Earth.

New advancements in technology frequently necessitate the development of novel materials – and thanks to supercomputers and advanced simulations, researchers can bypass the time-consuming and often inefficient process of trial-and-error.

The Materials Project, an open-access database founded at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) in 2011, computes the properties of both known and predicted materials. Researchers can focus on promising materials for future technologies – think lighter alloys that improve fuel economy in cars, more efficient solar cells to boost renewable energy, or faster transistors for the next generation of computers.

To back up the decision, Waymo pointed to its safety record and history building and operating self-driving trucks on highways. (The company shuttered its self-driving truck project last year to focus on taxis.) Including highways should also decrease route times for riders—especially from the airport—with some rides taking half the time.

Although highways are simpler to navigate than city streets—where cars contend with twists, turns, signs, stoplights, pedestrians, and pets—the stakes are higher. A crash at 10 or 20 miles per hour is less likely to cause major injury than one at highway speeds. And while it’s relatively straightforward (if less than ideal) for a malfunctioning robotaxi to stop or pull to the side of the road and await human help in the city, such tactics won’t do on the highway, where it’s dangerous for cars to suddenly slow or stop.

Continue reading “Waymo’s Driverless Cars Are Hitting the Highway Sans Safety Drivers in Arizona” »

How can the increased threat of drought and drier conditions from climate change impact groundwater (aquifer) usage, and ultimately, food production? This is what a recent study partially funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and published in Nature Water hopes to address as a team of researchers led by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln investigated how decreasing aquifer levels result in irrigation challenges for farmers now only in the United States but throughout the world.

This study holds the potential to help scientists, farmers, and policymakers better understand the appropriate steps to manage irrigation levels as climate change continues to lead to increased drought and drier environmental conditions across the globe.

“In terms of things that let you address food security under extreme conditions — in particular, drought and climate change — we really can’t do without irrigation,” said Dr. Nick Brozović, who is a professor of agricultural economics at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and a co-author on the study. “If we want to feed the world with high-quality, nutritious food and a stable food supply, we need to irrigate.”

Japanese chip maker Rohm is collaborating with venture company Quanmatic to improve electrical die sorting (EDS) in what appears to be the first use of quantum computing to optimize a commercial-scale manufacturing process on semiconductor production lines.

After a year of effort, the two companies have announced that full-scale implementation of the probe test technology can begin in April in Rohm’s factories in Japan and overseas. Testing and validation of the prototype indicate that EDS performance can be improved by several percentage points, improving significantly productivity and profitability.

Headquartered in Kyoto, Rohm produces integrated circuits (ICs), discrete semiconductors and other electronic components. It is one of the world’s leading suppliers of silicon carbide wafers and power management devices used in electric vehicles (EVs) and various industrial applications.

Hyperion, a California-based company, has unveiled a hydrogen-powered supercar the company hopes will change the way people view hydrogen fuel cell technology.

The Hyperion XP-1 will be able to drive for up to 1,000 miles on one tank of compressed hydrogen gas and its electric motors will generate more than 1,000 horsepower, according to the company. The all-wheel-drive car can go from zero to 60 miles per hour in a little over two seconds, the company said.

Hydrogen fuel cell cars are electric cars that use hydrogen to generate power inside the car rather than using batteries to store energy. The XP-1 doesn’t combust hydrogen but uses it in fuel cells that combine hydrogen with oxygen from the air in a process that creates water, the vehicle’s only emission, and a stream of electricity to power the car.

Companies say perovskite tandem solar cells are only a few years from bringing record efficiencies to a solar project near you.

In Swift Solar’s lab, more than a dozen pairs of elbow-length rubber gloves hover horizontally in midair, inflated like arms.