Archive for the ‘sustainability’ category: Page 310
Dec 13, 2021
Elon Musk named Time Person of the Year
Posted by Kelvin Dafiaghor in categories: cryptocurrencies, Elon Musk, space travel, sustainability
Elon Musk is Time’s Person of the Year.
The magazine said that he had been chosen for his work in space as well as on electric cars, as well as his plans to take humanity to Mars and his interest in cryptocurrency. It also noted in its announcement that Mr Musk “also likes to live-tweet his poops”, thought to be a first for a Time “Person of the Year”.
“For creating solutions to an existential crisis, for embodying the possibilities and the perils of the age of tech titans, for driving society’s most daring and disruptive transformations, Elon Musk is TIME’s 2021 Person of the Year,” the magazine wrote in its announcement.
Dec 13, 2021
World’s Fastest Aircraft: British Engineering Firm ‘Smashed’ All Records Of Environment Friendly Electric Planes
Posted by Chima Wisdom in categories: engineering, sustainability, transportation
Rolls-Royce, the 115-year-old iconic British Engineering firm, has now achieved a new feat. After manufacturing world-class jet engines, it has left its mark in the electric aviation world.
Spirit of Innovation, a single-seat, electric-powered propeller plane built by Rolls-Royce, obliterated the zero-emission speed record, reaching over 556 kilometers per hour (345 mph) over a three-kilometer distance—and even maxing out at 623 kilometers per hour. This flight successfully smashed all previous records of electric planes which are environment friendly.
With a clarion call given by the COP26 on the need to cut emissions, Rolls-Royce has presented itself as a company that could earnestly provide that solution. With the aviation industry registering a record number of flights after a year of lockdowns, the emissions are set to grow further.
Dec 12, 2021
Six Hurricane-Faring Autonomous Drones to Collect Data in Gulf Stream Region
Posted by Gemechu Taye in categories: climatology, drones, robotics/AI, sustainability
The same Saildrones captured the first-ever video from inside a major hurricane from sea level in September.
Six autonomous Saildrones are taking off on a six-month journey to tackle some of Earth’s most challenging ocean conditions, in order to improve climate change and weather forecast computer models, reported CNN.
They will travel to the Gulf Stream throughout the winter months where they will collect data about the process by which oceans absorb carbon (carbon uptake). So far, the numbers on this type of activity have only been estimates produced by statistical methods that cannot, therefore, be relied upon.
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Dec 12, 2021
Inside Clean Energy
Posted by Chima Wisdom in categories: energy, sustainability, transportation
The price of the batteries that power electric vehicles has fallen by about 90 percent since 2010, a continuing trend that will soon make EVs less expensive than gasoline vehicles.
This week, with battery pricing figures for 2021 now available, I wanted to get a better idea of what the near future will look like.
First, the numbers: The average price of lithium-ion battery packs fell to $132 per kilowatt-hour in 2021, down 6 percent from $140 per kilowatt-hour the previous year, according to the annual battery price survey from BloombergNEF. The new average is a step closer to the benchmark of $100 per kilowatt-hour, which researchers say is the approximate point where EVs will cost about the same as gasoline-powered vehicles.
Dec 12, 2021
What can Google’s army of robots do?| Physicists have turned back time | High Tech News
Posted by Raphael Ramos in categories: cyborgs, drones, Elon Musk, governance, quantum physics, robotics/AI, space, sustainability
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Eh1w6guPC8&feature=share
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You are on the PRO Robots channel and in this form we present you with high-tech news. What can Google’s army of robots really do? Can time turn backwards? Catapult rockets and a jet engine powered by plastic waste. All this and much more in one edition of high-tech news! Watch the video until the end and write your impressions about the new army of robots from Google in the comments.
Dec 12, 2021
Tesla Has Clever Plan To Stop Idiots From Blocking Superchargers
Posted by Kelvin Dafiaghor in categories: sustainability, transportation
As the spread of electric vehicles continues to gain speed across the globe, the electric charging network needs to keep pace with the growing demand. Tesla, the global leader in electric vehicles, has spent millions to expand its supercharging network and the company currently has more than 25,000 supercharging stations across the planet. The EV manufacturer is looking to democratize its superchargers, and in certain regions, you can charge your Porsche Taycan right next to regular Tesla offerings such as the Model 3 and Model S, but some have been experiencing an unpleasant trend in recent times: internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles are blocking charging stations. This act is known as “ICEing”, and it has become such an issue in China that Tesla has banded with its customers to come up with an interesting solution.
Dec 11, 2021
Electric Jet Engines Could Mean Carbon-Neutral Air Travel
Posted by Shubham Ghosh Roy in categories: sustainability, transportation
We talk a lot about electric cars, and it’s evident that engineers are working toward fossil fuel alternatives for our land-based travel. But what about airplanes? In 2019, 18.27 billion gallons of fuel were used by planes. That’s far from carbon-neutral.
Soon though, we could feel less guilty about flying. A team of researchers has created a prototype jet engine that’s able to propel itself forward using only electricity. Their study was published in AIP Advances in May 2020.
Dec 11, 2021
Record Power Boost for New Flexible Solar Tech
Posted by Shubham Ghosh Roy in categories: solar power, sustainability
Engineers have made bendable solar cells from ultra thin semiconductors—which for all their elasticity still boast a power-per-weight ratio on par with established thin-film solar cells.
Dec 11, 2021
BrainBox AI brings machine learning to building controls
Posted by Shubham Ghosh Roy in categories: climatology, robotics/AI, sustainability
What’s needed instead is something more like the engineering that goes into a race car, where the initial design is as perfect as the engineers know how to make it upfront, but every few laps during a race, they fine-tune it further for the specific conditions on the track that day, Venne said. His inspiration for a solution that is less labor-intensive than car racing also comes from the world of automobiles — specifically self-driving cars.
In addition to knowing the basic rules of the road, a self-driving car needs to be able to adapt to the unexpected, such as swerving to avoid hitting the squirrel crossing the road ahead, Venne said. “It occurred to me that if we’re doing this with cars, we should be able to do the same with the technology that drives the mechanical side of the building.”
BrainBox AI focuses primarily on controlling the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems within a building, which accounts for the majority of the energy consumption in most buildings, Venne said. A next-level goal is to get multiple neighboring buildings in a city working in tandem to produce better results, like helping utilities balance the consumption of electricity during periods of peak demand. A pilot project based on that concept won a Tech for Our Planet challenge at the recently concluded COP26 United Nations conference on controlling climate change.