Lifeboat Foundation

Tesla has begun delivering the $35,000, base-priced version of its Model 3 sedan, three customers have told Business Insider. Electrek first reported on April 15 that Tesla had started delivering the $35,000 Model 3, known as the standard-range trim.

The beginning of standard-range Model 3 deliveries is a landmark for Tesla, but the electric-car maker has been unusually quiet about it. While Tesla posted on its website and social media accounts when it began allowing customers to order the standard-range trim in February, the company has only made reference to the beginning of deliveries near the bottom of an April 11 blog post about an update to its product offerings.

Innolith AG, Swiss maker of rechargeable Inorganic Battery Technology, says they have the world’s first 1000 Wh/kg rechargeable battery. This would triple the range of electric cars. The Innolith Energy Battery would radically reduce costs by not using exotic and expensive materials.

Innolith will make an initial pilot production in Germany and then create licensing partnerships with major battery and automotive companies. Development and commercialization of the Innolith Energy Battery is anticipated to take between three and five years.

Continue reading “Triple Battery Density in 3-5 Years for Triple Electric Car Range” »

Elon Musk has tweeted that Tesla will make a quiet electric leaf blower.

In 2017, the California Air Resources Board, said that by 2020, the biggest single ozone polluter in California is going to be all this gardening equipment.

California has 16 million gas-powered garden machines from leaf blowers to mowers.

Continue reading “Telsa Will Make an Electric Leafblower As Garden Equipment is a Big Pollution Source” »

Two years ago a team of scientists visited Costa Rica’s subduction zone, where the ocean floor sinks beneath the continent and volcanoes tower above the surface. They wanted to find out if microbes can affect the cycle of carbon moving from Earth’s surface into the deep interior. According to their new study in Nature, the answer is affirmatively—yes they can.

This groundbreaking study shows that microbes consume and—crucially—help trap a small amount of sinking carbon in this zone. This finding has important implications for understanding Earth’s fundamental processes and for revealing how nature can potentially help mitigate climate change.

Continue reading “Microbes may act as gatekeepers of Earth’s Deep Carbon” »

An international research team led by The Australian National University (ANU) has made a new type of silicon that better uses sunlight and promises to cut the cost of solar technology.

The researchers say their world-first invention could help reduce the costs of renewable electricity below that of existing coal power stations, as well as lead to more efficient solar cells.

Senior researcher ANU Professor Jodie Bradby said silicon was used as the raw material for solar cells because of its abundance, low-cost and non-toxicity.

Continue reading “New type of silicon promises cheaper solar technology” »

Electricity harvested from the sun or wind can be used interchangeably with power from coal or petroleum sources. Or sustainably produced electricity can be turned into something physical and useful. Researchers in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis have figured out how to feed electricity to microbes to grow truly green, biodegradable plastic, as reported in the Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology.

“As our planet grapples with rampant, petroleum-based plastic use and plastic waste, finding sustainable ways to make bioplastics is becoming more and more important. We have to find new solutions,” said Arpita Bose, assistant professor of biology in Arts & Sciences.

Renewable energy currently accounts for about 11% of total U.S. energy consumption and about 17% of electricity generation.

Continue reading “Creating sustainable bioplastics from electricity-eating microbes” »

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Forget rooftop panels. This is the next generation of solar power.

China was no good at cars. Then EVs came along.

Imagine being able to use grass instead of plastic for #Straws…Zero Waste Saigon, which also sells the straws, says that finding a human use for the grass, helps preserve wetlands, which provide habitat for Sarus Crane birds, because it prevents them from being turned into crop land.

This man has come up with a super sustainable — and truly biodegradable —substitute for plastic straws.

Continue reading “Man Makes and Sells Compostable Wild Grass Straws” »