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Archive for the ‘energy’ category: Page 159

May 9, 2020

In a potential big win for renewable energy, Form Energy gets its first grid-scale battery installation

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability

Form Energy, which is developing what it calls ultra-low-cost, long-duration energy storage for the grid, has signed a contract with the Minnesota-based Great River Energy to develop a 1 megawatt, 150 megawatt hour pilot project.

The second-largest electric utility in the Minnesota, Great River Energy’s installation in Cambridge, Minn. will be the first commercial deployment of the venture-backed battery technology developer’s long-duration energy storage technology.

From Energy’s battery system is significant for its ability to deliver 1 megawatt of power for 150 hours — a huge leap over the lithium ion batteries currently in use for most grid-scale storage projects. Those battery systems can last for two- to four-hours.

May 8, 2020

China’s first 100MW molten salt solar plant hits maximum power

Posted by in category: energy

The facility, which serves as a solar thermal power generation demonstration project, has exceeded the amount of power it was originally planned to produce.

May 8, 2020

How Nikola Tesla Planned To Use Earth For Wireless Power Transfer

Posted by in categories: energy, innovation

Serbian-American engineer Nikola Tesla pioneered many modern technologies and made some strange inventions, like the “earthquake-generator.”

May 8, 2020

Three Brilliant Innovations in Synthetic Foods

Posted by in categories: energy, food

Food from electricity, NASA’s attempt to create food from rocket fuel, and other brilliant and bizarre innovations in synthetic foods.

May 8, 2020

Clean energy: Tesla’s most ambitious idea may not be an electric car

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability, transportation

Tesla’s energy services are a quieter part of the company’s plans. That could soon be about to change.

May 8, 2020

Payloads revealed for next flight of X-37B military spaceplane

Posted by in categories: energy, military, satellites

The next flight of the U.S. military’s reusable X-37B spaceplane — scheduled for liftoff May 16 from Cape Canaveral — will carry more experiments into orbit than any of the winged ship’s previous missions, including two payloads for NASA and a small deployable satellite built by Air Force Academy cadets.

Military officials announced new details about the upcoming X-37B mission Wednesday, and confirmed its target launch date of May 16. The Boeing-built spaceplane was mounted on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket Tuesday inside the Vertical Integration Facility at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 launch pad.

The unpiloted spacecraft launches inside a payload shroud on top of a conventional rocket, unfurls a power-generating solar array in orbit to generate electricity, and returns to Earth for a runway landing like NASA’s retired space shuttle.

May 7, 2020

Delfast’s new 50 mph (80 km/h) electric bicycle stretches the word ‘bicycle’

Posted by in categories: energy, transportation

In what will surely divide the e-cycling world, Delfast has updated its latest high-speed electric bicycle. The Top 2.0 is a high power, 50 mph (80 km/h) e-bike that pushes the limits of electric bicycles.

May 7, 2020

Quantum resonances near absolute zero

Posted by in categories: chemistry, energy, quantum physics

Recently, Prof. Yang Xueming from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Prof. Yang Tiangang from the Southern University of Science and Technology discussed significant advances in the study of quantum resonances in atomic and molecular collisions at near absolute zero temperature. Their article was published in Science on May 7.

The rules of quantum mechanics govern all atomic and molecular processes. Understanding the quantum nature of atomic and is essential for understanding energy transfer and chemical reaction processes, especially in the low collisional energy region, where quantum effect is the most prominent.

A remarkable feature of quantum nature in atomic and molecular collision is quantum scattering resonances, but probing them experimentally has been a great challenge due to the transient nature of these resonances.

May 7, 2020

Gatling Laser can Down Drones at 500m

Posted by in categories: drones, energy, military

Circa 2013 o.o


Rheinmetall Defense Electronics unveiled their new “Gatling Laser” which can be mounted on ships as part of a new sea-based anti-drone laser system. The four 20 kilowatt lasers fire simultaneously as a single powerful 80 kilowatt beam. The firm boasts units can even be combined for ‘unlimited’ power. The Gatling laser can reportedly shoot down a drone at 500 meters.

May 7, 2020

China’s Airborne Laser Weapon Would Change Dogfighting Forever

Posted by in categories: energy, government, military

Circa 2020 o.o


China’s military is soliciting would-be suppliers for a new airborne laser weapon. Notices on a government website invited defense contractors to provide information on an airborne laser attack pod. Depending on the level of power, the pod could be used to defend a friendly aircraft from incoming missile threats or destroy enemy aircraft and ground targets. Laser weapons are the next revolution in aerial warfare and could make dogfighting obsolete.

According to the South China Morning Post, weain.mil.cn, the official weapons and equipment procurement website of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) published two solicitations to contractors, one titled, “procurement plan for airborne laser attack pod” and the other “price inquiry on procurement plan for controlling software module of laser attack platform.” The solicitations, marked confidential, invited China’s defense firms to bid to develop the items. The Pentagon uses a similar system to procure weapons, equipment, and other technology.