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Category: sustainability

How Tesla’s New Products Will Change Energy Forever

Tesla’s new energy products, such as the Mega Pack and Megablock, have the potential to revolutionize energy storage and generation, drive decentralization and grid resilience, and support widespread AI adoption, potentially driving its energy business to $50 billion in revenue and generating $10 billion in annual gross margin ## Questions to inspire discussion.

Energy Storage and Grid Management.

🔋 Q: How does Tesla’s Mega Pack improve energy storage? A: Tesla’s Mega Pack offers 20% more energy density and 25% more energy per unit, providing 8 hours of storage to expand the total addressable market for renewable energy.

⚡ Q: What is the Mega Block and how does it enhance efficiency? A: The Mega Block is a transformer and switchgear all-in-one unit that simplifies processes, reduces cabling and on-site assembly, making the product more streamlined and efficient.

🔌 Q: How do battery storage systems compare to traditional grid power? A: Battery storage is significantly more capable at dumping power instantly compared to the grid, which needs to spool up and down, making it better for managing wild swings in data center load profiles.

Data centers and AI energy demands.

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Lack of soap most reported barrier to effective hand hygiene in shared community spaces

A lack of soap is the most often reported barrier to effective hand hygiene—key to curbing the spread of infection—in shared community spaces, such as households, schools, and public places, finds a systematic review of the available research, published in the open access journal BMJ Global Health.

It found that the barriers most often reported concerned physical opportunity, such as the availability of soap, and lack of motivation— not prioritized, or not habitual practice, for example. On the other hand, the enablers most often reported being aligned with motivation in the form of habitual practice and perceived health risk.

A further systematic review found that most of the reported efforts to improve handwashing didn’t always address identified barriers or enablers to ensure behavioral sustainability, nor did they fully consider the fundamental resources needed for hand hygiene, such as soap, water, and handwashing facilities.

If every US home and personal vehicle goes electric, power outages could spike unless key measures are taken

A future where all homes and vehicles in the U.S. are fully electrified could overwhelm power supply and risk outages unless key upgrades are made, says a new study conducted by Purdue University engineers. But a few strategies could cut two-thirds of the potential costs of reinforcing the nation’s distribution grid to handle this demand.

Electrifying would mean switching a home’s heating system from a boiler to a and transitioning from gas-or diesel-fueled vehicles to electric vehicles.

“If we install a whole bunch of new electric heating systems for homes and use more electric vehicles and electric water heaters, then we’re going to increase electricity demand a lot. And that’s basically going to require putting in thicker wires, bigger transformers and other infrastructure into the ,” said Kevin Kircher, a Purdue assistant professor of mechanical engineering and faculty member in the university’s Ray W. Herrick Laboratories. “And if that happens, utilities will pass the cost of those upgrades to us, the customers.”

Advanced Membrane Science and Technology for Water and Wastewater Treatment

The pressing need for clean and affordable drinking water is intensifying as global populations rise and pollutants increasingly compromise available water sources. Traditional methods of water purification, while effective, are often insufficient to address the complex array of contaminants now present in water, including microorganisms, organic compounds, and heavy metals. Over the past four decades, significant breakthroughs in water and wastewater treatment have been achieved through the application of nanotechnology, particularly in the development of nanomaterials and nanomembranes. These science and technology advancements have revolutionized membrane-based water and wastewater treatment, offering new levels of efficiency and precision in removing a wide range of pollutants.

This Collection aims to advance our understanding of membrane-based water and wastewater treatment, underlining the challenges and opportunities within this rapidly evolving field, e.g., the limitations of conventional ultrafiltration and microfiltration membrane systems, such as their reduced effectiveness in removing certain trace organic compounds (TrOCs) and the persistent issues of membrane fouling and salinity build-up. The Collection seeks to explore innovative solutions, e.g., high-retention membrane bioreactors (HR-MBRs) and advanced pre-treatment options like advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), which have the potential to significantly improve the effectiveness and sustainability of water and wastewater treatment processes.

Moreover, the Collection emphasizes the importance of developing sustainable materials, such as biopolymers, which can replace traditional synthetic polymers in membrane fabrication. While these materials offer eco-friendly alternatives with unique adsorption properties, their performance can vary based on source and processing methods, presenting challenges in terms of durability and scalability. The Collection also aims to showcase advancements in PVDF-based membranes, which are gaining popularity due to their superior mechanical and chemical properties, and to examine the integration of these materials in innovative membrane technologies, e.g., membrane distillation (MD) and hybrid systems.

Lithium-metal batteries can charge in 12 minutes for an 800km drive

Korean researchers have ushered in a new era for electric vehicle (EV) battery technology by solving the long-standing dendrite problem in lithium-metal batteries. While conventional lithium-ion batteries are limited to a maximum range of 600 km, the new battery can achieve a range of 800 km on a single charge, a lifespan of over 300,000 km, and a super-fast charging time of just 12 minutes.

A research team from the Frontier Research Laboratory (FRL), a joint project between Professor Hee Tak Kim from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and LG Energy Solution, has developed a “cohesion-inhibiting new liquid electrolyte” original technology that can dramatically increase the performance of lithium-metal batteries. Their paper is published in Nature Energy.

Lithium-metal batteries replace the graphite anode, a key component of lithium-ion batteries, with lithium metal. However, lithium metal has a technical challenge known as dendrite, which makes it difficult to secure the battery’s lifespan and stability. Dendrites are tree-like lithium crystals that form on the anode surface during battery charging, negatively affecting battery performance and stability.

Culture is overtaking genetics in shaping human evolution, researchers argue

Researchers at the University of Maine are theorizing that human beings may be in the midst of a major evolutionary shift—driven not by genes, but by culture.

In a paper published in BioScience, Timothy M. Waring, an associate professor of economics and sustainability, and Zachary T. Wood, a researcher in ecology and environmental sciences, argue that culture is overtaking genetics as the main force shaping .

“Human evolution seems to be changing gears,” said Waring. “When we learn useful skills, institutions or technologies from each other, we are inheriting adaptive . On reviewing the evidence, we find that culture solves problems much more rapidly than genetic evolution. This suggests our species is in the middle of a great evolutionary transition.”

Tesla’s Momentum Can’t Be Stopped

Tesla continues to advance and solidify its momentum in the electric vehicle market through significant technological innovations, expansions, and achievements in autonomous driving, AI-powered technologies, and overall growth.

## Questions to inspire discussion.

Robo Taxi Service Expansion.

🚕 Q: How has Tesla’s robo taxi service in California expanded its operations? A: Tesla’s robo taxi service now operates until 2 a.m. with only 4 hours of downtime, indicating operational readiness and confidence in the system’s performance.

🌎 Q: What hiring moves suggest Tesla’s plans for global robo taxi expansion? A: Tesla is hiring a senior software engineer in Fremont to develop backend systems for real-time pricing and fees for robo taxi rides worldwide.

🌙 Q: How is Tesla preparing for expanded robo taxi coverage across the US? A: Tesla is hiring autopilot data collection supervisors for night and afternoon shifts in Arizona, Florida, Texas, and Nevada, indicating planned expansion of services.

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US Energy Secretary’s INSANE Bet Against Elon Musk

Questions to inspire discussion.

Energy for AI and Infrastructure.

🤖 Q: How does AI development impact energy demands? A: AI development will drive massive demand for electricity, with solar and batteries being the only energy source with an unbounded upper limit to scale and meet these demands.

⛽ Q: Can solar energy support existing infrastructure? A: Solar energy can produce synthetic biofuels and oil and gas through chemical processes, enabling it to power existing infrastructure that runs on traditional fuels.

Expert Predictions.

🚗 Q: What does Elon Musk predict about future energy sources? A: Elon Musk predicts that solar and batteries will dominate the future energy landscape, citing China’s massive investment as a key factor in this prediction.

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