Lifeboat Foundation

PENA, the division of Panasonic which produces lithium-ion batteries at the Sparks Gigafactory, will move into an existing building at 645 E. Plumb Lane, about half a mile east of the Reno-Tahoe International Airport. PENA’s headquarters will move from the Gigafactory to the Plumb Lane campus.

“Our new facility in Reno underscores our commitment to evolving and growing to stay at the forefront of the mobility market,” Allan Swan, president of PENA, said in a news release. “Investing in innovation and workforce initiatives in the local community supports our mission of creating a future powered by sustainable energy.”

It’s the stuff of science fiction but it’s real.

Although it may sound like science fiction, space-based solar power has started making headway with several projects underway. In February, we brought you news of technology firm Redwire acquiring Deployable Space Systems (DSS), a leading supplier of deployable solar arrays capable of enabling space missions with the intention of using them to deploy space-based solar power.

Meanwhile, last August we brought you further news, of Caltech’s Space Solar Power Project (SSPP) that collected solar power in space to be transmitted wirelessly to Earth offering energy unaffected by weather or time of day. The project promised to make solar power that could be continuously available anywhere on earth.

And soon it will even dock automatically.

X Shore, the Swedish sustainable boat firm responsible for the Eelex 8,000 recently opened two new offices in the U.S. as part of its plans for expansion, following its U.S. debut at the Palm Beach International Boat Show in March.

Continue reading “X Shore: The ‘Tesla of the Seas’ Is Now Selling Its Luxury EV Boat in the U.S.” »

Taiga Motors announced that it has manufactured its first production electric snowmobiles and deliveries are expected to start early next year following regulatory approval.

Like the auto industry, the powersports world is being electrified, and Quebec-based Taiga Motors is one of the companies leading the way for electric snowmobiles and jet skis. Earlier this year, Taiga made waves when it went public and raised $100 million to bring its electric vehicles to production.

Most of the money is going to be used for a big new factory in Shawinigan, but in the meantime, the company is starting low-volume production at a smaller facility in Montreal.

Thanks to the failure of Blue Origin’s NASA Human Landing System (HLS) lawsuit, SpaceX and the space agency were finally able to get back to work last month.

Taking advantage of that, NASA astronauts and Artemis Program leaders recently took a tour of SpaceX’s South Texas Starship factory and launch pads – a massive hub of activity that the company has deemed Starbase. In doing so, save for updates from SpaceX and even members of the public over the last 6–9 months, NASA officials were finally able to get up close and personal with the progress SpaceX has made while the space agency was temporarily forced to halt all work on HLS.

While some aspects of SpaceX’s progress towards orbital Starship test flights were hampered by asymmetry between different programs, namely the readiness of Super Heavy and Starbase’s orbital launch site, SpaceX has still made some impressive progress in less than a year. At the start of 2021, Starbase’s lone orbital launch site was effectively a dirt lot and a fraction of the launch mount – the latter constructed well in advance of the rest of the pad. Less than a year later, that orbital launch site – including a skyscraper-sized launch tower, three massive arms, perhaps the most complex launch mount in spaceflight history, and the largest cryogenic tank farm ever built for a rocket – is on the verge of completion.

Australian researchers have struck a deal to commercialise a new next-generation graphene material they say could unlock cheaper and better performing lithium-ion batteries.

Researchers at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES), based at the University of Wollongong, say they have discovered a new form of graphene, called ‘Edge Functionalised Graphene’ (EFG), which is both highly conductive and processable for use in a range of electronics.

This includes lithium-ion batteries, with the innovative graphene material promising to improve the efficiency and lower the cost of battery technology used in energy storage devices and electric vehicles.

Solar and wind resources are the lowest marginal cost sources of electricity in most of the world. Solar, wind, and other forms of green energy produce power as and when it’s available. And as the world starts to transition away from cheap, responsive, and heavily polluting energy sources like coal, the electric grid now faces a challenge: how to manage the multi-day variability of renewable energy, even in periods of multi-day weather events, without sacrificing energy reliability or affordability.

In 2017, Tesla built and installed the world’s largest lithium-ion battery at Hornsdale in South Australia, which was a huge success. But there are inherent issues with lithium batteries; they are expensive, better suited to quick turnaround than long-term storage.

However, Form Energy is focused on developing low-cost energy storage technology to enable a reliable, secure, and fully renewable electric grid year-round. The Massachusetts-based startup recently unveiled a new rechargeable iron-air battery capable of delivering electricity for 100 hours at system costs competitive with conventional power plants and at less than 1/10th the cost of lithium-ion.

It seems Tesla has already produced at least a few Model Ys in Germany, though they may have been shipped there. Some reports say Tesla has produced many more.

Danish energy firm Orsted has announced that its Hornsea 2 offshore wind farm generated its first power, representing a significant milestone in the facility’s development.

When fully operational, Hornsea 2’s wind turbines will be capable of generating 1.32 GW of clean electricity – taking the title of ‘world’s largest operating offshore wind farm‘from its sibling project, Hornsea 1. Together, the two projects will be capable of providing enough power for well over 2.3 million homes.

Located 89 km off the UK’s east coast, the Hornsea 2 achieved its first power after its offshore substation (OSS), the world’s largest offshore AC substation, and reactive compensation station (RCS), were installed in late October 2021. Since that time, Ørsted and its partner companies have been working hard to commission and energize the wind farm in preparation for its anticipated operational date next year.