Lifeboat Foundation

Futuristic advancements in AI and healthcare stole the limelight at the tech extravaganza Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2024. However, battery technology is the game-changer at the heart of these innovations, enabling greater power efficiency. Importantly, electric vehicles are where this technology is being applied most intensely. Today’s EVs can travel around 700km on a single charge, while researchers are aiming for a 1,000km battery range. Researchers are fervently exploring the use of silicon, known for its high storage capacity, as the anode material in lithium-ion batteries for EVs. However, despite its potential, bringing silicon into practical use remains a puzzle that researchers are still working hard to piece together.

Enter Professor Soojin Park, PhD candidate Minjun Je, and Dr. Hye Bin Son from the Department of Chemistry at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH). They have cracked the code, developing a pocket-friendly and rock-solid next-generation high-energy-density Li-ion battery system using micro silicon particles and gel polymer electrolytes. This work was published on the online pages of Advanced Science on the 17th of January.

Employing silicon as a battery material presents challenges: It expands by more than three times during charging and then contracts back to its original size while discharging, significantly impacting battery efficiency. Utilizing nano-sized silicon (10-9m) partially addresses the issue, but the sophisticated production process is complex and astronomically expensive, making it a challenging budget proposition. By contrast, micro-sized silicon (10-6m) is superbly practical in terms of cost and energy density. Yet, the expansion issue of the larger silicon particles becomes more pronounced during battery operation, posing limitations for its use as an anode material.

This cotton picking electric robot from Turkey could boost farm output by up to 20% by picking up what bigger tractors leave behind.

Tesla has officially opened orders for its next-generation Powerwall 3 battery on its website, after the company spent much of last year quietly deploying the new hardware.

You can now order a Powerwall 3 from Tesla directly through its website in the U.S., offering updated specs from the previous generation Powerwall 2. Tesla listed the specs for the updated energy storage hardware on its website in September, and it also caught the attention of CEO Elon Musk, who commented on the generation’s improvements after some Powerwall 3 installations had already been spotted.

At the time of writing, the Powerwall 3 doesn’t appear to be available in other North American markets, Canada and Mexico, nor does it appear to be available in Europe or Asia.

Drawing together an array of interdisciplinary studies across archaeology, ecology, anthropology, and evolutionary theory, Erle Ellis, professor of geography and environmental systems at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, explains the evolution of the cultural practices that have enabled societies to develop unprecedented capabilities to scale up and transform the ecological systems that sustain them.

From using fire to cook food and manage vegetation to the technologies and institutions that support intensive agriculture, increasingly urbanized societies, and global supply chains stretching across the planet, human societies have evolved the social, cultural, and ecological capabilities to reshape the planet and to thrive in the process.

Ellis is a leading scientist investigating the Anthropocene, the current geological age defined by the human transformation of the planet. He is the founder and director of the Anthroecology Lab, which studies relationships between human societies and ecosystems at local to planetary scales with the aim of guiding more sustainable human relations with the biosphere. He is currently a visiting fellow at the Oxford Martin School, where he recently presented his work on Anthropocene opportunities.

The California EV charging station will also have 16 pull-though chargers that are designed to accommodate vehicles with trailers.

Kia plans to replace the Stinger with an incredibly powerful all-electric sedan called the EV8. The high-performance EV is expected to pack over 600 hp and 500 miles range as Kia’s most powerful car yet.

The Kia EV8 will be the first electric vehicle based on Hyundai’s next-gen “eM” platform. Hyundai’s eM platform is one of two new platforms to be built under its new Integrated Modular Architecture. (IMA).

After revealing the platform last year, Hyundai claimed it would improve EV driving range by 50% compared to current models.

The team leveraged ground-state electron transfer to develop water-based conductive ink for use in flexible electronics.

A major trend in electronics has been the emergence of flexible electronics in devices such as solar cells and energy storage. The technology enabling these devices to be flexible and lightweight is organic electronics. However, concerns about the sustainability of producing organic electronics are growing.

Recently, researchers in Sweden tackled the sustainability challenges head-on by developing water-based conductive inks in organic electronics.

Ford says it has a top-secret, high-powered team working to design its future electric vehicles. It’s part of a quest to compete profitably against Tesla and lower cost EV makers from China.

People in the market for an electric luxury vehicle can find plenty of options to choose from. That’s because EV technology, particularly batteries, is expensive so it’s easier for automakers to earn a profit on an Audi, Mercedes or Cadillac because people are used to paying more for those luxury car brands.

Even among mainstream auto brands, like Ford, EVs tend to cost more. Take the Mustang Mach-E, for instance, with prices starting around $45,000.

A new satellite system from Kreios Space only needs air and solar energy for propulsion while improving satellite image resolution 16 fold.