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Archive for the ‘sustainability’ category: Page 8

Feb 16, 2024

Study: EV drivers want gas-station perks at charging stops

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

Vacuums, tire-pressure tools, and car washes aren’t typical at Tesla Supercharger stops or other charging stations, but a survey suggests EV drivers want them.

Feb 16, 2024

The Tesla Designer Who Translates Elon Musk’s Musings Into Reality

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, sustainability, transportation

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk told his top designer he wanted to make an electric pickup that would have good driving dynamics and a covered bed—and “feel like the future.”

It was up to Franz von Holzhausen to decipher what his boss meant.

Feb 16, 2024

You’ve tried plant-based meat, but here come meat-based plants

Posted by in categories: food, sustainability

Researchers in South Korea injected grains of rice with cow muscle and fat cells to create something being called beef rice. This pink-colored substance could offer a cheaper and more sustainable protein source than standalone meat.

Feb 16, 2024

Tesla is now accounting for ‘battery age’ in its range calculation

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

Tesla is now starting to account for “battery age” in its estimated range calculation for its electric vehicles.

I have long been advocating for prioritizing accurate range prediction over a longer range in curbing range anxiety.

Don’t get me wrong, a longer range can be useful, but if you know what where you are going, the main thing is that you know you can get there and your range doesn’t start dropping faster than anticipated.

Feb 16, 2024

Unleashing the Power: BatMan Project Revolutionizes Battery Manufacturing

Posted by in categories: computing, sustainability, transportation

Gotham City’s Dark Knight boasts an impressive collection of technological marvels, but the superhero scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have cutting-edge capabilities of their own.

A recent battery manufacturing project—affectionately called BatMan —has developed a novel laser patterning process to alter the microstructure of battery electrode materials. Funded by DOE’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office, this project brings together expert minds from NREL, Clarios, Amplitude Laser Group, and Liminal Insights. This revolutionized manufacturing process could unlock significant improvements to electrified transportation, leading the charge toward a brighter and more sustainable future.

“BatMan builds on NREL’s expertise using laser ablation, advanced computational models, and materials characterization to address key challenges in battery manufacturing,” said Bertrand Tremolet de Villers, project co-lead and senior scientist in NREL’s Thin Film and Manufacturing Sciences group. “This new, high-throughput laser patterning process—demonstrated at scale with state-of-the-art roll-to-roll manufacturing techniques—uses laser pulses to quickly and precisely modify and optimize electrode structures, offering a massive leap in battery capabilities with minimal added manufacturing cost.”

Feb 15, 2024

Battery Breakthrough Could Allow Electric Cars To Go 1,000 km on Single Charge

Posted by in categories: nanotechnology, particle physics, robotics/AI, sustainability, transportation

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.

Feb 15, 2024

Cotton-picking electric robot could boost farm output by up to 20%

Posted by in categories: food, robotics/AI, sustainability

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

Feb 14, 2024

Tesla launches next-generation Powerwall 3 orders on its website

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, sustainability, transportation

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.

Feb 14, 2024

Study: A New Force of Nature Is Reshaping the Planet

Posted by in categories: biological, evolution, food, sustainability

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.

Feb 14, 2024

The World’s Biggest Tesla Supercharger Will Have Over 160 Stalls

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

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

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