Finnish researchers have installed the world’s first fully working “sand battery” which can store green power for months at a time. Using low-grade sand, the device is charged up with heat made from cheap electricity from solar or wind. The sand stores the heat at around 500C, which can then warm homes in winter when Read more about Finnish ‘Sand battery’ built in Tampere[…]

Researchers from the University of Cambridge have managed to run a computer for six months, using blue-green algae as a power source. A type of cyanobacteria called Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 – commonly known as “blue-green algae,” which produces oxygen through photosynthesis when exposed to sunlight, was sealed in a small container, about the size Read more about A colony of blue-green algae can power a computer for six months[…]

[…] In a recent paper published in Cell Reports Physical Science, they demonstrated how freezing and thawing a molten salt solution creates a rechargeable battery that can store energy cheaply and efficiently for weeks or months at a time. […] Most conventional batteries store energy as chemical reactions waiting to happen. When the battery is Read more about Rechargeable Molten Salt Battery Freezes Energy in Place for Long-Term Battery Storage[…]

In December 2021, 27,591 aircraft took off or landed at Frankfurt airport—890 every day. But this winter, many of them weren’t carrying any passengers at all. Lufthansa, Germany’s national airline, which is based in Frankfurt, has admitted to running 21,000 empty flights this winter, using its own planes and those of its Belgian subsidiary, Brussels Read more about Thousands of Planes Are Flying Empty and No One Can Stop Them[…]

Engineers at the University of Illinois Chicago have built a cost-effective artificial leaf that can capture carbon dioxide at rates 100 times better than current systems. Unlike other carbon capture systems, which work in labs with pure carbon dioxide from pressurized tanks, this artificial leaf works in the real world. It captures carbon dioxide from Read more about Stackable artificial leaf uses less power than lightbulb to capture 100 times more carbon than other systems[…]

[…] the pilot system demonstrates an important possible source of carbon-neutral fuel for industries struggling to decarbonise, such as aviation and shipping, which currently contribute around 8 per cent of total carbon dioxide emissions attributed to human activity. But, producing 32 millilitres of methanol in a typical seven-hour-day run, the current proof of concept will Read more about Swiss lab’s rooftop demo makes fuel from sunlight and air[…]

electricityMap is a live visualization of where your electricity comes from and how much CO2 was emitted to produce it. Source: electricityMap | Live CO₂ emissions of electricity consumption

[…] while the EV battery recycling industry is starting to take off, getting carmakers to use recycled materials remains a hard sell. “In general, people’s impression is that recycled material is not as good as virgin material,” says Yan Wang, a professor of mechanical engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. “Battery companies still hesitate to use Read more about Study: Recycled Lithium Batteries as Good as Newly Mined[…]

To make the transition to low-carbon energy sources and address climate change we need open data on the global energy system. High-quality data already exists; it is published by the International Energy Agency. But despite being an international institution that is largely publicly funded, most IEA data is locked behind paywalls. This makes it unusable Read more about The International Energy Agency publishes the detailed, global energy data we all need, but its funders force it behind paywalls. Let’s ask them to change it.[…]

In late September, Carbios, a French startup, opened a demonstration plant in central France to test this idea. The facility will use enzymes to recycle PET, one of the most common single-use plastics and the material used to make most beverage bottles. […] Carbios’s new reactor measures 20 cubic meters—around the size of a cargo Read more about A French company is using enzymes to recycle one of the most common single-use plastics – PET[…]

Tesla’s Big Battery, located in southern Australia, just got hit with a federal lawsuit for failing to provide the crucial grid support it once promised it could. Built by Tesla in 2017, the 150-megawatt battery supplies 189 megawatt-hours of storage and was designed to support the grid when it becomes overloaded. Now operated by French Read more about A Tesla Big Battery Is Getting Sued Over Power Grid Failures In Australia for not providing promised backup[…]

Wooden floors infused with silicon and metal ions can generate enough electrical power from human footsteps to light LED bulbs. Researchers hope that they could provide a green energy source for homes. Some materials can generate an electrical charge when they come into contact with another such material and are then separated, due to a Read more about Wooden floors laced with silicon generate electricity from footsteps[…]

By combining miniaturized electronics with some origami-inspired fabrication, scientists in Germany have developed what they say is the smallest microsupercapacitor in existence. Smaller than a speck of a dust but with a similar voltage to a AAA battery, the groundbreaking energy storage device is not only safe for use in the human body, but actually Read more about Dust-sized supercapacitor packs the same voltage as a AAA battery[…]

Earlier this week, a company Orbital Marine Power successfully launched its latest tidal turbine. Once it’s connected to the European Marine Energy Centre off the Orkney Islands, the two megawatt O2 will have the capacity to generate enough energy to power 2,000 UK households annually, making it one of the world’s most powerful tidal turbines Read more about The world’s ‘most powerful’ tidal turbine is nearly ready to power on | Engadget[…]

There is way too much plastic in the world—and we’re making more every day, even as we struggle to find a way to get rid of the old stuff. A new study poses an interesting solution: Melting plastic bags and bottles back into the oil it was originally made from. The new research, published Wednesday Read more about New Technique Could Turn Plastic Back Into Oil[…]

Nissan has found a second-life for old LEAF batteries inside mobile machines that help workers at Nissan factories worldwide. The old batteries are being used in automated guided vehicles or AGVs used for various tasks inside the manufacturing facilities, including delivering parts to workers on the assembly line. AGVs are used as robotic mail carriers Read more about Nissan finds use for old LEAF batteries in their factory. Still no way to recycle them.[…]

Researchers at ETH Zurich and Empa have chemically modified wood and made it more compressible, turning it into a mini-​generator. When compressed, it generates an electrical voltage. Such wood could serve as a biosensor or as a building material that harvests energy. Ingo Burgert and his team at public research university ETH Zurich and Swiss Read more about These researchers in Switzerland can get electricity by compressing wood[…]

Nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a “wearable microgrid” that harvests and stores energy from the human body to power small electronics. It consists of three main parts: sweat-powered biofuel cells, motion-powered devices called triboelectric generators, and energy-storing supercapacitors. All parts are flexible, washable and can be screen printed onto clothing. Read more about ‘Wearable microgrid’ uses the human body to sustainably power small gadgets using sweat and motion[…]

two companies are selling diamonds made in a laboratory from CO2 that once circled the Earth. […] Each carat of a diamond removes 20 tons of CO2. That, he said, is more invisible gas than the average person produces in a year. With the purchase of a 2-carat diamond, Shearman pointed out, “you’re essentially offsetting Read more about Two Companies are Turning Airborne CO2 into Diamonds[…]

[…] How exactly do those panels work? Unlike power from a wind turbine or even a power plant, solar panels don’t seem to have any moving parts — so how exactly is that energy being produced? The simple answer is that solar panels are made up of silicon and conductive metals, which form an electric Read more about How Solar Panels Work[…]

In a recent interview with Evo magazine, Porsche VP of Motorsport and GT cars, Dr. Frank Walliser, says that synthetic fuels, also called eFuels, can reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of existing ICE cars by as much as 85 percent. And, he says, when you account for the wheel-to-well impact of manufacturing the EV, it’s Read more about Porsche says synthetic fuel can be as clean as EVs[…]

We’ve been promised hydrogen-powered engines for some time now. One downside though is the need for hydrogen vehicles to have heavy high-pressure tanks. While a 700 bar tank and the accompanying fuel cell is acceptable for a city bus or a truck, it becomes problematic with smaller vehicles, especially ones such as scooters or even Read more about The Future Of Hydrogen Power… Is Paste?[…]

A material that can be used in technologies such as solar power has been found to self-heal, a new study shows.The findings—from the University of York—raise the prospect that it may be possible to engineer high-performance self-healing materials which could reduce costs and improve scalability, researchers say.The substance, called antimony selenide (Sb2Se3), is a solar Read more about Solar material can ‘self-heal’ imperfections, new research shows[…]

Elon Musk on Thursday took to Twitter to promise a $100 million prize for development of the “best” technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions. Capturing planet-warming emissions is becoming a critical part of many plans to keep climate change in check, but very little progress has been made on the technology to date, with efforts Read more about Elon Musk to offer $100 million prize for ‘best’ carbon capture tech[…]