Lifeboat Foundation

“Electric water heaters offer a cheap way to store large amounts of energy, in the form of hot water. A heater with a 300-litre tank can store about as much energy as a second-generation Tesla Powerwall – at a fraction of the cost.”

Australia’s energy transition is well under way. Some 3 million households have rooftop solar and sales of medium-sized electric cars are surging. But as we work towards fully electric households powered by renewable energy, have we overlooked a key enabling technology, the humble electric water heater?

About half of Australian households use electric water heaters, while the rest use gas. So what’s so great about electric water heaters?

Less than a week after announcing a Power Day 2023 event to unveil new battery technologies, ZEEKR has officially introduced its own lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells developed in-house. While LFP batteries are generally categorized as less energy-dense, ZEEKR says its cells outperform many competitors.

While many companies have begun decelerating in 2023 as we enter the busy holiday season, ZEEKR has shown no signs of slowing down. In November, the Geely-owned automaker announced a new model called the 7, which made its public debut during the Guangzhou Auto Show. Since then, we’ve seen the company file for a US IPO and have confirmed plans for a new mass-market SUV to compete with the Tesla Model Y.

The ZEEKR 7 sedan will officially launch in China on December 27, followed by deliveries a few days later. Before then, however, ZEEKR promised a live event to debut new technology pertaining to EV batteries developed entirely in-house.

NASA’s Cassini probe has uncovered compelling evidence hinting at the potential existence of life on Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus.

Interestingly, a detailed review of Cassini’s data has revealed that the subsurface ocean hidden beneath the moon’s frozen surface is a rich source of chemical energy.

This disclosure strengthens the case for exploring the possibility of life within the ocean of this frozen celestial body.

Continue reading “Saturn’s icy moon hosts vital life source, key molecule, reveals NASA” »

According to a new study in Nature, China could be facing an impending wind turbine waste problem if it cannot find ways to deal with it.

While China has forged ahead with its renewable energy infrastructure, it must find ways to deal with the waste from older installations, study finds.

The judicious shaping of a tube of plasma by one laser enhances the properties of electron bunches accelerated by another.

The idea was first proposed in 1979: use a laser to separate a plasma’s electrons from its ions, thereby creating an electric field that accelerates electrons to giga-electron-volt (GeV) energies over a few micrometers. Turning that idea into useful devices requires bestowing electrons with not just high energy but also with a tight spread in energy. Now a team led by Simon Hooker of Oxford University, UK, has demonstrated a plasma-preparation technique that yields 1.2 GeV electrons with an energy spread of 4.5% [1]. Although that performance falls short of conventional accelerators, further improvement is possible.

In general, the more intense the laser and the denser the plasma, the greater the electron acceleration. But if the laser–plasma interaction is pushed up into the nonlinear regime, the acceleration becomes unruly. Working at lower intensities and densities requires sustaining the acceleration for longer. It also requires that the electrons in the lowest-density part of the plasma are accelerated first. That way, the exiting electrons form a tight bunch.

Quantum physics, the science of the very small, often challenges our common sense and intuition. But it also offers new possibilities for technological innovations that go beyond the limits of classical physics. One of these possibilities is the quantum battery, which uses quantum phenomena to store, transfer, and deliver energy more effectively than conventional batteries.

Quantum batteries

Quantum batteriesQuantum batteries are not yet ready for commercial use. Still, they can revolutionize fields that require low-power and portable energy sources, such as smart devices, sensors, and even electric vehicles.

Enceladus’ ice plumes may hold the building blocks of life. Researchers have shown unambiguous laboratory evidence that amino acids transported in the ice plumes of Saturn’s moon, Eceladus, can survive impact speeds of up to 4.2 km/s, supporting their detection during sampling by spacecraft.

As astrophysics technology and research continue to advance, one question persists: is there life elsewhere in the universe? The Milky Way galaxy alone has hundreds of billions of celestial bodies, but scientists often look for three crucial elements in their ongoing search: water, energy and organic material. Evidence indicates that Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus is an ‘ocean world’ that contains all three, making it a prime target in the search for life.

During its 20-year mission, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft discovered that ice plumes spew from Enceladus’ surface at approximately 800 miles per hour (400 m/s). These plumes provide an excellent opportunity to collect samples and study the composition of Enceladus’ oceans and potential habitability.

In an indication of growing interest in the holy grail of geothermal energy—tapping into the superhot rock miles below our feet—18 papers on the topic were presented over multiple sessions at a recent major conference on the overall geothermal industry.

“By driving down costs and making large-scale geothermal power available nearly anywhere, Superhot Rock energy has the potential to disrupt and revolutionize the energy system.” That’s according to a description of the sessions on Technological, Engineering, and Geological Advances in Superhot Geothermal presented at the 2023 Geothermal Rising Conference held over four days in October.

“For me, a pretty big highlight of Geothermal Rising 2023 was the increased focus on superhot rock geothermal through multiple presentations from around the world,” says Matt Houde, co-founder and project manager at Quaise Energy.

The intrusions are part of a broader effort to develop ways to sow chaos or snarl logistics in the event of a U.S.-China conflict in the Pacific, officials say.

While both China and the United States of America have accused each other of conducting cyberattacks for years now, recently, China’s People’s Liberation Army allegedly involved in a series of cyber intrusions referred to as “Volt Typhoon.”

The Washington Post reported earlier this morning that these attacks targeted critical American infrastructure, including water utility systems in Hawaii, major ports on the West Coast, and an oil and gas pipeline, according to experts.

Continue reading “Chinese hackers allegedly target US infrastructure as ‘Volt Typhoon’” »