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Archive for the ‘energy’ category: Page 167

Dec 7, 2021

Rocket fuel for Mars could come from an organism in our gut

Posted by in categories: energy, space

There are many types of rocket fuel. Some are more useful on a particular planet. And some can be created by bacteria.

Dec 7, 2021

A New Hydrogen Plane Can Fly Halfway Around the World Without Refueling

Posted by in categories: business, economics, energy, government, transportation

The FlyZero aircraft is one of a range of aircraft being designed by the FlyZero program. The new concept will store hydrogen in cryogenic fuel tanks, keeping them at a temperature of minus 250°Celsius (minus 418°Fahrenheit). Two cryogenic tanks will be placed at the rear of the plane, while two smaller “cheek” tanks will be placed near the front of the plane to keep the aircraft balanced. The mid-size aircraft will have a wingspan of 54 meters, each of which will have a turbofan engine attached.

“These designs could define the future of aerospace and aviation,” said U.K. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng in the ATI’s statement. “By working with industry, we are showing that truly carbon-free flight could be possible, with hydrogen a frontrunner to replace conventional fossil fuels.”

Continue reading “A New Hydrogen Plane Can Fly Halfway Around the World Without Refueling” »

Dec 6, 2021

Alinta proposes 1,000MW offshore wind farm to help power Portland smelter

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability

Alinta unveils plans to build 1,000MW offshore wind farm near Portland to help deliver 100 per cent renewable energy supply to local aluminium smelter.


Alinta Energy is proposing a 1,000MW wind farm off the coast of Portland in Victoria that could help power the Portland aluminium smelter with up to 100 per cent renewables, and inject green energy into the country’s main grid.

The $4 billion Spinifex offshore wind project, first flagged by Alinta CEO Jeff Dimery in an interview on RenewEconomy’s weekly Energy Insiders podcast in October, would be sited about 10km off the coast of Portland.

Continue reading “Alinta proposes 1,000MW offshore wind farm to help power Portland smelter” »

Dec 6, 2021

Meet Soar, a New Liquid Hydrogen-Fueled eVTOL With a Range of up to 800 Miles

Posted by in category: energy

Soar’s primary power will be battery-powered electric engines, but it will also burn liquid-hydrogen fuel to extend its range to three hours.

Dec 4, 2021

A Plane Powered by Cooking Oil Just Flew Across the US

Posted by in category: energy

The flight’s fuel was composed of cooking oil and fat mixed with synthetic compounds made from the sugar in plants.

Dec 3, 2021

Gaia EDR3 proper motions of Milky Way dwarfs. II: Velocities, Total Energy and Angular Momentum

Posted by in categories: energy, satellites

Abstract: Here we show that precise Gaia EDR3 proper motions have provided robust estimates of 3D velocities, angular momentum and total energy for 40 Milky Way dwarfs. The results are statistically robust and are independent of the Milky Way mass profile. Dwarfs do not behave like long-lived satellites of the Milky Way because of their excessively large velocities, angular momenta, and total energies. Comparing them to other MW halo population, we find that many are at first passage, $\le$2 Gyr ago, i.e., more recently than the passage of Sagittarius, $\sim$4–5 Gyr ago. We suggest that this is in agreement with the stellar populations of all dwarfs, for which we find that a small fraction of young stars cannot be excluded. We also find that dwarf radial velocities contribute too little to their kinetic energy when compared to satellite systems with motions only regulated by gravity, and some other mechanism must be at work such as ram pressure. The latter may have preferentially reduced radial velocities when dwarf progenitors entered the halo until they lost their gas. It could also explain why most dwarfs lie near their pericenter. We also discover a novel large scale structure perpendicular to the Milky Way disk, which is made by 20% of dwarfs orbiting or counter orbiting with the Sagittarius dwarf.

From: Francois Hammer [view email].

Dec 3, 2021

60 YEARS AND COUNTING: Radioisotope power systems have helped power dozens of NASA research missions by converting the natural decay of plutonium-238 into electrical power

Posted by in category: energy

Some of these systems are still in operation today more than 40 years after they launched!

Dec 3, 2021

ESA’s riskiest flyby

Posted by in categories: energy, space

The chance that ESA’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft will encounter space debris during its upcoming Earth flyby is very, very low. However, the risk is not zero and is greater than any other flyby ESA has performed. That there is this risk at all highlights the mess we’ve made of space—and why we need to take action to clean up after ourselves.

On 27 November, after a year and eight months flying through the inner Solar System, Solar Orbiter will swing by home to ‘drop off’ some extra energy. This will line the spacecraft up for its next six flybys of Venus. These final gravity assists will hone and tilt Solar Orbiter’s , enabling the heat-protected probe to capture the first-ever direct images of our star’s poles, and much more.

Dec 2, 2021

Tesla’s New Solar Power Tiles Can Generate 22% More Clean Energy

Posted by in categories: business, energy, sustainability, transportation

In yet another bid to push forward its solar business, electric vehicle maker Tesla has launched a new solar roof tile that has a higher power output while retaining the dimensions of the old one.

Tesla entered the clean energy business when it acquired SolarCity for $2.6 billion in 2016. It makes switching to solar energy sleeker by replacing regular roof tiles with energy-generating solar roof tiles, instead of having to install bulky solar panels. Tesla offers a 25-year warranty on the tiles and takes end-to-end responsibility for installing the new solar roof.

However, the company has so far struggled to make its product mainstream due to fluctuations in pricing, Electrek reported. With variations across house designs, Tesla has found it difficult to create a streamlined product and even introduced a roof-complexity factor, earlier this year to determine cost estimates.

Dec 2, 2021

Electrify America has now deployed Tesla Powerpacks at over 140 charging stations

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability, transportation

Electrify America announced that it has now deployed over 30 MW of battery capacity using Tesla Powerpacks at over 140 charging stations.

In 2019, Tesla and Electrify America, VW’s electric vehicle charging network, announced that they reached a deal for the former to deploy Powerpacks at more than 100 charging stations operated by the latter.

We have been tracking their progress in deploying those battery systems since it appears to be the largest deployment of energy storage at electric vehicle charging stations.