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Archive for the ‘energy’ category: Page 185

Jul 6, 2021

Bitcoin power plant is turning a 12,000-year-old glacial lake into a hot tub

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, energy

The fossil fuel power plant that a private equity firm revived to mine bitcoin is at it again. Not content to just pollute the atmosphere in pursuit of a volatile crypto asset with little real-world utility, this experiment in free marketeering is also dumping tens of millions of gallons of hot water into glacial Seneca Lake in upstate New York.

“The lake is so warm you feel like you’re in a hot tub,” Abi Buddington, who lives near the Greenidge power plant, told NBC News.

Jul 5, 2021

The observation of 1D Coulomb drag between adjacent QSH edges separated by an air gap

Posted by in categories: energy, quantum physics

Two important factors limiting Moore’s Law are power consumption and Coulomb interactions are interactions between electric charges that follow Coloumb’s law, an electrodynamics theory.

These interactions can be a major challenge for the development of nanoelectronic circuits. Quantum spin Hall (QSH) insulators are particularly promising materials for the development of low-power electronics, yet so far the impact of Coulomb interactions on nanocircuits made by these materials have only been examined theoretically, rather than experimentally.

Researchers at Nanjing University and Peking University have recently observed one-dimensional (1D) Coulomb drag between adjacent QSH edges separated by an air gap. Their paper, published in Nature Electronics, highlights the potential of QSH effects for suppressing the adverse effects of Coulomb interactions on the performance of nanocircuits.

Jul 3, 2021

Canada Day: Discovery of more unmarked graves fuel calls to cancel holiday

Posted by in category: energy

The remains of 182 people in unmarked Indigenous graves were found on the eve of Canada Day.

Jun 30, 2021

Flying car completes test flight between airports

Posted by in categories: energy, transportation

The vehicle runs on regular fuel and can travel up to 1000km while airborne, its creator says.

Jun 29, 2021

Wow! NASA photographer spots space station crossing the sun during spacewalk (video)

Posted by in categories: energy, space

The mosaic image is a composition of seven subsequent frames taken from Nellysford, Virginia, as the space station traversed the face of the sun at the speed of roughly 5 miles per second, which is about 18000 mph (29000 kph), according to a NASA photo description.

The six-hour and 45-minute spacewalk was the third for Pesquet and Kimbrough in less than two weeks as they completed work on augmenting the space station’s power systems. The iROSA panel deployed on Friday was the second of six new panels to be installed at the station.

Friday’s extravehicular activity (EVA) positioned the second iROSA opposite the first on the far left, or port side of the space station’s backbone truss. Now both the 2B and 4B power channels on the port 6 (P6) truss have the new arrays deployed.

Jun 29, 2021

Railroads To Pour Cold Renewable Energy Water On Koch Industries

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

The US power grid needs all of support it can get. Sad that some would stand in the way of progress.


There is no love lost between the notorious Koch brothers and the nation’s railroad industry, and the relationship is about to get a lot unlovelier. A massive new, first-of-its-kind renewable energy transmission line is taking shape in the Midwest, which will cut into the Koch family’s fossil energy business. It has a good chance of succeeding where others have stalled, because it will bury the cables under existing rights-of-way using railroad rights-of-way and avoid stirring up the kind of opposition faced by conventional above-ground lines.

The Koch brothers and their family-owned company, Koch Industries, have earned a reputation for attempting to throttle the nation’s renewable energy sector. That makes sense, considering that the diversified, multinational firm owns thousands of miles of oil, gas, and chemical pipelines criss-crossing the US (and sometimes breaking down) in addition to other major operations that depend on rail and highway infrastructure.

Continue reading “Railroads To Pour Cold Renewable Energy Water On Koch Industries” »

Jun 28, 2021

China turns on world’s second-biggest hydropower dam

Posted by in categories: energy, government

Plans call for the 289-meter-tall (954-foot-tall) Baihetan Dam to have 16 generating units with a capacity of 1 million kilowatts each. That will make it second in size after the Three Gorges Dam, opened in 2003 on the Yangtze, with 22.5 million kilowatts of generating capacity.


BEIJING (AP) — The first two generating units of the world’s second-biggest hydroelectric dam were officially turned on Monday in southwestern China, the government announced.

The Baihetan Dam on the Jinsha River, a tributary of the Yangtze, is part of Chinese efforts to curb surging fossil fuel demand by building more hydropower capacity at a time when dams have fallen out of favor in other countries due to environmental complaints.

Continue reading “China turns on world’s second-biggest hydropower dam” »

Jun 25, 2021

Rare Superconductor Discovered – May Be Critical for the Future of Quantum Computing

Posted by in categories: energy, quantum physics, supercomputing

Research led by Kent and the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory has resulted in the discovery of a new rare topological superconductor, LaPt3P. This discovery may be of huge importance to the future operations of quantum computers.

Superconductors are vital materials able to conduct electricity without any resistance when cooled below a certain temperature, making them highly desirable in a society needing to reduce its energy consumption.

They manifest quantum properties on the scale of everyday objects, making them highly attractive candidates for building computers that use quantum physics to store data and perform computing operations, and can vastly outperform even the best supercomputers in certain tasks. As a result, there is an increasing demand from leading tech companies like Google, IBM and Microsoft to make quantum computers on an industrial scale using superconductors.

Jun 24, 2021

Is Mycelium Fungus the Plastic of the Future?

Posted by in categories: energy, futurism

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Is Fungus the Plastic of the Future? Use the code “Undecided” to get CuriosityStream for less than $15 a year! https://curiositystream.com/Undecided. Plastic changed the course of manufacturing forever, but came at a cost. Mycelium technology might be the solution and the next big boom… a plastic-like replacement with so many uses and new opportunities for products, companies, and profits. Let’s explore mycelium technology and how it can help us achieve a more renewable and cleaner future.

Continue reading “Is Mycelium Fungus the Plastic of the Future?” »

Jun 23, 2021

Ultraviolet LEDs prove effective in eliminating coronavirus from surfaces and, potentially, air and water

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, energy

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As COVID-19 continues to ravage global populations, the world is singularly focused on finding ways to battle the novel coronavirus. That includes the UC Santa Barbara’s Solid State Lighting & Energy Electronics Center (SSLEEC) and member companies. Researchers there are developing ultraviolet LEDs that have the ability to decontaminate surfaces — and potentially air and water — that have come in contact with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

“One major application is in medical situations — the disinfection of personal protective equipment, surfaces, floors, within the HVAC systems, et cetera,” said materials doctoral researcher Christian Zollner, whose work centers on advancing deep ultraviolet light LED technology for sanitation and purification purposes. He added that a small market already exists for UV-C disinfection products in medical contexts.

Indeed, much attention of late has turned to the power of ultraviolet light to inactivate the novel coronavirus. As a technology, ultraviolet light disinfection has been around for a while. And while practical, large-scale efficacy against the spread of SARS-CoV-2 has yet to be shown. UV light shows a lot of promise: SSLEEC member company Seoul Semiconductor in early April reported a “99.9% sterilization of coronavirus (COVID-19) in 30 seconds” with their UV LED products. Their technology currently is being adopted for automotive use, in UV LED lamps that sterilize the interior of unoccupied vehicles.