Photo of the week: Did Elon Musk just start a new revolution?

Last Thursday, Elon Musk presented the heavily-anticipated Powerwall – Tesla’s scalable battery which Musk believes could revolutionize the way we consume, produce and store energy. The largest barriers today for solar and wind power are the well-known villains: sun doesn’t shine 24 hours a day, nor does the wind blow whenever we would like it to. For years, scientists and engineers are searching furiously for a solution to store renewable energy to match electricity production from renewable sources with electricity demand at every given moment. Batteries, hydrogen storage, compressed air storage… many scenarios are being investigated at the moment and no-one found a decent cost-effective solution, yet. And then came Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and other ambitious companies. No surprise his keynote last Thursday has been followed with enormous interest.

The Powerwall is a lithium-ion battery starting from 7kWh at 3000$, but is infinitely scalable which means it both targets families and companies. Musk believes Powerwall makes it possible to go off-grid, which means families or companies become fully self-sufficient via a combination of renewable energy generation and storage with one or more Powerwall devices. But what is the real innovation behind the Powerwall? That’s a bit unclear up till now. Besides the fact the battery is cheap thanks to the Gigafactory that will build them, it is still good’ol lithium-ion technology. And going off-grid is easier said than done. Keeping a local grid at the right frequency (50Hz in Europe, 60Hz in US) is not easy. It is vital though for correct operation of computers, domestic electronics as well as industrial machines. For now, it seems people are willing to give it a try: 5 days after Musk’s keynote he announced they reached a total of 38 000 pre-orders.

Elon Musk presenting Tesla's Powerwall

Elon Musk presenting Tesla’s Powerwall

 

Sources

Tesla’s Powerwall official website

The Verge

Watch Musk’s keynote

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Photo of the week: Energy efficiency scorecard

The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, ACEEE, is a non-profit organisation aiming for a more energy efficient (American) economy. They’ve made an international scorecard, a ranking of energy efficiency of 16 large economies including Germany, the UK, China, Mexico, the US etc. Countries can earn a maximum of 100%, by scoring points in 31 metrics across four groups of important energy efficiency aspects: nation-wide energy aspects such as energy production and transmission, buildings, industry and transportation. The top three brings no surprises. On the first place comes Germany, followed by Italy and the European Union as a whole. Surprising result: China comes at the fourth place, while the US only comes only at the 13th place of the 16 economies investigated. But there’s still room for improvement: even Germany was rewarded a mere 62 on a scale of 100.

The energy efficiency scorecard of ACEEE, ranking 16 large economies (map: ACEEE)

The energy efficiency scorecard of ACEEE, ranking 16 large economies (map: ACEEE)

 

Source

ACEEE

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Photo of the week: Earth day celebrates its 45th birthday

45 years ago, US senator Nelson organised what he called a “national teach-in on the environment”. The Americans were polluting as never before, but didn’t bother about the possible results of their emissions. Instead, protests against the war in Vietnam were the order of the day. Nelson believed he could infuse that energy with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution and their country, and believed it would inforce political action. And he succeeded. That 22nd of April 1970, 20 million people took to the streets for a sustainable way of living. In the next years, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) was founded, the Clean Air act, Endangered species act and Clean Water act were passed in congress. Earth Day became a yearly tradition and spread all over the world, fostering action to demand environmental protection. It created a social and political platform that is likely to have contributed to the first United Nations Earth Summit in 1992, often seen as the first global conference on climate policy (read more about in my post about the history of climate change policy). Today Earth day celebrates its 45th birthday and the message is clearer and more urgent than ever. Back in the early days, the science of climate change was not yet fully settled. Nowadays, 98% of climate scientists agree present man-made climate change is threatening the Earth in drastic ways. Action is needed, not only the twenty second of April, but every day from now on.

A Pace College student wearing a gas mask smells a magnolia blossom on Earth Day, April 22, 1970 (photo: AP Photo)

A New York city student wearing a gas mask smells a magnolia blossom on Earth Day, April 22, 1970 (photo: AP Photo)

Source

earthday.org

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Photo of the week: Australia’s dry season has begun

Northern Australia hosts the perfect conditions for wildfires. The wet season makes grasses grow thick and abundant, the dry season turns them in one of the best fuels for a good fire. The dry season normally begins in May, but wildfires have already been reported in Western Australia and Northern Territory, the pillars of smoke captured on photo. The fires are indicated with red marks (click on the photo to enlarge). This could be the beginning of a long and intense wildfire season, since Australia is experiencing an ongoing increase in temperatures and droughts. The photo was taken by NASA’s Aqua satellite which is equipped with six instruments monitoring all kinds of Earth’s water, temperature and energy fluxes.

Pillars of smoke rise from wildfires in Northern Territory and Western Australia (photo: NASA)

Pillars of smoke rise from wildfires in Northern Territory and Western Australia (photo: NASA)

Source

NASA

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Photo of the week: tracing back shipping lanes… with CO2!

When you were asked to point the places with most carbon dioxide in the atmosphere on earth, you probably would think of China, Western Europe and the US coastlines. A mapping of carbon dioxide pollution matches very well with population density indeed. That’s not a big surprise, since mankind is a very large contributor to CO2 emissions. But something you maybe wouldn’t have tought about, is the shipping lanes used by hundreds of cargo ships carrying goods from oil over coal to bananas from one side of the globe to the other. This enormous ships burn what is called bunker oil, a sulfur rich fuel oil. At least 4% of the global greenhouse gas emissions are estimated to be emitted by shipping. Since the amount of goods shipped oversea is still on the rise, it’s definitely worth spending some more time and money improving ships’ efficiency and pollution.

 

A mapping of the carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere reveals cargo ships' routes (map: Kennedy Elliott)

A mapping of the carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere reveals cargo ships’ routes (map: Kennedy Elliott)

Source

WashingtonPost
Wikipedia

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Photo of the week: Dubai fell in love with a new kind of oil

Yes, we all now the United Arab Emirates love oil. Dubai is not different. Or is it? Recently it let fall its eye on another kind of oil: waste cooking oil. This February, Neutral Fuels LLC made a deal with the municipality to deliver 100% bio-fuel for the municipality vehicles. Waste cooking oil is treated to be used in vehicles without any changes to the engines and it will cost no more than conventional diesel. Using biofuels made from waste oil results in a lower carbon footprint of driving the vehicles. For Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, it is one way to reach his own ambitious plans to make Dubai a sustainable city. Yet, it is not the ideal solution. If they want truly sustainable transportation, they better rethink the transportation system drastically instead of feeding their cars with just another type of oil.

Neutral fuels LLC made a deal to replace diesel with its biofuel based on waste oil in the municipality vehicles (photo: automiddleeast.com)

Neutral fuels LLC made a deal to replace diesel with its biofuel based on waste oil in the municipality vehicles (photo: automiddleeast.com)

Source:

BusinessInsider

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