Sustainable Technology

Solar power access looking a lot brighter in California

An important part of all the talk around renewable energy is how we can make it accessible to everyone, and not just the fortunate few who prefer Teslas with their Dom Perignon. But in California, they’re doing more than just talking about it – they’re making it happen on a larger scale than anywhere else in the country.

On Thursday, Gov. Jerry Brown signed bill AB 693, which designates $100 million to installing solar power equipment in low-income communities over the next 10 years. Thanks to the bill, 215,000 multifamily affordable housing units will have solar panels installed. Low-income families who use solar power will also be eligible to get credit for lower utility costs.

In a press release, Strela Cervas, the co-director of California Environmental Justice Alliance, stated:

While low-­income communities and communities of color have long been locked out of the economic and environmental benefits of renewable energy, AB 693 will bridge this green divide. It will infuse low-­income communities with health and economic benefits by lowering utility bills and creating clean energy in some of the communities that have been most impacted by pollution.

AB 693 is one of three bills in the environmental justice package signed this week by Brown. Another adds two representatives to California’s Air Resources Board from communities overburdened by pollution and environmental degradation, and the third details a policy that would bring income from penalty fines directly to the same such communities.

Despite that whole massive drought and being on fire thing, the Golden State is looking pret-ty good this week. We’re a little jealous over here in New York – and California already had the far superior unofficial state anthem, so this is just getting unfair.

Chicago power company aims for 1 million smart thermostats by 2020

I’ve written before about my experiences with a Nest learning thermostat, seeing a 22% reduction in my gas bill one month-even though the Nest replaced a programmable (and programmed!) thermostat.

What I’ve often thought since installing the Nest, however, is how many other homes in my neighborhood could do with one. Given that most of our neighborhood was built out in the 40s and 50s, the homes are incredibly leaky and often hard to weatherize effectively. So simply reducing the amount of time that they are heated or cooled would be a relatively simple (and cheap) way of cutting down on bills.

Heck, after several whiskeys I even managed to convince Lloyd (who has traditionally been skeptical of smart home hype), that smart thermostats are a sensible investment in older, more poorly insulated homes.

Now we’ll get to test the impact of smart thermostats out on a grander scale. As reported by the Washington Post, ComEd-the largest power company in Illinois with over 3.8 million customers-is planning a major smart thermostat push, offering heavy $120 rebates on Nest and Ecobee thermostats that will almost halve the price and should mean payback times of just a year or so for many homeowners. The ultimate plan, says ComEd (and several gas utilities it is partnering with) is to install 1 million units by 2020.

Obviously, a roll out of this magnitude could have a significant impact on power demand among ComEd’s customer base. Some initial independent research commissioned by Nest suggests on average, homeowners can save 10 to 12 percent on heating bills and 15 percent on cooling, even compared to traditional programmable thermostats. (My experience would seem to validate this claim.) And while proponents of the Chicago scheme are claiming it will save 709,000 metric tons of CO2 each year, it would be a mistake to think of this purely in terms of reducing overall energy demand. It’s also about managing when that demand happens.

In a fascinating interview with UK-based Business Green (behind a paywall), Nest’s head of energy Ben Bixby suggested that for Nest this is as much about helping utilities to responsively manage demand from customers, adjusting thermostats (and the increasing number of power hungry devices, like electric car chargers, fridges and washing machines, which are designed to communicate with those thermostats) when demand is high-reducing the need for expensive and often polluting peaker power plants. Here’s how Bixby it to Business Green:

“This is a trend that is only really beginning now, but with the decreased costs of adding connectivity, you’ll see an ever-larger portion of the home, slowly, piecemeal, becoming networked.”

Let’s just hope that this smart home push is accompanied by an equal effort to do the simple things right too. From insulation to caulking, there’s no reason that “smart” and “dumb” home technologies can’t coexist.

 

Electric car owners wage war over charging spots

There’s a new face of road rage. She composts her coffee grounds, never forgets her reusable grocery bags, and turns into the Hulk over inconsiderate parking spot use. Meet the electric vehicle driver.

The New York Times reports that a shortage of charging stations is leading to bad blood between some EV drivers. From the Times:

Unlike gas stations, charging stations are not yet in great supply, and that has led to sharp-elbowed competition. Electric-vehicle owners are unplugging one another’s cars, trading insults, and creating black markets and side deals to trade spots in corporate parking lots. The too-few-outlets problem is a familiar one in crowded cafes and airports, where people want to charge their phones or laptops. But the need can be more acute with cars – will their owners have enough juice to make it home? – and manners often go out the window.

You can see why there would be problems. The limited range of electric vehicles – usually around 80 miles – means that drivers often have to recharge using public stations. While these stations are cheap or even free to use, there just aren’t that many of them. There is currently one charger for every 10 EVs, according to the Times, and with the vehicles taking anywhere from 30 minutes to four hours to recharge, people get pissy when you hog the pump.

Naturally, there’s a hierarchy among EV drivers, with all-electric cars like Nissan Leafs getting priority at charging stations (at least, according to all-electric car drivers), followed by plug-in hybrids, which can also run on gasoline. At the very bottom are Teslas, which have a range of several hundred miles and, more importantly, you probably can’t afford. From the Times:

Jamie Hull, who drives an electric Fiat, grew apoplectic recently when she discovered herself nearly out of a charge, unable to get home to Palo Alto. She found a charging station, but a Tesla was parked in it and not charging. She ordered a coffee, waited for the driver to return and, when he did, asked why he was taking a spot when he was not charging. She said the man had told her that he was going to run one more errand and walked off.

“I seriously considered keying his car,” she said.

Next time, we hope she does it.

Solar Panels: Cheap, Free, or DIY?

I would first like to give credit to cleantechnica.com and planetsave.com for the following information on how to obtain cheap/free solar panels and guides on how to make your own solar panels!

If you live in the Triangle Area, then it is almost certain that you have seen solar panels at either a construction site or on top of street signs. Most often, these are used for low power LED lights so that new traffic signs are more noticeable and so that everyone knows that there is a lane shift or some other issue ahead. For the city and state to continue using solar panels, however, they need to be efficient and effective. So when the relatively fragile solar panels catches a rock on its front face or if they simply age past their prime efficiency, the state is required to swap out the panels.

This means that otherwise decent panels are hauled off, because it is easier to replace than it is to repair. These panels are the panels we will be using.

*CAUTION* It is often times illegal to stop on the side of the highway to look at these panels, so practice safety and caution.

Step one is to obtain all the contact information you can; names and phone numbers will become extremely important. This allows you to look up the companies who supply the DOT with solar panels.

Step two is to actually visit these places, as you will have a much greater chance of walking out with solar panels if you have a face to face meeting, instead of a phone conversation. You need to find out where the panels currently are and if they sent them to another company. Always offer money for the panels, as they will appreciate it, and chances are they may be more willing to give them away for free, especially since they can no longer use them. Even if you end up paying for panels, you will end up saving several hundreds of dollars, maybe thousands.

Step three is to test them with a multimeter. This way you can determine if they are worth using or repairing.

Step four is determining where to place and/or mount the panels. More guides can be found on cleantechnica.com, however, to keep it simple, they have to generally be facing true south and at a certain angle (45 degrees seems to be best for most situations); your panels don’t have to fit the angles or be facing true south, but they are more accurate they closer you get to these positions.

If you are a DIY person, solar cells can be purchased, and with the good backing and patience, you can make your own panels, which cuts out the middle man. A more in depth guide can be found at planetsave.com.

With all this information, I hope y’all are more empowered to begin moving away from Duke Energy and in to a more autonomous, energy independent life!

Sources

Picture: hacknmod.com

Cheap/Free Solar Panels: cleantechnica.com

DIY Solar: planetsave.com

Invisibility cloak might enhance efficiency of solar cells

A special invisibility cloak (right) guides sunlight past the contacts for current removal to the active surface area of the solar cell. Credit: Martin Schumann, KIT

Success of the energy turnaround will depend decisively on the extended use of renewable energy sources. However, their efficiency partly is much smaller than that of conventional energy sources. The efficiency of commercially available photovoltaic cells, for instance, is about 20%. Scientists of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have now published an unconventional approach to increasing the efficiency of the panels. Optical invisibility cloaks guide sunlight around objects that cast a shadow on the solar panel, such as contacts for current extraction.

Energy efficiency of solar panels has to be improved significantly not only for the energy turnaround, but also for enhancing economic efficiency. Modules that are presently mounted on roofs convert just one fifth of the light into electricity, which means that about 80% of the solar energy are lost. The reasons of these high losses are manifold. Up to one tenth of the surface area of solar cells, for instance, is covered by so-called contact fingers that extract the current generated. At the locations of these contact fingers, light cannot reach the active area of the solar cell and efficiency of the cell decreases.

“Our model experiments have shown that the cloak layer makes the contact fingers nearly completely invisible,” doctoral student Martin Schumann of the KIT Institute of Applied Physics says, who conducted the experiments and simulations. Physicists of KIT around project head Carsten Rockstuhl, together with partners from Aachen, Freiburg, Halle, Jena, and Jülich, modified the optical invisibility cloak designed at KIT for guiding the incident light around the contact fingers of the solar cell.

Normally, invisibility cloak research is aimed at making objects invisible. For this purpose, light is guided around the object to be hidden. This research project did not focus on hiding the contact fingers visually, but on the deflected light that reaches the active surface area of the solar cell thanks to the invisibility cloak and, hence, can be used.

To achieve the cloaking effect, the scientists pursued two approaches. Both are based on applying a polymer coating onto the solar cell. This coating has to possess exactly calculated optical properties, i.e. an index of refraction that depends on the location or a special surface shape. The second concept is particularly promising, as it can potentially be integrated into mass production of solar cells at low costs. The surface of the cloak layer is grooved along the contact fingers. In this way, incident light is refracted away from the contact fingers and finally reaches the active surface area of the solar cell (see Figure).

By means of a model experiment and detailed simulations, the researchers demonstrated that both concepts are suited for hiding the contact fingers. In the next step, it is planned to apply the cloaking layer onto a solar cell in order to determine the efficiency increase. The physicists are optimistic that efficiency will be improved by the cloak under real conditions: “When applying such a coating onto a real solar cell, optical losses via the contact fingers are supposed to be reduced and efficiency is assumed to be increased by up to 10%,” Martin Schumann says.

More information: Martin F. Schumann, Samuel Wiesendanger, Jan Christoph Goldschmidt, Benedikt Bläsi, Karsten Bittkau, Ulrich W. Paetzold, Alexander Sprafke, Ralf B. Wehrspohn, Carsten Rockstuhl, and Martin Wegener, “Cloaked contact grids on solar cells by coordinate transformations: designs and prototypes,” Optica 2, 850-853 (2015) DOI: 10.1364/OPTICA.2.000850

Provided by: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Invisibility cloak might enhance efficiency of solar cells

A special invisibility cloak (right) guides sunlight past the contacts for current removal to the active surface area of the solar cell. Credit: Martin Schumann, KIT

Success of the energy turnaround will depend decisively on the extended use of renewable energy sources. However, their efficiency partly is much smaller than that of conventional energy sources. The efficiency of commercially available photovoltaic cells, for instance, is about 20%. Scientists of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have now published an unconventional approach to increasing the efficiency of the panels. Optical invisibility cloaks guide sunlight around objects that cast a shadow on the solar panel, such as contacts for current extraction.

Energy efficiency of solar panels has to be improved significantly not only for the energy turnaround, but also for enhancing economic efficiency. Modules that are presently mounted on roofs convert just one fifth of the light into electricity, which means that about 80% of the solar energy are lost. The reasons of these high losses are manifold. Up to one tenth of the surface area of solar cells, for instance, is covered by so-called contact fingers that extract the current generated. At the locations of these contact fingers, light cannot reach the active area of the solar cell and efficiency of the cell decreases.

“Our model experiments have shown that the cloak layer makes the contact fingers nearly completely invisible,” doctoral student Martin Schumann of the KIT Institute of Applied Physics says, who conducted the experiments and simulations. Physicists of KIT around project head Carsten Rockstuhl, together with partners from Aachen, Freiburg, Halle, Jena, and Jülich, modified the optical invisibility cloak designed at KIT for guiding the incident light around the contact fingers of the solar cell.

Normally, invisibility cloak research is aimed at making objects invisible. For this purpose, light is guided around the object to be hidden. This research project did not focus on hiding the contact fingers visually, but on the deflected light that reaches the active surface area of the solar cell thanks to the invisibility cloak and, hence, can be used.

To achieve the cloaking effect, the scientists pursued two approaches. Both are based on applying a polymer coating onto the solar cell. This coating has to possess exactly calculated optical properties, i.e. an index of refraction that depends on the location or a special surface shape. The second concept is particularly promising, as it can potentially be integrated into mass production of solar cells at low costs. The surface of the cloak layer is grooved along the contact fingers. In this way, incident light is refracted away from the contact fingers and finally reaches the active surface area of the solar cell (see Figure).

By means of a model experiment and detailed simulations, the researchers demonstrated that both concepts are suited for hiding the contact fingers. In the next step, it is planned to apply the cloaking layer onto a solar cell in order to determine the efficiency increase. The physicists are optimistic that efficiency will be improved by the cloak under real conditions: “When applying such a coating onto a real solar cell, optical losses via the contact fingers are supposed to be reduced and efficiency is assumed to be increased by up to 10%,” Martin Schumann says.

More information: Martin F. Schumann, Samuel Wiesendanger, Jan Christoph Goldschmidt, Benedikt Bläsi, Karsten Bittkau, Ulrich W. Paetzold, Alexander Sprafke, Ralf B. Wehrspohn, Carsten Rockstuhl, and Martin Wegener, “Cloaked contact grids on solar cells by coordinate transformations: designs and prototypes,” Optica 2, 850-853 (2015) DOI: 10.1364/OPTICA.2.000850

Provided by: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Ecological Beachgoers Are Flip-Flopping Out for New Student-Designed Mat

The sweltering heat of summer may have subsided on this side of the equator, but one Lebanese student is keeping cool all year round with his innovative eco-friendly beach mat design that charges phones and chills beverages.

Powered by a five-watt solar panel and a built-in thermal fridge, the Beachill waterproof mattress lets beachgoers keep their drinks cold and their portable devices charged while making a positive impact on the environment.

Its lightweight design makes it easy to carry to and from any location, and a small pocket provides storage space.

Antoine Sayah developed the product for a university project that prompted students to invent something that was both ecological and useful to their day-to-day lives.

RELATED: 7 Prefab Eco-Houses You Can Order Today

“I designed something that could solve the problems I face when I go to the beach: My phone runs out of battery, water warms up in bottles, I can’t relax because mattresses cause back pain,” the 23-year-old student told Reuters. Sayah holds a degree in product design from a school in Italy but is studying architecture at Lebanon’s University Saint-Esprit de Kaslik, where he introduced the design.

Two weeks after posting the product to Instagram, Sayah sold 60 prototypes for $150 per mat and drew attention from people all around the world.

“I got phone calls from Brazil, Toronto, all Europe, especially France, America, from all continents, Africa, and even from Congo,” said the young designer. “When I started developing the project, I thought only people in Lebanon will see it and that will be it.”

Though Sayah and his product team are working to supply the unexpected demand, only 10 Beachills can be produced a day. However, the young innovator is reaching out to investors so he can expand the production to fulfill orders for both local and global customers.

In the meantime, the Beachill has undergone a makeover. On Tuesday, Sayah’s team announced a bigger, customizable version that can be converted into a sofa or bed and features a seven-watt solar charger.

Tesla’s Model X SUV is finally here, and it’s as wonderful as we’d hoped

The world’s first luxury electric SUV is gorgeous. It’s futuristic. And once again, Tesla Motors is redefining the electric vehicle.

The Silicon Valley automaker has teased us for years with the Model X, and tonight it finally gave the world its first look at the production model, then handed six customers the keys.

Those people now own a $130,000 electric vehicle that will go 250 miles on a charge, carry seven people and haul more stuff than anyone but a hoarder might want with him. And although the X shares much of its DNA with the impressive Model S P90D sedan, in many ways it eclipses that phenomenal car. It’s not just the design, which is futuristic without being weird. It’s not just the performance, which is holy shit fast. And it’s not even the dramatic “falcon” doors that lift like the wings of a bird.

It’s how all of those features come together in a vehicle that somehow makes an SUV not just cool, but desirable.

But then, that’s what Tesla does.

“The mission of Tesla is to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport,” CEO Elon Musk said at the car’s reveal, held at the company’s factory in Fremont, California. “It’s important to know that any kind of car can go electric.”

Complications

Reaching this point has been a longer journey than Elon Musk hoped. This is the car that’s supposed to prove his company is more than a one hit wonder, and an interlude before the long-awaited Model III brings a $35,000 EV to the masses in 2017.

Musk unveiled a prototype X in 2012, saying production would begin the following year. He later pushed that to 2014, which came and went with a promise that we’d see the X this year. But then that’s Musk-he often makes big promises with short timelines, which might explain why he told us tonight that if he had it to do over again, he’d have made the X less complicated and therefore easier to engineer and build.

Be that as it may, the car is here, and first impressions suggest it was worth the wait. If you order one today, though, you’ll have to wait a while longer: Tesla estimates it’ll take 8 to 12 months to deliver cars ordered now.

Complexities

The X is, in a word, stunning. Its most amazing features are its mind-bending acceleration, gorgeous design, and amazing rear passenger doors. Tesla calls them “falcon” doors, because they lift like the wings of a bird. And because it sounds cool.

The big drawback of doors that open like wings-the Mercedes-Benz AMG SLS has them, as did the DeLorean-is they require a lot of room to open, so you’re always worried about hitting something. Tesla got around this by double-hinging the doors, and fitting each with an ultrasonic sensor and putting a third on the roof. They scan the area around the vehicle to determine how much space there is, then adjust the “span” and open accordingly.

It sounds complicated as hell, and it is, but it works beautifully. Tesla engineers say the doors can open with as little as 12 inches on each side of the vehicle-then proved it by having us park between two cars. The mirrors on the X were mere inches from those of the car on either side, yet the doors opened flawlessly. Capacitive sensors in the edges of each door sense obstacles within 2 to 4 inches, so you don’t have to worry about a descending door whacking your head or crushing your fingers.

All of this may sound like a frivolous extravagance, and in some ways it is-and you know part of the reason Musk wanted these doors was to prove he could make them-but it’s remarkably clever, even practical.

Unless you regularly haul enough cattle to supply all the leather in this thing, space is not a problem.

Yes, practical. The doors make it easy to get in and out of the vehicle. No gymnastic contortions to get into the (standard) third row seating. No more cantilevering yourself to get your kids into their child seats. No more playing Tetris trying to get your stuff in. Just throw open those doors-actually, push a button and let the doors lift automatically, in 6 to 7 seconds-throw in your groceries and bags and whatnot, and climb in after it.

Speaking of stuff, the X is cavernous. No one could tell us the internal volume-you’d think someone at Tesla would have had that figure-but one engineer said you could carry a sheet of plywood. Another said the X would easily swallow a surfboard. And yet another said you could carry a load of two-by-fours. Suffice it to say, this thing will swallow as much cargo as any normal person would carry. Tesla offers an accessory hitch that holds four bikes or six pairs of skis, and can be attached to the back of the car in just a few seconds.

Should you somehow manage to run out of room, the Model X has Class 3 towing capacity, which in lay terms means it’ll haul 5,000 pounds.

In other words, unless you regularly haul enough cattle to supply all the leather in this thing, space is not a problem.

Cavernous

Another clever trick is the “monopost” design of the second-row seats, which is fancy way of saying that each seat (two if you get the six-passenger model, three if you get the seven), sits on its own chrome-plated post. That makes each seat almost infinitely adjustable fore and aft and provides ample room for everyone’s feet. The designers drew inspiration from high-end office chairs and admit they were, like the doors, a bitch to engineer.

Along with the doors and the seats, Musk is especially proud of the “panoramic” windshield, which extends back over the front seat seats to provide an exceptional view. Tesla claims it is the largest windshield ever installed in a production vehicle-yet, oddly, no one had actually measured the damn thing and so couldn’t say exactly how big it is.

Inside, the X is futuristic without being funky, with acres of white leather, plenty of cubbies and cupholders, and that enormous 17-inch touchscreen in the middle of the dash.

Whatever the number, we can tell you that if you look at the X head-on, it appears to have a glass roof, and riding up front almost like being in a convertible.

Equally impressive is the sound system which is, in a word, glorious. But then, with 560 watts and 17 speakers, how could it not be? Tesla designed the system in-house specifically for the X because it wanted to ensure the system delivered the best sound with the smallest power requirements-essential in an electric vehicle. (General Motors took a similar tack with the Chevrolet Volt, tapping Bose to design a system specifically for the car.) The sound is crisp, clear, and loud-even when standing 15 feet away from the car.

The styling is perhaps best described as a Model S on steroids. It’s a taller, obviously, and, at 5,441 pounds, about 740 pounds heavier than the S. That said, it also looks more than a little like the BMW X6 from the rear three-quarter view-but when it glides by you silently on the freeway, you’ll know it’s a Tesla.

Inside, the X is futuristic without being funky, with acres of white leather, plenty of cubbies and cupholders, and that enormous 17-inch touchscreen in the middle of the dash.

Competition

Although the X is the first electric luxury SUV, it won’t be alone for long. Bentley promises a plug-in hybrid version of its new, ultra-luxe Bentayga SUV in about a year. Rolls-Royce and Lamborghini have hinted at similar plans. Last month, Audi showed off an all-electric crossover concept that’s probably a preview of the 2019 Q6. Aston Martin wants to have one ready in two years.

If you decide to stomp on the accelerator, make damn sure you’ve got plenty of open road ahead of you.

No one at Tesla would say just what performance, handling, and comfort benchmarks they aimed at with the X, but they’re well aware of everyone’s plans and not terribly worried. And the fact they had a Porsche Cayenne and a BMW X5 in the parking lot for comparison suggests they’re quite confident of the Model X’s sporting capabilities.

They have every reason to be.

Let’s start with the acceleration. It’s crazy. Every Model X comes with a 90 kilowatt-hour battery and dual motors, a model known as 90D. Drop another 10 grand and you get the P90D, which is the performance model with its “ludicrous mode.” Yes, Tesla actually calls it that, and it’s fitting. If you decide to stomp on the accelerator, make damn sure you’ve got plenty of open road ahead of you, because things happen very quickly. Sixty mph comes in 3.2 seconds, which is on par with the some of the best sports cars from anyone in Italy, Germany, or Britain. We tried it. That number’s legit.

We didn’t have the room to do a quarter-mile run, but Tesla says the Model X P90D will do it in 11.7 seconds. That put its alongside cars like the BMW M5, Corvette Z06, and Porsche Panamera Turbo. Top speed is limited to 155 mph.

If you find ludicrous mode just a bit too, well, ludicrous, or you don’t want to spend that extra dough, the base model adds about half a second to the acceleration and quarter-mile times. Which is to say, it’s still bloody fast. The Model X 90D starts for $132,000 and goes 257 miles on a charge, the more acceleration-friendly P90D will cost you $142,000 and cover 250 miles.

Under the skin, the Model X is identical to the Model S. Same 90 kilowatt-hour lithium ion battery. Same drive motors (259 horsepower at the front, 503 at the rear). Same software controlling it all. And the vehicles share the same (semi) autonomous capabilities.

The two vehicles both “quick charge” at one of Tesla’s stations in 30 minutes. They are designed to be updated in tandem, so any software updates or performance upgrades will apply to both the S and the X. And they will roll down the same assembly line at Tesla’s sprawling factory in Fremont. The company plans to ramp up production, immediately, but wouldn’t say how many might be built by the end of the year.

Of all the things that, at first glance, make the X so remarkable, the most impressive thing about it is the overall impression it imparts. It’s a practical car-Musk has five young children, and clearly considers the demands of hauling them all when designing vehicles-but it’s not a minivan or station wagon that embarrasses parents and kids alike.

Tesla has made the family car cool.

Could Plastic-Eating Worms Be Enough to Overcome Mounting Waste?

Mealworms munch on Styrofoam, a hopeful sign that solutions to plastics pollution exist. Wei-Min Wu, a senior research engineer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, discovered the larvae can live on polystyrene.

Consider the plastic foam cup. Every year, Americans throw away 2.5 billion of them. And yet, that waste is just a fraction of the 33 million tons of plastic Americans discard every year. Less than 10 percent of that total gets recycled, and the remainder presents challenges ranging from water contamination to animal poisoning.

Enter the mighty mealworm. The tiny worm, which is the larvae form of the darkling beetle, can subsist on a diet of Styrofoam and other forms of polystyrene, according to two companion studies co-authored by Wei-Min Wu, a senior research engineer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford. Microorganisms in the worms’ guts biodegrade the plastic in the process – a surprising and hopeful finding.

“Our findings have opened a new door to solve the global plastic pollution problem,” Wu said.

The papers, published in Environmental Science and Technology, are the first to provide detailed evidence of bacterial degradation of plastic in an animal’s gut. Understanding how bacteria within mealworms carry out this feat could potentially enable new options for safe management of plastic waste.

“There’s a possibility of really important research coming out of bizarre places,” said Craig Criddle, a professor of civil and environmental engineering who supervises plastics research by Wu and others at Stanford. “Sometimes, science surprises us. This is a shock.”

Plastic for dinner

In the lab, 100 mealworms ate between 34 and 39 milligrams of Styrofoam – about the weight of a small pill – per day. The worms converted about half of the Styrofoam into carbon dioxide, as they would with any food source.

Within 24 hours, they excreted the bulk of the remaining plastic as biodegraded fragments that look similar to tiny rabbit droppings. Mealworms fed a steady diet of Styrofoam were as healthy as those eating a normal diet, Wu said, and their waste appeared to be safe to use as soil for crops.

Researchers, including Wu, have shown in earlier research that waxworms, the larvae of Indian mealmoths, have microorganisms in their guts that can biodegrade polyethylene, a plastic used in filmy products such as trash bags. The new research on mealworms is significant, however, because Styrofoam was thought to have been non-biodegradable and more problematic for the environment.

Researchers led by Criddle, a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, are collaborating on ongoing studies with the project leader and papers’ lead author, Jun Yang of Beihang University in China, and other Chinese researchers. Together, they plan to study whether microorganisms within mealworms and other insects can biodegrade plastics such as polypropylene (used in products ranging from textiles to automotive components), microbeads (tiny bits used as exfoliants) and bioplastics (derived from renewable biomass sources such as corn or biogas methane).

As part of a “cradle-to-cradle” approach, the researchers will explore the fate of these materials when consumed by small animals, which are, in turn, consumed by other animals.

Marine diners sought

Another area of research could involve searching for a marine equivalent of the mealworm to digest plastics, Criddle said. Plastic waste is a particular concern in the ocean, where it fouls habitat and kills countless seabirds, fish, turtles and other marine life.

More research is needed, however, to understand conditions favorable to plastic degradation and the enzymes that break down polymers. This, in turn, could help scientists engineer more powerful enzymes for plastic degradation, and guide manufacturers in the design of polymers that do not accumulate in the environment or in food chains.

Criddle’s plastics research was originally inspired by a 2004 project to evaluate the feasibility of biodegradable building materials. That investigation was funded by the Stanford Woods Institute’s Environmental Venture Projects seed grant program. It led to the launch of a company that is developing economically competitive, nontoxic bioplastics.

More information: “Biodegradation and Mineralization of Polystyrene by Plastic-Eating Mealworms. 1. Chemical and Physical Characterization and Isotopic Tests.” Environ. Sci. Technol., Just Accepted Manuscript DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5b02661

“Biodegradation and Mineralization of Polystyrene by Plastic-Eating Mealworms. 2. Role of Gut Microorganisms.” Environ. Sci. Technol., Just Accepted Manuscript DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5b02663

Provided by: Stanford University

15 Year Old Invents Device That Generates Electricity While You Walk

Teenager becomes regional finalist in Google’s 2014 Science Fair with shoe insole that generates electricity

By John Vibes,

True Activist.

15-year-old Angelo Casimiro, from the Philippines, has recently made international news with a new invention that generates electricity in a very new and interesting way. The invention is a shoe insole that harnesses electricity every time that the person wearing the shoe takes a step. Angelo constructed his device using piezoelectric materials, which actually generate an alternating current voltage every time they are squeezed.

According to a blog post made by the teenager, “Piezoelectricity was present ever since mid-18th century. Piezoelectricity is the electric charge that accumulates in certain solid materials (such as crystals, certain ceramics in response to applied mechanical stress.”

Young Angelo has been working hard developing this idea for the past 4 years, since he was 11 years old. Now that he believes he has perfected his invention, he is prepared to share it with the world. He started by entering the project into this year’s Google’s Science Fair, where he has become a regional finalist.

The device can be used to charge cell phones and other electronic devices, which may not sound like a big deal, but it is actually a huge innovation. Imagine never worrying about charging your cell phone ever again when you are out on vacation, at a festival or on a hike. Additionally, Angelo has made the plans for the device open sourced, so others can apply their own ideas to this concept, and possibly be able to improve this idea for wider uses.

Angelo says that while this device is fully operational, it is not yet ready for mass distribution.

6 things you need to know about Tesla’s Model X, launching today

At an event outside its Fremont, California factory later today, Tesla will at long last deliver its first batch of production Model X crossovers to early pre-order customers. This has been a hell of a journey: the vehicle has been kicking around in concept form for practically as long as the Model S sedan has been on the road, and was originally supposed to launch in 2013 – but challenges with design and manufacturing have pushed it way, way out. (Considering that the order waitlist is into next year, that doesn’t seem to have had much effect on demand.)

As with the Model S before it, very early buyers of the Model X are getting a Signature Edition, which is pre-specced with almost every option. (It’s not unusual for automakers to do a run of similar or identical cars when a new model comes out, which lets dealers stock a standard show car and gives the factory some runway to iron out production kinks.) Needless to say, the Signature Editions are sold out, and buyers are paying a premium for the privilege: more than $130,000, which puts this car in the upper echelon of Model S pricing. Full pricing information won’t be revealed until tonight, but considering the more complex mechanisms in the car, it’s almost certain that you’ll be able to spend more on this than you can on a fully loaded S.

So as you get ready for Tesla to unveil a new car – something that only happens once every few years – here are some interesting facts to consider.

A car this big shouldn’t be able to move this quickly

It is, in many ways, just a bigger Model S. The similarities between the S and X go well beyond the strong familial resemblance. Remember the launch of the dual-motor Model S last year, Tesla’s first all-wheel-drive vehicle? That powertrain was already being developed for the Model X, which made it easy for engineers to bolt it onto the sedan, too. The result is one of the quickest sedans in the world – and a car that is far more appropriate for winter climates than the original rear-wheel-drive version.

It will have three proper rows of seating. For families, this is likely to be a big deal. The Model S can be optioned with a sort of vestigial rear-facing seat in the trunk area, but it’s definitely not the sort of thing you’d want to have to use on a regular basis. If you’ve got five or more people in your posse, the X is going to be a more comfortable option than the S could ever be.

It’s still ridiculously (ludicrously?) quick. The X uses a version of the dual-motor powertrain from the Model S, which means it’s able to bend light almost as effectively – it’s only a little slower because it’s a bigger, heavier car. With the Ludicrous Mode option, the Model X will sprint from 0 to 60 mph in an estimated 3.2 seconds. That’s the same as a $151,000 Porsche 911 Turbo. It is liable to terrify your dog, your children, their friends, and whatever else you’re hauling to the Little League game.

It has less range than the Model S, but not way less. According to preliminary EPA numbers, the Performance version only gives up 3 miles of range against its Model S equivalent; the non-Performance version gives up 13 miles. Regardless of configuration, you’re getting at least 250 claimed miles of range with a 90kWh battery pack. Combine that with Superchargers, home charging, and the occasional Level 2 charge around town, and that should be just as livable as the Model S.

It will have the craziest doors of any family car ever put into production (and it’s not even close). One of the Model X’s defining features is its “falcon wing doors,” which allow enormous openings into the second row of seats – convenient if you have to throw a big Ikea box back there, or a child seat. They’re also hinged so they can be opened inside a garage without hitting the walls. They are nuts, and they made it to the production version of the car, which is doubly nuts. This is the kind of feature that typically falls by the wayside as engineers make the transition from concept to reality.

This is the last extremely expensive car Tesla will be launching for a while. Next on Elon Musk’s agenda is the Model 3, a vehicle more important than the S and X combined. Why? It’s easy to forget that both of Tesla’s current models are very, very expensive cars – the overwhelming majority of car owners can only dream of owning something this pricey. The 3 is expected to be a mass-market vehicle that will deliver long, practical range for around $35,000. If Musk can deliver on the promise and make enough of them, they’ll sell far better than the S and X can ever hope to.

The event kicks off at 8PM PT / 11PM ET this evening – including a livestream – and we’ll have all the news for you.

Wyoming Vertical Farm Produces 37,000 Pounds of Greens on the Side of a Parking Garage!

Jackson Hole, Wyoming, may not be a place many people pick out on a map to travel to, let alone even know exists.

The town experiences long, cold, bitter winters, resulting in its produce taking a huge hit because quite simply, residents can’t grow much of anything due to the harsh weather.

In the past, Jackson Hole had to rely on neighboring states and even other countries to import fresh fruits and vegetables, but a new project called Vertical Harvest is hoping it can help feed the town’s residents in a more efficient manner.

Vertical Harvest is a multi-story greenhouse built on the side of a parking garage, a rare vertical farm capable of growing tomatoes, herbs, and microgreens.

How It Works:

Vertical Harvest’s 30 foot by 150 foot plot of land features carousels that keep plants moving the length of the greenhouse, giving them equal time in natural light, and also allowing workers to pick and transfer the crops.

Hydroponics enables the initiative to produce over 37,000 pounds of greens, 4,400 pounds of herbs, and 44,000 pounds of tomatoes!

Best of all, Vertical Harvest uses 90 percent less water and 100 percent fewer pesticides than traditional farming.

Can Battery Technology Overcome the Last Hurdle for Sustainable Energy?

“The worldwide transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy is under way …” according to the Earth Policy Institute’s new book, The Great Transition.

Between 2006 and 2012, global solar photovoltaic’s (PV) annual capacity grew 190 percent, while wind energy’s annual capacity grew 40 percent, reported the International Renewable Energy Agency. The agency projects that by 2030, solar PV capacity will be nine times what it was in 2013; wind power could increase five-fold.

Electric vehicle (EV) sales have risen 128 percent since 2012, though they made up less than 1 percent of total U.S. vehicle sales in 2014. Although today’s most affordable EVs still travel less than 100 miles on a full battery charge (the Tesla Model S 70D, priced starting at $75,000, has a 240-mile range), the plug-in market is projected to grow between 14.7 and 18.6 percent annually through 2024.

The upward trend for renewables is being driven by concerns about climate change and energy security, decreasing solar PV and wind prices, rising retail electricity prices, favorable governmental incentives for renewable energy, the desire for energy self-sufficiency and the declining cost of batteries. Growing EV sales, also benefitting from incentives, are affecting economies of scale in battery manufacturing, helping to drive down prices.

Sun and wind energy are free, but because they are not constant sources of power, renewable energy is considered “variable”-it is affected by location, weather and time of day. Utilities need to deliver reliable and steady energy by balancing supply and demand. While today they can usually handle the fluctuations that solar and wind power present to the grid by adjusting their operations, as the amount of energy supplied by renewables grows, better battery storage is crucial.

Batteries convert electricity into chemical potential energy for storage and back into electrical energy as needed. They can perform different functions at various points along the electric grid. At the site of solar PV or wind turbines, batteries can smooth out the variability of flow and store excess energy when demand is low to release it when demand is high. Currently, fluctuations are handled by drawing power from natural gas, nuclear or coal-fired power plants; but whereas fossil-fuel plants can take many hours to ramp up, batteries respond quickly and when used to replace fossil-fuel power plants, they cut CO2 emissions. Batteries can store output from renewables when it exceeds a local substation’s capacity and release the power when the flow is less or store energy when prices are low so it can be sold back to the grid when prices rise. For households, batteries can store energy for use anytime and provide back-up power in case of blackouts.

Batteries have not been fully integrated into the mainstream power system because of performance and safety issues, regulatory barriers, the resistance of utilities and cost. But researchers around the world are working on developing better and cheaper batteries.

Volkswagen just re-released everyone’s favorite hippy-van…but now it’s electric.

With rumors about the return of the surfers craze, the hippie love machine might just be coming back! The Herbie-like purr of the motor coming down the drive will be replaced by an electric engine that can be charged at home. If you live under solar panels, this will be a move in a very green direction.

Since its launch in the early 1950s, the Volkswagen Westfalia Camper has been an enduring classic, an icon of cross-country adventures and the traveling lifestyle. Production ceased in 2003, but speaking to Autocar at the New York Auto Show earlier this year, board member Dr Heinz-Jakob Neusser revealed that the company is soon to unveil a concept Camper that would revive the classic van as an electric vehicle.

 

As of the posting of this article, the below van was for sale in Florida for $4,000

Neusser revealed that the Camper concept design features a small electric motor to power the front wheels, with battery packs stored under the floor. As for its styling, Volkswagen is being careful to retain the Camper’s iconic looks-Neusser explained to Autocar that it will feature three key design cues “First the wide, solid, D-Pillar, second the boxy design of the center section and, thirdly, the front end must have a very short overhang. The distance from the A-pillar to the front end must be very short.”

VW has teased a couple of different, new Campers in recent years-in 2001 they debuted a Microbus concept, and in 2011, the Bulli. Both provide clues as to what the latest concept may look like, and there’s no certainty that an electric Camper will go into production, but Neusser noted, it could make it onto the market if it has an attractive enough cost base.

Is this too good to be true? Is Neusser teasing us with hopes of an unlikely possibility? Well as many an empty dream has been found at the end of a craigslist search for the old classic, and the costs of used parts and chassis continues to rise off the charts! Unfortunately the new electric model of the hippy-classic is still a concept car, and releasing it to the masses depends largely on manufacturing cost. As Outsideonline points out, “the company has a track record of teasing hippy-bus diehards with promises of re-initiating the VW factory lines with updated versions of the classic vehicle, including the 2001 Retro Microbus and 2011 Bulli. Still, it’s worth noting that neither of these versions hold a candle to the original design.” Rob Hoffman of The Plaid Zebra says ” If Volkswagen does revive the old bus from the dead, we can only keep our fingers crossed that it maintains the original aesthetic, rather than slapping the VW logo on a Yaris and trying to make it cool, like the aforementioned 2011 concept.” See what else he had to say…

Sources and credits to The Plaid Zebra, Autocar, Inhabitat

Now watch as this techie drives his custom electric VW bus

Two Indigenous Solar Engineers Changed Their Village in Chile

Liliana and Luisa Terán, two indigenous women from northern Chile who travelled to India for training in installing solar panels, have not only changed their own future but that of Caspana, their remote village nestled in a stunning valley in the Atacama desert.

“It was hard for people to accept what we learned in India,” Liliana Terán told IPS. “At first they rejected it, because we’re women. But they gradually got excited about, and now they respect us.”

Her cousin, Luisa, said that before they travelled to Asia, there were more than 200 people interested in solar energy in the village. But when they found out that it was Liliana and Luisa who would install and maintain the solar panels and batteries, the list of people plunged to 30.

“In this village there is a council of elders that makes the decisions. It’s a group which I will never belong to,” said Luisa, with a sigh that reflected that her decision to never join them guarantees her freedom.

Luisa, 43, practices sports and is a single mother of an adopted daughter. She has a small farm and is a craftswoman, making replicas of rock paintings. After graduating from secondary school in Calama, the capital of the municipality, 85 km from her village, she took several courses, including a few in pedagogy.

Liliana, 45, is a married mother of four and a grandmother of four. She works on her family farm and cleans the village shelter. She also completed secondary school and has taken courses on tourism because she believes it is an activity complementary to agriculture that will help stanch the exodus of people from the village.

But these soft-spoken indigenous women with skin weathered from the desert sun and a life of sacrifice are in charge of giving Caspana at least part of the energy autonomy that the village needs in order to survive.

Caspana – meaning “children of the hollow” in the Kunza tongue, which disappeared in the late 19th century – is located 3,300 metres above sea level in the El Alto Loa valley. It officially has 400 inhabitants, although only 150 of them are here all week, while the others return on the weekends, Luisa explained.

They belong to the Atacameño people, also known as Atacama, Kunza or Apatama, who today live in northern Chile and northwest Argentina.

“Every year, around 10 families leave Caspana, mainly so their children can study or so that young people can get jobs,” she said.

Up to 2013, the village only had one electric generator that gave each household two and a half hours of power in the evening. When the generator broke down, a frequent occurrence, the village went dark.

Today the generator is only a back-up system for the 127 houses that have an autonomous supply of three hours a day of electricity, thanks to the solar panels installed by the two cousins.

Chile Solar Mamas Barefoot College
The indigenous village of Caspana lies 3,300 metres above sea level in the Atacama desert in northern Chile. The 400 inhabitants depend on small-scale farming for a living, as a stone marker at the entrance to the village proudly declares. Now, thanks to the efforts of two local women, they have electricity in their homes, generated by solar panels, which have now become part of the landscape. Credit: Marianela Jarroud/IPS

Each home has a 12 volt solar panel, a 12 volt battery, a four amp LED lamp, and an eight amp control box.

The equipment was donated in March 2013 by the Italian company Enel Green Power. It was also responsible, along with the National Women’s Service (SERNAM) and the Energy Ministry’s regional office, for the training received by the two women at the Barefoot College in India.

On its website, the Barefoot College describes itself as “a non-governmental organisation that has been providing basic services and solutions to problems in rural communities for more than 40 years, with the objective of making them self-sufficient and sustainable.”

So far, 700 women from 49 countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America – as well as thousands of women from India – have taken the course to become “Barefoot solar engineers”.

They are responsible for the installation, repair and maintenance of solar panels in their villages for a minimum of five years. Another task they assume is to open a rural electronics workshop, where they keep the spare parts they need and make repairs, and which operates as a mini power plant with a potential of 320 watts per hour.

In March 2012 the two cousins travelled to the village of Tilonia in the northwest Indian state of Rajasthan, where the Barefoot College is located.

They did not go alone. Travelling with them were Elena Achú and Elvira Urrelo, who belong to the Quechua indigenous community, and Nicolasa Yufla, an Aymara Indian. They all live in other villages of the Atacama desert, in the northern Chilean region of Antofagasta.

“We saw an ad that said they were looking for women between the ages of 35 and 40 to receive training in India. I was really interested, but when they told me it was for six months, I hesitated. That was a long time to be away from my family!” Luisa said.

Encouraged by her sister, who took care of her daughter, she decided to undertake the journey, but without telling anyone what she was going to do.

The conditions they found in Tilonia were not what they had been led to expect, they said. They slept on thin mattresses on hard wooden beds, the bedrooms were full of bugs, they couldn’t heat water to wash themselves, and the food was completely different from what they were used to.

“I knew what I was getting into, but it took me three months anyway to adapt, mainly to the food and the intense heat,” she said.

She remembered, laughing, that she had stomach problems much of the time. “It was too much fried food,” she said. “I lost a lot of weight because for the entire six months I basically only ate rice.”

Looking at Liliana, she burst into laughter, saying “She also only ate rice, but she put on weight!”

Liliana said that when she got back to Chile her family welcomed her with an ‘asado’ (barbecue), ’empanadas’ (meat and vegetable patties or pies) and ‘sopaipillas’ (fried pockets of dough).

Chile solar mama barefoot college
The primary school in Caspana, 1,400 km north of Santiago. Two indigenous cousins who were trained as solar engineers got the municipal authorities to provide solar panels for lighting in public buildings and on the village’s few streets, while they installed panels in 127 of the village’s homes. Credit: Mariana Jarroud/IPS

“But I only wanted to sit down and eat ‘cazuela’ (traditional stew made with meat, potatoes and pumpkin) and steak,” she said.

On their return, they both began to implement what they had learned. Charging a small sum of 45 dollars, they installed the solar panel kit in homes in the village, which are made of stone with mud roofs.

The community now pays them some 75 dollars each a month for maintenance, every two months, of the 127 panels that they have installed in the village.

“We take this seriously,” said Luisa. “For example, we asked Enel not to just give us the most basic materials, but to provide us with everything necessary for proper installation.”

“Some of the batteries were bad, more than 10 of them, and we asked them to change them. But they said no, that that was the extent of their involvement in this,” she said. The company made them sign a document stating that their working agreement was completed.

“So now there are over 40 homes waiting for solar power,” she added. “We wanted to increase the capacity of the batteries, so the panels could be used to power a refrigerator, for example. But the most urgent thing now is to install panels in the 40 homes that still need them.”

But, she said, there are people in this village who cannot afford to buy a solar kit, which means they will have to be donations.

Despite the challenges, they say they are happy, that they now know they play an important role in the village. And they say that despite the difficulties, and the extreme poverty they saw in India, they would do it again.

“I’m really satisfied and content, people appreciate us, they appreciate what we do,” said Liliana.

“Many of the elders had to see the first panel installed before they were convinced that this worked, that it can help us and that it was worth it. And today you can see the results: there’s a waiting list,” she added.

Luisa believes that she and her cousin have helped changed the way people see women in Caspana, because the “patriarchs” of the council of elders themselves have admitted that few men would have dared to travel so far to learn something to help the community. “We helped somewhat to boost respect for women,” she said.

And after seeing their work, the local government of Calama, the municipality of which Caspana forms a part, responded to their request for support in installing solar panels to provide public lighting, and now the basic public services, such as the health post, have solar energy.

“When I’m painting, sometimes a neighbour comes to sit with me. And after a while, they ask me about our trip. And I relive it, I tell them all about it. I know this experience will stay with me for the rest of my life,” said Luisa.

This reporting series was conceived in collaboration with Ecosocialist Horizons. Edited by Estrella Gutiérrez/Translated by Stephanie Wildes

Too bad NASA’s plan for space-based solar never happened

It’s always irksome when tech companies talk about their latest “moonshot.” The actual moonshot was one of the most incredible accomplishments of humankind. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy challenged NASA to put someone on the moon by the end of the decade, and NASA, which hadn’t even put someone in orbit yet, was like, “On it, boss,” and then had three people on the moon eight years later. So sorry, Google, even if Google Glass hadn’t flopped, it wouldn’t have been a moonshot, and neither will anything else that comes out of the ” moonshot factory.”

So it’s a real bummer to find out that the agency that today’s most powerful engineers and entrepreneurs so desperately want to emulate had a mind-blowingly awesome plan for a space-based solar factory back in the 70s that never came to fruition. Here’s the scoop from Motherboard:

At the height of the oil crisis in the 1970s, the US government considered building a network of 60 orbiting solar power stations that would beam energy down to Earth. Each geosynchronous satellite, according to this 1981 NASA memo, was to weigh around 35,000 to 50,000 metric tons. The Satellite Power System (SPS) project envisaged building two satellites a year for 30 years.

To get said power stations into orbit, the once-powerful aerospace manufacturing company Rockwell International designed something called a Star-Raker, which, in addition to sounding like something from a sci-fi movie, also would have acted like one:

… The proposed Star-Raker would load its cargo at a regular airport, fly to a spaceport near the equator, fuel up on liquid oxygen and hydrogen, and take off horizontally using its ten supersonic ramjet engines. A 1979 technical paper lays out its potential flight plan: At a cruising altitude of 45,000 feet, the craft would then dive to 37,000 feet to break the sound barrier. At speeds of up to Mach 6, the Star-Raker would jet to an altitude of 29km before the rockets kicked in, propelling it into orbit.

Just to recap: The Star-Raker would have broken the speed of sound by diving seven miles. And the spacecraft would have been making so many regular trips to orbit that it would have essentially been a 747 for space, Motherboard reports.

In terms of feasibility, here’s how one scientist put it at the time:

“The SPS is an attractive, challenging, worthy project, which the aerospace community is well prepared and able to address,” physicist Robert G. Jahn wrote in the foreword to a 1980 SPS feasibility report. “The mature confidence and authority of…[the working groups]…left the clear impression that if some persuasive constellation of purposes…should assign this particular energy strategy a high priority, it could be accomplished.”

Putting solar plants in space would’ve been hard, sure, but this proposal came just ten years after NASA landed Apollo 11 on the moon, so doing seemingly impossible things was kind of their thing. Even if SPS hadn’t happened as planned (and for more details on what exactly that plan was, check out this in-depth look from Wired), there’s no doubt that with the right amount of support and funding, NASA could’ve done something incredible in the clean tech arena.

Today, NASA remains an indispensable source of climate change research. Unfortunately, politicians aren’t as eager to throw money at the agency now that we’re no longer trying to show up the Soviet Union (in fact, the U.S. government is now relying on Russia to take U.S. astronauts up to the International Space Station). And some members of Congress (lookin’ at you, Ted Cruz) have it in their heads that NASA shouldn’t even be doing Earth sciences research in the first place.

We know from the landing of the Curiosity Rover on Mars back in 2012 that NASA still has the ability to inspire and astonish. People geeked out hard over those “seven minutes of terror” and for good reason. Getting that same kind of support behind something that addresses climate change would be exactly what this world needs. If only the one organization proven capable of doing moonshots wasn’t beholden to a bunch of science-hating idiots.

Apple’s Electric Car Could Ship By 2019, According to the WSJ

Apple’s electric vehicle project, once a blurry rumor, is coming into increasingly clear focus. A major scoop from the Wall Street Journal today gives us details about the car’s team, manufacturing, and a ship-by date-of just four years.

The sources of the Wall Street Journal’s Daisuke Wakabayashi are anonymous-he citied “people familiar with the matter”-but Wakabayashi has already given us most of what we know about the project. His sources say Apple is not only accelerating work on its car, but that car could hit the market as soon as 2019. The company has given the so-called Project Titan team a mandate to increase in size to 1,800 team members, compared to its current 600-strong team.

Does Apple plan on actually manufacturing this car itself? That’s one major unanswered question, and Wakabayashi has his doubts, pointing out that Apple traditionally hasn’t manufactured its own gadgets. On the other hand, the company is one of the few on Earth with the cold, hard cash to do it:

Manufacturing a car is enormously expensive. A single plant usually costs well over $1 billion and requires a massive supply chain to produce the more than 10,000 components in a car. Elon Musk, chief executive of electric-car maker Tesla, complained last fall that it is “really hard” to make a car amid the company’s struggle to ramp up production of its Model S sedan.

The expense is a barrier to entry to many potential competitors, but would be less of a hurdle for Apple, which reported holding $178 billion in cash as of Dec. 27, 2014.

Another not-altogether-surprising detail of the report is that the first iteration of the vehicle won’t be totally autonomous. That’s no surprise, given the ship date cited-another detail that the WSJ is careful to hedge, pointing out that this terminology could simply represent the finalization of the product, rather than an in-store sell-by date; what’s more, “there is skepticism within the team that the 2019 target is achievable.”

So we’ve got plenty of caveats to these specifics-but Wakabayashi’s report isn’t the only new evidence we’ve got about the project. Over the past few months, we’ve seen evidence of major movement happening on Project Titan, and just a few days ago, reps from California’s DMV said they had met with Apple about the project. Apple’s car is coming-the question, now, seems to be when.

Contact the author at [email protected].

This Tower Purifies a Million Cubic Feet of Air an Hour

There’s a massive vacuum cleaner in the middle of a Rotterdam park and it’s sucking all the smog out of the air. A decent portion of it, anyway. And it isn’t a vacuum, exactly. It looks nothing like a Dyson or a Hoover. It’s probably more accurate to describe it as the world’s largest air purifier.

The Smog Free Tower, as it’s called, is a collaboration between Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde, Delft Technology University researcher Bob Ursem, and European Nano Solutions, a green tech company in the Netherlands. The metal tower, nearly 23 feet tall, can purify up to 1 million cubic feet of air every hour. To put that in perspective, the Smog Free Tower would need just 10 hours to purify enough air to fill Madison Square Garden. “When this baby is up and running for the day you can clean a small neighborhood,” says Roosegaarde.

It does this by ionizing airborne smog particles. Particles smaller than 10 micrometers in diameter (about the width of a cotton fiber) are tiny enough to inhale and can be harmful to the heart and lungs. Ursem, who has been researching ionization since the early 2000s, says a radial ventilation system at the top of the tower (powered by wind energy) draws in dirty air, which enters a chamber where particles smaller than 15 micrometers are given a positive charge. Like iron shavings drawn to a magnet, the the positively charged particles attach themselves to a grounded counter electrode in the chamber. The clean air is then expelled through vents in the lower part of the tower, surrounding the structure in a bubble of clean air. Ursem notes that this process doesn’t produce ozone, like many other ionic air purifiers, because the particles are charged with positive voltage rather than a negative.

“The proposed technology, while not new, would need to be well demonstrated on a large scale in a highly polluted urban area,” says Eileen McCauley, a manager in the California Air Resources Board’s research division. She adds that there are concerns around efficacy and logistics like how often something like this would need to be cleaned. But Ursem himself has used the same technique in hospital purification systems, parking garages, and along roadsides. Still the tower is by far the biggest and prettiest application of his technology.

Indeed, it’s meant to be a design object as much as a technological innovation. Roosegaarde is known for wacky, socially conscious design projects-he’s the same guy who did the glowing Smart Highway in the Netherlands. He says making the tower beautiful brings widespread attention to a problem typically hidden behind bureaucracy. “I’m tired of design being about chairs, tables, lamps, new cars, and new watches,” he says. “It’s boring, we have enough of this stuff. Let’s focus on the real issues in life.”

Roosegaarde has been working with Ursem and ENS, the company that fabricated the tower, for two years to bring it into existence, and now that it’s up and running, he says people are intrigued. He just returned from Mumbai where he spoke to city officials about installing a similar tower in a park, and officials in Mexico City, Paris, and Beijing (the smoggy city that inspired the project) also are interested. “We’ve gotten a lot of requests from property developers who want to place it in a few filthy rich neighborhoods of course, and I tend to say no to these right now,” he says. “I think that it should be in a public space.”

Roosegaarde has plans to take the tower on a “smog-free tour” in the coming year so he can demonstrate the tower’s abilities in cities around the world. It’s a little bit of showmanship that he hopes will garner even more attention for the machine, which he calls a “shrine-like temple of clean air.” Roosegaarde admits that his tower isn’t a final solution for cleaning a city’s air. “The real solution everybody knows,” he says, adding that it’s more systematic than clearing a hole of clean air in the sky. He views the Smog Free tower as an initial step in a bottom-up approach to cleaner air, with citizens acting as the driving force. “How can we create a city where in 10 years these towers aren’t necessary anymore?” he says. “This is the bridge towards the solution.”