Science

The UK firm Zircotec is adapting a high tech ceramic coating to reduce the weight and cost of an EV battery pack, leveraging its experience in Formula One racing and other motorsports. Image courtesy of Zircotec

One Simple Trick To Send The Cost Of An EV Battery Rocketing Downwards

The UK firm Zircotec is adapting a high tech ceramic coating to reduce the weight and cost of an EV battery pack, leveraging its experience in Formula One racing and other motorsports.

The first retail production all-electric 2025 Cadillac ESCALADE IQ, VIN 001, to cross the Barrett-Jackson Auction Block to Benefit Detroit Children’s Fund. Image courtesy of Cadillac.

A Typical EV Is ~90% Efficient, Compared To 30% For A Gas Vehicle, & More…

A typical EV is 87% to 91% efficient (after accounting for regenerative braking), compared to approximately 30% for a normal gasoline vehicle, depending on the drive cycle. That is something to consider every time you buy or rent an automobile. For the second time in its 179-year history, Scientific American … [continued]

ChatGPT generated panoramic image of a limestone quarry with a biomass-burning kiln beside the ocean in Italy

Another Day, Another Nonsensical Oceanic Carbon Capture Non-Solution, This Time Italian

Regular readers might think Californians have a lock on poorly thought-through ideas for ‘enhancing’ oceanic carbon uptake, but apparently Italy decided to throw a log on this fire. A startup is promoting the idea of digging up long-sequestered carbon dioxide in the form of limestone to make quicklime to make … [continued]

GreenWay charging with VW ID.4. Photo courtesy of WysokieNapiecie.pl

Novel Manufacturing Process for High-Performance Lithium-Metal Battery

Towards a sustainable and competitive battery value chain in Europe The Horizon 2020 SOLiDIFY consortium, comprised of 14 European partners, has developed a high-performance lithium-metal solid-state battery. The prototype battery, manufactured in a state-of-the-art battery lab at EnergyVille, Belgium, features a unique “liquid-to-solid” processed electrolyte, jointly developed by imec, Empa … [continued]

Aerial photos of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL) Flatirons Campus near Boulder, Colorado. Photographed from an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). (Photo by Joshua Bauer / NREL)

NREL’s Economic Impact Hits $1.9 Billion

The economic impact of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) topped $1.9 billion nationwide in Fiscal Year (FY) 2023, according to a study by the University of Colorado Boulder’s (CU Boulder’s) Leeds School of Business. Every state in the nation felt an impact from direct or … [continued]

Alexander Newman of the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory inserts a probe into a stream in the SAIL study area. Next to him is Marianne Cowherd, a PhD candidate from the University of California, Berkeley. Image courtesy of Jeremy Snyder, DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

When a Summer Drought Begins in the Winter: Investigating Snow Drought

From thirsty agricultural crops to whitewater rafters contemplating a low river, a lack of water is the most obvious in the summertime. Its impact is particularly clear when many people rely on the same source of water. What happens in the Colorado River’s East River Watershed affects 40 million people … [continued]