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The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 is the funkiest gadget mashup at CES 2024
At CES 2024, Lenovo showed off what might be the weirdest laptop at CES 2024 in the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 hybrid, which sports the bottom half of Windows laptop and a 14-inch Android tablet as a display.
Hard sail test hits the high seas, aiming to reduce cargo ship emissions by 30 percent
A cargo ship equipped with rigid sails, each the height of a 10-story building, has departed on its inaugural journey. The Pyxis Ocean vessel will test WindWings sails, designed to harness old-school air power to help reduce fuel usage — and the shipping industry’s CO2 emissions. The sail’s creators estimate the technology could decarbonize cargo ships by about 30 percent as the maritime sector tries to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. The estimated reduction could be higher if paired with alternative fuels.
Wind and solar could meet 85 percent of current US electricity needs
Renewable sources may meet most power demands in 'advanced, industrialized nations,' according to a study.
Europe created more energy from renewables than fossil fuels last year
Europe is slowly reducing its dependancy on fossil fuels. A report co-published by Ember and Agora Energiewende, two think tanks focused on clean energy, has revealed that the continent generated more electricity from renewables than fossil fuels in 2020.
The UK wants to power all homes with offshore wind by 2030
The UK government has promised once again to make a massive investment in offshore wind energy. Speaking at the Conservative party conference, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the renewable would power every home in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland by 2030. To meet that goal, the UK will need to generate at least 40GW of energy from offshore wind.
Facebook used 86 percent renewable energy in 2019
In 2019, Facebook's operations used 86 percent renewable energy, up from just 35 percent in 2015.
Denmark's ambitious wind power plans include giant 'energy islands'
Denmark's new wind power project could boost Europe's offshore wine capacity by 54 percent.
America's renewable energy capacity overtakes coal for the first time
America's renewable energy capacity has overtaken coal for the first time ever. According to a report by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the addition of new solar, wind and hydro capacity in the first four months of the year pushed renewable energy's share of total available installed capacity to 21.56%. Coal's share, meanwhile, has dropped to 21.55 percent, down from 23.04 percent last year.
Renewable energy is on the rise, but so is demand for fossil fuels
Recent reports from major climate organizations are painting a very mixed picture for the future of global energy use. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) says that renewable energy now forms one-third of the world's total energy capacity -- its highest level ever -- but at the same time, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that energy demand is growing at the fastest pace this decade, and fossil fuels are leading the charge.
Google’s DeepMind can predict wind patterns a day in advance
Wind power has become increasingly popular, but its success is limited by the fact that wind comes and goes as it pleases, making it hard for power grids to count on the renewable energy and less likely to fully embrace it. While we can't control the wind, Google has an idea for the next best thing: using machine learning to predict it.
Shell backs Alphabet's power-generating kites in latest renewable bet
Alphabet is turning yet another one of its X projects into a business, but this time it's enlisting the help of an unusual ally. Makani Power, a venture making electricity-generating kites (see above), has become a full-fledged subsidiary of Alphabet thanks in part to a minority investment from Shell -- yes, the fossil fuel giant. The two hope to shift the technology from the land to offshore, where winds are stronger. They're betting that the kites will be easier to deploy than conventional wind farms, since they could deploy with floating buoys instead of requiring platforms that reach down to the ocean bed.
Vortx review: The most fun you can have with a desktop heater
Vortx is a ridiculous machine. On the surface, it's a $120 desktop fan — a bulky black box with a hole in the front that blows air at people's faces as they play PC games or watch YouTube videos. However, things get much more interesting on a software level. Vortx responds to whatever is happening on the screen, blowing warm air in reaction to explosions, gun blasts or flames, and room-temperature air in the case of skydiving on a clear day or snowboarding down a snowy mountain. It's a unique immersion device built for an era when game developers are pushing at the edges of escapism from every angle, with every human sense. The most impressive promise behind Vortx is that it'll work with every game, every YouTube video and any piece of media, as long as it includes both audio and visual action. Vortx lives up to this description — in fact, it works a little too well.
Nearly all new US electricity capacity was renewable in 2017
Renewable energy played an important role in the US last year... although you might not want to cheer too loudly. Data from both the Rhodium Group and the Energy Information Administration shows that solar and wind power represented 94.7 percent of the net new electricity capacity (15.8GW out of 16.7GW) added in 2017. However, that's mainly because fossil fuel power continued to fade away. Electrek noted that plant closures removed 11.8GW of utility-scale fossil fuel power from the equation -- this was more a testament to the decline of coal than a triumph for green tech.
Tesla's giant battery farm is now live in South Australia
With a little lot of help from Tesla, Australia is now home to the world's largest lithium-ion battery. Back in March, Elon Musk told Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes that he could create a 100MWh battery storage farm within 100 days -- otherwise, his company would do the job for free. The Twitter pledge was in response to ongoing power shortages in South Australia, which were causing blackouts and political uncertainty about the country's push toward renewable energy sources. The batteries were delivered and installed before the summer -- well ahead of Musk's self-imposed deadline -- and today, they were switched on for the first time.
Drone pilots are getting their own weather forecasts
Whether you think drones are super-great or want to shoot them out of the sky, they've become increasingly vital for missions like crop spraying, inspection and filming. Yet, it's impossible for operators to get the kind of detailed weather info that airplane pilots have because UAVs generally fly at much lower altitudes. Now, a company called Earth Networks is unveiling Sferic DroneFlight, "hyperlocal, low-altitude weather weather forecasting for drone operators.
Strong winds and clear skies help set UK renewable energy record
This week saw more milestones for renewable energy after the National Grid confirmed that power from green sources supplied more than half of UK energy for the first time. On Wednesday lunchtime, power from solar, wind, hydro and biomass accounted for 50.7 percent of energy production. In another UK first, nuclear, wind and solar each generated more electricity than coal and gas combined.
India will be the first to power its ports with green energy
As the US comes to terms with President Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement, India is celebrating government efforts to promote green energy. Earlier this week, officials announced that all 12 of its major shipping ports will switch to renewable sources, making India the first country to convert all of its dockyards to run on electricity generated from solar and wind installations.
Google expects to run solely on renewable energy in 2017
Google has made it a point to run as much of its business on renewable energy as possible, and it looks like the company is close to reaching its ultimate goal. The internet pioneer now expects that all of its offices and data centers will be relying on purchased solar or wind power by some point in 2017. This isn't the same as directly powering facilities with eco-friendly energy (logistics and the nature of electrical grids makes that difficult), but it does mean that Google is funding enough projects to offset its massive power demands -- 5.7 terawatt-hours in 2015.
ICYMI: The ESA's mission to Mars launches next week
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: The European Space Agency and Russia are joining up to launch their ExoMars project next week, which will look for traces of extraterrestrial life on the red planet. Meanwhile, a newer kind of wind energy harvester is being installed in Paris, where leaves on a fake tree can capture energy in breezy conditions.
Part of Scotland will soon be powered by kites
Name a method of generating power that's cheap, efficient, sustainable and sounds like something Mary Poppins dreamed up after downing 20 teaspoons of sugar. That's right -- kite power. One of the world's first non-experimental, kite-driven power stations will be established offshore in Southern Scotland, at the Ministry of Defence's West Freugh Range near Stranraer. UK company Kite Power Solutions plans to install a 500 kilowatt system that it expects will generate 'several hundred megawatts' of energy by 2025, Independent reports.
