(IAN) OXFORD 204

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(MOT) OLD EV BATTERIES GO SOLAR

Repurposed electric vehicle batteries at B2U Storage Solutions.B2U Storage Solutions/Grist

On a 20-acre parcel outside the tiny Southern California town of New Cuyama, a 1.5-megawatt solar farm uses the sun’s rays to slowly charge nearly 600 batteries in nearby cabinets. 

At night, when energy demand rises, that electricity is sent to the grid to power homes with clean energy.

To make renewable energy from intermittent sources like solar and wind available when it is most needed, it’s becoming more common to use batteries to store the power as it’s generated and transmit it later. But one thing about the Cuyama facility, which began operations this week, is less common: The batteries sending energy to the grid once powered electric vehicles.

The SEPV Cuyama facility, located about two hours northeast of Santa Barbara, is the second hybrid storage facility opened by B2U Storage Solutions. Its first facility, just outside Los Angeles, uses 1,300 retired batteries from Honda Clarity and Nissan Leaf EVs to store 28 megawatt-hours of power, enough to power about 9,500 homes. This article at Mother Jones - link - GABRIELA AOUN ANGUEIRA - link - more like this - link

(PIN) PET GREENWASHING

The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), backed by environmental groups Client Earth and Environmental Coalition on Standards (ECOS), has taken action against major water bottle producers, such as Coca-Cola, Danone and Nestlé Waters/Nestlé, for alleged greenwashing.

Consumer groups from 13 countries have submitted an external alert to the European network of consumer authorities (CPC-Network) demonstrating that claims of “100% recycled” or “100% recyclable” on plastic water bottles can be misleading.

The legal action follows the publication of a report by ECOS and Client Earth, which found evidence that recyclability and PCR content claims are only partially valid for most plastic bottles, and scientific methodologies like LCAs are usually flawed.

“Be it about buying new clothes, opening a bank account or buying water bottles, consumers increasingly want to make the most sustainable choice and seek reliable information to do so. However, they are bombarded with incorrect and deceptive claims, so they do not know which claim or label to trust,” says Ursula Pachl, deputy director general of BEUC.

“Using ‘100% recycled/recyclable’ claims or displaying nature images and green visuals that insinuate that plastic is environmentally friendly is misleading consumers. Such claims, however, can be found on many water bottles sold across Europe. The problem is that there’s no guarantee it will be fully recycled once it’s in the bin. This greenwashing must stop.” more on this from Packaging Insights - link - more like this - link

(SIM) SWITCHBLADE FLYING CAR - FLIES

The Samson Sky Switchblade, one of the most sought-after flying cars, marked a major achievement in its development as it completed its maiden flight in Washington State. 

While the flight was relatively short, The Samson Sky team will reportedly use the flight's data to finalize the production of several prototypes.

Known as "The Flying Sports Car," the Switchblade is designed to shave down 10-hour road trips into three-and-a-half-hour trips from door to door. The milestone comes after 14 years spent designing the flying car, which is estimated to start at $170,000.
Conducting the first flight

The Switchblade's first flight occurred at Grant County International Airport, where Boeing and other aircraft manufacturers typically perform flight testing. Robert Moehle, a veteran test pilot, was at the command of the experimental aircraft, according to Samson Sky. Moehle reportedly devoted years of work on the Switchblade to make creator, designer, and CEO Sam Bousfield's dream of a true high-performance flying car possible. Channing Reid - link - Simple Flying - link - more like this - link

LEST WE FORGET - PRIVATE ALFRED MONK

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(IEN) AMAZON DELIVERING DRONES

Amazon Prime Air drone MK30

Amazon is taking its drone delivery service to new heights, expanding its Prime Air program to Italy, the UK, and an additional US location.

The announcement comes as the company pushes the boundaries of delivery convenience, promising to drop prescriptions and other items right at your doorstep with the help of drones.

Prime Air's groundbreaking drone delivery system is set to revolutionize how customers receive their packages, with the company aiming to commence drone deliveries by late 2024. The official statement from Amazon revealed their vision for this venture:

"We have committed time and resources to build a safe and scalable service. We have refined the technology and are now building the right infrastructure to ensure the service provides the ultimate convenience for our customers," the company claims. Interesting Engineering - link - Can Emir - link - more like this - link

(NAT) FIGURE'S HUMANOID STARTS PERFORMING

The Figure 01 prototype's hip and knee joints each put out over 200 Nm of electric torque - Figure

After a year of development, Figure has released video footage of its humanoid robot walking – and it's looking pretty sprightly compared to its commercial competition. It's our first look at a prototype that should be doing useful work within months.

Figure is taking a bluntly pragmatic approach to humanoid robotics. It doesn't care about running, jumping, or doing backflips; its robot is designed to get to work and make itself useful as quickly as possible, starting with easy jobs involving moving things around in a warehouse-type environment, and then expanding its abilities to take over more and more tasks.

Staffed by a group of some 60-odd humanoid and AI industry veterans that founder Brett Adcock lured away from leading companies like Boston Dynamics, Google Deepmind, Tesla and Apple, Figure is hitting the general-purpose robot worker space with the same breakneck speed that Adcock's former company Archer did when it arrived late to the eVTOL party.

Check out the video below, showing "dynamic bipedal walking," which the team achieved in less than 12 months. Adcock believes that's a record for a brand new humanoid initiative. New Atlas - link - the brilliant Loz Blain - link - more like this - link

(IEN) CHINA'S STEALTH SUBS CAUSING US NIGHTMARES

Representational image: 3D rendered Illustration of a submarine.

China has made progress in building its latest Type 096 ballistic missile submarines, alarming the US and its allies.

There is growing evidence that China will be able to operate these submarines by the end of the decade thanks in part to technological advances from Russia, according to a defense research analysis.

"The Type 096s are going to be a nightmare," stated one of the researchers, a retired submariner and naval technical intelligence analyst, Christopher Carlson. "They [submarines] are going to be very, very hard to detect."

The U.S. Naval War College's China Maritime Studies Institute conducted research that was presented at a conference in May and then published in August with the conclusion that the new warships would be much more difficult to track. Interesting Engineering - link - Baba Tamim - link - more like this - link

(IEN) ALIEN TECHNOLOGIES

5 items of tech from the movie Aliens that we could build today

Have you ever wondered if we could build some of the most iconic technology seen in the 1986 sci-fi masterpiece "Aliens?""Aliens" is one of the most iconic and best-loved science fiction films ever.

Not only is it gripping as a story, but the technology doesn't, on the surface, seem too "futuristic" compared to today. So what, if any, of the guns and other technology featured could we come close to building today?

Released in 1986 and directed by James Cameron, "Aliens" is the second offering from one of the most popular science fiction franchises ever. Building on where the first film left off, this time, the humans "come packing" with weapons and other gear to level the playing field against one of the universe's "perfect organisms."

Interesting Engineering - link - Christopher McFadden - link - more like this - link

(RBC) DRIVING IN A BUS LANE

Just had a Penalty Notice and fined £70.00 (£35.00 if I pay pronto) for driving in an RGZ Revenue Generation Zone (bus lane) on Bath Road from Reading Borough Council - this is their photographic evidence - my car is (allegedly) the one at the top of the photo - 🤔

Other than Bath Road and the bus gate in Beresford Road, where 3,214 notices were issued, the rest of the top five places where drivers were caught out were in Reading town centre.

You can see the top 10 places where fines were issued listed below.

• Minster Street (westbound) – 7,582
• Beresford Road (northbound) – 3,214
• St Mary’s Butts (northbound) – 2,722
• Bath Road – 2,321
• Friar Street (eastbound) – 1,887
• Southampton Street – 1,820
• The Forbury – 1,795
• Friar Street (westbound) – 1,663
• A33 (southbound) nearside lane 2 – 1,488
• Hemdean Road – 1.410

The council spent £1,281,910 on enforcing bus lane fines in 2020-21, and made a total of £1,408,765, delivering a £126,855 surplus.

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(OEB) 53MW OF TIDAL CONTRACTS AWARDED - 08/09/23

Seven developers including British, Spanish and US companies, secured contracts to develop a total of 53MW of tidal stream energy across four locations in the UK.

These include Orbital Marine Power, which was awarded two further contracts for difference (CfDs) totaling 7.2MW – building on the previous year’s allocation round where it also secured contracts for the same capacity.

The CfDs will allow Orbital to expand its development of projects in Orkney with the construction of six floating tidal energy turbines now covered by the CfD scheme.

These additional turbines will be able to power to up to 9000 homes, supporting the UK’s security of supply, energy transition and broader climate change objectives. In addition, this means Orbital can make a significant investment in the UK supply chain as it sets about establishing series production of its innovative technology. Offshore Energy - link - Amir Garanovic muck rack link - tidal - more like this - link

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(NAT) WORLD'S FASTEST SAILBOAT

The SP80 and Syroco teams have both got their remarkable boats on the water. Looking like a pair of alien spaceships, and pulled by ultra-fast kites instead of sails on masts, both these machines are built to reach terrifying, unprecedented speeds.

The current world sailing speed record has stood for a little over a decade at 65.37 knots (75.23 mph/121.06 km/h), set by Paul Larsen in the Vestas Sailrocket II back in 2012.

There's a reason nobody's gone faster – rigid masts provide excellent leverage, so when you attempt to harness serious wind power, they want to roll the boat over. So if those record speed figures seem a bit 'meh,' take a look at the video in article - link - the brilliant Loz Blain muckrack - link - more like this - link

READING RACERS - TIME TO REBUILD

At the beginning of 2020 the team started to come together, only to be told by the BSPA that no nomadic teams could race unless they had their own track.

So the Racers decided to take a break from the 2020 season to concentrate on following up plans to raise funds and find a Willing sponsor to build their Dream track back in the Reading area.

After the Covid-19 outbreak the whole Speedway season was put on hold - link