In this illustration a
panel coated with a multilayered material designed by Stanford engineers
helps cool buildings without air conditioning. The material works in
two ways. It reflects incoming sunlight [yellow] that would otherwise
heat the panel. More importantly, it sends heat from inside the
structure directly into space as infrared radiation of a particular
wavelength [red]. The result is a cooler [blue] roof.
Conventional cooling is all about moving heat from a place
where you don’t want it to a place that you care about slightly
less. Your refrigerator, for example, cools itself by pumping heat into
your house. Your house cools itself by pumping heat into the outdoors.
It takes a significant amount of energy to keep this up—15 percent of
the energy consumption of most buildings is spent just on air
conditioning—meaning that the work put into transferring the heat
generates even more heat. And then it’s not like the heat just
vanishes when it gets outside: in urban areas, all of this waste heat
builds up to increase local temperatures as part of the urban heat
island effect.
Radiative cooling is a way of passively moving heat from one place to
another through thermal radiation, without the need for any additional
energy (like electricity). If you have a hot thing, it will radiate its
heat into whatever cooler thing is most convenient. In your house, this
is probably the air outside, and in your car, it’s also the air outside,
by way of the water in your radiator.
Since the general approach here is to use the atmosphere as the
final heat sink, radiative cooling doesn’t work if you’re trying to end
up at a temperature lower than the ambient temperature outside, which is why completely passive air conditioning isn’t a thing.
The clever thing about the passive radiative cooling system that
Stanford came with is that it skips the atmosphere completely, and uses the entire Universe
as a place to dump heat. The entire Universe, being mostly empty space,
has an average temperature of just under three Kelvin, meaning that
it’ll happily absorb just about as much heat as you can possibly throw
at it, making it a heat sink that’s nearly, you know, universal.
Photo: Norbert von der Groeben/Stanford EngineeringStanford electrical engineering professor Shanhui Fan
[center] gazes into the pizza-sized prototype with colleagues Linxiao
Zhu [left] and Aaswath Raman [right]. The high-tech mirror reflecting
their faces beams heat directly into space.
To use outer space as a heat sink, you need to have access to outer
space, which sounds like it’s probably a difficult thing to achieve. But
fundamentally, it just means being able to transfer heat straight
through Earth’s atmosphere. Stanford’s cooling system emits thermal
radiation in a very specific infrared wavelength that the Earth’s
atmosphere is completely transparent to, between 8 and 13 micrometers.
So, this is great, but the other part of the problem with radiative
cooling is that we really need it to work during the day, when the sun
is out and it’s hot. But if the sun is warming the radiator more than
the radiator can cool itself, the system isn’t going to accomplish much.
Stanford’s radiator also functions as a mirror that can reflect 97
percent of incident sunlight, enabling the radiator to cool itself (or
something underneath it) by up to five degrees Celsius even during the
heat of the day. In a three-story commercial building with a 1600 square meter roof, using the radiative cooler would save an estimated 118,500 kWh annually, the engineers calculate.
The radiator itself is composed of seven layers of silicon dioxide
and hafnium oxide on top of a thin layer of silver. The structure has
been tuned to only radiate at the specific infrared wavelengths that can
pass through the atmosphere. It’s just 1.8 microns thick in total, and
the researchers say that it can be fabricated at production scales in
existing facilities. Otherwise, the only remaining issue is to figure
out how to conduct the heat from inside a building through to the
exterior walls, to where the radiator could do its job.
These problems both seem surmountable, and even surmountable in the
near future, as opposed to the “five to ten years” void that many
technologies like this fall into. If this radiative cooler material can
in fact be produced inexpensively and efficiently, it could have a
significant impact on energy usage, especially in the developing world
where off-grid cooling is often the only option in rural areas.
Green roofs offer a lot of environmental benefits – they provide
additional insulation, reduce rainwater runoff, and can lower your
electricity bill. However a new study suggests that roofs painted white might actually be more effective at fighting climate change. A study published in the Energy and Buildings Journal
compared three types of roofs – green, black and white – and came to
the conclusion that white roofs have great economic benefits, and they
are also three times more effective than the other two at fighting
climate change.
Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
conducted an economic analysis of the costs and benefits of white,
black and green roofs and found that white roofs are far superior in
fighting climate change than the other two. While roofs painted black
absorb heat and contribute to the urban heat island effect,
white roofs reflect the sunlight back into the atmosphere and help cool
down its lower parts. The study advises those concerned with global climate change
to choose white roofs, adding to a host of other studies in the past
decade that have allowed the “white roof movement” to gain momentum
across the United States. However, things are not as simple as they
seem.
A series of climate simulations
carried out by Mark Z. Jacobson and Ten Hoeve of Stanford University
showed some unexpected results. Despite their beneficial effects on the
lower parts of the atmosphere, white roofs decrease the temperature
difference half a mile above ground-a difference which drives cloud
formation and less clouds means more sunlight reaching the Earth’s
surface. This, among other issues like the impact on fossil fuel consumption
and summer cooling vs. winter heating gains, is still subject of
scientific debates. Meanwhile, it should also be noted that vegetated
roofs offer built-in storm water management mechanisms in addition to
some cooling benefits.
Although we are excited to find out how different roofing strategies
may affect climate change, one should be aware of the fact that these
investigations involve a wide spectrum of factors and potential
consequences far too complex for a hotheaded (pun intended) thumbs-up
verdict. + Energy and Buildings Journal + GATOR-GCMOM Environmental Model
Via Fast Co.Design, Huffington Post
LONDON (Reuters) -
In a discovery that experts say could revolutionize fuel cell
technology, scientists in Britain have found that graphene, the world's
thinnest, strongest and most impermeable material, can allow protons to
pass through it.
The researchers, led by the Nobel prize winner and discoverer of
graphene Andre Geim of Manchester University, said their finding also
raised the possibility that, in future, graphene membranes could be used
to "sieve" hydrogen gas from the atmosphere to then generate
electricity.
"We are very excited about this result because it opens a whole new
area of promising applications for graphene in clean energy harvesting
and hydrogen-based technologies," said Geim's co-researcher on the
study, Marcelo Lozada-Hidalgo.
Graphene, the thinnest material on earth at just one atom thick, and
200 times stronger than steel, was first isolated in 2004 by Geim and
fellow researchers, who were awarded a Nobel Prize in 2010 for their
work.
It is renowned for being impermeable to all gases and liquids, giving
it the potential for a range of uses such as corrosion-proof coatings,
impermeable packaging and even super-thin condoms.
Knowing that graphene is impermeable to even the smallest of atoms,
hydrogen, Geim's team decided to test whether protons, or hydrogen atoms
stripped of their electrons, were also repelled. Their work was
published in the journal Nature.
Against expectations, they found the protons could pass through the
ultra-strong material fairly easily, especially at raised temperatures
and if the graphene films were covered with nanoparticles such as
platinum, which acted as a catalyst.
Geim and Lozada-Hidalgo, explaining their finding in a telephone
briefing for reporters, said this meant graphene could in future be used
in proton-conducting membranes, a crucial component of fuel cell
technology.
Fuel cells, used in some modern cars, use oxygen and hydrogen as fuel
and convert the input chemical energy into electricity. But a major
problem is that the fuels leak across the existing proton membranes,
"poisoning" the process and reducing the cells' efficiency -- something
Geim said could be overcome using graphene.
The team also found that graphene membranes could be used to extract
hydrogen from the atmosphere, suggesting the possibility of combining
them with fuel cells to make mobile electric generators powered just by
the tiny amounts of hydrogen in the air.
"Essentially, you pump your fuel from the atmosphere and get
electricity out of it," Geim said. "Our (study) provides proof that this
kind of device is possible."
"""
Tesla Motors Inc.'s home state of California already saw the electric
car company's initial, hysteria-inducing $5 billion Gigafactory
project go to a lower-cost competitor after Nevada's $1.25 billion
incentive offer.
But Golden State lawmakers aren't giving up on the lure of several
thousand high-tech manufacturing jobs that easily.
"""
This talk was given at a TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. On July 4, 2030 Alex Lightman Would like to declare a different kind of Independence, one from fossil fuels. Going step by step , Lightman reveals the impact on the health system by doing this, and then shows step by step how this monumental task could be achieved by 2030.
Alex Lightman is an entrepreneur, author, and futurist, currently appearing on Science Channel programs including Futurescape with James Woods and Alien Encounters Season 3. He is author of the first book on 4G, Brave New Unwired World: The Digital Big Bang and The Infinite Internet, and, fall 2014, The Future Engine: How Science Fiction Catalyses Technology and Transforms Society. He is currently chairman of the Global Innovation Network for Entrepreneurship and Technology (GINET) based on the University of New Mexico and chairman of Everblaze, a solar energy company. His current project including working with governments in the Americans and Asia on how to remove the use of fossil fuels from the production of fertilizer and food through new renewable energy technologies. In 2010 he became the first recipient of The Economist magazine’s Reader’s Award for “The innovation most likely to radically change the world over the next decade, 2011 to 2020
""" Willow Run Foods has added Cadec's PowerVue software to its compressed natural gas (CNG) fleet of vehicles. Willow Run Foods says it is the first distributor in the United States to deliver goods regionally using CNG. """
PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Optimus Technologies today announced two significant milestones that are changing the U.S. commercial truck industry. First, it is the first to receive U.S. EPA Approval for an advanced biofuel conversion solution for existing medium- and heavy-duty trucks. Second, while approved for a wide range of fuel types, it is also the first to achieve compliance for use with pure biofuel derived from recycled cooking oil. Since the solution reduces fleet fuel costs up to 25% and reduces lifecycle emissions up to 80% without the prohibitive start-up costs of compressed natural gas (CNG), it creates new business opportunities for advanced biofuel providers, from biodiesel refiners to ethanol refiners and cooking oil recyclers.
“We have been a strong supporter of Optimus’ efforts. Now, we will be able to expand our market reach and grow into servicing commercial and government fleets with our high quality, renewable fuels.”
The solution is based on a combination of Optimus’ Vector bi-fuel (diesel or biofuel) conversion system -- hardware and software that bolts-on to existing diesel engines -- and certified, pure biofuel. Fuels tested were derived from a variety of bio-sources including non-food grade corn oil, recycled cooking oil, and pure biodiesel (B100). While Optimus may be first to the U.S. market, such solutions have been available in Europe for more than a decade.
“We’re very excited that the EPA has approved our technology,” said CEO Colin Huwyler, “Our solution represents a tangible opportunity for fleets to shrink their operating costs while improving the environment. And, our solution does not require multi-million dollar start-up costs like CNG does.”
Fleet operators have been surprised to find that CNG solutions require capital-intensive modifications to fueling stations and maintenance facilities, extending payback periods well beyond 5 years. Optimus’ solution can leverage current facilities with only minor modifications, offering paybacks as little as one year.
Optimus currently works with a network of advanced biofuel suppliers whose fuel meets the Optimus standard.
“We are very glad that Optimus has secured EPA approval,” stated Rory Gaunt, CEO of Lifecycle Renewables, a leading renewable fuel provider based outside of Boston, MA. “We have been a strong supporter of Optimus’ efforts. Now, we will be able to expand our market reach and grow into servicing commercial and government fleets with our high quality, renewable fuels.”
Emissions tests conducted for Optimus’ approval in May were performed and validated by the West Virginia University Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines, and Emissions. The results showed a significant overall reduction in tailpipe emissions in comparison to diesel. Specifically, particulate matter was reduced by about 40%. Further, nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions were reduced with all fuels tested, including when used with B100. The Vector system was approved for use on Navistar DT466 engines between the model years 2004 and 2006. Field trials and certification tests on other engines are currently underway.
Fuel providers seeking certification to the Optimus fuel standard and inclusion with its partner network are encouraged to contact Optimus Technologies for further information.
About Optimus Technologies
Optimus Technologies is the technology leader in high performance bi-fuel conversion systems (diesel & biofuel) for medium- and heavy-duty fleets, providing the simplest way to reduce fuel costs, reduce emissions and address alternative fuel mandates. Savings can be so significant that fleets can realize a payback of less than one year from Optimus’ solution. Driven by the vision and the knowledge that other alternative fuel solutions are prohibitively expensive and do not provide the same results as biofuels, Optimus was formed in 2010 to commercialize the results of five years of research and development of biofuel systems for diesel engines. Optimus Technologies is private company, based in Pittsburgh, PA. For more information, see www.optimustec.com.
This is what I call an Electricity to Food system. Mostly self contained and isolated from the environment, you could grow food underground or in the desert and control water usage and air temperature. But they never talk about powering the LED. So if you use Solar, then it seems like a long way to put up solar cells only to turn it back to light to grow plants. That's why this is different then the solar elevated farms. I dread the thought of coal or oil to food using this technology. ------------- If you thought the agricultural revolution was something that already happened, maybe you should think again: a scientist in the Miyagi Prefecture of east Japan recently converted an old semiconductor factory into the largest indoor farm on the planet illuminated by LEDs. Racking up 25,000 sq. ft. and 10,000 heads of lettuce per day (no, that is not a typo) even this early in the process, the superfarm could very well make outdoor agriculture a figment of history.
Point in case: Shimamura's indoor farm uses just one percent of the water consumed by outside crops. This is thanks to the advanced monitoring systems that are plentiful throughout the entire system. The farm is truly a science experiment at this point, not meant to get into the produce business, but rather the "changing the world" business. It may do just that -- plans are already being drafted to crop up more farms in food-starved areas of the world.
Basically Electricity to food, independent of how harsh the outside environment is.
This is nice, I have a friend in New York that talked to me about something like this.
Ships are not really known as places to grow food on; rather, they’re adding to the food miles that your typical lettuce or tomato spends from where it grows to your table.
On Blueseed, things will be different. This past week, we’ve partnered with Freight Farms, an award-winning startup that makes it possible to grow plants 130 times more efficiently than on land, in terms of space, using only 10% of the conventional amount of water, and without pesticides or herbicides. This is done with soil-less vertical hydroponics in a repurposed shipping container with low energy needs using remote monitoring and control via a cloud-based mobile app.
The 1,000 entrepreneurs on Blueseed will be able to consume entirely local-grown lettuce, supplied by one Freight Farm unit, which requires only about one hour of human operator time per week. Units are self-contained and Freight Farm will be working with Blueseed to adapt them for maritime use.
Lettuce is just the beginning. Blueseed intends to use two Freight Farm units, the second one for vine plants (currently in development). The partnership with Freight Farms is an excellent showcase of local food growing, and is an important step in furthering the environmental sustainability of the Blueseed community.
A 4-kilowatt lithium-ion battery, at right, is part of a project by Southern California Edison to reduce demand on the electrical grid during peak hours.
SAN FRANCISCO—From backyard tinkerers to big corporations, inventors have been struggling to find a way to store solar, wind and other renewable energy so it can furnish electricity when the sun doesn't shine or the wind doesn't blow.
Now California is offering businesses a big incentive for success—contracts that the utility industry estimates could total as much as $3 billion for successful, large-scale electricity-storage systems.
Starting this year, big utilities that do business here must begin adding enough battery systems or other technology so that by 2024 they can store 1,325-megawatts worth of electricity—nearly 70 times the amount that the handful of mostly experimental systems in the state store now. Regulators are also requiring municipal utilities to buy or lease energy-storage equipment.
The storage systems California wants don't exist on such a scale, so the new rules amount to a big bet—paid for by utility customers—that creating demand will produce workable new technology. If so, other states are likely to follow suit, experts say.
Like most states, California has an electric system that was built around big power plants that cranked out electricity around the clock. But utilities here are on track to get a third of the electricity they sell from intermittent resources like solar panels and wind turbines by 2020."We're not talking about lab experiments anymore," said Nancy Pfund, managing partner of Silicon Valley venture-capital firm DBL Investors. "We're talking about a real solution to a growing issue as renewables become a bigger percentage of everyone's grid. The whole world is watching this."
Nationally, renewables accounted for 37% of the new generating capacity added last year, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Utilities now use small natural-gas plants to fill gaps when power generation and demand aren't in balance, but the state thinks storage systems would be more efficient and produce less pollution.
At least in the first few years, many of the storage contracts are likely to go to projects that use rechargeable batteries, like the ones in electric cars and buses, industry officials say. Batteries have been tested for durability and safety by the automotive industry, and they are in widespread use.
"Battery technology is probably going to be the immediate, short-run leader," said Jeff Gates, managing director of commercial transmission at Duke Energy Corp.DUK -1.15% in Charlotte, N.C. Duke built a large battery-storage facility near one of its Texas wind farms, and the company plans to build similar projects in California and other states, he said.
While utilities have installed a handful of battery-storage systems in California and other places, many of them were designed to store less than an hour's worth of electricity to provide extra power to transmission lines. Under the new program, California utilities are likely to want systems that can store at least two or three hours of power to fill in gaps left by solar panels after sunset, Mr. Gates said.
Some people hope that California's bet on energy storage will create opportunities for technologies that currently exist only in the lab or in one-off projects, including storage based on compressed air or giant flywheels. Gravity Power LLC, a startup in Goleta, Calif., uses deep underground bore holes, filled with water, to create energy when huge pistons are dropped down central shafts.
Among the questions the California experiment may answer is where storage devices should be installed. Some experts think they should be built next to wind farms, for example, as Duke did. Others suggest they should be located along transmission lines or installed next to businesses and homes with solar panels.
"I don't think we understand the function of storage on the grid [enough] yet to know where it would have the highest value," said Mark Nelson, a power-planning manager at Southern California Edison, based in Rosemead, Calif.
SolarCity Corp. SCTY -1.07% , of San Mateo, Calif., in December began offering commercial customers rechargeable batteries—the same ones that are used in Tesla Motors Inc. TSLA -0.08% electric cars—along with solar panels. Tesla, of Palo Alto, Calif., said Wednesday that it plans to build a U.S. battery factory to supply its Fremont, Calif., car factory and SolarCity's energy-storage business. "Storage is important because the sun only shines part of the day, but we use electricity all of the day," Elon Musk, who is chairman and chief executive of Tesla and chairman of SolarCity, said Thursday during an appearance in San Francisco.
Southern California Edison recently installed stacks of lithium-ion batteries at an Irvine, Calif., parking garage that has solar panels on the roof and a row of electric-car chargers on a lower floor. The panels generate electricity for the car chargers and the batteries, which help power the chargers after sunset.
Some utilities and consumer advocates worry that the technologies are expensive and aren't ready for prime time.
Mike Niggli, president of San Diego Gas & Electric Co., a unit of Sempra Energy, said that although there are many storage technologies, "few of them are cost-effective at this time."
The financial strength of some companies likely to offer their products is also a concern, following a series of bankruptcies by battery makers, including Xtreme Power, which filed for Chapter 11 last month, and A123 Systems Inc. and Ener1 Inc., which filed for bankruptcy protection in 2012.
California is one of 37 states that have renewable-energy mandates or goals, but the only one to require utilities to buy lots of storage.
"Energy storage is a highly specialized market now," said Haresh Kamath, a researcher at the Electric Power Research Institute, a utility-funded group in Palo Alto, Calif. "But I expect it to become an important part of the grid's architecture in coming years."
A new solar-powered robot has been designed for farms to collect data on pests and plant disease, pick weeds, and someday even harvest crops.
Named the Ladybird, this new robot is laser-guided and self-driving. It uses sensors and hyper-spectral cameras to collect data about pests and crop conditions as it moves around, which it automatically interprets and delivers to the farmer.
It has just completed a successful three-day test on an Australian farm that grows spinach, onions and beetroot.
"Ladybird focusses on broad acre agriculture and is solar-electric powered. It has an array of sensors for detecting vegetable growth and pest species, either plant or animal,” said chief designer Salah Sukkarieh, professor of robotics and intelligent systems at the University of Sydney, in a statement. "She also has a robotic arm for the purposes of removing weeds as well as the potential for autonomous harvesting.”
If there is a concern that the robot will replace jobs, Sukkarieh says that it will increase a farm’s efficiency and yield, freeing staff up from manual work to spend more time figuring out how to adjust and improve their methods using the information it collects. If the Ladybird picks up on the early stages of a crop disease or infestation, the staff will have the time to address these threats much quicker than if they were left to identify on the signs on their own.
"Sukkarieh was awarded the 'Researcher of the Year' accolade by the Australian Vegetable Industry, which is apparently more excited at the prospect of getting some automated help than it is afraid the bot will take its jobs. In the dystopian-looking days ahead, when climate change has raised temperatures and brought less rainfall to arid-leaning regions, farmers will need all the help they can get to squeeze as much produce as possible out of increasingly less productive land."
Ed Fagan, the owner of the farm where Ladybird carried out its trial run, told the ABC, "A lot of the time in horticulture, if you're short of an element in the plant, by the time you see a symptom it's too late. [The Ladybird] will be able to pick up a nutrient deficiency before we see any symptoms. Secondly, you can use it at night at 2 o'clock in the morning and go out and do an insect survey, so things like cutworm popping out at night time, slugs, worms, things like that.”
It sounds pretty promising, but as Merchant at Motherboard points out, the technology will need to be affordable for a farm to buy and maintain, and it must be durable enough to justify. And just how much more efficient it can make a farm must offset the cost of the Ladybird to make the investment worthwhile.
Although it's getting increasingly common to see solar panels on the roofs of homes, household wind turbines are still a fairly rare sight. If Rotterdam-based tech firm The Archimedes has its way, however, that will soon change. Today the company officially introduced its Liam F1 Urban Wind Turbine, which is said to have an energy yield that is "80 percent of the maximum that is theoretically feasible." That's quite the assertion, given that most conventional wind turbines average around 25 to 50 percent.
The 75-kg (165-lb) 1.5-meter (5-ft)-wide Liam obviously doesn't look much like a typical turbine. It draws on the form of the nautilus shell, and the screw pump invented by ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes of Syracuse.
That form factor reportedly results in minimal mechanical resistance, allowing it to spin very freely and to operate quietly – blade noise is one of the common complaints regarding rooftop wind turbines. Additionally, the design is claimed to keep it always pointing into the wind for maximum yield.
Along with its claim of being able to achieve 80 percent of Betz' limit, The Archimedes adds that "The Liam F1 generates an average of 1,500 kilowatt-hours of energy [per year] at a wind-speed of 5 m/s [16.4 ft/s], which resembles half of the power consumption of a common household." Needless to say, it will be interesting to see what independent testing reveals. The company states that it has tested the Liam "over 50 times" to confirm the figures, and has already sold 7,000 of the turbines in 14 countries.
That said, the Liam F1 Urban Wind Turbine should be officially available as of July 1st. Although no price was given in today's announcement, a previous posting on the company website puts it at €3,999 (about US$5,450).
The farm based self contained mobile biodiesel plant constructed by GreenStart is based on a common aluminum beverage trailer platform. The heat and power is provided by a 3 phase diesel generator coupled with a 10hp air compressor. Each functional component is designed to fit the standard beverage skid of 36" square which enables swapping of components. The shutter sides provide secure weatherproof environment for storage and transport. The low deck height also facilitates operation and maintenance from the ground level.
Scientists have taken a large step toward making a fiber-like energy storage device that can be woven into clothing and power wearable medical monitors, communications equipment or other small electronics.
Tesla Logged $713 Million In Revenue In Q1 and Built 7,535 Cars
from the numbers-are-in dept.
cartechboy (2660665) writesTesla just announced its first-quarter earnings and the numbers are interesting. It logged revenue of $713 million on deliveries of 6,457 Model S electric cars. It's worth noting that's basically the number of vehicles it said it would sell in the quarter, but that number is slightly down from the prior quarter. It built a total of 7,535 Model S cars in the quarter as it built inventory as shipments began to China where sales just started last month. Net orders in North America grew 10 percent, and production for the second quarter is expected to increase to 8,500-9,000 Model S cars. Tesla expects to deliver 35,000 cars during the 2014 calendar year. Musk told analysts that China's enthusiastic and that government support is crucial. The Model X is delayed until spring of 2015 with production-design prototypes being ready in the fourth quarter. Tesla hopes to possibly break ground as early as next month on its gigafactory, though the location has yet to be announced. Of course, the stock market is already reacting to these numbers and is currently down nearly 3 percent in after hours trading.
In a move that could help address our insatiable thirst for fuel while at the same time help cut CO2 emissions, scientists with the SOLAR-JET (Solar chemical reactor demonstration and Optimization for Long-term Availability of Renewable Jet fuel) project have recently shown that through a multi-step process, concentrated sunlight can be used to convert carbon dioxide into kerosene, which can then be used as jet fuel.
"Increasing environmental and supply security issues are leading the aviation sector to seek alternative fuels which can be used interchangeably with today’s jet fuel, so-called drop-in solutions," says Dr. Andreas Sizmann, the project coordinator at Bauhaus Luftfahrt. "With this first-ever proof-of-concept for 'solar' kerosene, the SOLAR-JET project has made a major step towards truly sustainable fuels with virtually unlimited feedstocks in the future."
Flickr/ UCL Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Point in case: Shimamura's indoor farm uses just one percent of the water consumed by outside crops. This is thanks to the advanced monitoring systems that are plentiful throughout the entire system. The farm is truly a science experiment at this point, not meant to get into the produce business, but rather the "changing the world" business. It may do just that -- plans are already being drafted to crop up more farms in food-starved areas of the world.
