(WEV) SOLID STATE EV - 10 YEARS AWAY

StoreDot, an Israeli battery startup, has said that mass-produced solid-state batteries are still at least a decade from production and global automotive manufacturers should be considering interim technologies in the medium term, such as semi-solid batteries.

In a recent statement, SoreDot’s CEO, Dr Doron Myersdorf asserted the importance of leading battery developers giving a realistic roadmap for the introduction of extreme fast-charging battery technologies.

“Right now, despite some of the bullish claims by our rivals, all-solid-state batteries are still at least 10 years away,” said, Myersdorf. “They are certainly no silver bullet for any vehicle maker currently developing fast-charging electric vehicle architectures.”

Solid-state-batteries promise cost-effective fast and safe charging batteries, with high energy densities. But they remain a work in progress, and still face significant challenges before they can be manufactured at scale.

“We believe a more practical step is the introduction of semi-solid-state batteries which we are targeting for mass production by 2028,” Myersdorf added.

“These will be advanced, safe, high performing cells that can achieve 100 miles of charge in just three minutes. They have the additional benefit of requiring a simpler and less challenging manufacturing process than all-solid-state technologies.”

Last month StoreDot announced the delivery of cells that exceeded 1,000 cycles in production-ready EV form factor. StoreDot is now shipping these cells in pouch format to its global automotive OEM partners for intense real-world testing, allowing drivers to charge consecutively 100 miles of range for each 5 minutes of charging. WhichEV - link - Pulkit Malhotra - link - more like this (Israel) - link - more like this (StoreDot) - link - more like this (solid state batteries) - link

(GRE) THE FUTURE IS - CELL BASED CHOCOLATE

Photo by Tamas Pap on Unsplash

With support from Mondelēz International, Barrel Ventures, and Regba Group, along with Trendlines, Celleste Bio is closer to bringing its cell-based chocolate to market.

New cell-based food tech startup Celleste Bio, which hails from Israel, is out to tackle chocolate’s sustainability and labor issues. The company is producing high-quality cocoa using conventional cell culture methods.

Cacao trees, which grow in tropical regions across Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia, are expected to face threats as climate change increases temperatures and impacts growing seasons. The industry is also linked to deforestation and biodiversity loss.

Chocolate’s not-so-sweet side

The cocoa industry’s ongoing human rights violations also make alternatives more appealing. Despite pledges from the world’s leading chocolate producers including Hershey’s, Mars, and Nestlé to ensure their chocolate is free of child labor, problems are ongoing. The industry is also tied to other human rights violations including mistreatment of women, unfair wages, and human trafficking.

Cell-based chocolate is one potential answer to the industry’s problems. Like the tech replicates animal cells for meat and dairy, Celleste, co-founded by experts in the food tech space Hanne Volpin, PhD, CTO of Celleste, Avishai Levy, MSc,E., Orna Harel, PhD, and Daphna Michaeli, PhD, says it will reproduce cacao cells without the use of genetic modification or manipulation.

“We want to offer people the pleasure and health that high-quality cocoa products provide while eliminating the challenges of sustainable production that we face in cocoa production today,” Volpin said in a statement.

“Trendlines believes that the global need for more sustainable cocoa ingredients today and in the future, represents a tremendous opportunity for all stakeholders,” said Trendlines Agrifood Fund CEO, Nitza Kardish, PhD. Green Queen - link - Jill Ettinger - link - more like this (confectionery) - link - more like this (Israel) - link

(TEL) SCOTTISH NATIONALISTS - INDEPENDENCE AT WHAT COST?

Michelle Thomson wore a white peace poppy with a 'Yes' badge in the middle

A Scottish nationalist MSP has been criticised for politicising remembrance commemorations after she wore a pro-independence “peace” poppy at Holyrood.

Michelle Thomson, the SNP backbencher, attended a hearing of Holyrood’s finance committee on Tuesday morning wearing a white poppy to which she attached a pin badge depicting the official logo of the Yes campaign in the 2014 referendum. 

The Telegraph - link - Daniel Sanderson - link - Scottish losses WW1 - link - Scottish Nationalists (Guardian) - link - more like this (Scottish Daily Express) - link - more like this (Scotland) - link - more like this (Scottish offshore) - link

(YOU) COP OUT VERSION 27

(EUR) NOT MUCH COP 27

At the COP27 climate summit we must not lose sight of the fact that big polluters are primarily responsible for cleaning up their mess, write Silvia Modig and Petros Kokkalis. [rafapress / Shutterstock]

At the COP27 climate summit, we must not lose sight of the fact that it’s big polluters who are primarily responsible for cleaning up their mess, write Silvia Modig and Petros Kokkalis.

Silvia Modig is a Finnish MEP from the Left Alliance; Petros Kokkalis is a Greek MEP from Syriza. They are both members of the European Parliament’s Environment Committee and are attending the UN Climate Change Summit.

As a child, you learn at some point to clean up when you’ve left a mess behind. Well, that’s a lesson that many people don’t seem to have learned – people who are now in powerful jobs and making enormous profits, including by polluting the earth and not cleaning up their mess.

Rich industrialised countries have used the Earth’s atmosphere as a free dumping ground for more than 150 years. The wealthiest 10% of the world’s population exceed the target per capita emissions by a factor of nine, and the wealthiest 1% by a factor of 30. According to Oxfam, the super-rich live like ecological vandals with a free pass to destroy our climate.

Now we are facing a dangerous and alarming era of climate change impacts, causing massive loss and damage and driving up inequality in the world’s poorest countries that have contributed least to the climate crisis. Pakistan, for example, is one of the world’s most affected by climate change, even though it accounts for less than 1% of global emissions.

Developed and developing countries alike are affected by loss and damage. However, losses and damages have a greater impact on the most vulnerable people, communities and countries, most of which are in the Global South. Compared to rich countries, they lack the resources to reduce and address loss and damage.

Developing countries have long called for a financing mechanism for such “loss and damage” in international climate negotiations.

For over 30 years, Parties to the UN Climate Change Summit, COP, have discussed the issue. However, rich countries continue to refuse to assume their responsibility to pay for loss and damage in developing countries. Euractiv - link - Petros Kokkalis - link - Silvia Modig - link - more like this (COP) - link

(NAT) BEHOLD - THE HORWIN SENMENTI 0

Austrian-designed, Chinese-made electric motorcycle brand Horwin is hitting this year's EICMA motorcycle show in Milan with a super-scooter loaded to the gills with gadgetry, and a second wild concept that aims to upend traditional chassis design.

The Senmenti 0 delivers frankly massive performance figures for what's essentially a maxi-scooter. With some 600 Nm (442.5 lb-ft) of rear-wheel torque, this unassuming-looking commuter is allegedly capable of rocketing you from 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 2.8 seconds, effectively staying nose to nose with Suzuki's GSX-R1000 superbike up to highway speeds, at which point the Gixxer will have enough revs on the clock to wake up and start actually trying.

The Senmenti will continue accelerating briskly up to a claimed top speed of 200 km/h (124 mph), giving it a rightful place in the middle lanes of Autobahns even if you'll need to be watching the mirrors pretty closely if you venture into the fast lane. This is a robustly excessive top speed for a scooter, and one matched by a robustly excessive 16.2-kWh battery pack capable of charging up in 30 minutes on a suitable supercharger, then delivering an impressive 300 km (186 miles) of range if you cruise at a decent 88 km/h (55 mph).

If that seems like a lot for a scooter, strap in, because Horwin has peppered this machine with more than 30 cameras, sensors and deep learning processors in an effort to establish itself as a technology powerhouse. We're talking real-time tire pressure monitoring, front and rear mm-wave radars for blind spot and collision warnings, hill-start assist, descent control and auto-hold.

Cameras and sensors around the bike enable a "sentry mode" to keep it safe wherever you park it – or at least to dob in the culprits if it's stolen or damaged. The cameras are also designed to watch the road conditions and the rider, in order to adapt the bike's power output to match your habits as it learns how you deal with different conditions.

A hearty no thanks from me on that one, unless it's able to discern from a steely glare and a stream of obscenities when a rider doesn't want any help working the throttle. The AI brain will also try to figure out which are the cool bits of your ride, so it can auto-record selfie videos and snippets from the other cameras.

Its keyless ignition system can be triggered by a key fob, a Bluetooth connection or a phone app. The seats and bars are heated, there's a reverse mode to get it out of tight spots, there's ABS, traction control, three-level adjustable air shocks and a "fully-automatic windshield," which in a perfect world for me would automatically detach itself from the bike and place itself in the bin. This being an imperfect world, I assume it raises and lowers itself according to your speed, which sounds very annoying.

The Senmenti 0 appears to run conventional forks, so we've got no idea what the strange contraption wrapping around to the front axle might be. But the other concept Horwin is bringing to EICMA goes a fair bit further out there.

The Senmenti X is designed to roughly match the 0's performance figures, but uses a new architecture Horwin claims will "fundamentally solve the triangle paradox of performance, range and weight," with a design that's electric from the ground up, and integrates the battery, motor and controller as part of the structure. New Atlas - link - Loz Blain - link - more like this (scooters) - link

(HFN) BMW H2 ON ROAD BY 2030

BMW Group Chair Oliver Zipse has stated that the automaker is aligned to achieve a viable hydrogen car model as an alternative to battery electrics by the end of the decade. 

Zipse has already stated that he has every faith that H2 will take over as the big zero-emission fuel.

As was recently reported by Hydrogen Fuel News, Zipse has stated that while battery electric vehicles are having their moment for now, they will reach their peak within a decade and that after that point, the hydrogen car will be the “hippest thing” on the road. In that light, he has now also said that it won’t be long before one of those “hip” vehicles powered by H2 will be rolling out of BMW’s own factories.

He pointed out that while electric vehicles have their appeal, not everyone wants one, and they’re not necessarily compatible for all locations and situations. Instead, those drivers will be better served by vehicles powered by H2, he said. Moreover, they will be able to shop BMW for those vehicles by as early as the end of the decade.

According to Zipse, a hydrogen car makes better sense than battery electric in many areas.

“We believe in hydrogen for many reasons. We believe that – and I’m speaking now from the BMW side but that ends up being for every brand in the Group – if you want to ride emissions-free and you do not have a charging station, this is the only possibility we have,” said the BMW Chair at a recent event. 

“In some areas to implement a hydrogen infrastructure is easier than an electric infrastructure, for example in areas where you don’t have any connection to a power grid. For hydrogen, you just need the tank.”

BMW has already announced that they have been testing an H2-powered X5, which will be the next hydrogen car model they intend to develop with this zero-emission fuel. This is the likely vehicle that will be released by the end of the decade, once its development and testing is completed. It is already undergoing tests to pit its H2 fuel cell powertrain against some of the most challenging road and weather conditions in order to measure its performance and viability against its more conventional counterparts.

BMW has yet to confirm specifically which model will be released as the automaker’s first hydrogen car. Moreover, while Zipse did say that the vehicle won’t be ready in the immediate future, he hasn’t ruled out an unveiling in the next handful of years. Hydrogen Fuel News - link - Bret Williams - link - more like this (BMW) - link - more like this (H2 cars) - link

(IAN) READING 15

Royal Berkshire Hospital - link - more like this - link

(CNN) 6,500 WORKERS DEDICATE THEIR LIVES TO WORLD CUP?

The Lusail Stadium in Doha, Qatar, will host the final of this year's World Cup which kicks off in November.

This November, billions of people around the world will tune in to the World Cup – one of the greatest sporting spectacles in human history. 

It’s an event that has brought wars to a standstill, canonized sporting saints and sinners, and united the planet in savoring every exclamation point goal, last-ditch tackle and intricately choreographed celebratory knee-slide.

There’s just one problem: This year, it’s happening in Qatar.

In Qatar, journalists are thrown in jail for investigating migrant worker conditions. LGBTQ+ people are treated as criminals. Women need to ask men permission to marry, travel and study abroad in many cases.

And Qatari labor practices have been compared to modern slavery – a reported 6,500 South Asian migrant workers have died in Qatar since the country was awarded the World Cup in 2010. Experts say it is likely a lot of these deaths are related to construction of buildings for the tournament.

6,500 deaths – at least. The total death toll is almost certainly higher, as this figure does not include many countries sending workers to Qatar, including the Philippines and African nations.

(Qatar argues that the mortality rate for its migrant worker community is within the expected range for the size and demographics of the population.)

In recent years, Qatari authorities have introduced “several promising labor reform initiatives,” according to Human Rights Watch. But “significant gaps remain,” it said, including “widespread wage abuses” and failure to “investigate the causes of deaths of thousands of migrant workers.”

A controversial bid

Let’s not pretend that the Qataris won their Cup bid through merit alone. After all, Qatar – a peninsula smaller than Connecticut and with heat so extreme that it’s a potential health risk to play soccer there during the summer months – is the last place it would make sense to host a giant international sporting tournament.

How, then, did Qatar get chosen? Well, as an endless stream of investigative journalism alleges, it won the bid through a process that was rigged from top to bottom. (Qatar strongly denies the allegations).

Shortly after France’s supporting vote, for instance, Qatar Sports Investments purchased the Paris Saint-Germain Football Club; around the same time, another Qatari firm bought a piece of Veolia, a French energy and waste company.

Not to mention: A firm connected to the Qatari sovereign fund hired the son of Michel Platini, the former head of the European football association. Népotisme? Zut alors!

But don’t take our word for it. Matt Miller, a former Department of Justice official who traveled with former Attorney General Eric Holder to Zurich to witness the bidding process, told us: “It was the most corrupt thing I’ve ever seen in my career, and I spent a couple years working in New Jersey politics.”

Jokes aside, all this raises the question: Why would Qatar even want to host the World Cup?

The answer is that the country is hoping for a Beijing 2008 Olympics moment – a chance to airbrush its human rights abuses and shine on a global stage. By hosting the World Cup, Qatar wants to project a cosmopolitan image like that of its neighbors in the UAE, signaling it is open for business, welcoming to tourists and a player in global politics. CNN - link - Roger Bennett - link - Tommy Vietor - link - more like this (human rights) - link - more like this (Veolia) - link

(F24) QATAR - WORLD CLASS GREENWASHING

This picture taken on October 27, 2022 shows a partial view of Doha's Education City Stadium ahead of the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup football tournament. © Karim Jaafar, AFP

When Qatar was awarded hosting duties for the biggest event in football, the Gulf nation promised to host "the first carbon neutral World Cup". 

While organisers have introduced several green initiatives, environmentalists accuse the event's governing body of "greenwashing" its environmental claims.

Hosting a football World Cup tournament may be good for fans, players and sponsors, but it’s rarely good for the planet. The 2022 World Cup due to start on November 20 in Qatar has already received bad publicity over migrant rights issues. Now, environmentalists are criticising the competition over its devastating evironmental impact.

With its recently built air-conditioned stadiums and 150 daily flights to bring in fans, the 2022 World Cup has been slammed as one of the biggest environmental fiascos in the competition’s history.

In January 2020, Qatar promised to make the 2022 tournament the first "carbon neutral" World Cup. In September of that year, the organising committee detailed a roadmap to meet the challenge. "Our goal is to offset all greenhouse gas emissions while advancing low-carbon solutions in Qatar and the region. A carbon-neutral tournament is delivered through a four-step process : awareness, measurement, reduction and offsetting," said the committee in a statement.

Organisers planned to use large quantities of renewable energy and environmentally responsible materials, as well as adopt carbon offsetting measures. The World Cup in Qatar "will change the way future FIFA World Cup competitions and other sporting mega-events are organised," the statement added.

"This promise of carbon neutrality is absolutely not credible," said Gilles Dufrasne, lead author of the Carbon Market Watch report published in May 2022 examining Qatar’s claims. "This is a blatant example of greenwashing."

In June 2021, a FIFA report indicated that the 2022 World Cup would produce up to 3.6m tonnes of carbon dioxide. By comparison, France releases about 4.2m tonnes per year. The 2018 World Cup in Russia generated 2.1m tonnes of CO2. "It's inherent in this type of competition which brings together fans from all over the world in one place. As things stand, a football World Cup cannot be green. Despite our efforts, the environmental impact will still be significant," said Dufrasne. "In my opinion, this is the real problem. Although it is high time we take this reality into account when organising the next World Cup, FIFA would rather launch a greenwashing campaign." France 24 - link - Cyrielle Cabot - link - more like this (Middle East) - link - more like this (greenwashing) - link - more like this (WordPress) - link

(FUT) VOLOCOPTER RAISES ANOTHER $182 MILLION

The Volocopter VoloCity electric aircraft performs a demo flight in Singapore in October 2019. The company now has added Saudi Arabia's Neom regional development project to its list of potential markets for the vehicle. (Photo: Volocopter)

Volocopter has raised another $182 million in the second signing of its Series E funding round from Saudi regional development project Neom and Hong Kong’s Gly Capital Management, the Bruschal, Germany-based eVTOL manufacturer said Tuesday. 

Volocopter added that the funding will carry the company beyond the certification of the VoloCity electric passenger aircraft.

Volocopter boasts more than 10 years of development experience and has flown some 1,500 test flights. The only electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) company to receive Design Organization Approval from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), Volocopter expects to launch its first commercial air taxi routes within two years in places such as Singapore, Rome, Paris, and the Neom region.

“Attracting Neom And Gly as investors is a great success and highlights our pole position in the commercial certification race,” said Volocopter CEO Dirk Hoke. “This is the key requirement to launching commercial operations and starting to generate revenue.”

Volocopter and Neom signed a joint-venture agreement in December 2021 with a view to integrating the VoloCity air taxi and the VoloDrone autonomous cargo-carrying vehicle into Neom’s mobility systems. The joint venture will design, integrate, and operate the region’s all-electric public flight routes for seven years after the launch of the project.

Gly operates as a subsidiary of Chinese automotive company Geely Holding, which in April 2021 entered a joint venture with Volocopter to bring UAM to Chinese megacities. That deal included a purchase agreement covering 150 Volocopter aircraft.

“Volocopter’s vision encompasses industrial short- and medium-range commercial passenger applications to bring efficiency to the way we move around our cities,” said Gly Capital co-CEO Hrvoje Krkalo. “I look forward to supporting their journey, a journey that promises to be exciting, safe, and scenic in equal measure.”

Volocopter’s Series E funding round remains open, said the eVTOL manufacturer, which added that many interested companies have passed their due-diligence phase. Future Flight - link - Gregory Polek - link - more like this (Geely) - link - more like this (Volocopter) - link - more like this (Neom) - link - more like this (eVTOL) - link

(ENS) CANADA NEEDS 8GW STORAGE BY 2035

The world’s first commercial-scale advanced compressed air energy storage (A-CAES) plant is in Ontario. Image: Hydrostor.

When we talk about decarbonising Canadian electricity, we tend to focus on how it’s generated. How can we cost effectively expand hydropower capacity? Where are solar panels and wind turbines best located? How can we fully capture the potential of new fuels such as hydrogen and ammonia?

All vital questions, to be sure.

But no matter how effectively we develop our green generation options, we’re likely to fall short of our net-zero carbon ambition unless we knit the whole system together – and incorporate the ability to even out the variations in supply and demand – through a large-scale build-out of diverse forms of energy storage.

For the first time the scope of that build-out has been quantified, in a report recently commissioned by Energy Storage Canada. The report provides an estimate of the installed capacity of energy storage required, province by province, to optimally supplement green electricity sources and carry Canada over the net zero finish line.

And it’s a significant amount – in the range of 8 to 12 gigawatts nationally by 2035. Even at the low-end, that’s equivalent to Manitoba’s entire installed generating capacity as of 2020.

And while energy storage is already on a healthy growth trajectory with recent announcements in Ontario and Nova Scotia, national installed capacity today is less than 1 gigawatt, meaning we have a big gap to close.

But we need to close it if we are going to successfully realise the dual imperatives of meeting more of our energy end-use needs with electricity, and of enlarging the proportion of that electricity that comes from renewables and other non-emitting resources. Energy Storage - link - Justin Rangooni - link - more like this (storage) - link - more like this (Canada) - link

(RCH) GOOGLE GRABS TEXAN GIGAWATT

Google signed up for almost a gigawatt’s worth of new renewable energy output as the tech giant continues to chase a stated goal to make its global datacentre fleet green-powered 24/7.

Google will buy 75% of production equivalent to 942MW from four projects under development by the US arm of Japan’s SB Energy Texas after they enter service in 2024 in the state of Texas.

The electricity from the Orion 1-3 and Eiffel solar development – which have a combined total capacity of 1.2GW – will cover consumption at Google’s datacentre in the state and its Dallas cloud region operations.

The web giant has over the last five years been one of the biggest sourcers of renewable power globally with deals for around 6GW in place spanning onshore and offshore wind as well as solar.

Google’s core target is to run its operations – including its energy-hungry fleet of data centres – on clean power 24/7 by 2030, an aim that involves greening local grids and adding storage, as well as striking deals to cover consumption with renewable output elsewhere.

Sana Ouji, energy lead at Google, said: "Within the decade we're aiming for every Google datacentre to operate on clean electricity every hour of every day. This goal requires us to continue to grow our carbon-free energy portfolio.”

Google's tech peers Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook were the biggest buyers of corporate clean power in 2021 according to data released earlier in the year.

SB Energy said its plans for expansion had been given new momentum by the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, and added that the Texas solar projects would use US-made First Solar modules. picture (The Texas Tribune) - link - (Recharge - link - Andrew Lee - link - more like this (Google) - link - more like this (Texas) - link - more like this (solar) - link

(IAN) READING 14

more like this (Reading's roads) - link - more like this - link

(PIN) MARS-WRIGLEY GAMIFYING RECYCLING

Olyns is announcing a collaboration with Mars-Wrigley to gamify recycling and provide access for consumers to recycle rigid plastic candy and gum containers. The program is running at select retailers in the San Francisco Bay area.

Beginning this week, individuals in Northern California who deposit qualifying candy containers in an Olyns reverse vending machine will have a chance to win money in rewards in a game-like system.

“Currently, there is no convenient way for people to recycle rigid plastic candy and gum containers. The goal of our collaboration with Mars-Wrigley is to increase the recycling of small rigid plastic containers, high-density PP and PP,” an Olyns spokesperson tells PackagingInsights.

“There is currently no reliable way to recycle rigid plastic candy and gum containers. Many rigid plastic candy and gum containers are put directly into the trash or landfill. Those that are put into recycling may quite literally ‘slip through the cracks’ of traditional processor equipment because they are too small and end up in landfill as well.”

“There is no financial incentive to recycle this container (no deposit or ‘bottle bill’ system). We believe our cash rewards and other incentives, such as virtual badges, will incentivize people to recycle rigid plastic candy and gum containers,” they add.

Expansion potential

The Sweet Rewards Challenge will run at select retailers in the San Francisco Bay Area for a limited time beginning October 25 2022.

“The initial Bay Area pilot is scheduled for six months. If successful, it may be extended and expanded across the US,” asserts the spokesperson.

Packaging waste is a challenge that requires new and innovative solutions. “At Mars, we’re committed to contributing to a circular plastics economy where no packaging becomes waste,” says Justin Comes, vice president of R&D at Mars Wrigley North America.

“Rigid plastic containers, like those used for gum and candy, may slip through the cracks of traditional recycling systems because they’re just too small. And because states don’t offer redemption value, there is limited incentive to recycle them,” adds Philip Stanger, co-founder and CEO at Olyns.

Increasing recycling frequencies

Olyns says they are changing the concept by combining convenient recycling with the potential to win rewards. “Every time you deposit a candy container in one of our RVM Cubes, you’ll earn points and a chance to win. We’ve set it up like a slot machine, but instead of inserting a coin to play, you deposit an empty candy container.” Olyns - link - Packaging Insights - link - Natalie Schwertheim - link - more like this (packaging) - link - more like this (San Francisco) - link