Sunday, January 16
Upgrade to US Power Grid
The grid upgrade, which will decarbonize the power sector and support electrification of transportation and other sectors such as clean energy and charging infrastructure, is a crucial part of reaching the Biden administration’s goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035 and net zero by 2050.
And it can’t come soon enough: 70% of the US grid’s transmission lines and power transformers are over 25 years old. There’s also insufficient transmission capacity, especially transmission that facilitates transfer of power across regions.
As it stands, the power grid is vulnerable to harsh weather, and the new initiative will improve reliability.
The new Better Grid Initiative will make the US power grid more resilient, increase access to affordable and reliable clean energy, and create jobs across industry sectors. The DOE’s summary of the Initiative states:
Under the Building a Better Grid Initiative, DOE will identify critical national transmission needs and support the buildout of long-distance, high-voltage transmission facilities that meet those needs through collaborative transmission planning, innovative financing mechanisms, coordinated permitting, and continued transmission-related research and development. DOE commits to robust engagement on energy justice and collaboration, including with states, American Indian Tribes and Alaska Natives, industry, unions, local communities, and other stakeholders for successful implementation of the program.
The DOE’s notice of intent includes five major points:
- Engaging and collaborating early with states, tribal nations, and stakeholders.
- Enhancing transmission planning to identify areas of greatest need.
- Deploying more than $20 billion in federal financing tools, including through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s new $2.5 billion Transmission Facilitation Progra, m, $3 billion expansion of the Smart Grid Investment Grant Program, and more than $10 billion in grants for states, Tribes, and utilities to enhance grid resilience and prevent power outages. It also taps into existing tools, including the more than $3 billion Western Area Power Administration Transmission Infrastructure Program, and a number of loan guarantee programs through the Loan Programs Office.
- Facilitating an efficient transmission permitting process by coordinating with federal agencies to streamline permitting, using public private partnerships, and designating corridors.
- Performing transmission-related research and development. READ MORE...
Earliest Evidence of Species
The course of human evolution never did run smooth. The emergence of hominins on the continent of Africa is full of twists, turns, gaps, and dead ends, which makes it all the more difficult to retrace the rise of our own species.
Today, we still don't really know when or where the first Homo sapiens appeared on the scene, although an archaeological site in southwestern Ethiopia is one of our best lines of evidence.
It was here, in the 1960s, that paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey uncovered the earliest examples of fossils with undisputedly modern human anatomies.
To be clear, older remains attributed to Homo sapiens exist, dating back hundreds of thousands of years. But the line between us and our ancestors is a smear of characteristics, leaving us with the remains known as Omo I as a starting point for what is unequivocally modern.
The ancient bones of this long lost ancestor, named for the nearby Omo River, were buried with mollusk shells, which were, at the time, dated to about 130,000 years of age.
In the decades since, radioactive dating of the surrounding soil has allowed us to push back that age even further to about 200,000 years. And yet even that could be an underestimation. READ MORE...
The International Space Station
The International Space Station is now more than two decades old. And while primary construction of the orbiting laboratory ended a little more than a decade ago, before the retirement of NASA's space shuttle, the station has continued to evolve with smaller modules and an ever-changing array of visiting spacecraft.
Over this time the station has begun to show its age, being exposed to the extreme hot and cold temperatures of space, a vacuum environment, and micrometeoroid debris.
For more than 20 years, these harsh conditions have worn on the station, inducing stress fractures and other damage.
Following the space shuttle's retirement in 2011, NASA lost the ability to fly humans around the station to catalog these changes with highly detailed photographs.
Following the space shuttle's retirement in 2011, NASA lost the ability to fly humans around the station to catalog these changes with highly detailed photographs.
But thanks to the emergence of SpaceX's Crew Dragon vehicle, astronauts have started circumnavigating the station once again after undocking and before heading home.
Most recently, the Crew 2 mission led by NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough undocked from the space station on November 8, and the crew was able to capture multiple views of the space station. READ MORE...
Most recently, the Crew 2 mission led by NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough undocked from the space station on November 8, and the crew was able to capture multiple views of the space station. READ MORE...
Saturday, January 15
Swiss Cheese Bubble Created by Supernovas
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Astronomers in the 1970s first discovered the gigantic void, known as the Local Bubble, after realizing that no stars had formed inside the blob for around 14 million years. The only stars inside the bubble either existed before the bubble emerged or formed outside the void and are now passing through; the sun is one such trespasser.
Space Plane with 3D Printed Engine
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| A hypersonic 'spaceplane' dubbed Delta Velos (pictured) has been developed in inner Sydney by a team of dedicated engineers |
Engineer Simon Ringer and his team at the University of Sydney are working with Australian aerospace engineering startup Hypersonix Launch Systems on the zero-emissions spaceplane.
'There will be this Australian-made vehicle which is just a complete leap in technology, travelling at hypersonic speeds,' Professor Ringer told AAP on Thursday.
With the development of sophisticated 3D printers, the so-called additive manufacturing tools, objects have jumped from fun and wacky to industrial and useful.
Additive manufacturing will be used to make flight-critical parts of the spaceplane, which will be powered by the world's first 3D printed scramjet engine. READ MORE...
Commercial Fusion Energy
A British Columbia-based company has announced a major breakthrough that it believes could lead to the world’s first commercial fusion energy plant.
General Fusion in Burnaby says it has achieved milestone targets for the prototype of its fusion demonstration plant, which can accommodate the extreme conditions of fusion, such as temperatures up to 150 million C.
“When you’re trying to contain a plasma, which is a super-heated form of hydrogen, at conditions and temperatures at the centre of the sun … it’s very hard to think of putting it inside a machine and that machine lasting the lifetime of a power plant,” explained CEO Chris Mowry.
“General Fusion is driving on a path where we could be putting a shovel in the ground on the first commercial plant before the end of the decade.”
Fusion power is a proposed form of clean energy generation that involves heating up two substances — deuterium and tritium — until their atoms collide and fuse into helium and a neutron, which contain a substantial amount of energy.
That energy can be harnessed and used to create electricity.
General Fusion’s Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) technology uses a swirling cylinder of liquid metal to safely compress and heat the required plasma to the right conditions. The concept itself isn’t new, but the company believes it has matured the technology. READ MORE...
Friday, January 14
US Prices Rise the Fastest in 40 YEARS
FROM THE BBC...
Prices in the US are rising at their fastest rate in almost 40 years, with inflation up 7% year-on-year in December.
Strong demand and scarce supply for key items such as cars are driving the increases, which are putting pressure on policymakers to act.
The US central bank is expected to raise interest rates this year.
The rise in borrowing costs is aimed at reducing demand by making purchases such as cars more expensive.
December's increase marked the third month in a row that the US annual inflation rate has hovered above 6% - well north of policymakers' 2% target. The last time the pace of inflation exceeded that level was 1982.
Housing costs were up 4.1% year-on-year, while the cost of groceries rose 6.5% - compared to a 1.5% annual average over the last 10 years.
Wednesday's report from the Labor Department showed signs that some of the pressures may be easing.
The cost of energy dropped 0.4% from November to December - its first decline since April. But over 12 months energy costs are up by nearly 30% and have returned to their upward trend in recent days.
"Overall, this is every bit as bad as we expected," Paul Ashworth, chief economist at Capital Economics, said of the December inflation report.
Reacting to the latest report, President Joe Biden said that it "demonstrates that we are making progress in slowing the rate of price increases".
He added that there is "more work to do" in the US and noted that "inflation is a global challenge, appearing in virtually every developed nation as it emerges from the pandemic economic slump".
The price pressures occurring in the US have been seen to varying degrees around the world.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which represents more than 30 of the world's largest economies, said this week that inflation among its members had hit its highest rate in 25 years in November. READ MORE.
Prices in the US are rising at their fastest rate in almost 40 years, with inflation up 7% year-on-year in December.
Strong demand and scarce supply for key items such as cars are driving the increases, which are putting pressure on policymakers to act.
The US central bank is expected to raise interest rates this year.
The rise in borrowing costs is aimed at reducing demand by making purchases such as cars more expensive.
December's increase marked the third month in a row that the US annual inflation rate has hovered above 6% - well north of policymakers' 2% target. The last time the pace of inflation exceeded that level was 1982.
Housing costs were up 4.1% year-on-year, while the cost of groceries rose 6.5% - compared to a 1.5% annual average over the last 10 years.
Wednesday's report from the Labor Department showed signs that some of the pressures may be easing.
The cost of energy dropped 0.4% from November to December - its first decline since April. But over 12 months energy costs are up by nearly 30% and have returned to their upward trend in recent days.
"Overall, this is every bit as bad as we expected," Paul Ashworth, chief economist at Capital Economics, said of the December inflation report.
Reacting to the latest report, President Joe Biden said that it "demonstrates that we are making progress in slowing the rate of price increases".
He added that there is "more work to do" in the US and noted that "inflation is a global challenge, appearing in virtually every developed nation as it emerges from the pandemic economic slump".
The price pressures occurring in the US have been seen to varying degrees around the world.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which represents more than 30 of the world's largest economies, said this week that inflation among its members had hit its highest rate in 25 years in November. READ MORE.
Samoa's First Female Prime Minister
There are fewer women in politics in the Pacific Islands than in any other part of the world, according to UN Women. But this year Samoa elected a woman as its head of government - only the second Pacific Island nation to do so - thanks in part to a network of women friends who supported her every step of the way.
"This is the margarita circle," the first woman prime minister of Samoa says, raising a salt-rimmed cup. "It's a place for honest confessions."
Her friends raise their glasses.
"Manuia!" they reply - "Cheers!"
It's a Sunday afternoon and a group of around 10 have just left the village church to gather for a buffet lunch on the veranda of Fiame Naomi Mata'afa's family home in Lotofaga village.
Behind them, the clear South Pacific ocean twinkles just beyond a strip of white sand.
"Do you remember how this particular journey started for us?" asks Tauiliili Alise Stunnenberg, an independent tourism consultant and Fiame's distant cousin.
"It was just over a year ago," replies the prime minister, "the day after I resigned."
On 11 September 2020, Fiame Naomi Mata'afa quit her position as deputy prime minister for Samoa's governing Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP), objecting to controversial plans to remove the right of appeal against rulings of a traditional Samoan court dealing with land ownership and chiefly titles.
As she left office, the most senior woman in Samoa's government told the media she feared the country was "sliding away from the rule of law". READ MORE...
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