CleanTechna, focused on electric cars, solar energy, wind energy, and energy storage
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Why Simple Fuels Win at Sea: Assessing LNG SOFCs, Hydrogen, Sails, and CCS Against Practical Needs
I was recently asked by someone in the maritime industry whether Bloom Energy’s solid oxide fuel cells could play a real role in maritime propulsion. The question was prompted by the announcement from Ponant, GTT, and Bloom describing a concept cruise vessel for 200 passengers that would combine hard wing ... [continued]
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New Bio-Inspired “Super Bricks” Sucks Up Carbon
A new, bio-inspired carbon negative replacement for concrete is working its way through the laboratory at Worcester Polytechnic University in Massachusetts.
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How Outdated Engineering Models Distort Today’s EV & Road Charges Debate
The debate about vehicle weight and road damage shows how quickly a simple idea can gain traction even when the underlying evidence is thin. Commenters often reach for a familiar claim that heavier vehicles must be responsible for increased road wear. The argument sounds reasonable at first glance and it ... [continued]
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Largest Utah Coal Plant Goes Quiet as Los Angeles Goes Coal-Free
Utah’s largest coal-fired power plant — the Intermountain Power Project (IPP), located in the Great Basin region of western Utah and primarily serving southern California — is no longer operating, after the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power quietly pulled the plug just before Thanksgiving. The shutdown happened with ... [continued]
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Does Zipcar Leaving UK Have Any Relevance To Robotaxi Dreams?
There’s news this week that Zipcar is leaving the UK is interesting in multiple ways. I was an early Zipcar user back in 2004–2007. I loved it, and it helped me not own a car. Over the years, I was thus a big proponent of carsharing programs and even tried ... [continued]
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China’s Most Updated Autonomous Driving Framework Makes Both Carmakers & Operators (Owners Included) Liable in a Crash
In this week’s CleanTechnica YouTube gathering, fellow CleanTechnica writers Zach Shahan, Larry Evans, José Pontes, and I over-extended the allotted time of 30 minutes and talked for an hour and fifteen. The discussions were continuous and spontaneous, layered, one topic opening up another. One of the points we raised and ... [continued]
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Trump EPA Opens Door for More Haze Pollution in Texas, Benefiting Wealthy Utilities
Texas — Today the Trump Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved two do-nothing haze pollution plans from the Texas government, ignoring public pleas for EPA to reduce the harmful haze pollution that clouds Texas skies year round and makes people sick. Wealthy coal plant owners — like NRG and Luminant — now have permission ... [continued]
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November Update: Steady As She Goes For Australian Plugin Vehicle Sales
As the year draws to a close, my email inbox and my Facebook page are full of offers from car salespeople. Cash back from BYD, free charging from another, even discounts for the Cadillac LYRIQ! New cars are still being launched — for example, the Leap Motor B10, the BYD ... [continued]
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Tesla Allows Texting While Using FSD In Certain Situations … But Not Taking On Liability
Last month during Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting, Elon Musk noted that Tesla would soon allow texting while using FSD (“Full Self Driving”). That was potentially going to be a huge step forward. Was Tesla about to let human drivers completely stop supervising the car in FSD mode and do things ... [continued]
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Seabed Mining Meets Reality: What the Technoeconomic Evidence Shows
I was pleased to be asked to complete the technoeconomic assessment of seabed mining by the National Ocean Protection Coalition and to join the webinar discussing its results. It is not often that I have the opportunity to bring together decades of work in complex systems analysis, technology readiness, and ... [continued]
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A US Startup Heats Up The Solid State EV Race, CAFE Or No CAFE
US innovators are continuing to support the global movement towards solid state EV batteries, with the Massachusetts startup Factorial Energy among the contenders.
The post A US Startup Heats Up The Solid State EV Race, CAFE Or No CAFE appeared first on
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Tesla Sales Drop 19% in UK, while BYD Sales More Than Triple
Tesla sales have dropped in some markets this year, dropped even more in other markets, and risen in a few. At times, the UK has been one of Tesla’s bright spots. However, the trend lately has been downward again, and the company had a very bad November. According to non-official ... [continued]
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Member States Seize Last Chance to Unlock Clean Truck Deal
EU government ministers sign off on new Weights & Dimensions which grant trucks extra weight to accommodate heavier zero-emission technologies. After more than two years of deadlock EU government ministers have finally unlocked negotiations on rules to grant trucks extra weight to accommodate heavier clean technologies. This was the last ... [continued]
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Digging Deeper into Differences Between Tesla Full Self-Driving & Waymo Driver
In an article earlier today about Waymo announcing that it’s going to enter four more cities — Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and St. Louis — one of our readers provided a couple of brilliant comments. Now, let me say that I didn’t mention Tesla in the article, but there’s been a ... [continued]
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CATL Expects Oceanic Electric Ships in 3 Years
News in batteries and electrification has been coming fast and furious lately. Recently, Su Yi, the head of CATL’s marine division, stated, “CATL’s marine business already covers inland rivers, lakes, and coastal waters, and is now advancing toward ocean-going applications.” “In the near future — perhaps within the next three ... [continued]
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