Vodafone has announced the switch-on of the UK’s first wind and solar-powered mobile phone mast in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Wind And Solar Power The mast, designed to provide 4G coverage to the community of Eglwyswrw (pronounced Egg-lis-oo-roo), incorporates a wind turbine, solar panels, and on-site battery storage. This makes the mast off-grid and self-powering and enables it to function with…
New York state lawmakers have passed a two-year ban on energy-hungry proof-of-work crypto mining that uses carbon-based fossil fuel power plants. Energy-Hungry Crypto-Mining One of the big environmental challenges of cryptocurrency mining is that it requires a large amount of power. For example, Bitcoin “mining” uses specialised Bitcoin computers that are constantly powered on and connected to the cryptocurrency…
Rather than EV drivers waiting for 40 minutes to re-charge the car battery at a charging station, could the solution be stations where drivers can quickly swap their battery for a fully charged one? Swap Battery Rather Than Wait To Re-Charge Chinese electric carmaker, Nio recently made the news with exactly this idea, which is already widely used in…
With container ships being bigger greenhouse gas producers that aeroplanes, London-based company ‘Seabound’ has developed technology that reduces up to 95 per cent of CO2 emissions per ship. The Problem The shipping industry is responsible for producing around 940 million tonnes of CO2 annually, which equates to at least 2.5 per cent of the world’s total CO2 emissions. This is…
A fast-growing Amsterdam-based start-up, The Great Bubble Barrier, as the name suggests has created a barrier that used bubbles to stop plastic waste from entering and to remove plastic from waterways. Most Plastic Travels Via Rivers And Canals Each year, up to 80 per cent of the 8 million tons of plastic reaching the ocean first flow along rivers…
With our devices using lithium-ion batteries and with Electronic Vehicles (EVs) currently dependent on lithium for their rechargeable batteries we look at the environmental impact of lithium mining, and what the possible alternatives could be. Lithium Lithium is a naturally occurring element found ionic minerals like petalite, lepidolite, and spodumene, and is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal sometimes referred to…
New research by British Gas (Centrica) has revealed that UK households could save an average of £147 per year on their electricity bills by switching off their ‘vampire electronics’. What Are Vampire Devices? So-called ‘vampire devices’ are those household electronic devices, plugged into the mains, that continue to drain power when left on standby. These include remote-ready devices with…
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria and particularly sustainability are now key to many business spending decisions. Here we look at some of the current key trends. Ten Trends 1. Putting sustainability at the heart of the business. This is now much more than just an attractive concept. The need to tackle global warming, meet net-zero targets, appeal to…
With plastic disintegrating into microplastic particles, polluting the seas and harming wildlife, scientists are asking: could microalgae be the answer tackling the microplastic problem? Microplastics Ranging from 1 nanometre (nm) to less than 5 micrometres (mm), non-biodegradable microplastic particles are either primary or secondary fragments of plastic pollution that find their way into the sea and other waterways. Primary…
Nature-based carbon capture and storage company Brilliant Planet uses ‘microalgae’, grown in open-air natural seawater pond-based, high-tech systems on coastal desert land to remove carbon from the air. Permanently Capturing And Storing Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide The company says that its method of using technology and science-led, pond-based algae-growing systems can deliver an affordable method of permanently and quantifiably sequestering carbon…
