Circa 2013 o.o
Rheinmetall Defense Electronics unveiled their new “Gatling Laser” which can be mounted on ships as part of a new sea-based anti-drone laser system. The four 20 kilowatt lasers fire simultaneously as a single powerful 80 kilowatt beam. The firm boasts units can even be combined for ‘unlimited’ power. The Gatling laser can reportedly shoot down a drone at 500 meters.
Circa 2020 o.o
China’s military is soliciting would-be suppliers for a new airborne laser weapon. Notices on a government website invited defense contractors to provide information on an airborne laser attack pod. Depending on the level of power, the pod could be used to defend a friendly aircraft from incoming missile threats or destroy enemy aircraft and ground targets. Laser weapons are the next revolution in aerial warfare and could make dogfighting obsolete.
According to the South China Morning Post, weain.mil.cn, the official weapons and equipment procurement website of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) published two solicitations to contractors, one titled, “procurement plan for airborne laser attack pod” and the other “price inquiry on procurement plan for controlling software module of laser attack platform.” The solicitations, marked confidential, invited China’s defense firms to bid to develop the items. The Pentagon uses a similar system to procure weapons, equipment, and other technology.
analysis from BloombergNEF (BNEF) highlights that for applications requiring two hours of energy, batteries are beating gas peaker plants. While the 2019 LCOE benchmark for lithium-ion battery storage hit US$187 per megawatt-hour (MWh) already threatening coal and gas and representing a fall of 76% since 2012, by the first quarter of this year, the figure had dropped even further and now stands at US$150 per megawatt-hour for battery storage with four hours’ discharge duration.
The cost of battery energy storage has continued on its trajectory downwards, making it more and more competitive with fossil fuels. That in itself will come as no surprise to many in the industry. As we wrote last week, analysis from BloombergNEF (BNEF) highlights that for applications requiring two hours of energy, batteries are beating gas peaker plants. While the 2019 LCOE benchmark for lithium-ion battery storage hit US$187 per megawatt-hour (MWh) already threatening coal and gas and representing a fall of 76% since 2012, by the first quarter of this year, the figure had dropped even further and now stands at US$150 per megawatt-hour for battery storage with four hours’ discharge duration.
Andy Colthorpe spoke to Tifenn Brandily, BNEF’s lead author of the latest LCOE report, which covers solar, wind and more than 20 other technologies including battery storage from 47 regional markets around the world.
Let’s talk about how you derive the LCOE and the benchmark. I understand also that it varies a bit around the world and the US$150/MWh is an average figure?
To start with an analogy: you can think of a battery energy storage power plant just like a gas-fired power plant. It has a fuel cost, and the fuel cost of the battery is the electricity you have to pay for to charge the battery.
When we first covered the high-power Delfast TopCop electric bicycle, the company was still pitching its bikes to various police departments around the world. Now we’re hearing some of the first feedback from actual cops who have incorporated the e-bikes into their daily service.
Tesla has made even more battery improvements on its new ‘million-mile battery’ now with less cobalt, which could result in lower cost and even more energy density.
Last year, we were the first to report on Tesla’s battery research partner, Jeff Dahn and his team at Dalhousie University, unveiling the impressive results of tests on a new battery cell that could last over 1 million miles in an electric vehicle.
The new battery tested is a Li-ion battery cell with a next-generation “single crystal” NMC 532 cathode and a new advanced electrolyte, which they patented.
Renewable sources including solar, wind and hydropower generated more electricity than coal-based plants every single day in April, a new report says.
Analysis shared by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEFA), based on data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), said the finding marks a major “milestone” in an energy transition that is now underway.
The move away from coal for electricity generation in the U.S. accelerated in 2020 due to lower gas prices, warmer weather and a “significant amount” of new renewable capacity being connected to the grid late last year, the report suggested.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=h5jBjso6l6I
Circa 2015
Fittingly, these rifle-sized weapons would gun for other electronics.
Pew! Pew! Soldiers with handheld energy blasters are the stuff of G.I. Joe, not real life … until now. The U.S Army is currently testing electricity guns for possible use against electronics on the battlefield. They don’t look like props from the popular cartoon show but, rather like regular standard-issue M4 rifles with a pair of antennas that shoot out from the barrel and then spread, giving the front end of the gun a musket-like shape.
Soldiers “already carry rifles. Why not use something that every soldier already carries,” said James E. Burke, an electronics engineer with the U.S. Army’s Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, or ARDEC. Burke spoke with Defense One at a National Defense Industry Association event in Baltimore on Tuesday.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Thousands of Evergy customers in the metro are without power Monday after strong storms move through the metro.
According to the outage map on Evergy’s website there were 133 active outages at 11:40 a.m., and those 133 outages were impacting 14,296 customers.
There is no word yet on how long it will take crews to fully restore power.
Many people in the Northwest separate out their table scraps, wilted leaves and old fruit, carting them off eventually to a compost bin or joining their grass clippings and pruning remains in the green waste bin. In the City of Seattle, food waste is required to be separated from garbage.
But most of our actions still revolve around a simple concept: Collect your household waste, sit it on the curb, and somebody will come and pick it up. Businesses do the same thing, just on a larger scale. We have applied industrial-age logic to waste: create a production line that starts at a home or business, automate as many of the tasks as possible, and coordinate through centrally managed processes and destinations.
This centralized approach to waste collection is labor and energy intensive, and it doesn’t give back much.
The US firm, known for its electric vehicles, also has operations in battery energy storage and solar panel manufacturing.
