article thumbnail

Synhelion starts construction of DAWN demo plant to produce solar fuels

Green Car Congress

ETH Zurich spin-off Synhelion has started the construction of DAWN—its own industrial plant to produce synthetic fuels using solar heat. The production process—using only solar heat—was first demonstrated in 2019 in a mini-refinery on the roof of ETH Zurich. Earlier post.)

Solar 435
article thumbnail

All-in-one solar-powered tower makes carbon-neutral kerosene in the field at pilot-scale

Green Car Congress

We are the first to demonstrate the entire thermochemical process chain from water and CO 2 to kerosene in a fully-integrated solar tower system. Previous attempts to produce aviation fuels through the use of solar energy have mostly been performed in the laboratory. B) Photograph of the solar tower fuel plant during operation.

Solar 446
article thumbnail

Monash study on solar-driven electrolysis for green hydrogen production cautions on life-cycle emissions and EROI

Green Car Congress

Researchers at Monash University in Australia have conducted a lifecycle analysis and net energy analysis (LCA/NEA) of a hypothetical large-scale solar-electrolysis plant for the production of green hydrogen. There is no immediate concern for copper resources, but the average ore grade is declining as higher grade deposits become exhausted.

Solar 459
article thumbnail

SMUD Board of Directors adopts climate emergency declaration; carbon neutrality by 2030

Green Car Congress

The SMUD (2020 Sacramento Municipal Utility District) Board of Directors adopted a climate emergency declaration that commits to working toward an ambitious goal of delivering carbon-neutral electricity by 2030.

Carbon 268
article thumbnail

Leading UK scientists set out resource challenge of meeting EV targets by 2050

Green Car Congress

Last month, the Committee on Climate Change published a report— Net Zero: The UK’s Contribution to Stopping Global Warming —which concluded that “net zero is necessary, feasible and cost effective.” If CdTe-type photovoltaic power is used, that would consume over thirty years of current annual tellurium supply.

article thumbnail

NREL researchers use adversarial training to super-resolve climate data; up to 50X higher resolution data

Green Car Congress

Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have developed a novel machine learning approach quickly to enhance the resolution of wind velocity data by 50 times and solar irradiance data by 25 times—an enhancement that had yet to be achieved with climate data.

Climate 170
article thumbnail

KIT team designs low-cost photoreactor for efficient solar-driven synthesis

Green Car Congress

Researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and their Canadian partners have designed a low-cost photoreactor design for solar-driven synthesis. Until now, however, the technology has mainly been found in the laboratory because the costs of producing solar hydrogen were simply too high. Joule doi: 10.1016/j.joule.2023.05.006

Low Cost 221