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Energy Archive

Archives for July 2023

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
Deep sea mining negotiations stalled again.

The deep sea is an untapped source of battery materials. But world leaders missed a July deadline to craft regulations on deep sea mining. Since so little is known about marine life at those depths, Scientists warn that exploiting those resources would be disastrous — especially without international regulations in place. The International Seabed Authority was scheduled to discuss a potential moratorium on deep-sea mining during a meeting last week, but ultimately pushed talks to 2024.

Jacob Kastrenakes
Jacob Kastrenakes
Home solar is very cool... and very hard to figure out.

Marques Brownlee got a top-of-the-line Tesla system installed in his home to figure out the costs, benefits, and quirks of it all. He found huge fluctuations season to season, which mostly washed out over the course of the year.

The end result was a very high-tech and nearly cost-free home electricity system... it’s just going to take a while to pay itself off.

Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
This Winnebago x EcoFlow campervan can last for days off grid.

The new Solis Pocket 36B comes standard with an EcoFlow PowerKit I reviewed last year. It starts with a 5kWh battery that can be expandable to 15kWh, which is a ton of LFP storage capacity for a van. It’s available to buy in the US and Canada from August.

Or maybe wait for Winnebago’s production version of the all-electric eRV2. Decisions, decisions.

<em>“Enables up to three days of boondocking” from a single 5kWh configuration “in favorable weather conditions.”</em>
<em>Shame they couldn’t integrate all the van’s functions into EcoFlow’s big console display.</em>
<em>A closer look at EcoFlow’s console display.</em>
<em>The Power Kit components are installed under the dinette seat. But there’s only room for one 5kWh battery here. </em>
<em>EcoFlow’s ecosystem of solar generators can further extend off-grid usage.</em>
<em>Power the van (and charge its batteries) from a generator or shore power when back to civilization.</em>
<em>The garage is also the shower.</em>
<em>Removable toilet and on-board gas.</em>
<em>Hob is still gas-powered, not electric.</em>
<em>5kWh battery can run the air conditioner (A/C) for up to five hours. </em>
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“Enables up to three days of boondocking” from a single 5kWh configuration “in favorable weather conditions.”
Image: Winnebago / EcoFlow
Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Watch Cara Delevingne spritz her face with industrial waste.

This ad from European energy provider Vattenfall promotes the use of hydrogen fuels that emit water as waste instead of carbon dioxide. “The emissions are so clean that they can be used in a refreshing face mist and put on your face.” While this may in fact be greenwashing, it’s also clever and weird enough that — for the moment — I do not care.