Endless solar energy from satellites, houses 3D-printed in six weeks, graphene-packed super-batteries… Radical innovation just won't stop
We sit at the crossroads of planetary boundaries and radical innovation in A/UK. We are respectful of the “doughtnut” of viability we occupy—the space between a satisfying human society and the limits of the biosphere.
But we’re always wondering what kind of ingenuity - cultural, sci-tech, organizational - will allow us to live interestingly in that sustainable zone. We are the playful and exploratory animal, as well as the dutiful and caring animal, and the former nature must be answered too.
So here are three “echoes of a future” that would be useful to mark as they arise - in a “you heard it here first” manner. All three demonstrate extraordinary engineering, energy and biological leaps, each of them with major consequences for living lighter on this planet.
Solar Power Stations in Space Could Answer our energy needs
Artist impression of a solar disk in space. NASA
From The Conversation:
Renewable energy technologies have developed drastically in recent years, with improved efficiency and lower cost. But one major barrier to their uptake is the fact that they don’t provide a constant supply of energy.
Wind and solar farms only produce energy when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining – but we need electricity around the clock, every day. Ultimately, we need a way to store energy on a large scale before we can make the switch to renewable sources.
A possible way around this would be to generate solar energy in space. There are many advantages to this. A space-based solar power station could orbit to face the Sun 24 hours a day. The Earth’s atmosphere also absorbs and reflects some of the Sun’s light, so solar cells above the atmosphere will receive more sunlight and produce more energy.
(The European Space Agency has realised the potential of these efforts and is now looking to fund such projects, predicting that the first industrial resource we will get from space is “beamed power”.)
But one of the key challenges to overcome is how to assemble, launch and deploy such large structures. A single solar power station may have to be as much as 10 kilometres squared in area – equivalent to 1,400 football pitches. Using lightweight materials will also be critical, as the biggest expense will be the cost of launching the station into space on a rocket.
One proposed solution is to develop a swarm of thousands of smaller satellites that will come together and configure to form a single, large solar generator. In 2017, researchers at the California Institute of Technology outlined designs for a modular power station, consisting of thousands of ultralight solar cell tiles. They also demonstrated a prototype tile weighing just 280 grams per square metre, similar to the weight of card.
Recently, developments in manufacturing, such as 3D printing, are also being looked at for this application. At the University of Liverpool, we are exploring new manufacturing techniques for printing ultralight solar cells on to solar sails.
A solar sail is a foldable, lightweight and highly reflective membrane capable of harnessing the effect of the Sun’s radiation pressure to propel a spacecraft forward without fuel. We are exploring how to embed solar cells on solar sail structures to create large, fuel-free solar power stations.
These methods would enable us to construct the power stations in space. Indeed, it could one day be possible to manufacture and deploy units in space from the International Space Station or the future lunar gateway station that will orbit the Moon. Such devices could in fact help provide power on the Moon.
See the largest 3D-printed apartment building in Europe
From Future Timeline:
The location is Wallenhausen, Bavaria, and five apartments will be spread across three floors, together offering 380 square metres of living space. It will become the largest 3-D printed residence in Europe when completed at the end of December. This is not a research or demonstration project. Once construction is complete, the apartments will be rented out in the usual manner.
Credit: PERI
Only one of the dwellings will be used as a show apartment.The BOD2 is currently the fastest 3D construction printer available on the market, with a print head that moves at 1 m/s, along three axes (x, y, z) of a securely installed metallic frame that requires only two humans on site and needs to be calibrated just once.
The BOD2 takes only five minutes to complete 1m² of a double-skin wall. The complete timeline for the project in Wallenhausen – from basement, to rooftop and internal fitting out – is scheduled to last six weeks. This compares with 12 months or longer for a typical project of this size using traditional methods.
The machine has been certified in such a way that it is possible to carry out work within the printing area while the printing is still in progress. This means that manual work, such as the installation of empty pipes and connections, can be easily integrated into the printing process.
If Graphene Batteries Do Everything Scientists Say, They Could Be a Gamechanger
From Futurism:
Imagine you’re cruising down the road in your new electric car, equipped with the latest graphene battery. You notice you’re running low on juice, so you pull over at a rest stop, plug it in, and head inside to grab a pizza. By the time you’re done and back outside, your car is already nearly charged — and ready for another uninterrupted 300 miles.
This is the future of transportation that certain starry-eyed scientists promise is coming soon. They say that by superpowering batteries with graphene — a sheet of carbon just one atom thick — everything from power tools to electric cars will charge faster, hold more power, cost less, and maybe even help civilization finally move away from planet-destroying fossil fuels.
And these marvelous batteries could start to roll out, they say, by sometime next year.
“Graphene is an amazing material, and it’s particularly amazing as a material for batteries,” Chip Breitenkamp, a polymer scientist and VP of business development at the graphene battery company NanoGraf, told Futurism.
The tech, he said, can “make batteries charge faster and dissipate heat more effectively. This has big implications. It means power tools don’t overheat as quickly. It means home appliances serve families better, longer. And it eventually means [electric cars] can charge faster.”
“Essentially, graphene can play a central role in powering a sustainable, electric future,” Breitenkamp added.