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The European Union is set to propose a plan to counteract the US $369 billion [€339 billion] Inflation Reduction Act on Wednesday (1 February), with looser state-aid rules for tax credits in green investments. The EU Commission has drafted plans to simplify and speed up companies’ access to tax credits in an effort to prevent companies from leaving the EU. Large wind and solar developers have criticized the EU funding regime for being too complicated and have pointed out that tax incentives in the US trigger automatically, making them more attractive. To address this, the commission has built a plan...

BURIRAM, Thailand—Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda said he is among the auto industry’s silent majority in questioning whether electric vehicles should be pursued exclusively, comments that reflect a growing uneasiness about how quickly car companies can transition. Auto makers are making big bets on fully electric vehicles, investments that have been bolstered by robust demand for the limited numbers of models that are now available. Still, challenges are mounting—particularly in securing parts and raw materials for batteries—and concerns have emerged in some pockets of the car business about the speed to which buyers will make the shift, especially as...

HARRISBURG – The General Assembly has sent the governor legislation that will create a new program to encourage the development of technology to convert fracked gas into hydrogen through $141.6 million a year in tax credits. The approval of House Bill 1059 came over the objections of environmental groups and some Democrats who said that the plan will keep Pennsylvania invested in fossil fuel production for decades even as much of the world turns toward renewable energy. “State lawmakers have clearly not learned from example after example of broken promises,” said former Secretary of Environmental Protection Patrick McDonnell, now the...

Team from UNSW Engine Research Laboratory develop new Hydrogen-Diesel Direct Injection Dual-Fuel System that significantly cuts carbon emissions. Hydrogen-Diesel Direct Injection Dual-Fuel System team The Hydrogen-Diesel Direct Injection Dual-Fuel System has been developed by a team from the UNSW Engine Research Laboratory led by Professor Shawn Kook (right), and including Xinyu Liu (back left) and Jinxin Yang (front left). Photo from Prof. Shawn Kook ********************************************************************************** Engineers from UNSW Sydney have successfully converted a diesel engine to run as a hydrogen-diesel hybrid engine – reducing CO2 emissions by more than 85 per cent in the process. The team, led by Professor...

... “For me, playing to win also means doing things differently. Doing things that others may question, but that we believe will put us in the winner’s circle the longest,” he said Wednesday during Toyota’s annual dealer meeting in Las Vegas, which, by the way, was called “Playing to Win.” Toyoda, who described Toyota as a large department store, said the company’s goal “remains the same, pleasing the widest possible range of customers with the widest possible range of powertrains.” Those powertrains will include hybrids and plug-in hybrids like the Prius, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles like the Mirai and 15...

An international team of scientists say they have found a new way to extract water from bone-dry air to produce hydrogen, which they call “the ultimate clean energy”. Unsplash AsiaOne has launched EarthOne, a new section dedicated to environmental issues — because we love the planet and we believe science. Find articles like this there. An international team of scientists say they have found a new way to extract water from bone-dry air to produce hydrogen, which they call “the ultimate clean energy”. The researchers said the device could be used in an arid environment where relative humidity was as...

The hydrogen fuel cell uses hydrogen and air to generate electricity, producing only heat and water as tailpipe emissions. The reaction occurs across an electrochemical cell similar to a conventional battery cell, causing energy engines used to propel the vehicle forward. Union minister of state for science and technology Dr Jitendra Singhsaid that if a diesel bus is compared to a hydrogen bus, it typically emits 100 tons of co2 per annum on long-distance routes, and there are millions of buses across the country, reports The Times of India. Also, a hydrogen fuel cell truck's operational cost is competitively lower...

by Samantha Foster | 24NewsJust days after Democrats passed a sweeping law that mandates "green energy" policies and spends a whopping $370 billion on wind, solar and "carbon sequestration" in an effort to "slow climate change," America's largest state is about to up the ante with a unprecedented move.California on Thursday is expected to put into effect its sweeping plan to prohibit the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035, a stunning move to force a national mandate for electric vehicles.The move comes despite critics warning that the state's power grid could not even power 10% of its cars being...

California is set to roll out its long-awaited ban on new gasoline cars on Thursday, which is part of its rule to have all new cars sold by 2035 to be electric only in an effort to fight climate change. Governor Gavin Newsom first announced the ban in 2020 as a means to reduce the amount of smog-induced pollution in the air, which will improve the state's air quality that is the worst in the US. The move will also make California the first in the world to mandate zero-emission vehicles on its roads. Thursday's launch will require that 35...

WASHINGTON — California on Thursday is expected to put into effect its sweeping plan to prohibit the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035, a groundbreaking move that could have major effects on the effort to fight climate change and accelerate a global transition toward electric vehicles. “This is huge,” said Margo Oge, an electric vehicles expert who headed the Environmental Protection Agency’s transportation emissions program under Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. “California will now be the only government in the world that mandates zero-emission vehicles. It is unique.” The rule, issued by the California Air...

California may be known as a climate leader, but when it comes to legislation to cut pollution and phase out fossil fuels, state lawmakers are largely resting on their laurels. The state’s greenhouse gas reduction goals, once heralded as pioneering and ambitious, now lag other states and countries. California isn’t on track to meet even those outdated targets. And it’s been years since lawmakers have enacted major climate legislation on par with the landmark SB 32 in 2016. Setting a legal requirement to slash climate emissions by 55% by 2030 would help reestablish California as a global climate leader, in...

It’s unlikely mass adoption of Battery Electric Vehicles will develop as fast as environmentalists, the U.S. government, and most of the U.S. auto industry seem to expect. That’s because, fundamentally, consumer demand just isn’t sufficient, says Jack Hollis, executive vice president of sales at Toyota Motor North America. In turn, consumer demand isn’t sufficient because on average, BEVs cost too much, and because the infrastructure isn’t ready, like for recharging batteries away from home, Hollis said, in a recent webinar hosted by the Detroit-based Automotive Press Association. “I don’t think the market is ready. I don’t think the infrastructure is...

Hydrogen has long been touted as the solution to cleaning up road transport. When used in fuel cells, the only emissions from its use are water, and it eliminates the slow recharging problem of battery-electric vehicles. It’s also been put forth as a replacement for everything from natural gas supplies to laptop batteries. Toyota has been pushing hard for hydrogen technology, and has worked to develop vehicles and infrastructure to this end. The company’s latest efforts involve a toteable hydrogen cartridge – letting you take hydrogen power on the go! For all its benefits, hydrogen is a bit of a...

A silicon-based powder that generates hydrogen when mixed into water EPRO Advance Technology Stir this silicon-based powder into water, and hydrogen will bubble out, ready for immediate use. Hong Kong company EPRO Advance Technology (EAT) says its Si+ powder offers an instant end to the difficulties of shipping and storing green energy. This is the second powdered hydrogen advance we've learned about this week, designed to solve the same problems: transporting hydrogen is difficult, dangerous and expensive, whether the costs are for cryogenic cooling in a liquid hydrogen system, or for compression to around 700 times the normal sea-level air...

What I call the “energy storage conundrum” is the obvious but largely unrecognized problem that electricity generated by intermittent renewables like wind and sun can’t keep an electrical grid operating without some method of storing energy to meet customer demand in times of low production. These times of low production from wind and sun occur regularly — for example, calm nights — and can persist for as long as a week or more in the case of heavily overcast and calm periods in the winter. If the plan is to power the entire United States by wind and solar facilities,...

Fuel Cell Being Tested The new fuel cell being tested in the lab. Credit: Imperial College London Imperial researchers have developed a new hydrogen fuel cell that uses iron instead of rare and costly platinum, enabling greater use of the technology. Hydrogen fuel cells convert hydrogen to electricity with just water vapor as a byproduct, making them an appealing green alternative for portable power, particularly for vehicles. However, the expense of one of the primary components has impeded its broad adoption. The fuel cells rely on a catalyst made of platinum, which is expensive and scarce, to assist the reaction...

A revolutionary cryogenic tank design promises to radically boost the range of hydrogen-powered aircraft – to the point where clean, fuel-cell airliners could fly up to four times farther than comparable planes running on today's dirty jet fuel. Weight is the enemy of all things aerospace – indeed, hydrogen's superior energy storage per weight is what makes it such an attractive alternative to lithium batteries in the aviation world. We've written before about HyPoint's turbo air-cooled fuel cell technology, but its key differentiator in the aviation market is its enormous power density compared with traditional fuel cells. For its high...

UCLA researchers have designed a device that can use solar energy to inexpensively and efficiently create and store energy, which could be used to power electronic devices, and to create hydrogen fuel for eco-friendly cars. The device could make hydrogen cars affordable for many more consumers because it produces hydrogen using nickel, iron and cobalt — elements that are much more abundant and less expensive than the platinum and other precious metals that are currently used to produce hydrogen fuel. “Hydrogen is a great fuel for vehicles: It is the cleanest fuel known, it’s cheap and it puts no pollutants...

University of Delaware researchers have broken new ground that could bring more environmentally friendly fuel cells closer to commercialization. Credit: Graphic illustration by Jeffrey C. Chase ========================================================================= University of Delaware (UD) engineers have demonstrated a way to effectively capture 99% of carbon dioxide from air using a novel electrochemical system powered by hydrogen. It is a significant advance for carbon dioxide capture and could bring more environmentally friendly fuel cells closer to market. The research team, led by UD Professor Yushan Yan, reported their method in Nature Energy on Thursday, February 3. Game-changing tech for fuel cell efficiency Fuel cells...

Inside JET's torus, with superimposed plasma. (UKAEA) Late last century, the Joint European Torus (JET) near Oxford, UK, churned out 22 megajoules of energy in what was, at the time, a record in fusion power. Now, experimental upgrades have brought the facility into line with the technology anticipated for a major international project, resulting in the production of nearly three times that amount of power. The advances are a major step forward for tokamak-based fusion, bringing us ever closer to a balance point where we can harvest a near endless stream of energy without the cost of polluting emissions or...