Fremont, California-based Amprius announced it has verified the performance of its silicon anode battery cells with third-party tester Mobile Power Solutions. The results indicate that this cell model provides 504 Wh per kg and 1321 Wh per L at 25 degrees C.

Amprius said the silicon anode cell is roughly half the weight and volume of leading conventional commercially available lithium-ion cells.

The cells have applications in the fast-growing electric aviation space and could later be integrated with electric vehicles. Together, electric aviation and light-duty EV battery demand is estimated to exceed over $100 billion globally by 2025, said the company.

The Amprius cells offer a run time of 200% compared to leading graphite battery cells, while being lighter and smaller than other batteries with the same energy content.

“...technology that will ultimately revolutionize how high we fly, how far we travel and how long we can use our devices,” said Jon Bornstein, president of Amprius Labs.

The battery cells are planned to be integrated with the AALTO Zephyr, a high-altitude platform station (HAPS). The solar-electric telecommunications aircraft offers persistent earth observation with 18cm ground sampling distance, near-real-time video and imagery from the stratosphere, day and night.

Amprius operates a research and development laboratory in Fremont, California. It recently signed a letter of intent for a 774,000 square foot facility in Brighton, Colorado that would provide up to 5 GWh of manufacturing capacity.

The Department of Energy (DOE) targets improvements in battery performance to stabilize the critical materials supply chain and offer attractive products to vehicle buyers. “While a number of electric drive vehicles are available on the market, further improvements in batteries could make them more affordable and convenient to consumers,” according to the DOE.

People with ALS are eventually euthanized. They administered morphine to my father and my friend's father. I am thankful that he was given that compassion. When he was gone it felt like a great weight lifted off our shoulders. No one should have to suffer that much.

I lost my father to ALS fifteen years ago. There are so many challenges to this disease, but the hardest may have been losing the ability to communicate. This is an amazing work of compassion.

The latest analysis from Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) energy expert Kingsmill Bond showed that fossil fuel demand in the electricity sector has already reached its peak in demand. Driven by lowered costs, clean energy goals, and a gravitational shift in global capital toward renewables, solar and wind energy are expected to carry the torch left behind by coal, oil, and gas.

Bond said that this has already happened for fossil fuels in the electricity sector. In fact, his analysis shows that fossil fuels in the electricity sector reached peak demand and is now bouncing along a plateau before its inevitable decline in the back half of the decade.

According to RMI research, fossil fuel demand for electricity has peaked in 95 % of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries and 31% of the non-OECD countries excluding China. China is on track to reach its 2030 solar and wind deployment targets by 2025, meaning the nation has also likely approached its peak in fossil fuel demand.

RMI said OECD demand for fossil fuels peaked in 2007, coal demand in 2013, industrial demand for fossil fuels as energy peaked in 2014, and internal combusion engine car demand in 2017. By 2019, 58% of the world experienced peak fossil fuel demand. In 2019, renewables met 85% of the growth in energy demand.

The report demonstrates how change increases over time, often leading to exponential growth. In 2011, the world struggled to sell 29 GW of expensive solar panels, in 2021 it deployed 182 GW, and by 2031 the industry is gearing up to sell 1,000 GW, said RMI.

“The stone age did not end for want of stones, nor the horse age for lack of horses,” said Bond. “The fossil fuel age of hunting for finite fossil stocks is giving way to the renewable age of farming infinite renewable flows. Superior renewable technology is winning the battle for the future of energy, and it is time to recognize this key turning point. Countries, companies, and investors that accept and embrace the energy transition will prosper, while those that deny and resist will struggle and eventually fall.”

A new bladeless wind energy unit, patented by Aeromine Technologies, is tackling the challenge of competing with rooftop solar as a local source of clean energy that can be integrated with the built environment. The scalable, “motionless” wind energy unit can produce 50% more energy than rooftop solar at the same cost, said the company.

The technology leverages aerodynamics similar to airfoils in a race car to capture and amplify each building’s airflow. The unit requires about 10% of the space required by solar panels and generates round-the-clock energy. Aeromine said unlike conventional wind turbines that are noisy, visually intrusive, and dangerous to migratory birds, the patented system is motionless and virtually silent.

Buildings and the built environment account for nearly 50% of all carbon emissions globally, according to Architecture 2030. Building operations contributes about 27% of emissions, while buildings materials and construction, and other construction industry energy use are estimated to account for another 20%. This represents an opportunity for buildings to be made more efficiently, and to adopt innovative technologies to generate emissions-free electricity.
BASF Corporation is currently testing the Aeromine system at a manufacturing plant in Wyandotte, Michigan. The patented technology was validated through joint research with Sandia National Laboratories and Texas Tech University.