Brian McCowan, Zondits staff, 2/28/2024 Researchers at the University of Illinois are saying that coal may have a future as a component in semiconductors. Their groundbreaking research is published in the technical journal Communications Engineering, with the somewhat daunting title of Ultrathin quasi-2D amorphous carbon dielectric prepared from solution precursor for nanoelectronics. In simpler terms, … Read more
The U.S. Air Force will begin test-flying Alia using a charging system supplied by Beta.
Matt Blocker, Zondits guest, 8/22/2023 Matt is Senior Manager of Commercial Product Development at Mitsubishi Electric Trane HVAC US. With threats from climate change increasing rapidly, everything feasible must be done to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The HVAC industry plays an important role in these efforts. Changes in refrigerants for commercial HVAC systems are … Read more
Brian McCowan, Zondits staff, 3/30/2023 Iconic British manufacturer, Rolls-Royce, plans to install a nuclear reactor on the moon. The firm has announced that they have secured £2.9m (approximately $3.5m U.S.) in funding for the project and intends to have the reactor operational by 2029. In 2022, the U.S. announced similar efforts in supporting three firms, … Read more
Mark D’Antonio, Zondits staff, 2/28/2023 There is a growing mantra amongst climate change advocates to “electrify everything”; predicated on the assumption that the power generation mix will increasingly become cleaner as fossil fuel use declines and is replaced with low-carbon sources. The residential sector is one segment targeted to be “electrified” with burgeoning technologies such … Read more
Brian McCowan, Zondits staff, 12/15/2022 U.S. Energy Secretary, Jennifer Granholm, has announced a scientific breakthrough at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory that may pave the way for commercial nuclear fusion reactors. In 1980, I was managing a solar energy training program for a branch of the DOE. At the same time, my physicist brother was … Read more
Brian McCowan, Zondits staff, 10/28/2022 Zondits has posted numerous articles covering the transition of transportation from diesel and gasoline powered vehicles to hybrid and all-electric power. Trains, trucks, ferry boats, airplanes, motorcycles, and of course automobiles have all been featured. And now, we are able to report that an all-electric “flying boat” has been successfully … Read more
Brian McCowan, Zondits staff, 10/17/2022 Late last March, Zondits reported that the all-electric passenger plane Eviation Aircraft Alice had completed engine testing and was being prepared for its first test flight. As often occurs with groundbreaking technology, there have been delays. But now Alice has been successfully test flown and Eviation Aircraft is moving forward … Read more
Brian McCowan, Zondits staff, 10/7/2022 In 2018, George Sassine, Vice President of Large Scale Renewables at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), posted an article entitled Forget Electric Cars, The Future is Magnetic (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/forget-electric-cars-future-magnetic-georges-sassine/). Prior to that, Volkswagen experimented with magnetic hover cars. Now, researchers at a Chinese university are testing … Read more
Frank-Eric Ngamassi, Zondits guest, 7/28/2022 As cities across the world are experiencing escalating temperatures, cool pavement approaches are being considered to reduce what is known as the urban heat island effect. Nearly 40% of American metropolitan towns are covered with pavement,1 most of which are made of impermeable materials that absorb and retain solar heat … Read more