What’s New in Energy?

1. The Race to Build Electric Aircraft
At this year’s Farnborough Airshow held in the United Kingdom in July, several manufacturers presented their dream of a small, self-flying, electric, vertical take-off air taxi. The photo shows automaker Aston Martin’s Volante Vision Concept. At the same event, Rolls Royce unveiled its electric vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) jet, which seats four to five passengers and is powered by a gas turbine.

1. The Race to Build Electric Aircraft
At this year’s Farnborough Airshow held in the United Kingdom in July, several manufacturers presented their dream of a small, self-flying, electric, vertical take-off air taxi. The photo shows automaker Aston Martin’s Volante Vision Concept. At the same event, Rolls Royce unveiled its electric vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) jet, which seats four to five passengers and is powered by a gas turbine.

2. Personal Air Mobility
Two months before the Farnborough Airshow, Uber, the major U.S.-based transportation platform specialist, revealed its own flying taxi project (see photo) in Los Angeles. Google is testing its prototype, Kitty Hawk, in New Zealand and Airbus, Boeing, Siemens and the Emirate of Dubai are also working on hybrid electric aircraft. The objective is to develop a new personal mode of transportation for urban areas available to companies and high net worth individuals within the next five to ten years.

3. The Urban Cable Car, Between Earth and Sky
Another urban mode of transportation, the cable car, is already booming. Transporting 4,000 passengers per hour, La Paz’s “Mi Teleférico” inaugurated its seventh line (see photo) on July 14, 2018. In the Bolivian capital, which extends up and down steep mountain slopes, cable cars are able to cover the uneven terrain more easily than buses or trams.

4. The Electric Kick Scooter
Following on the heals of bike sharing services, electric motor scooters and kick scooters have become very popular in city centers. Two American companies launched their mobility solutions in Paris in summer 2018, capitalizing on the French capital’s appeal to tourists worldwide. The photo shows a user crossing the Seine on an electric kick scooter against the backdrop of the Palais de Justice and Conciergerie. 

5.Headlights, a New Form of Communication
Besides improved efficiency, car headlights will soon be able to project information onto the road surface, such as the speed limit (see the Valeo prototype shown here), upcoming bends or obstacles and even a virtual crosswalk, indicating to pedestrians that the vehicle will stop for them to cross.

6. Solar Technology and Public Benches
In the Finnish capital of Helsinki, the city has installed photovoltaic (PV) panels on benches where passers-by can take a seat and charge their phone or electric bicycle. Thanks to an accumulator that stores the electricity, the benches still work even when the sun is not out.

7. Recycling Challenges
Some 50 million metric tons of electrical and electronic waste is produced each year worldwide, representing an average of 6.1 kilograms per person (16.6 kilograms in Europe). Facilities in Asia equipped with cutting-edge technology have been built to take apart and recycle end‑of‑life machines, recovering any rare metals they may contain. The photo shows a materials recovery center for Fuji Xerox photocopiers in Chonburi, Thailand.

8. End-of-Life Solar Panels
The Veolia group opened France’s first solar PV panel recycling plant in July 2018 in Rousset, located in the south of the country. With solar power taking off, the need for dismantling capabilities has grown too. In 2017, some 2,400 metric tons of end-of-life solar panels were collected in France.

9. Component Separation
A conveyor belt moves panels along an automated disassembly line (in red). In slightly over a minute, the panels are run though a shredder and a dozen or so components, including glass, plastics, silicon and various metals, are collected in separate containers. Metal items are sorted magnetically. The plastic serves as fuel in cement works.

10. Finely Ground Glass
Glass accounts for 70% of the material recovered from solar panels. Once it has been crushed into small pieces called cullet, it can easily be reused to manufacture new glass items. In all, Veolia’s Rousset plant recycles more than 95% of the materials used in solar panels.

11. Plastic Regulations
A number of countries, including France, have decided to ban single-use plastic bags, straws, disposable silverware and cotton swabs. While the technology to recycle plastic waste exists, collecting the billions of objects in use poses a significant challenge. The photo shows a bail of crushed plastic bottles just outside Beijing.

12. The Jellyfishbot
The Jellyfishbot is one of the many projects developed by robotics and artificial intelligence students to remove waste from marine environments. Equipped with a laser that detects plastic objects floating in the water, it is currently being tested in the Port of Cassis on the French Mediterranean coast (see photo).

13. Energy Coaching
Danube, Strasbourg’s newly created eco-district, will receive a boost in late 2018 with the inauguration of the Elithis positive‑energy housing tower. In addition to outstanding energy performance, the building will offer residents access to a virtual coach and “smart” advisor via their smartphones so they can learn how to reduce their energy consumption. Residents’ energy bills are expected to come to €80 a year, a price 20 times lower than the national average.

14. The U.N. “Tiny House”
To raise awareness about sustainable housing, the United Nations and Yale University in the United States have built a 22-square-meter “Tiny House” in front of the U.N. Headquarters in New York. This low-cost, positive-energy home is designed with natural materials managed in accordance with  the principles of the circular economy. It is intended to be visited and spark debate.

15. One Last Hurrah Before the Flood
Hasankeyf , a 12,000-year old Turkish town along the ancient silk road, will be partially flooded by the reservoir created by the Ilisu dam on the Tigris river. The large hydropower project has impacted some 200 villages in Southeastern Anatolia, close to the Iraqi border. This situation, compounded by the submersion of the area’s rich archeological heritage, illustrates the limits of the development of hydropower.