Future Energy eNews

May 2023 Vol.24

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Greetings!

Our Story #1 is a big event. We are happy that we can share my upcoming “on the air experience” with Coast to Coast AM George Noory and about three million listeners a few days before it happens . On the West Coast, it will be a two hour show starting at 10 PM PDT (1 AM EDT) on this Tuesday night May 30^th going into Wednesday morning hours, followed by another guest for two hours later on. I have been welcomed on this show a few times already and also once on George Noory’s “TV Show” when I flew to Colorado to be in his studio for the filming, after supplying several slides and videos to supplement the interview. George is one of the best radio/TV hosts in the world and has a wide range of knowledge and the most open mind in the business. The show will also be on their website afterwards for your review. Otherwise, if you want to join live and maybe call in for Q&A at the end, every state in the US has an affiliate (see map): https://www.coasttocoastam.com/stations/ and also there are apps you can use portably to join in live: Android, iTunes, Sirius XM, and IOS under “Other Options”.

Story #2 is really about a large scale power plant in Popular Mechanics magazine. This alone is a big deal but also because the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology broke through the 1-kilowatt ceiling of green hydrogen generation with solar power. Furthermore, Nature magazine accepted the article, which details the concentrated solar design of a thermally integrated photoelectrochemical device of over 20% efficiency.

Story #3 is one of many neglected sources of energy, which has been the subject of company startups as far back as 2015 in Future Energy eNews. Some used piezoelectric panels in the road which is reviewed in the Related Stories for this article. Now, even BMW is getting into the business of harvesting the vertical motion response to bumps in the road but keeping the kinetic energy in the car instead of giving it to the road, thereby extending the battery life by charging it.

Story #4 is really one of my favorite because we futurists can picture every southern-facing window in the world becoming a solar PV cell as well. Up until now, this has not been very efficient but all that has changed. With the help of indium tin oxide (ITO), one of the most widely used transparent conducting oxides, and a monolayer tungsten disulfide, a power density of about 13 mW/cm² has been achieved, at Tohoku University's Graduate School of Engineering, comparable to commercial solar cells. I also find the Related Stories in the online article fascinating too:

·         Solar innovation could help maintain electricity for millions around the world

·         Zero-emission luxury superyacht features giant solar cell sails

·         New ultra-efficient, low-cost solar cells — using nanowires

Story #5 relates to the lesser known bioenergetics field of plant intelligence. While the Secret Life of Plants and the Secret Life of Your Cells were best sellers, they did not include the story of the lowly slime mold. Nova (PBS.org) science program has had five episodes on the “secret mind of slime” with fast motion camera footage to show how decision-making happens with slime molds in a maze for example. Now the Technical University of Munich (TUM) Researchers have identified how the slime mold Physarum polycephalum saves memories -- although it has no nervous system. They found it can store and retrieve information about its environment and constantly undergoes fast reorganization -- growing and disintegrating its tubes -- while completely lacking an organizing center. This is an area of research ripe for new insights into cellular conglomerate intelligence.

Sincerely,

Tom Valone

Editor