Energy

The deep sea is an untapped source of battery materials. But world leaders missed a July deadline to craft regulations on deep sea mining. Since so little is known about marine life at those depths, Scientists warn that exploiting those resources would be disastrous — especially without international regulations in place. The International Seabed Authority was scheduled to discuss a potential moratorium on deep-sea mining during a meeting last week, but ultimately pushed talks to 2024.

Marques Brownlee got a top-of-the-line Tesla system installed in his home to figure out the costs, benefits, and quirks of it all. He found huge fluctuations season to season, which mostly washed out over the course of the year.

The new Solis Pocket 36B comes standard with an EcoFlow PowerKit I reviewed last year. It starts with a 5kWh battery that can be expandable to 15kWh, which is a ton of LFP storage capacity for a van. It’s available to buy in the US and Canada from August.

This ad from European energy provider Vattenfall promotes the use of hydrogen fuels that emit water as waste instead of carbon dioxide. “The emissions are so clean that they can be used in a refreshing face mist and put on your face.” While this may in fact be greenwashing, it’s also clever and weird enough that — for the moment — I do not care.

Energy prices are high, the grid is increasingly unstable, and solar panels and giant batteries are more affordable than ever. No wonder Tesla Powerwall sales are accelerating, according to Electrek. But competition is getting fierce, with newcomers like Anker and EcoFlow joining the mix just this week.

UK bioenergy production firm Drax Electric Insights reports that in the first three months of 2023, Britain’s wind turbines alone generated almost a third of its total electricity (via BBC). They just edged out gas power (32.4 percent versus 31.7 percent).