Interesting Ideas

XPENG has been quick to develop its autonomous driving capabilities. It feels like the company is still so young, and now it’s making robotaxis! A couple of days ago, the company announced “the official rollout of its first mass-produced Robotaxi in Guangzhou.” While there are other robotaxis roaming the roads ... [continued]

The post XPENG Starts Producing Robotaxis appeared first on CleanTechnica.

A new exhibition, Jurassic Oceans, showcases the fearsome creatures that lurked below the surface – and offers a stark warning about the impact of warming waters on marine ecosystems today

Deep in the bowels of the Natural History Museum, Kate Whittington is standing in front of the skeleton of a 23ft plesiosaur, one of prehistoric Earth’s most fearsome marine reptiles, explaining how it would eat us for dinner, were it still around today.

“Its long neck allowed its head to get a head start on its body,” says the museum’s exhibition and interpretation manager. “So it could sneak up on prey and grab it [with its mouth] before its body and flippers created a disturbance in the water.”

Ukrainians lament appalling toll of fighting on their country’s bird population

Russia sent kamikaze drones to attack the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia in February. They hit buildings and killed several people. One unreported victim of the bombardment was a male long-eared owl, blinded in one eye and found with a badly broken wing. A passerby scooped up the stunned bird, put him in a box and took him to the city of Dnipro.

The owl – nicknamed Sunny – is now recovering in a cosy room belonging to Veronica Konkova. No longer able to fly or hunt, Sunny instead hops around.

Chancellor’s planning shake-up in England and Wales would ‘reduce exposure from judicial review on all but human rights grounds’

Rachel Reeves is poised to fast-track clean energy projects in England and Wales with planning reforms to curb the use of judicial reviews against new infrastructure, the ​Treasury has said.

Under the chancellor’s proposals, parliament will be able to designate and approve the most important clean energy projects as of “critical national importance”, as part of a wider package seeking to boost the UK’s energy security and soften the economic fallout from the Iran war.

A new, not-for-profit utility will help residents install rooftop solar systems with energy storage for a flat fee of $600.00 per year and no up-front costs.

The post Another Route To Rooftop Solar: The Ann Arbor Solution appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The Chinese electric vehicle industry exploded in the past several years, but as EVs have taken more and more share of the auto market, companies have been scrapping to outcompete their EV competitors in selling automobiles. One of the big stories of the past year or so has been price ... [continued]

The post NIO & Li Auto Diverge in Chinese EV Price War appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The Mercedes AMG GT Coupe arrives later this year with unique battery cells based on the company's Formula One experience.

The post The Mercedes AMG GT Coupe Is An Absolute BEAST! appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Global study finds wrappers, bottles and lids on shorelines of 93% of countries analysed as UN talks to tackle issue in turmoil

Plastic food wrappers, bottles, lids and caps are by far the most common items of litter found on the world’s shorelines, a study has found.

Researchers looked at data from more than 5,300 surveys of coastal litter to produce the first global analysis of its kind. They found the data in 355 existing studies on the subject.

When pupils could no longer play outside, St John’s school in Barnet decided to act, enlisting Trees for Cities to help rethink its outside space

The play area at St John’s Church of England primary in Barnet, north London, used to flood so severely it was often unusable. “It would get so bad that the children couldn’t be dismissed from the playground,” says Macci Dobie, the school’s headteacher. “We had to dismiss them from different parts of the school or, literally, parents were stepping into puddles to lift their children out of the classroom.”

Because the school sits in a basin with clay foundations, rain would pool on the grey tarmac and just sit there, often denying the children a proper break for play outside.

Environmental activists lock themselves to pesticide barrels in protest outside Syngenta headquarters

More than 40 people, including Greenpeace UK’s programme director, Amy Cameron, have been arrested after a protest outside pesticide company Syngenta’s Yorkshire headquarters.

A number of the activists locked themselves on to 15 blue pesticide barrels outside the headquarters, blocking the gates and leading to the temporary closure of the local A62. Activists had transformed a roundabout outside the front entrance into a giant hazard symbol carrying the message “Syngenta poisons nature” with an arrow pointing directly at the building. The action took place on World Bee day.

Here we go — the trend of Chinese electric vehicles finding their way into foreign markets continues. Europe is a top focus, of course, since it is both a major auto market and an EV-buying leader. Stellantis is an interesting beast — it’s such a huge conglomeration of auto brands ... [continued]

The post Stellantis to Build EVs for Dongfeng in France appeared first on CleanTechnica.

In the first part of this series on XPENG, I focused on how the technology company treats and develops its employees. In the second part, the focus shifts to how Automation and AI make the most of their employees, as well as how this relates to existing expectations and expectations ... [continued]

The post XPENG’s Human Approach To Technology Part 2: Automation, AI & Expectations appeared first on CleanTechnica.

I first encountered these blue-and-white little vans at the BYD Shark launch more than a year ago. I was inquisitive about what made it tick, because fellow journalists were teasing that there was a diesel-powered generator that ran an inverter to charge a large battery storage system. Of course, that ... [continued]

The post ACMobility’s Power-on-Wheels Shows How Southeast Asia May Solve EV Charging Differently appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Volvo dove into electric vehicles early on, and with the EX90, it launched an all-out assault to design and build its first EV from a blank sheet of paper. The Volvo EX90 pushed a lot of boundaries for the automaker, but it hit more than its fair share of software ... [continued]

The post First Drive of the Fully Electric Volvo EX60 — CleanTechnica Field Trip appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Colombia is a global leader in climate activism. Could US influence drag country to a future of mining and fracking?

Several hours after dark in a quiet Caribbean neighbourhood, a cluster of environmental activists gather on plastic chairs between a mango tree and a courtyard wall emblazoned with the words “Colombia, respira!” (Breathe, Colombia).

So many people have turned up that some have to stand. That is because tonight’s speaker is Susana Muhamad, one of the most admired socio-environmental campaigners in the world, and this is a moment of profound historical significance.

For 150 years, the Mease had been altered by human hands, which destroyed habitats. But in 2013, a restoration project began – and now its wetlands are abuzz with wildlife

‘A noisy river is a healthy river,” says Ruth Needham of the Trent Rivers Trust (TRT). The Mease in the Midlands must be in fine fettle, then, as it gurgles merrily along. Sunlight glints off riffles in the water and shoals of fry dart past. Needham whips out her phone to video the tiny fish: “My colleagues will be jumping for joy to see them!”

Needham has good reason to be buoyant. Last month, the Mease won the UK River prize 2026 – which was established by the River Restoration Centre in 2014 to acknowledge innovative projects – in recognition of the trust’s 13-year restoration campaign. “The prize has been a massive boost,” says Needham. “If we can get the Mease into better condition, we can improve other rivers, too.”

‘We wanted to get people to work together’ … Ruth Needham of the Trent Rivers Trust

The US, Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia – some of the highest oil-producing nations and major greenhouse gas emitters – opposed the measure

The UN has voted 141-8 to adopt a resolution backing a world court opinion that countries have a legal obligation to address climate change, with the US – which is the world’s biggest historical emitter – among the small group opposing it.

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said Wednesday’s general assembly vote, in which 28 countries abstained, underscored that governments are responsible for protecting citizens from the “escalating climate crisis”.

Landmark report calls for widespread air conditioning and says UK temperatures forecast to exceed 40C by 2050

• Britain must think like a hot country – otherwise inequalities will only grow

British homes will need air conditioning to survive predicted levels of global heating, the government’s climate advisers have warned in a report, as measures such as drawing curtains, opening windows and growing trees for shade are not likely to be enough.

Air conditioning should be installed in all care homes and hospitals within the next 10 years, and in all schools within 25 years, according to the Climate Change Committee (CCC), which published a major report on adapting to the impacts of global heating on Wednesday.

A helpful reader brought my attention to a story I hadn’t seen. For the most part, electric vehicle technology news out of China is all about the ridiculously rapid pace of innovation there. Range has gotten dramatically better in the past five years, or even the past couple of years, ... [continued]

The post What The Heck Is Going On With OTA Cuts To EV Range In China? appeared first on CleanTechnica.

One of our regular commenters dropped a completely non-shocking, straightforward, inconspicuous comment under an article this morning, but it jumped out at me as a really important point and topic to center an article around. First of all, another commenter, Amos Batto, wrote: “When I look at how Elon has ... [continued]

The post EVs Are For Everyone appeared first on CleanTechnica.