Electric vehicles would reduce the rate deficit in León by 40%

Electric vehicles would reduce the rate deficit in León by 40%

A study of the UNED published in the magazine Energy shows the significant impact that this technology would have on the electricity bill

    Engineers from the National University of Distance Education (UNED) have shown that a transport model based on electric vehicles would be profitable in the city of León, where the tariff deficit could be reduced by more than 43% in 2020. Although the study contemplates small rises of certain taxes, consumers, the State and other agents of the electricity system would gain in profitability, by reducing their dependence on oil.

    The tariff deficit The difference between the revenues and costs of the electricity system is one of the most serious problems that the Spanish electricity sector has been dragging on since 2003. Beyond the measures that different governments have taken, without making it disappear, researchers from the Department of Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Control of the UNED have designed a model, based on the generalization of the electric vehicle that would reduce this deficit between 43.5% and 47.1% in the city of León in 2020.

Our work shows that a sustainable transport model based on electric vehicles is profitable and ensures an economic benefit for all actors involved in the electricity system: generators, marketers, owners of the electric vehicle and the State itself, explains Antonio Colmenar-Santos , lead author of the study.

Advantages for the consumer

To design the model, which is published in the magazine Energy, engineers have started from a scenario located in 2020-2030, where they have taken into account the expected penetration of the electric vehicle, the evolution estimates of the León car park, the evolution of the inflation according to the International Monetary Fund, the evolution of the price of oil fixed by the Department of Energy of the United States and the forecasts of the energy consumption of the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism.

In addition, since one of the great brakes for the expansion of the electric vehicle is the loss of income from hydrocarbon taxes for the State, researchers have proposed several tax modifications. The repercussion to the consumer would be minimal and even positive since it would stop paying taxes through other channels, mainly taxes for hydrocarbons that, currently, represent approximately 50% of the cost of fuels, says Colmenar-Santos.

In this way, the model contemplates increasing the electricity tax to 4.93% and creating a Vehicle to grid transaction rate of the vehicle to the network, which will serve to receive money from both the marketer and the owner of the green vehicle. the sale of electricity to electric companies.

It also proposes an increase in tolls of 1% and small increases in motor vehicle registration and traction taxes to finance charging points for electric vehicles. This guarantees profitability for all actors, underlines David Borge-Díez, another of the authors of the study.

Amortized costs

Along with this profitability, the work reveals the environmental benefits that the generalization of the electric vehicle would bring. León's carbon dioxide emissions in 2020 would be reduced by 5,862 tons, which, transferred to the emissions market, would generate profits close to 100,000 euros after its sale. As for oil, savings of 41,879 barrels of oil are estimated for the same year.

On the other hand, the use of smart grids, electric vehicles and adequate remuneration policies means that the energy stored in the batteries of electric vehicles can be injected into consumption peaks, generating a better balance of the electrical system, says Pedro Miguel Ortega. Head, another of the signers of the article.

With these measures, the State would recover the investment made to purchase buses and electric taxis and to install recharging points. In addition, the consumer would also amortize the cost of the battery of his vehicle, when obtaining income by giving his energy to the network. The average benefits per user, once the cost of the battery has been recovered, are estimated at more than 7,000 euros, calculates Ortega-Cabeza.

Advantages of León

The choice of the city of Leon to design the model was not casual. Its size (less than 200,000 inhabitants), its mobility plan that ranked second in the 2012 European Mobility Prize and its historic center limited to traffic decisively influenced the engineers of the UNED.

In addition, the fact that it houses an intelligent electricity grid (Smart Grid), which allows managing the electrical energy absorbed and transferred to the network, acted in its favor. We plan to present the results to different authorities in Castilla y León, Borge-Díez says.

Meanwhile, researchers are working to extend the model to larger cities, such as Madrid and Barcelona, ​​verifying their viability point by point, since each urban nucleus needs its own transport model.

The material that passes from metal to insulation

The material that passes from metal to insulation

Scientists develop lanthanum nickellate sheets capable of changing property depending on their thickness

   A metal is capable of conducting electricity while an insulator is not, or at least we thought until now. A group of researchers from Cornell University and the Brookhaven National Laboratory (United States) have shown how to transform the properties of a metal oxide, lanthanum nickel (LaNiO3) into an insulator, simply by making layers of this material less than one nanometer thick. This discovery is published in the latest issue of Nature Nanotechnology.

The size of electronic devices could be reduced much more with the help of these transition metal oxides, a class of materials with spectacular properties, such as superconductivity or magnetoresistance.

The researchers used an extremely precise growth technique called molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) whereby Phil King, the first author of the study, synthesized an atomically thin samples of lanthanum nickel and discovered that the material changed abruptly. from metal to insulator when its thickness was reduced below 1 nanometer.

Upon crossing that threshold, its conductivity, that is, the ability of the electrons to flow through the material, was quenched. This feature could be useful in the construction of nanoscale switches or transistors, as noted by principal investigator Kyle Shen of Cornell University.

King and his companions studied the movements and interactions of the electrons in the material, and how they changed by varying the thickness of the lanthanum nickel-to-atom lanthanum plates. They discovered that when the films had less than 3 nickel-thick atoms, the electrons formed an unusual order, similar to a chessboard, but on a nanoscale.

The results show that it is possible to control the electronic properties of transition metal oxides in the nanometer scale, as well as reveal the surprising interactions that govern the behavior of electrons in these ultra-fine materials. These discoveries pave the way for the manufacture of new advanced electronic devices.

The business of bringing internet to Ngoutchoumi

The business of bringing internet to Ngoutchoumi

The umpteenth pulse between two giants like Google and Facebook is not played in cyberspace. Neither on the mainland nor in the depths of the sea, where the cables that carry internet from one continent to another travel.

 The last confrontation is played at 70,000 feet in the stratosphere. There, above the storms, blizzards and other meteorological phenomena, both firms intend to install the bases of their last great project: a network of unmanned aircraft that connects to the most recondite and remote places of the world geography, whether the remote fali community of Ngoutchoumi, north of Cameroon, as well as the top of Machu Pichu, in Peru.

The firm of Mountain View has been the last to move piece to take over Titan Aerospace, a company dedicated to the manufacture of solar 'drones', which also came to enter the plans of Facebook. The social network - whose founder Mark Zuckerberg is the main supporter of the project 'Internet.org' - had opened the piggy bank weeks before to spend 20 million on another company in the sector, Ascenta. The devices that Titan Aerospace plans to build could reach a flight autonomy of up to 5,000 hours and load with transmitters of more than one hundred kilos in weight, with the possibilities that this entails.

"Despite being in an initial development phase, atmospheric satellites could help bring internet access to millions of people," said a source from the network's best-known search engine this week. The company will maintain its headquarters in advance. New Mexico and its 20 workers will collaborate with other lines of research of the firm.

Relocated military drones
PENTAGON PROJECT

The United States, the most active country when it comes to using unmanned aircraft with military objectives, also intends to take the Internet to remote areas where Pentagon troops are located with these devices. In this case, it has reused a fleet of surveillance drones that were used in Iraq to reuse them as Wi-Fi antennas.

It would be a squadron of 'RQ7 Shadow' - with only 3.2 meters long and weighing 184 kilos - that would be equipped with an antenna that could offer speeds of up to one gigabyte per second, thus getting the Marines in complicated areas have benefits similar to those of other more developed areas.

We are pleased with the achievements we have seen so far, said Dick Ridgway, director of the Darpa program,

One of these projects is 'Loon' which aims to bring Wi-Fi to isolated areas by means of balloons equipped with a radio frequency antennae that float at 20,000 meters of altitude of the 40th parallel, which runs between other areas of the planet Africa, the Antipodes or America. Latina Depending on the conditions, each of these 'repeaters' could serve an area of ​​about 1,000 square kilometers and to connect it would only require a small antenna that communicates with the unit that floats on the roof.

This network - in the form of a ring - would be controlled from a control center that seeks to take advantage of the behavior of the air currents - with the consequent saving by eliminating motor movement - to make the necessary adjustments to continue providing the internet. The first test was carried out in 2013 on New Zealand and progressively it has been taking to other points of the planet, although Google does not detail which.

Now with Titan Aerospace follows the trail that marked Facebook with Ascenta. The project championed by Zuckerberg, which has the backing of companies such as Nokia or Qualcomm, aims to put into play an 'army' of 11,000 teams that will work in shifts.

In spite of the philanthropic imprint they have given to the Google and Facebook project, if they manage to make their projects economically viable and overcome the reluctance of the different governments, the reality is that providing access to the internet to the millions of people who lack it. today would open a new possibility for their respective businesses. More internet users, more data to manage and exploit.

Although it is difficult to quantify the exact figures, in 2012 -according to Internet Access data- the number of people connected reached 32% of the world population, which translates into some 2,300 million people out of a total of 7,200 million. A figure that could rise to 3,600 million in 2017, according to a Cisco report released at the end of last year, before these initiatives were on everyone's lips.

'Lobbies' and regulation

We also have to wait for the telecommunications operators to position themselves before this the evolution of this new career. After the bleeding of income produced by early retirement of SMS or the fall of calls with the transformation of the world under the paradigm of 'smartphone', it will be interesting to see how they adapt to the arrival of new challenges, which is looming a frantic struggle of 'lobbies' in regulation.

A regulation that the European Union began to carbure in an informal way this week with the statements with Siim Kallas, European Commissioner for Transport, who put on the table the need for a new regulatory framework for the sector of 'drones' for civil purposes, necessary for things like internet.org or the initiative of Amazon to deliver orders at home with these tools in less than an hour once the order is made.

Kallas assured that the industry is waiting for this pronouncement on the part of Brussels, since there is fear "to realize certain developments" and that soon they are prohibited. The term that is managed for this task, which will be done through the EASA, is two years. All to promote an activity that could involve a turnover of about 15,000 million euros a year in the Old Continent, where today a third of the 1,700 types of 'drones' are manufactured

A Lego robot breaks the world record by solving a Rubik's cube in 3 seconds

A Lego robot breaks the world record by solving a Rubik's cube in 3 seconds

The device, called CubeStormer 3, has been presented at the fair of technology and engineering held in Birmingham

   A robot that works with Lego modules and a Samsung phone, has beaten the resolution record of a Rubik's cube, after taking to finish it in 3.253 seconds, according to the crediting editor of Guinness World Records, Craig Glenday.

The device, called CubeStormer 3, has been presented at the technology and engineering fair held in Birmingham. It has been created in 18 months with a Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone and ARM processors as key elements.

   The S4 device is the "intelligence" component, which serves to analyze the cube and works with an Exynos 5 Octa application processor with an eight-core ARM big.LITTLE implementation, with four Cortex-A15 and four Cortex-A7 processors. After analyzing the cube, the phone orders four robotic hands to perform the manipulations.

Complex orders

The designers of this project have explained how the hands of the robot must be "incredibly precise" to move so quickly and without problems. "In addition to developing the solution, the processor has to instruct the robot to carry out the movements. This is more complex than it seems, because Cubsestormer 3 uses a speed cube that allows turns », they have indicated.

After this achievement, which can be seen in a video uploaded by the researchers , these experts indicate that their great challenge now "is to make this robot go faster".

They develop a method to authenticate the species of canned tuna in 24 hours

They develop a method to authenticate the species of canned tuna in 24 hours

Researchers from the Basque center AZTI-Tecnalia create a methodology that surpasses genetic methods, which required several days to reach conclusive results

   AZTI-Tecnalia, a technological center specialized in marine and food research, has developed a new method to authenticate canned tuna. This method allows to detect in 24 hours if the product is northern bonito, 'yellow fin' or bigeye.

Until now, genetic methodologies to establish DNA required several days to obtain a conclusive result. The innovative methodology is of great interest for the canning industry and is a tool that can help to authenticate what is stated in the labeling.

The changes in the production processes have meant a revolution in the canning industry, since nowadays, the preserves are produced, in many cases, from frozen tuna loins that are imported. These loins, without skin, present enormous advantages in terms of productivity and yield of the processes, however, sometimes, given the difficulty of differentiating the species visually errors in the labeling of the conserve occur.

The DNA detection system of canned and processed tuna developed by the Molecular Biology Laboratory of AZTI-Tecnalia, which differentiates different species even in processed foods, has been accredited by the National Accreditation Entity (ENAC). The AZTI-Tecnalia method provides, in addition to speed, reliable and conclusive results. The new method is, therefore, a great opportunity to ensure that products are labeled correctly and to guarantee quality to consumers.

DNA technology

Canning authentication methodologies are generally based on the detection of DNA fragments from any type of processed fish sample, including canned fish. These methods, called genetic, are very reliable but have the disadvantage that in most cases they require several days to achieve a conclusive result. However, the innovative AZTI-Tecnalia system, based on fluorescent probes, allows a precise result to be obtained within 24 hours.

The Molecular Biology Laboratory of AZTI-Tecnalia continues to work on the development of new authentication methodologies for different marine species in order to offer the fishing and canning industry effective tools to ensure their traceability systems. Using DNA technology, the specialists of the technology center can genetically identify the Cantabrian anchovy and the bonito of the north, among other fish. It also has systems to authenticate the variety of Arabica coffee, cheeses with protected designation of origin, juices and meat mixtures, among other food products.

They create the first bionic plant

They create the first bionic plant

Researchers at MIT have incorporated 'prothesis' of carbon nanotubes in the leaves of several plants, which have improved their ability to absorb light by 30%

   A team of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has created the first bionic plants in history. They have threaded carbon nanotubes along their leaves and managed to improve their ability to absorb light by 30%. Its technology, which is still in an incipient phase, could allow the creation of plants with a higher growth rate, or able to detect all kinds of chemical elements, including explosives.

  Researchers have discovered a technique that allows carbon nanotubes to integrate into chloroplasts the cells that convert sunlight into food and energy from the plant. They succeeded in coating each nanotube on a DNA film, which allowed it to pass through cell walls without breaking them.

Carbon nanotubes are tiny filaments actually, hollow tubes of an atom of thickness with great capacity for the conduction of electrons and for the absorption of light. The researchers used them for both reasons. Also because, if your diameter is changed, you can decide what kind of light they capture.

Potential applications

Although the results of the research suggest that the plants improved their efficiency by 30% after the incorporation of this material, scientists still do not know exactly the reasons. "Nanotubes may be producing electrons directly, or they may be doing something called energy transfer by resonance," Michael Strano, one of the participants in the creation, told Popular Mechanics magazine. "But we're not sure, and we do not want to speculate."

The applications of this technique would not only allow to create more efficient plants, but also to use them to detect all kinds of chemical elements. Among the possible applications would be the detection of explosives or poisonous substances in the air.

In addition, the researchers say, the technology needed to create these super efficient plants is quite cheap. According to his calculations, it now costs about 10 cents per plant, and can be cheaper even if the process is industrialized.

Moss-based electricity

Moss-based electricity

A British team of researchers wants to take advantage of the electrons released by plants during photosynthesis to generate electricity to power electronic devices

  A Swiss designer and two British researchers want to take advantage of the resources offered by nature, without taking advantage of it. They intend to use the electrons released by plants during photosynthesis to produce electricity and, with it, feed all kinds of small devices. A very inefficient process, but very ecological.

  Scientists from the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom) have called this technology microbial photo fuel cells. And they have already managed to give life, for a few minutes, to a simple FM radio. According to Wired magazine, they have preferred to create a modest but achievable technology, and not wait for decades of development to present a more interesting product.

To create this radio powered by plants, the researchers and the designer have created a table with ten moss pots connected to each other. When exposed to light, they generate enough electricity to charge a condenser with the most basic form of battery, which gives life to the sound system.

At the moment, explains Fabienne Felder, the Swiss designer who created the original concept, they have only been able to take advantage of one out of every one thousand electrons that plants shed during photosynthesis. They have patented the idea, and they assure that they are already working on finding formulas to make the process more efficient. Perhaps other species of moss of which there are thousands throughout the world, or new methods of capturing their energy.

In addition to that reduced, but usable, electricity capacity, mosses have other properties that make them useful for a home. They are a good thermal and acoustic insulator, and also useful as an air and water filter.

"I think that on a small scale we are more or less close to being able to transform people's house plants into small electric generators to charge their phones," Felder told Wired. "On a large scale, especially outdoors, the right combination of plants can be crucial and we still need to investigate further."