Battey Storage is becoming the Go-To solution for Grid Scale Power stability. The question is: Can Battery Makers, like Tesla, provide the massive battery systems, to power, multiple, Power Grids?

Battery technology will define the future of renewable energy

It is an exciting time to be involved in energy innovation. There have been developments on multiple fronts at the consumer level with the introduction of new models of electric and hybrid-electric vehicles, and perhaps more importantly, at the utility level with massive commercial investments in renewable energy generation and storage technologies

From article, (Renewable energy, especially solar and wind power, is quickly becoming the dominant locus of new electricity generation investment. 

The Bloomberg 2017 New Energy Outlook predicts that $10.2 trillion will be spent on new power generation worldwide through 2040, and a massive 72 percent of this will be invested in new wind and solar plants. The broader availability of clean power is an encouraging development from both an environmental and an economic perspective. However, as energy markets accelerate along the transition from conventional to sustainable energy generation, there will be a growing problem that the industry must address.

 The challenge is that a growing reliance on wind and solar energy can cause electrical grids to become unstable. Everyone can understand that the output of solar and wind farms naturally fluctuates due to cloud cover and wind speeds. As these intermittent sources of power grow in importance, so does the potential for damaging jolts to local and regional grids. Risks range from localized voltage drops that wreak havoc on modern electronic devices to blackouts of the kind that, in 2016, plunged almost all of South Australia into darkness for nearly 48 hours in some areas, an event that was followed by months of widespread power instability.

The traditional solution to this problem has been the maintenance of “spinning reserves” — a back-up network of fossil-fuel generators primarily designed to meet demand peaks. Ultimately, the more efficient solution lies in energy storage, particularly advanced battery technology. Batteries are the optimal means of balancing renewables-dominant grids because they can inject power into grids rapidly and in the precise amounts needed to interdict and smooth out fluctuations.

The main obstacles to the broad deployment of energy storage, of course, have been the high cost of the batteries themselves and the difficulties in obtaining enough of them to handle the needs within a utility grid. That is changing rapidly. Investments in technologies, supply chains and production facilities for Lithium Ion (Li-ion) batteries in particular have brought them to the point where a scalable solution exists.

Battery storage is also becoming a go-to solution at grid scale. After an overambitious ramp-up of wind and solar power precipitated a grid collapse, South Australia’s government sought a balanced solution comprised of both additional spinning reserves and utility-scale batteries. Tesla has installed the world’s largest Li-ion battery farm there. Other companies and utilities have also begun to deploy Li-ion batteries to stabilize grids in the U.S., Europe and Asia.)

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Should Driving Into City Centers Be Free? Data from Other Congestion Priced Cities says, No.

Are traffic-clogged US cities ready for congestion pricing?

New York is the latest city to contemplate congestion pricing as a way to deal with traffic problems. This strategy, which requires motorists to pay fees for driving into city centers during busy periods, is a rarity in urban public policy: a measure that works and is cost-effective.

From article, (Should road use [in city centers] be free?

The idea of charging for use of public roads is not new. Economist Arthur Pigou discussed the issue as early as 1920 as part of his attempt to remedy the suboptimal workings of the market system. In 1963 Canadian-born economist William Vickrey argued that roads were scarce resources that should be valued by imposing costs on users.

Consumers intuitively understand differential pricing. We expect to pay more for airline tickets at peak travel times and for hotel rooms at popular times of the year. Congestion pricing operates in the same way. By increasing prices, it forces users to think about the cost of making a trip. A congestion tax is what behavioral economists call a “nudge” that makes people evaluate their travel patterns.

And it can be effective. A 2008 study gave drivers in Seattle a hypothetical cash sum to spend on trips, charged them tolls linked to traffic congestion levels, and let them keep money they did not spend. Their cars were fitted with equipment to monitor driving patterns.

The results showed that pricing affected behavior: Travelers altered their schedules, took different routes or collapsed multiple trips into single journeys. Collectively, these changes reduced congestion at peak time, lessened wait times and increased average travel speeds in the study’s regional traffic model.

Congestion pricing in practice

Singapore was one of the first major cities to introduce congestion pricing in 1975, charging US$1.30 for a vehicle to enter the central business district between 7:30 and 9:30 a.m. The policy had political support because most residents used public transport, with only the wealthiest driving private cars. The tax was viewed as a more equitable distribution of costs.

The net result was that congestion was reduced and travel times improved. Between 1975 and 1988, the project generated revenues 11 times larger than its costs. Pollution decreased and pedestrian safety improved. In 1998 Singapore shifted to variable charges that target congested road stretches and vary by time of day and travel direction.

London introduced congestion pricing in 2003, charging motorists, entering central London between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays, 5 British pounds (about $7) per day. The scheme generated 2.6 billion pounds (about $3.63 billion) in its first decade, almost half of which was invested in public transport and infrastructure improvements.

The Congestion Charge, as it is known, reduced the number of automobiles entering the city by 44 percent from the pre-charge level and slightly reduced traffic accidents. Air quality in central London also improved.

The charge did produce some unintended consequences. House prices within the Congestion Charge zone increased – bid upward by consumers who appear willing to pay to avoid traffic and enjoy improved environmental conditions. Over the long term, the congestion tax lubricated the gentrification of central London.

But this process is common to many other big cities, with or without congestion pricing: The rich preempt central city locations and displace the less wealthy to the suburbs.

Stockholm introduced a congestion tax in 2007, after a seven-month trial and bitter political fights. Vehicles entering the central city were charged different rates over the course of the day, reaching 35 Swedish kronor (about $4.40) during morning and evening rush hours.

The tax gradually gained public support and decreased congestion as commuters shifted to public transport. Other Swedish municipalities have since copied the scheme.

Currently, the proposed plan for New York City would charge cars $11.52 cars to enter Manhattan below 60th Street on weekdays during business hours. Trucks would be charged $25.34, and taxis and app-based rides such as Uber and Lyft would be charged $2 to $5. The tax would generate $1.5 billion yearly.)

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A Certain Type of Bat has Longevity Because its Telomeres Do Not Shorten with Age. Leading scientists, to study a new mammal, bats, that could hold benefits for Humans.

Surprising bat genetic trait holds secrets of longevity

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bats are the longest-lived mammals relative to body size, and a species called the greater mouse-eared bat lives especially long. Researchers now have unlocked some of this bat's longevity secrets, with hints for fighting the effects of ageing in people.

 From article, (Bats are the longest-lived mammals relative to body size, and a species called the greater mouse-eared bat lives especially long.

Researchers now have unlocked some of this bat's longevity secrets, with hints for fighting the effects of ageing in people.

Scientists said on Wednesday (Feb 7) that unlike in people and most other animals, in this bat species the structures called telomeres located at the end of chromosomes, thread-like strands inside a cell's nucleus that carry genes determining heredity, do not shorten with age.

 Only 19 mammal species are longer-lived than humans relative to body size.

Eighteen of them are bats, some living more than four decades. The other is a weird African rodent called a naked mole rat.

The researchers identified two genes in the greater mouse-eared bat that may be responsible for its unique longevity adaptation.

These mechanisms could be the focus of future studies on ageing, with an eye toward extending healthy lifespans in people, the researchers said.

Telomeres are protective caps at the ends of chromosomes that shorten each time a cell divides. This drives the natural ageing process, leading to a breakdown of cells that over time can drive tissue deterioration and eventually death.

"Studying exceptionally long-living mammals that have naturally evolved mechanisms to fight ageing is an alternative way to identify the molecular basis of extended 'health spans',"said biologist Emma Teeling of University College Dublin in Ireland, one of the study leaders.

"Bats are an exciting new model species that will enable us to identify new molecular mechanisms that drive healthy ageing.")

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An Amino Acid, Asparagine, may contribute to secondary tumors forming in breast cancer. A drug called L-Asparagine blocks this Amino acid, increasing the chances of surviving Breast Cancer.

Spread of breast cancer linked to compound in asparagus and other foods

Using drugs or diet to reduce levels of asparagine may benefit patients, say researchers Breast cancer patients could be encouraged to cut asparagus and other foods from their diets in the future to reduce the risk of the disease spreading, scientists say.

 From article, (Asparagine is an amino acid that is made naturally in the body as a building block for proteins. But it is also found in the diet, and in high levels in certain meats, vegetables and dairy products.

The international team of cancer specialists from Britain, the US, and Canada studied mice with an aggressive form of breast cancer. The mice develop secondary tumours in a matter of weeks and tend to die from the disease within months.

Writing in the journal Nature, the researchers describe how they reduced the ability of breast cancer to spread in the animals by blocking asparagine with a drug called L-asparaginase. To a lesser extent, by putting the animals on a low-asparagine diet worked too. Inspired by the results, the scientists examined records from human cancers and found that breast tumours that churned out the most asparagine were most likely to spread, leading patients to die sooner. The same was seen in cancers of the head, neck and kidney.

Asparagine appears to help cancer cells change into a form that easily spreads from the breast, through the bloodstream, to other organs where they grow into secondary tumours, Hannon said. While suppressing levels of asparagine reduced the spread of breast cancer around the body, it did nothing to prevent breast tumours forming in the first place.

If the findings hold in humans, breast cancer patients may be put on low asparagine diets while they have conventional treatments, such as chemotherapy, for the disease. But because asparagine is so ubiquitous in food, drugs that target the amino acid may be more effective. L-asparagine breaks the amino acid down in the bloodstream, but more targeted drugs could block its production altogether.

“This is one case where we can show at a deep biochemical level how a change in diet can impact properties of cells that are relevant to the progression of lethal disease,” said Hannon. “But of course, until human studies are done, this isn’t a DIY method to prevent cancer.”

“Asparagine is frequently found in various animal sources including beef, poultry, eggs, fish and seafood. It is also found in many vegetables including asparagus, potatoes, nuts, legumes and soy. Since these foods are so common, it seems that diet restriction may not be the ideal approach,” Ye said.)

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Falcon Heavy can launch probes as far as Pluto, Directly, and Beyond

Elon Musk Says SpaceX's Falcon Heavy Can Reach 'Pluto and Beyond'

Elon Musk's SpaceX had successfully tested its Falcon Heavy rocket, and Musk wants other countries and companies to join the space race.

 From article, (SpaceX boss Elon Musk wants to see “a new space race” after his company successfully tested its Falcon Heavy rocket.

The Falcon Heavy is capable of delivering very heavy packages into orbit—its first payload was one of Tesla’s Roadster cars—and Musk said after the test that it would be able to “launch things direct to Pluto and beyond.”

“Don’t even need gravity assist or anything,” he reportedly said. “You can go back to the moon.”

The hyper-entrepreneur said Falcon Heavy’s launch would “encourage other companies and countries” into a new wave of space competition.

Customers lined up to use the Falcon Heavy system include Arabsat, Inmarsat and Viasat. And then, of course, there’s Mars—SpaceX wants the Falcon Heavy to be the foundation for its Martian colonization plans.)

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Dream Chaser closes in on its Dream.

NASA provides Dream Chaser with Authority To Proceed for maiden ISS mission

NASA has provided the milestone of "Authority to Proceed" to Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) for the Dream Chaser spacecraft's first NASA mission to the International Space Station. The launch atop an Atlas V to the orbital outpost has been provided with a window late in 2020.

From article, (NASA has provided the milestone of “Authority to Proceed” to Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) for the Dream Chaser spacecraft’s first NASA mission to the International Space Station. The launch atop an Atlas V to the orbital outpost has been provided with a window late in 2020. The cargo version of Dream Chaser is working under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services Contract 2 (CRS2).

It’s been a long road for Dream Chaser, with her development mainly focused on the crew capable version of the spacecraft.

However, the crewed Dream Chaser was sidelined from NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) when NASA chose SpaceX’s Dragon 2 and Boeing’s Starliner capsules for the transportation of NASA astronauts to the ISS.

 “The Dream Chaser is going to be a tremendous help to the critical science and research happening on the space station,” added Mr. Sirangelo.

“Receiving NASA’s Authority to Proceed is a big step for the program. We can’t wait to see the vehicle return to Kennedy Space Center to a runway landing, allowing immediate access to the science payloads being returned from the station.”

NASA and the ISS Program is expected to firm up the launch date early in 2020 based on Visiting Vehicle requirements and the status of the CRS2 vehicles.)

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Elon talks about the BFR, and how it is developing.

Forget Falcon Heavy? Musk Is Already Focused on His Newer, Bigger Rocket

Only a few hours after world beheld the launch of the Falcon Heavy, Elon Musk had already decided the monster rocket was too small. "I finished looking at the side boosters, and they're pretty big-you know, 16 stories tall, 60-foot leg span," Musk said at a press conference following the launch.

From article, (The Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy are both closing in on their final designs. The so-called "Block 5" update will be the last major upgrade to the rockets, one that will increase the rockets' thrust and reusability and also allow SpaceX to certify the Falcon 9 to carry crews of astronauts on the Dragon 2 spacecraft. To go "way bigger than that" will require something new.

SpaceX is banking its future on the Big Falcon Rocket, or BFR—although the original name for the rocket is a bit more colorful. And this week's big success was a boon for Musk's ever bigger dreams. “It’s given me a lot of confidence that we can make the BFR design work,” Musk says about the Falcon Heavy launch and landing of the two side boosters. In fact, Musk says SpaceX could begin short flight tests of the second stage of BFR next year.

The Big Falcon Rocket will consist of a massive first-stage booster with 31 Raptor engines—a new rocket engine SpaceX began test-firing in September 2016. The second stage, also known as the Interplanetary Transport System, is a 48-meter long, 9-meter diameter spaceship that, on paper, could carry up to 100 people on flights to other planets. It's a rocket that could fulfill Musk's ultimate goal: colonizing Mars.

“I think we might be able to do short hopper flights with the spaceship part of BFR, maybe next year,” says Musk. "By hopper tests, I mean kind of like the beginning of the Grasshopper program for Falcon 9... it will go up several miles and come down."

The Grasshopper was a small experimental rocket SpaceX built to test vertical takeoffs and landings, a program that paved the way for Musk's company to land full-scale boosters like it did with two of the three from this week's Falcon Heavy test flight. The first flights of the BFR spaceship will be similar tests, and Musk said those flights probably would take place at a new commercial spaceport that SpaceX is building on the beaches of south Texas, just outside of Brownsville. However, Musk said it is possible the BFR hopper tests are conducted "ship to ship," potentially using two drone ships and flying the spaceship from one to the other.

Musk said the tests need to take place somewhere remote, "so if it blows up it's cool." He also said the spaceship should be capable of flying to Earth orbit itself, a requirement for the long-term plan of having the Interplanetary Transport System fly back to Earth from the moon or Mars.These initial tests need to make sure the spaceship can hold up to intense reentry heats. "The ship part is by far the hardest. That's gonna come in from super-orbital velocities," Musk says, meaning the spaceship will be returning at incredibly high speeds from beyond Earth's orbit. He explained that some of the heating elements will scale to the eighth power with velocity.

 "[We] really want to test the heat shield material, so we're going to fly up, turn around, [and] accelerate back real hard."

In addition to the spaceport in Brownsville, SpaceX is considering expanding its facilities in San Pedro, California, to accelerate work on the interplanetary spaceship, as reported by Wired. Musk hopes the Big Falcon Rocket will ultimately be capable enough to replace Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy.

"Now that we're almost done with Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy... most of our engineering resources will be dedicated to BFR," he says. "I think it's conceivable that we do our first test flight in three or four years—full on orbital test flight of the new booster... going to the moon shortly thereafter."

That timeframe is ambitious to say the least. Falcon Heavy was announced in 2011 and took seven years to realize. The BFR is even bigger and more complex, designed to fly with four more engines than Falcon Heavy, and those engines are still in development. If SpaceX is going to fly the BFR booster and spaceship by the early 2020s, then getting started on flight tests for the Interplanetary Transport System is absolutely crucial.

"Testing the ship out is the whole tricky part," says Musk. "The booster I think—I don't want to get complacent—but I think we understand reusable boosters. Reusable spaceships that land propulsively, that's harder.")

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SETI is seen by many Astrobiologists as Necessary to Finding Intelligent Life and Possibly Being Refunded by Congress and or NASA.

NASA Should Start Funding SETI Again

In 1992, Sen. Richard Bryan (D-Nev.) introduced a last-minute amendment that ended funding for Project HRMS, the last major Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program funded by NASA. "This hopefully," he quipped, "will be the end of Martian hunting season at the taxpayer's expense."

From article, (Congress currently seems not hostile but downright receptive to SETI, and there is no actual statutory prohibition on NASA supporting a SETI program. NASA recently chartered the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to form the ad hoc Committee on Astrobiology Science Strategy for Life in the Universe to evaluate its astrobiology portfolio, and this committee should recommend that NASA embrace SETI as part of its mission.

NSince the late 1950s, astronomers have realized that our technology is sufficient to send and receive signals of sufficient strength to be detected at interstellar distances. If there are other technological species in the galaxy, a simple radio or laser signal would be an unambiguous sign of their existence. Finding such intelligent life is the goal of SETI.

finding alien life has become a major priority for NASA. Supporting the field of astrobiology is a major part of NASA's research portfolio, and finding signs of microbial life in the solar system or in the atmospheres of distant planets is one if its top priorities.

And yet, “traditional SETI is not part of astrobiology” declares the “NASA Astrobiology Strategy 2015” document. But as many members of the field will tell you, this is incorrect. According to NASA, astrobiology is defined as the study of the "origin, evolution, distribution, and future in the universe" of life.

And indeed, NASA has ambitions to identify biosignatures—the results of interactions between life and its environment—that would reveal the existence of primitive life on other worlds. NASA uses studies of the origin and evolution of past life on Earth as a guide to identify these biosignatures.

But some of the most obvious ways in which Earth is inhabited today are its technosignatures such as radio transmissions, alterations of its atmosphere by industrial pollutants, and probes throughout the Solar System. It seems clear that the future of life on Earth includes the development of ever more obvious technosignatures.

And there is no a priori reason to believe that biosignatures should be easier to detect than these technosignatures. Indeed, intelligent, spacefaring life might spread throughout the galaxy, and therefore be far more ubiquitous than planets that have only microbes. Life might be much easier to find than the NASA strategy assumes.  

 Indeed, it has been noted cynically, but not untruthfully, that NASA eagerly spends billions of dollars to search for “stupid” life passively waiting to be found, but will spend almost nothing to look for the intelligent life that might, after all, be trying to get our attention. This is especially strange since the discovery of intelligent life would be a much more profound and important scientific discovery than even, say, signs of photosynthesis on the nearest exoplanet to the solar system, Proxima b.)

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Poor Decision Screws Second Avenue Subway. More City Involvement could have prevented this.

Thanks to an MTA Design Decision, the Second Avenue Subway Is Already Screwed

The Second Avenue Subway may not be finished in our lifetime, but even if it is, it will be stuck with reduced capacity. Thanks to a crucial decision made by the MTA back in the project's first phase of construction, according to a newly published Regional Plan Association report, the new line will never carry as many passengers as it might have unless the MTA spends billions of dollars to fix a key problem.

 From article, (The Second Avenue Subway may not be finished in our lifetime, but even if it is, it will be stuck with reduced capacity. Thanks to a crucial decision made by the MTA back in the project’s first phase of construction, according to a newly published Regional Plan Association report, the new line will never carry as many passengers as it might have unless the MTA spends billions of dollars to fix a key problem.

The report, which concludes a two-year investigation into the MTA’s capital project overruns, notes that the MTA decided to reduce the number of tracks at the 72nd Street station, where the Q train arrives on the Second Avenue line, from three to two, while the number of platforms was reduced from two to one. This, the RPA says, will have a cascading effect on service, reducing the number of trains that can be run on the Second Avenue line and the Q once future phases of the project are complete.

The original plan for the station at 72nd Street and Second Avenue called for two “island” platforms with a track on either side and one down the middle. Once the T — the yet-to-be-launched portion of the SAS on Second Avenue south of 72nd — entered service, the center track would act as a terminus for Q trains, while T trains would use the side tracks. Passengers would have a cross-platform transfer between the Q and T in both directions, and each train would run on its own tracks with almost no overlap.

But all that changed when the MTA decided to scale back the 72nd Street station to two tracks and one platform, the way it is today. As a result, once the southern section of the Second Avenue Subway opens, the Q will likely have to run all the way up to the future terminus of the SAS at 125th Street, running an alternating schedule with the T, even though the lines will only share six stops.

Why did the MTA do this? The transit authority did not respond to a request for comment before publication. But according to Barone — who spoke to the MTA several times during the two years he researched the report — the authority claims it had to reduce the width of the station so it remained under the Second Avenue roadbed without spreading underneath adjacent buildings, which would have caused “geotechnical” concerns, as Barone puts it. He says the MTA was also worried about getting the necessary easements on those properties as well as community pushback to the increased construction, all problems that the report notes could have been eased by “greater city involvement” during the design phase.)

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