Tag: Sustainability

Sustainability-in-Tech : New Electric Aircraft Makes Record $5 Flight

Posted on by Paul Stradling

The largest battery-electric aircraft ever flown has completed its first successful flight, demonstrating that electric propulsion can now operate at something approaching commercial-airliner scale while highlighting both the enormous potential and the significant limitations still facing cleaner regional aviation.

A Record-Breaking First Flight

Heart Aerospace’s X1 demonstrator, developed by the Swedish-founded aviation company before it relocated its operations to the US, took off from Plattsburgh International Airport in New York on 12 August, completing a 27-minute piloted flight that included taxiing, take-off, climbing, manoeuvring and landing.

The aircraft is certainly substantial. For example, with a wingspan of a massive 106 feet, a length of 76 feet and a take-off weight exceeding 25,000 lb, Heart says the X1 is the largest battery-electric aircraft ever to have flown. During the test, it climbed to 1,100 ft above ground level while its all-electric propulsion system delivered more than one megawatt of power.

Heart’s Founder and CEO Anders Forslund said: “With the first flight of X1, Heart Aerospace has demonstrated electric flight at the scale of a commercial airliner.”

Perhaps the most eye-catching figure, however, is the energy bill. Heart says powering the entire flight required approximately US$5 worth of electricity, providing an intriguing glimpse of how electric propulsion could eventually change the economics of short-distance flying.

Why The US$5 Figure Matters

That US$5 should be treated carefully, since it represents only the electricity consumed during one demonstration flight rather than the total cost of operating an aircraft.

Airlines would still need to pay for pilots, maintenance, airport charges, battery replacement, insurance and the aircraft itself. However, energy represents a significant operating expense in aviation, while jet-fuel prices can fluctuate considerably with global oil markets.

Electricity could potentially make part of that cost both lower and more predictable, particularly on the short regional journeys for which Heart is developing its technology.

Heart expects its eventual commercial aircraft to reduce operating costs by more than 40 per cent compared with older regional aircraft, citing cheaper energy, simpler electric propulsion requiring less maintenance and improved aircraft reliability among the reasons.

The Environmental Opportunity

The potential sustainability benefits are equally important, particularly because aviation remains one of the harder sectors of the economy to decarbonise.

Battery-electric aircraft can operate without burning jet fuel during flight, eliminating the associated direct carbon emissions from their electric operation. Where batteries are charged using increasingly renewable electricity, the overall environmental benefits could become more significant.

Regional aviation is a particularly interesting place to begin because many flights cover relatively short distances, yet conventional aircraft still need to burn fuel throughout those journeys.

Electric propulsion also offers the possibility of quieter aircraft, while lower operating costs could potentially make smaller regional airports and less heavily travelled routes commercially viable.

Forslund believes this could ultimately enable “more affordable, frequent, and cleaner air service to and from airports closer to home”.

The Big Battery Problem

Despite the successful X1 flight, batteries remain the fundamental obstacle preventing large commercial aircraft from simply swapping their jet engines for electric motors.

Jet fuel contains far more usable energy for its weight than today’s batteries, and weight matters enormously in aviation. Adding enough batteries to fly substantially further also makes an aircraft heavier, which in turn requires more energy to keep it airborne.

That explains an important distinction behind Heart’s programme. The X1 demonstrator that has just flown is entirely battery-electric, although the commercial ES-30 aircraft it is helping Heart develop will actually be hybrid-electric.

The 30-seat ES-30 is being designed to combine batteries and electric propulsion with a combustion-powered range extender, allowing Heart to pursue commercially useful regional routes without depending on battery improvements that have yet to arrive.

Rather than undermining the achievement, that compromise illustrates where electric aviation realistically stands today. Batteries can increasingly power larger aircraft, although their weight and energy density still limit the distances those aircraft can practically travel.

From Demonstrator To Airliner

Heart Aerospace, which was actually founded in Sweden but is now headquartered in Los Angeles, is already developing the first pre-production ES-30 at its pilot manufacturing facility in California.

Flight testing is scheduled to begin in 2028, with entry into commercial service targeted for 2031. The aircraft is being developed for certification under the same FAA Part 25 framework governing commercial airliners, meaning substantial testing and regulatory work still lies ahead.

There is certainly commercial interest, with Heart reporting customer commitments from airlines including United Airlines, Air Canada and JSX.

Michael Leskinen, Chief Financial Officer of United Airlines, said electric commercial aircraft have “real potential to deliver a better travel experience for passengers while strengthening our business”.

What Happens Next?

Turning a successful 27-minute demonstration into an aircraft carrying paying passengers will require considerably more than proving electric motors can lift an airliner-sized aircraft.

For example, Heart must successfully develop and test its pre-production ES-30, complete certification, demonstrate commercially acceptable reliability and convince airlines that its promised operating savings can be achieved in everyday service.

Battery development will also be a particularly important element. Improvements in energy density could allow future aircraft to travel further electrically without adding excessive weight, gradually reducing dependence on the combustion range extender and increasing the environmental benefits.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For businesses, Heart’s achievement provides an interesting example of how decarbonisation can increasingly be driven by economics as well as environmental targets. If electric propulsion genuinely reduces energy and maintenance costs, airlines could have a strong commercial reason to adopt cleaner aircraft rather than relying solely on regulation to encourage them.

The flight also demonstrates why sustainability breakthroughs need to be viewed realistically. The X1 has not solved aviation’s emissions problem, and Heart’s first commercial aircraft will still use fuel when its range extender is required. What it has demonstrated is that battery-electric propulsion can now operate successfully at a scale that would have seemed extremely ambitious only a few years ago.

The next stage will determine whether that engineering achievement can become a commercially viable aircraft. For example, if battery performance continues improving and Heart can deliver the reliability, certification and operating savings it is promising, electric propulsion could begin making some of aviation’s shortest journeys cleaner long before completely electric long-distance flight becomes practical.

Sustainability-in-Tech : Solar Sets New UK Record

Posted on by Paul Stradling

Britain generated more electricity from solar power than ever before in July, underlining how rapidly renewable energy is becoming a mainstream part of the UK’s electricity system while strengthening energy security and helping reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

A Record Month For Solar

Solar energy supplied a record 14.4 per cent of Great Britain’s electricity during July, comfortably surpassing the previous monthly record of 12.4 per cent, which had been set only two months earlier.

According to data from the National Energy System Operator (NESO), solar generation was also 50 per cent higher than in July last year, producing a total of 3.2 terawatt-hours of electricity during the month. The increase reflected a combination of unusually sunny weather and the continued rapid expansion of solar installations across the country.

Chris Hewett, Chief Executive of Solar Energy UK, said: “Fifteen years ago, solar energy was a footnote in the electricity mix. Now it is a major player, delivering home-grown, cheap, clean and reliable energy. It’s a success story that the whole nation should be proud of.”

More Panels, More Sun, And More Power

Whilst July was clearly extremely sunny and warm this year, Solar Energy UK is keen to highlight that the new record has not been driven by the favourable weather alone.

For example, official figures show that 142,536 new solar installations were completed during the first half of 2026, making it the busiest six-month period for new installations since the end of the Feed-in Tariff subsidy era. Most of these were domestic rooftop systems, reflecting growing consumer interest in generating electricity at home as energy prices remain a significant concern.

Commercial rooftop installations on warehouses, factories and supermarkets have also continued to expand, although many are not fully reflected in official installation statistics because they often fall outside the planning system. Together with larger solar farms, they have substantially increased Britain’s overall generating capacity.

The figures also seem to illustrate how the economics of solar have changed. For example, falling equipment costs, improved panel efficiency and stronger financial returns mean that many installations are now commercially attractive without relying on government subsidies.

Building A More Resilient Energy System

The record also highlights an important sustainability benefit beyond simply generating clean electricity.

Unlike fossil-fuel power stations, solar panels produce electricity without releasing carbon dioxide during operation while reducing the amount of imported gas needed to meet daytime electricity demand. Every additional unit of renewable electricity therefore helps improve both energy security and carbon reduction.

Julian Leslie, Strategic Energy Planning Director and Chief Engineer at the National Energy System Operator (NESO), which operates Great Britain’s electricity system, said: “These new records show the increasing power of solar. It’s hard to believe how far Britain has come over the past quarter of a century, with renewables now producing around 60% of our electricity – up from just 3% in the year 2000.”

He added: “Enabling low-carbon technologies like solar to play their part in our energy future is critical to helping us on our journey towards building a cleaner energy future.”

Growing investment in battery energy storage is also making solar more valuable by allowing excess electricity generated during sunny periods to be stored and used later, helping smooth fluctuations in renewable generation while reducing pressure on the electricity grid.

A New Chapter For Rooftop Solar

It’s worth noting here also that the growth of household solar looks set to receive another boost later this month.

From 27 August, new legislation will allow plug-in solar kits to be sold legally in the UK for the first time. Unlike conventional rooftop systems, these compact panels can simply be plugged into a standard household socket, allowing people living in rented accommodation or properties without suitable roofs to generate some of their own electricity without major installation work. The systems are expected to cost around £400 and could save households between £70 and £110 per year.

Although these systems did not contribute to July’s record, they represent another example of how solar generation is becoming accessible to a much wider range of households.

At the same time, larger utility-scale projects continue to expand. Britain’s largest operational solar farm, Cleve Hill in Kent, is already generating electricity, while even larger developments remain under construction, illustrating that growth is occurring across every scale of deployment.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For businesses, July’s record demonstrates that renewable electricity is becoming an increasingly important part of the UK’s energy infrastructure rather than an occasional supplement to conventional power generation. As solar capacity continues to expand, organisations are likely to benefit from greater energy security, lower long-term exposure to fossil-fuel price volatility and continued progress towards national carbon reduction targets.

The figures also reinforce the growing commercial case for on-site renewable generation. Falling installation costs, improving battery storage and rising electricity prices continue to strengthen the financial case for businesses to invest in rooftop solar, particularly for organisations with large warehouses, offices or manufacturing facilities that consume significant daytime electricity.

Britain’s latest solar milestone also illustrates how sustainability and economic resilience are becoming increasingly closely linked. Greater use of home-grown renewable energy not only reduces greenhouse gas emissions but also helps create a more diverse and resilient electricity system that is less exposed to global fuel markets, providing long-term environmental and economic benefits for businesses and consumers alike.

Sustainability-In-Tech : 3D-Printed Battery Could Speed Up Net Zero

Posted on by Paul Stradling

Researchers at Queen’s University Belfast have developed a low-cost 3D-printed battery that could help overcome one of renewable energy’s biggest obstacles by making long-duration electricity storage cheaper, more reliable and easier to research, potentially accelerating the transition away from fossil fuels.

What Problem Are Researchers Trying To Solve?

Renewable energy generation continues to expand rapidly around the world, yet one major challenge remains unresolved. Wind turbines only generate electricity when the wind blows, while solar panels stop producing power overnight or during periods of poor weather.

That means electricity generated from renewable sources must be stored efficiently so it can be used whenever demand requires it. Without reliable energy storage, electricity grids continue to rely on fossil-fuel power stations to bridge the gaps when renewable generation falls.

As Dr Hugh O’Connor from Queen’s University Belfast explains: “Tackling climate change is widely recognised as one of the major challenges facing modern society.”

He also points out: “The biggest challenge with renewable energy is simple – we cannot control when the sun shines or when the wind blows. The uncomfortable reality is that clean energy still only makes up a small share of our overall energy use – around just 16 per cent in both the UK and Ireland.”

The research team believes solving the storage challenge is essential if renewable energy is to replace fossil fuels on a much larger scale.

Why Flow Batteries Matter

Much of today’s attention seems to be focused on lithium-ion batteries, which already power smartphones, laptops and electric vehicles. Although highly effective for many applications, they become increasingly expensive for storing very large amounts of electricity over long periods.

Unlike lithium-ion batteries, which store energy within solid electrodes, flow batteries store it in liquid electrolytes held in external tanks. This makes them particularly well suited to grid-scale energy storage, where large amounts of renewable electricity may need to be stored for many hours before being released.

Most commercial flow batteries currently rely on vanadium, a metal that is produced in relatively few parts of the world and whose price can fluctuate significantly. Queen’s researchers have instead developed a battery based on iron, which is far more readily available and considerably less vulnerable to supply constraints.

The team also points out that flow batteries use safer aqueous chemistry than lithium-ion systems while avoiding the ethical concerns associated with cobalt mining that has historically been linked with many lithium-ion batteries.

A Battery That Costs A Fraction Of The Price

The breakthrough began during Dr O’Connor’s PhD research when he discovered that purchasing a laboratory flow battery cell could cost between £2,000 and £3,000.

Rather than accepting that cost, he began designing and manufacturing his own using 3D printing.

Describing the project, Dr O’Connor said: “As part of my PhD research, I realised how expensive it was to buy a flow battery cell – anything up to £3,000 – so I started 3D-printing them. After a lot of trial and error, eventually these started to work really well and I was able to create one for around £75.”

Reducing the cost of individual research cells makes advanced battery research accessible to many more laboratories while allowing researchers to test new battery chemistries much more affordably.

Why Standardisation Could Be The Bigger Breakthrough

Perhaps the most significant achievement is not the battery itself but the way the researchers have chosen to share it. For example, Dr O’Connor discovered that laboratories around the world were often obtaining different experimental results simply because they were using different battery designs and testing methods. That inconsistency made it difficult to compare findings or build confidently on each other’s work.

He explained: “For research to move forward, the way we use flow batteries needs to be standardised.”

Instead of commercialising the design, the Queen’s team produced what Dr O’Connor describes as an “Ikea-style” instruction manual and distributed both the battery design and assembly guidance to research groups worldwide.

The initiative has already brought together more than 35 research groups, including teams from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard University and the University of Cambridge, all using identical battery cells and testing protocols.

Dr Josh Bailey, a fellow researcher at Queen’s University Belfast, said: “It’s been fantastic to see that we’re already making global impact. By distributing the Queen’s cell around the world, we have been able to lead a large, international research study.”

He added that the collaboration is “helping to accelerate breakthroughs in long-duration energy storage, advance the transition away from fossil fuels, and firmly position our team at Queen’s as leading the development of clean, reliable energy technologies.”

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For businesses, the research highlights that long-duration energy storage is becoming one of the most commercially important technologies supporting the transition to net zero. Reliable, affordable storage allows renewable electricity to be used more efficiently, helping reduce dependence on fossil fuels while making electricity systems more resilient.

The project also demonstrates how sustainability innovation increasingly delivers value by solving several challenges at once. The Queen’s battery reduces costs, uses a more abundant raw material, improves research consistency and encourages international collaboration, all of which could accelerate the commercial deployment of cleaner energy technologies.

Perhaps most importantly, the decision to make the battery design openly available illustrates that collaboration can sometimes create greater long-term impact than protecting intellectual property. As businesses and researchers work towards ambitious climate targets, innovations that are affordable, reproducible and easily shared may prove just as valuable as the scientific breakthroughs themselves, helping sustainable technologies move more quickly from the laboratory into widespread commercial use.

Sustainability-In-Tech : A New Way To Clean Forever Chemicals

Posted on by Paul Stradling

Scientists have developed what could become one of the first practical ways to remove harmful “forever chemicals” from contaminated farmland at scale, combining plant-based clean-up with carbon removal in an approach that could make environmental remediation far more affordable while helping tackle climate change.

What Problem Are Scientists Trying To Solve?

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), commonly known as forever chemicals, have become one of the world’s most persistent environmental pollutants.

Used for decades in products ranging from non-stick cookware and waterproof clothing to firefighting foams and industrial manufacturing, PFAS resist natural breakdown and can remain in soil and water for many years. Their persistence has led to growing concern because exposure has been linked to a range of health issues, including certain cancers, liver damage, thyroid disease and immune system problems.

One of the less widely recognised sources of contamination comes from sewage sludge, often referred to as biosolids, which has been spread on agricultural land as fertiliser for decades in many countries. While providing valuable nutrients, this sludge has also introduced PFAS into farmland, where the chemicals can move into crops, groundwater and eventually the food chain.

As the Yale University research team explains in its paper: “PFAS contamination of agricultural soils represents a pervasive and persistent environmental challenge.”

A Different Way To Clean Contaminated Land

Traditional methods for cleaning PFAS-contaminated soil are both disruptive and extremely expensive. They often involve excavating large volumes of soil or heating it to very high temperatures, approaches that can cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars per hectare while leaving farmland temporarily unusable.

Researchers from Yale University have instead proposed an integrated approach that works with the land rather than removing it.

The process begins by applying finely crushed alkaline rock to contaminated fields. This raises the soil’s pH, making key PFAS compounds more mobile and easier for certain plants to absorb.

Farmers then grow crops known to take up PFAS efficiently, including hemp and certain grasses. Once harvested, the contaminated biomass is heated through a process known as pyrolysis. The high temperatures destroy the targeted PFAS while producing biochar, a stable carbon-rich material that can be returned to the soil to help reduce further PFAS movement and improve soil health.

The researchers describe the approach as combining “phytoremediation, biochar production, and enhanced weathering to simultaneously remove PFAS from soil, immobilise residual contamination, and achieve durable carbon dioxide removal.”

Faster, Cheaper And Better For The Climate

One of the most significant findings is that the different elements reinforce one another. For example, the study found that managing soil pH accelerated the removal of PFOS, one of the most common and tightly regulated PFAS compounds, reducing remediation times by more than a decade under typical contamination levels.

The economics also appear promising. The researchers estimate median remediation costs of around US$1,460 per hectare per year, more than an order of magnitude lower than conventional techniques, which often cost between US$0.8 million and US$1.6 million per hectare.

Unlike traditional clean-up methods, the proposed system also delivers significant environmental benefits. Applying crushed rock helps remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through enhanced weathering, while biochar locks carbon into the soil for the long term.

National modelling suggests that, if widely adopted across PFAS-contaminated US farmland, the approach could remove around 10.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, equivalent to approximately 4 to 6 per cent of the country’s 2050 carbon removal target.

Helping Farmers Rather Than Displacing Them

Another important aspect of the research is that it aims to keep farmland productive. For example, conventional remediation often requires contaminated land to be excavated or taken out of agricultural use altogether. By contrast, the Yale approach allows farmers to continue managing their land while progressively reducing contamination.

The researchers note that the strategy “empowers the communities most impacted by contamination—farmers—to directly remediate their land while potentially maintaining productive use.”

The study also highlights how future improvements could make the process even more effective. Researchers believe better PFAS-absorbing plant species, together with advances in crop breeding and biochar production, could further reduce costs and shorten remediation times.

Not A Complete Solution Yet

Although the findings are encouraging, the researchers are careful not to present the approach as a complete answer to the PFAS problem.

The work is essentially based on modelling supported by experimental data, and large-scale field deployment will still need to demonstrate how the system performs under different soil types, climates and farming conditions. Questions also remain about the long-term stability of biochar’s ability to immobilise PFAS and how the approach should be adapted for heavily contaminated sites.

The researchers therefore describe their work as providing “a viable pathway to restore contaminated farmland, mitigate PFAS exposure risks, and contribute meaningfully to national climate mitigation goals”, rather than a finished commercial solution.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For businesses, the research demonstrates how environmental innovation is increasingly addressing multiple challenges at the same time rather than solving one problem in isolation. In this case, the same technology has the potential to reduce hazardous pollution, restore agricultural land, protect food production and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The work also highlights growing commercial opportunities in environmental remediation. As governments strengthen regulation around PFAS and other persistent pollutants, demand is likely to increase for technologies that can deliver practical, scalable and cost-effective clean-up without disrupting productive land use. Companies involved in agriculture, environmental services, carbon markets and green technology may therefore find new opportunities emerging as these solutions move from research into commercial deployment.

More broadly, the study reflects a wider change in sustainable innovation. Increasingly, the most valuable environmental technologies are those capable of delivering several measurable benefits at once, combining pollution reduction, climate mitigation, resource recovery and economic viability into a single integrated solution. As sustainability moves from compliance to competitive advantage, approaches like this are likely to become an increasingly important part of the transition to a lower-impact economy.

Sustainability-In-Tech : Australia Tells AI Data Centres To Generate Their Own Power

Posted on by Paul Stradling

Australia is proposing new national rules that would make the next generation of large AI data centres build enough new electricity generation to match the power they consume, helping prevent rapid AI expansion from pushing up household bills or placing extra pressure on the country’s grid.

What Has Been Announced?

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the proposals during a speech at the University of Sydney, where he set out plans for a new national framework covering the location, energy use, water consumption and wider environmental impact of large data centres.

Under the proposed rules, operators would be legally required to underwrite new power supplies, pay the full cost of connecting their facilities to the electricity network and ensure that households and other businesses are not left funding the infrastructure needed to support them.

Most significantly, large data centres would have to add at least as much electricity to the grid as they consume.

Albanese summarised the policy by saying data centres would need “to be net-generators, not net-users”.

The government intends to seek agreement from state and territory leaders before introducing legislation to the Australian Parliament early next year. This means the requirements are not yet legally binding, and many of the practical details still need to be developed.

What Does Putting Power Back Mean?

A data centre cannot literally return the same electricity it has already consumed. Instead, the proposed requirement means operators would need to support enough new generation to match the energy demand created by their facilities.

In practice, this is likely to involve funding or entering into long-term agreements with new renewable energy projects, such as solar or wind farms, together with energy storage or other reliable back-up generation.

That last element is important because AI data centres operate continuously, while renewable energy production changes according to weather conditions and the time of day. The Australian government has therefore said operators must also support “firming”, which refers to the storage or alternative generation required to provide electricity when renewable output is low.

The aim is to ensure that new data centres bring additional power into the system rather than consuming electricity that homes, public services and existing businesses already depend upon.

Why Now?

AI requires substantial physical infrastructure comprising servers, cooling equipment, network connections and specialist computing hardware. As increasingly powerful AI models are developed and used more widely, the amount of electricity and water required to operate this infrastructure is growing rapidly.

Australia wants to attract more AI investment, but the government is concerned that allowing developers to build facilities before environmental and infrastructure rules are agreed could leave communities carrying the costs.

As Albanese explained: “We cannot revisit this issue after companies have built whatever they want, wherever they want, and try and then re-open negotiations.”

His argument is that Australia’s land, energy resources and investment potential give it enough influence to set conditions before major projects are approved.

The Australian government also believes clearer national rules could benefit responsible investors by replacing different local and regional requirements with one consistent framework.

Water Is Part Of The Plan

Electricity is not the only sustainability concern surrounding large data centres. Many facilities use substantial amounts of water to prevent computing equipment from overheating, which is particularly significant in a country that regularly experiences drought and water scarcity.

Albanese described Australia as “the sunniest continent on earth” but also “the driest”, and said data centres would be required to minimise water use, maximise energy efficiency and pay for any extra water infrastructure they require.

The location of future facilities will therefore matter, particularly where communities are already facing pressure on local water supplies or where electricity networks have limited spare capacity.

Part Of A Wider Global Problem

Australia’s announcement comes as other countries face growing concern about the impact of data centres on energy systems.

For example, in Ireland, data centres consumed 23 per cent of the country’s electricity during 2025, almost as much as all urban and rural households combined. The country now requires new facilities to provide their own flexible generation and obtain most of their annual electricity from new renewable projects.

Technology companies are also struggling to reconcile AI growth with their own environmental commitments. Microsoft, for example, has reported a sharp increase in emissions as it expands its global data centre infrastructure, despite maintaining targets to become carbon negative and water positive by 2030.

Public opposition is also becoming more organised in communities concerned about electricity prices, water use, emissions, planning decisions and the limited number of permanent jobs created by some large facilities.

Australia’s proposed approach attempts to address those concerns before its AI data centre sector expands much further.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For businesses, the announcement highlights how the environmental cost of AI is becoming a practical commercial and regulatory issue rather than simply a matter for sustainability reports.

Organisations increasingly using AI services may face closer scrutiny over where their computing resources are hosted, how those facilities are powered and whether claims about renewable energy represent genuinely new generation or simply the purchase of existing certificates.

The Australian model could also influence other countries looking for ways to attract AI investment without passing its infrastructure costs on to households and existing businesses.

Much will depend on the final rules and how carefully the requirement is measured and enforced. However, this reflects a broader change in expectations, with companies building energy-intensive AI infrastructure increasingly expected to create the additional power, grid capacity and water infrastructure their growth requires rather than assuming the public will provide it.

Sustainability-in-Tech : Microwaves Drill Deeper For Clean Energy

Posted on by Paul Stradling

A US clean energy company has raised $134 million to build what it says will be the world’s first commercial superhot geothermal power plant, using microwave technology to reach temperatures far beyond those accessible with conventional drilling in a development that could dramatically expand the role of geothermal energy in a low-carbon future.

A New Generation Of Geothermal Energy

US-based Quaise Energy, headquartered in Houston, has announced the first close of a $134 million Series B funding round, bringing its total funding to $230 million.

The investment will finance Project Obsidian in Central Oregon, which the company says will become the world’s first commercial superhot geothermal power plant while also supporting the continued development of its millimetre-wave drilling technology.

Unlike conventional geothermal projects, which rely on naturally accessible underground heat, Quaise aims to drill much deeper to reach rock temperatures between 300°C and 500°C. At those temperatures, significantly more energy can be extracted from each well, potentially allowing geothermal power to compete directly with fossil fuels and nuclear power while producing virtually no carbon emissions during operation.

As Carlos Araque, Chief Executive Officer and President of Quaise Energy, explains: “Our ambition is to power civilization with Earth’s most compelling energy source. This round takes us from field-proven technology to first commercial revenues.”

Replacing Drill Bits With Microwaves

The key innovation lies in how Quaise plans to reach those extreme depths. For example, conventional drilling becomes increasingly difficult as rock gets hotter and harder because drill bits wear out rapidly, making deep geothermal wells expensive and technically challenging.

Quaise’s solution, developed following more than a decade of research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), replaces conventional drill bits beyond certain depths with high-power millimetre-wave beams that effectively vaporise the rock instead of mechanically cutting through it.

The company has already demonstrated the technology under real field conditions, drilling more than 100 metres through granite during 2025. It is now approaching one kilometre in depth at its Central Texas test site, which would represent the deepest penetration ever achieved using millimetre-wave drilling and the deepest recorded by any non-contact drilling technology.

The next challenge is considerably greater. Quaise ultimately aims to drill beyond five kilometres, where temperatures become high enough to unlock the enormous energy potential of superhot geothermal systems.

Why Hotter Really Matters

Traditional geothermal power stations are geographically limited because commercially useful underground heat is only accessible in certain locations. Superhot geothermal could change that.

By drilling much deeper, Quaise believes temperatures of between 300°C and 500°C become accessible across far larger areas of the world, allowing clean, continuous electricity generation in places that would previously have been unsuitable for geothermal energy.

The company says its technology has “the unique potential to reach rock at temperatures of 300-500°C in most places worldwide, enabling the construction of geothermal systems that rival fossil and nuclear energy in power density and renewables in cost.”

Unlike solar and wind power, geothermal energy is also available around the clock, regardless of weather conditions or the time of day. That makes it particularly valuable as countries attempt to decarbonise electricity systems while maintaining reliable supplies.

Meeting Growing Demand For Clean Electricity

The timing of the announcement reflects another important trend. Electricity demand is rising rapidly as transport, heating and industry become increasingly electrified, while artificial intelligence data centres are adding substantial new demand to national grids.

Meeting that growth sustainably will require much more than simply installing additional renewable generation. Power systems also need dependable low-carbon sources capable of operating continuously to complement intermittent renewable energy.

Quaise believes superhot geothermal could become one of those technologies. With this in mind, construction has already begun on Project Obsidian, which is being built on federal geothermal leases in Oregon’s Deschutes National Forest. The company says the project has gigawatt-scale potential and aims to deliver its first electricity to the grid by 2030.

An Important Reality Check

Despite the enthusiasm surrounding the funding, considerable engineering challenges remain before the technology can be deployed commercially.

Although the drilling system has demonstrated encouraging progress, it has yet to reach the depths required for commercial superhot geothermal production. Project Obsidian itself also remains under development, meaning the commercial viability of the approach has not yet been proven.

The latest investment therefore represents confidence in the technology rather than confirmation that every technical challenge has already been overcome.

Even Quaise’s announcement focuses on the transition still ahead, describing the funding as the point where the company moves “from field-proven technology to first commercial revenues.”

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For businesses pursuing sustainability goals, developments like Quaise’s highlight how the clean energy transition is broadening beyond familiar technologies such as wind and solar.

Reliable, zero-carbon electricity available around the clock could eventually help reduce dependence on fossil fuels while providing the stable energy supplies needed for manufacturing, digital infrastructure, transport and increasingly energy-intensive technologies such as AI.

Although commercial superhot geothermal remains several years away, the direction of travel is becoming clearer. Businesses developing long-term sustainability strategies are likely to benefit from monitoring emerging technologies capable of delivering dependable clean power alongside renewables rather than viewing decarbonisation solely through the lens of today’s energy mix.

Quaise’s ambitious drilling technology still has significant engineering hurdles to overcome, but if it succeeds, it could unlock one of the world’s largest untapped sources of clean energy. Rather than relying only on the sun above or the wind around us, future low-carbon electricity systems may increasingly draw on the immense heat that has always existed beneath our feet.

Sustainability-in-Tech : Fusion Breakthrough Turns Plasma Energy Into Electricity

Posted on by Paul Stradling

A US fusion company has demonstrated a new way of converting energy from a fusion plasma directly into electricity, while separate work on advanced electrical conductors could dramatically reduce the amount of power lost as heat, highlighting how the clean energy challenge is increasingly about efficiency as well as generation.

A Fusion First

Realta Fusion, a Wisconsin-based company developing compact fusion energy systems, says it has become the first private fusion company to demonstrate direct energy conversion from a fusion plasma.

The experiment took place on 19 June using the Wisconsin HTS Axisymmetric Mirror (WHAM), an experimental fusion device operated in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Researchers attached a prototype direct energy converter to one end of the device, where it captured energy from charged particles leaving the plasma and converted some of their movement directly into an electrical current.

According to Realta Fusion, the system produced multiple amps at around 100 volts, providing enough electricity to illuminate several light bulbs.

The amount of power produced was small, but the importance of the experiment lies in how the electricity was generated. Realta describes the process as “converting the energy of a fusion plasma manifesting in the form of moving charged particles directly into electricity – real amps of electric current flowing in circuits employed to do useful work.”

Why Direct Conversion Matters

Most power stations generate electricity indirectly. Whether the original energy comes from coal, gas, nuclear fission or some future fusion reactors, heat is generally used to produce steam, which then drives a turbine connected to a generator.

Every stage introduces energy losses, which means a substantial proportion of the original energy never reaches the electricity grid.

However, direct energy conversion offers a different possibility. Instead of turning all the energy from a fusion reaction into heat before producing electricity, some of the energy carried by charged particles can potentially be captured directly.

Realta believes this could be particularly useful in its magnetic mirror fusion reactors, where powerful magnets confine extremely hot plasma between two high-field superconducting magnets. Some charged particles naturally escape through the ends of the system, creating an opportunity to recover their energy.

The company explains that “by directly converting fusion plasma power into electricity, we can push less of the energy through a thermal cycle that has inherent efficiency limits due to the laws of thermodynamics.”

Recycling Energy Inside The Reactor

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the technology is that Realta doesn’t simply want to send the recovered electricity to the grid.

Fusion reactors themselves require substantial amounts of power to heat and sustain their plasma. Realta’s longer-term aim is to recover enough electricity through direct energy conversion to help meet those internal requirements, effectively recycling some of the energy within the power plant.

The company compares the idea with a hybrid vehicle, where a conventional powertrain and electrical system work together to improve overall efficiency.

Realta says: “We believe we can generate enough electricity using DEC in our design points to completely cover the input power requirement of the system for continuous operation, leaving the heat component for either direct use or the generation of electricity for customers.”

If that can be achieved at commercial scale, direct energy conversion could improve the economics of fusion by reducing the amount of electricity a reactor must consume simply to keep operating.

An Important Reality Check

Despite the significance of the experiment, it is important to be clear about what Realta has and has not demonstrated. WHAM is currently just a prototype-scale device using deuterium fuel rather than the deuterium-tritium mixture planned for Realta’s first commercial fusion reactors. As a result, most of the energy recovered in this experiment came from energy originally supplied to heat and sustain the plasma rather than energy newly produced by fusion reactions.

Realta itself is careful to make this distinction, stating that “this is neither a demonstration of net-electricity production nor large-scale conversion of fusion-born power directly into electricity.”

The challenge now is essentially how to scale things up. The prototype has demonstrated the principle, but Realta must develop the technology from its current output to kilowatts and eventually megawatts if it is to become part of a commercial power plant.

The company summarises its approach as “first make it work, then make it good”, acknowledging that a considerable engineering challenge remains between powering a few light bulbs and contributing meaningfully to the operation of a fusion power station.

Wasting Less Electricity On The Grid

While Realta is trying to improve how future clean energy is generated and reused, California start-up Arcturus is tackling another part of the electricity problem by trying to reduce the amount of energy lost during transmission.

Electrical conductors naturally resist the flow of current and produce heat. These losses become particularly important as electricity demand increases and power grids are required to carry greater loads.

Arcturus is developing copper and aluminium conductors infused with carbon nanomaterials using lasers. The aim is to create metals that conduct electricity more efficiently, particularly at higher temperatures, without requiring the equipment around them to be completely redesigned.

The company believes that replacing conventional conductors with its materials could potentially halve electrical grid losses, which could make significantly more electricity available without building additional generation capacity.

However, the technology remains at a much earlier stage than widespread grid deployment. Arcturus has so far produced relatively short lengths of its material and plans to scale production for testing in applications such as electric motors and power distribution equipment.

Efficiency Is Becoming As Important As Generation

These two developments are very different, but they highlight the same fundamental challenge. The transition to cleaner energy is not simply about generating more electricity. Electrification, AI data centres, electric vehicles and industrial decarbonisation are increasing demand at the same time as many electricity grids are already struggling with capacity constraints.

That makes every avoidable energy loss increasingly important. A fusion plant that can recycle more of its own energy could deliver electricity more efficiently, while better conductors could allow more of that electricity to reach the businesses and homes that need it.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Neither fusion direct energy conversion nor nano-infused power cables will transform business energy costs in the immediate future, as both technologies still face significant engineering and commercial challenges.

However, they demonstrate how innovation across the entire energy system could help address rising electricity demand. The future energy transition will depend not only on renewable generation and new technologies such as fusion, but also on reducing losses within power stations, data centres, industrial equipment and electricity networks.

For businesses, particularly those operating energy-intensive facilities, this means energy efficiency is likely to become an increasingly important area of technological innovation and investment. Improvements that once appeared relatively small can become economically significant when applied across factories, data centres and national electricity networks.

The wider message here is that solving the clean energy challenge will require many more improvements at every stage, from the way power is generated to the materials carrying it across the grid. Realta Fusion and Arcturus may be examples of organisations working at very different points in that chain, but both are really pursuing the same valuable goal of getting more useful electricity from the energy and infrastructure already available.

Sustainability-in-Tech : UN Calls For AI Firms To Reveal Their Environmental Costs

Posted on by Paul Stradling

The United Nations is urging AI companies to disclose the full environmental cost of their technologies, arguing that the industry’s impact extends far beyond electricity consumption and carbon emissions.

Why The UN Is Concerned

The warning follows the publication of a new report by the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), which argues that AI’s environmental footprint is being measured too narrowly.

While public debate has largely focused on carbon emissions and electricity consumption, the report says AI also has substantial water and land footprints that are often overlooked. Cooling data centres, generating electricity and building the infrastructure needed to support AI all consume natural resources on a scale that is growing rapidly.

The report concludes that greater transparency is urgently needed so governments, investors and the public can properly assess AI’s true environmental impact.

What The Numbers Show

According to the report, global data centres could consume around 945 terawatt-hours of electricity every year by 2030. That is almost three times the combined annual electricity consumption of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria, countries with a combined population of more than 650 million people.

Electricity, however, is only part of the story. The researchers estimate that AI-related electricity generation and cooling could require around 9.3 trillion litres of water each year by the end of the decade, equivalent to the basic annual domestic water needs of approximately 1.3 billion people in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The associated land footprint could exceed 14,500 square kilometres, roughly twice the size of the Jakarta metropolitan area.

Professor Kaveh Madani, Director of UNU-INWEH and one of the report’s authors, said: “This report is not a case against artificial intelligence… It is a call for using it responsibly and addressing its unintended impacts proactively to make it sustainable and equitable.”

Looking Beyond Carbon

One of the report’s central arguments is that measuring AI sustainability through carbon emissions alone can be misleading.

Researchers found that different energy sources can have very different environmental consequences. For example, an energy source that produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions may require considerably more water or land.

Lead author of the report, Dr Miriam Aczel, said: “If we keep judging AI sustainability by carbon alone, we might think that renewables make AI infrastructure clean, but that is solving one problem while creating other problems, often in places that didn’t ask for it.”

The report therefore calls for AI companies to publish standardised information covering carbon, water and land use together, allowing meaningful comparisons between different technologies and data centres.

Daily AI Use Is Driving Demand

The report also challenges another widely held assumption. Many people associate AI’s environmental impact with training large language models. However, the researchers estimate that running AI systems after they have been deployed, known as inference, now accounts for around 80 to 90 per cent of total AI energy consumption.

As millions of people generate text, images and videos every day, those routine interactions collectively consume far more electricity than the original training process.

The report also highlights how energy requirements vary dramatically depending on the task being performed. Generating an AI image can require around 1,450 times more energy than a simple text classification task, while AI video generation demands considerably more still.

A Wider Sustainability Challenge

The United Nations also highlights broader environmental issues extending beyond electricity use. For example, by 2030, AI infrastructure could generate up to 2.5 million tonnes of electronic waste every year, while demand for critical minerals used in processors, batteries and other hardware continues to increase.

The report argues that the environmental burdens associated with AI are often concentrated in communities hosting data centres, mining operations and electronic waste processing, while many of the economic benefits flow elsewhere.

UN Under-Secretary-General and United Nations University Rector Professor Tshilidzi Marwala said: “AI can certainly advance prosperity and human well-being. Whether it does so equitably is now a governance question, not a technical one.”

Towards More Responsible AI

Rather than arguing against AI, the report proposes what it describes as a “responsible AI ecosystem” built around six principles: transparency, efficiency by design, equity, lifecycle responsibility, global cooperation and sustainable use.

Governments are encouraged to incorporate AI infrastructure into energy, water and land-use planning, while AI developers are urged to improve efficiency and publish consistent environmental reporting.

The report also suggests organisations deploying AI should consider selecting the least resource-intensive model capable of completing a particular task rather than automatically using the largest available systems.

What Does This Mean For Your Organisation?

For organisations adopting AI, the UN’s report highlights how sustainability is becoming an increasingly important part of AI governance rather than simply a data centre issue.

Many businesses are already assessing suppliers on environmental, social and governance criteria. As AI becomes embedded across more business applications, organisations may increasingly expect technology providers to disclose not only carbon emissions but also water use, land impacts and other environmental costs associated with their AI services.

It now looks as though transparency is likely to become just as important as technical performance. As businesses invest more heavily in AI, questions about how those systems are powered, where they operate and what resources they consume are likely to become an increasingly important part of procurement, sustainability reporting and corporate responsibility. The United Nations is making it clear that measuring AI’s environmental impact should no longer stop at carbon emissions alone.

Sustainability-in-Tech : Trump Administration Backs Musk In AI Data Centre Pollution Battle

Posted on by Paul Stradling

The Trump administration has taken the unusual step of intervening in an environmental lawsuit against Elon Musk’s AI company xAI, arguing that the data centre at the centre of the dispute is so important to national security that it should be protected from legal action seeking to restrict its power supply.

Dilemma

The case highlights a growing sustainability dilemma facing the AI industry. For example, while artificial intelligence is increasingly being positioned as a tool for solving global challenges, its rapidly growing appetite for electricity is creating new environmental pressures, particularly as operators race to build ever-larger data centres.

Why The Government Has Intervened

The dispute in the U.S. centres on xAI’s Colossus AI facility in Mississippi, which relies on dozens of methane gas turbines to help power the infrastructure used to train and operate Grok, the company’s AI model.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), one of the oldest and largest civil rights organisations in the United States, filed the lawsuit. In this case, the NAACP’s Mississippi State Conference filed it. The lawsuit alleges that the turbines are operating without the permits required under the Clean Air Act and are contributing to air pollution that could affect nearby communities.

However, in a court filing submitted on behalf of the United States government, the Department of Justice argued that the lawsuit threatens “American national, economic, and energy security by seeking to shut off the power supply for artificial-intelligence innovation that supports the Department of War’s military operations.”

The filing seeks dismissal of the case and represents an unusually direct intervention by the federal government in support of a private technology company.

Why Grok Is Being Treated As A Strategic Asset

A key part of the government’s argument is that Grok has become integrated into sensitive national security operations. For example, according to a declaration submitted by Cameron Stanley, Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer at the Department of War (previously known as the Department of Defense), xAI’s Grok is “one of only four proprietary state-of-the-art (‘frontier’) AI models currently capable of supporting national security applications”.

The declaration also states that the Department relies on a specialised version known as Grok Gov Model and that it provides capabilities “found in no other frontier AI model”.

The filing claims that if the Mississippi facility were unable to continue operating at its current scale, the development and improvement of future Grok models could be affected, potentially impacting military and intelligence capabilities.

Whether or not the court ultimately accepts those arguments, the case demonstrates how rapidly advanced AI systems are being reclassified from commercial technology platforms into infrastructure that governments increasingly view as strategically important.

The Environmental Cost Of AI Growth

The environmental concerns at the heart of the case are difficult to ignore. For example, the turbines reportedly emit pollutants including nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, both of which have been linked to respiratory and cardiovascular health problems. Environmental groups argue that communities living near the facility should not bear the environmental cost of powering AI systems.

Also, the growth of AI is creating unprecedented demand for electricity. Modern AI models require vast numbers of processors working simultaneously, and those processors need enormous amounts of power.

The result is that many technology companies are now competing for access to electricity on a scale more commonly associated with heavy industry.

This creates an uncomfortable contradiction. Many of the same companies investing heavily in sustainability initiatives and clean technologies are simultaneously searching for whatever energy sources can support their rapidly expanding AI ambitions.

The Search For Cleaner Alternatives

The controversy also highlights why technology companies and investors are increasingly searching for lower-carbon energy sources capable of supporting AI’s growing power demands. One recent example is Critical Energy, a startup founded by a former SpaceX engineer that has raised $22 million to develop modular geothermal turbines for geothermal power plants. The company argues that geothermal energy could provide reliable, round-the-clock electricity for energy-hungry AI infrastructure years before many advanced nuclear projects become commercially available.

Projects such as these are attracting growing attention because geothermal energy can provide continuous power without the intermittency associated with solar or wind generation.

For the AI industry, that matters because data centres require power around the clock, making reliability almost as important as sustainability.

The challenge, however, is that many cleaner energy projects take years to deploy, while AI demand is growing today.

What Does This Mean For Your Organisation?

This case essentially offers an early glimpse of a debate that is likely to become increasingly common over the next decade. Governments want to lead in AI. Businesses want access to more powerful AI tools. At the same time, communities, regulators, and environmental groups are demanding that growth happens responsibly, and the lawsuit against xAI sits directly at the intersection of those competing priorities.

For organisations investing in AI, the wider lesson is that sustainability is becoming an infrastructure issue as much as a software issue. Questions about where AI runs, how it is powered, and what environmental impacts it creates are likely to become increasingly important alongside discussions about capability, productivity, and security.

The case also suggests that some governments are beginning to treat advanced AI infrastructure in much the same way as power stations, telecommunications networks, and defence assets. If that trend continues, future debates about AI may focus as much on energy policy and environmental impact as they do on the technology itself.

The political backdrop is also difficult to overlook in this particular case. Given Elon Musk’s close relationship with the Trump administration, some critics are likely to question whether the government’s intervention reflects purely national security concerns or whether political considerations may also have played a role. The administration maintains that its position is based on the strategic importance of the AI infrastructure involved.

The outcome of this particular lawsuit remains uncertain at this point. What is already clear, however, is that the race to build more powerful AI systems is creating difficult choices between economic growth, national security, environmental protection, and sustainable energy development, choices that governments, businesses, and communities will increasingly be forced to confront.

Sustainability-in-Tech : Can Light Make AI More Sustainable?

Posted on by Paul Stradling

A UK startup claims it can reduce the power consumed by AI data centre networks by 81 per cent by replacing conventional electronic switching equipment with technology that routes data using light.

Why AI’s Energy Problem Is Growing

The rapid growth of artificial intelligence is creating a major sustainability challenge. As AI models become larger and more widely used, the data centres that power them are consuming increasing amounts of electricity. Industry forecasts suggest global data centre energy demand could rise significantly over the coming decade, driven largely by AI training and inference workloads.

Much of the attention has focused on the energy consumed by powerful processors such as GPUs. However, another important source of energy consumption sits in the networks that connect those processors together.

Modern AI systems rely on thousands of chips constantly exchanging data. Every time information moves through conventional networking equipment, energy is consumed and heat is generated. As AI clusters grow larger, those networking systems are becoming increasingly expensive to power and cool.

That has prompted researchers and technology companies to look for ways of making AI infrastructure more efficient.

What Oriole Networks Has Developed

London-based startup Oriole Networks believes it has found one possible solution.

The company has developed a networking platform called PRISM that replaces traditional electronic switches in data centre networks with optical circuits that route information as photons rather than electrical signals.

For decades, data centre networks have depended on electrical switching technology. While highly effective, these systems consume significant amounts of energy and generate large quantities of heat.

Oriole argues that by allowing data to travel directly as light, much of that inefficiency can be removed.

According to the company, PRISM “removes the need for electronic switches entirely” within the network core and replaces them with “nanosecond-switched optical circuits”.

The company claims this can reduce core network power consumption by 81 per cent. It also says GPU idle time can fall from around 60 per cent to less than 1 per cent because processors spend less time waiting for information to move through the network.

Why Energy Savings Matter

The sustainability implications extend beyond electricity consumption alone. For example, networking equipment generates heat, and removing that heat requires cooling systems. Cooling can account for a substantial proportion of overall data centre energy consumption and often involves significant water usage as well.

Reducing the amount of heat produced inside a facility can therefore create multiple environmental benefits simultaneously.

Oriole argues that its technology could help reduce cooling requirements while making better use of existing AI hardware. Rather than building more data centres or adding more processors to achieve higher performance, operators may be able to extract more useful work from the infrastructure they already have.

The company also believes its approach could reduce dependence on some of the complex supply chains associated with today’s networking equipment.

Moving Into Real-World Testing

The technology is now moving beyond the laboratory. Oriole has announced that its system will be deployed as part of the UK’s £50 million ARIA Scaling Inference Lab, a government-backed initiative designed to address performance and efficiency bottlenecks in large-scale AI infrastructure.

The deployment combines Oriole’s networking technology with AMD Instinct GPUs and AMD EPYC processors.

Madhu Rangarajan, corporate vice president of Compute and Enterprise AI at AMD, described the technology as “a fundamentally different way to connect accelerators at scale” and said the collaboration is helping validate how photonic networking can provide the connectivity needed for AI inference workloads.

For Oriole, the deployment represents a significant milestone. Chief executive James Regan said: “A year ago, we were proving the physics; today, we’re proving the business.” He added that the project demonstrates how “photonic networking stops being a research curiosity and starts being the foundation of how serious AI infrastructure gets built.”

The Important Caveat

The headline figures remain company claims rather than independently verified industry benchmarks.

The ARIA deployment will provide the first large-scale commercial test of whether the technology can deliver the same benefits under real-world conditions that it has demonstrated during development.

That distinction matters because many promising hardware technologies perform well in controlled environments but struggle when deployed at the enormous scale used by major cloud and AI providers.

The wider rollout planned for 2027 will provide a clearer indication of whether photonic networking can become a practical alternative to conventional data centre infrastructure.

What Does This Mean For Your Organisation?

For organisations concerned about the environmental impact of AI, the story highlights the increasingly important reality that making AI more sustainable is not simply about building better processors.

Attention is increasingly turning towards the wider infrastructure that supports AI, including networking, cooling, power delivery, and resource utilisation.

If technologies such as Oriole’s can genuinely reduce network power consumption while improving hardware efficiency, they could help address some of the environmental pressures associated with AI’s rapid growth. Lower electricity demand, reduced cooling requirements, and better utilisation of existing hardware would all contribute towards more sustainable AI infrastructure.

Whether Oriole’s specific approach succeeds remains to be seen. However, the broader message is clear. As AI energy consumption continues to grow, innovations that reduce waste inside data centres may become just as important as advances in the AI models themselves.