Grid

Smart devices on the electric grid increase vulnerability to hacking, threatening power outages and system damage. A team from the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory proposes a new tool to prioritize and manage cyber threats more effectively, aiming to protect the grid by addressing both immediate and future challenges.The proliferation of programmable devices creates additional entry points for cyberattacks.There’s a down side to “smart” devices: They can be hacked.That makes the electric grid,…

Electric distribution infrastructure, shown from supply to end use, would likely require upgrades to facilitate new eVTOL charging sites. Credit: NREL Electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft might quickly move passengers over mountains or float them across urbanscapes. But first, an important consideration for these flying batteries is where they will charge and whether the existing power grid infrastructure…

How 2D grid-based algorithms can be brought into the 3D worldCloseup of the triangular 50-neighborhood. (Image by author)In my previous two articles, A Short and Direct Walk with Pascal’s Triangle and A Quick and Clear Look at Grid-Based Visibility, we saw how easy it is to generate decent-looking travel paths and compute visible regions using grid-based algorithms. The techniques I shared in those posts can be used for video games, mobile robotics, and architectural design, though our examples were limited to two…

A left-wing extremist organization called the “Volcano Group” claimed responsibility for a suspected arson attack that shut down Tesla’s Gigafactory on the outskirts of Berlin on Tuesday. The factory halted production after a nearby fire cut off electricity to the plant, and police are reportedly investigating a bomb threat. Elon Musk called the attack “extremely dumb.”Did Elon Musk Regret Buying Twitter? | Walter Isaacson Interview“We sabotaged Tesla today,” the group reportedly wrote in a 2,500-word letter posted on the…

Minesto's fully operational Dragon 12 looks like some sort of futuristic military drone – but it behaves remarkably like a kite underwater. It uses lift generated by tidal flows to fly patterns faster than the currents, harvesting renewable energy.Solar energy is the bedrock of most renewable energy grid plans – but lunar energy is even more predictable, and a number of different companies are working to commercialize energy generated from the regular inflows and outflows of the tides.One we've completely missed is…

Positive Grid has already proven its aptitude for guitar amps with increasingly small entries in its Spark line. But for NAMM 2024 its going big with the Spark Live, a 150 watt portable PA system with four speakers and four channels of audio inputs. Rather than quiet solo practice, the Spark Live is meant for band practices or small gigs.The first channel is dedicated to guitar and has pretty much the full power of Positive Grid's modeling technology at its disposal. There are 33 amp models and 43 effect builtin that can…

New York’s South Fork Wind has become the first utility-scale offshore wind farm to generate power in the US. Danish renewables giant Ørsted announced that South Fork Wind has achieved its 50% installation milestone. Six out of 12 wind turbines are complete and online. “The 7th turbine has also been installed, with components for the 8th turbine next to be installed,” the company said . Halfway point ✅Another big milestone for #SouthForkWind as we reach the halfway-finished milestone, with…

Europe is electrifying — literally. From EVs to heat pumps, more and more of our critical technologies need to get plugged in. This is a positive step toward net zero, but it is also putting a massive strain on the electricity grid.  Grid congestion is like rush hour traffic on a busy highway — excessive demand for electricity creates bottlenecks and slows the flow of energy.This can cause power outages, voltage fluctuations, and equipment damage. It’s such a big problem that some companies…

Ecoflow announced the Delta Ultra today at CES, its monster 6kWh home LFP battery pack on wheels. Its 240V/30A= 7.2kW output can back up a home the way a whole home generator or Tesla Powerwall can. However, this thing has wheels and can be loaded into a vehicle to be transported to a campsite or a remote location. EcoFlow provided us with one last month and we’ve taken it to an off-grid tiny home which it kept powered, even in the cold of winter, for a whole weekend. Let’s have a deeper look… This…

Offshore wind turbines at two commercial-scale sites are now sending power to the U.S. grid. Moments before midnight on Tuesday, a single turbine near Martha’s Vineyard delivered 5 megawatts of renewable energy to the New England grid, developers said. The turbine is one out of 62 planned for Vineyard Wind 1, an offshore site owned by utility company Avangrid and wind energy investor Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP). The firms wanted to deliver offshore wind power via the site before the…