Futuristic Farmers Deploy Solar Power To Farm For Microbes
Ambient air carbon capture has come in for its share of ridicule over the years, but fans of the technology finally have something to cheer about. As applied to farming, carbon can be plucked from the air to boost crop yields. All that’s needed is an assist from solar power and some other equipment. An international research team has the goods to prove it, only the crops in question ain’t no ordinary food crops.
Future Farming: Microbial Protein Edition
If you’re guessing microbial protein powder is in the mix, run right out and buy yourself a cigar. Researchers have been looking into the production of microbial protein as an energy efficient, water saving, and land conserving alternative to farming for conventional animal and plant proteins.
Microbial protein refers to just what you might think it does: tiny bits of living matter in the form of algae, yeast, fungi, or bacteria, murdered and dried into a powder.
That doesn’t sound too appetizing, but back in 2016, researchers took note that the “time has come to re‐assess the current potentials of producing protein‐rich feed or food additives in the form of algae, yeasts, fungi and plain bacterial cellular biomass, producible with a lower environmental footprint compared with other plant or animal‐based alternatives.”
They also observed that non-technological roadblocks are in the way.
“In order for microbial protein as feed or food to become a major and sustainable alternative, addressing the challenges of creating awareness and achieving public and broader regulatory acceptance are real and need to be addressed with care and expedience,” they wrote.
Sure enough, animal feed is the leading market for microbial protein today, with aquaculture being the main driver.
As for humans, microbial protein hasn’t quite caught hold in the popular imagination yet. However, it is emerging as a health supplement, so that’s a start.
Solar Power (& Carbon Capture) For Better Microbial Protein Farming
If microbial protein powder is to become the food of the future, investors need to be convinced that it is a money-maker compared to conventional crops, and that’s where the new research comes in.
Earlier this year, an international research team studied a microbial protein farming method that deploys solar power with carbon capture along with two other necessary components, land and nutrients.
“The study carried out an analysis of the energy requirements for each step, from the very start to the end product, taking into account: electricity generation (from solar panels), electrochemical production of energy-rich substrate for the microbes, microbe cultivation, harvesting, and processing the protein-rich biomass,” explained Göttingen University, which was the former home of first author on the study, Dorian Leger.
“We show that the production of microbial foods outperforms agricultural cultivation of staple crops in terms of caloric and protein yields per land area at all relevant solar irradiance levels. These results suggest that microbial foods could substantially contribute to feeding a growing population and can assist in allocating future limited land resources,” the researchers concluded.
Let’s Get Excited About The Solar Power & Protein Powder Mashup
For all the juicy details, look up “Photovoltaic-driven microbial protein production can use land and sunlight more efficiently than conventional crops” in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Meanwhile, it appears that the solar power plus carbon capture angle is not waiting around to leap the Valley of Death that can trap promising new technology in the lab forever.
Over in Finland, a startup called Solar Foods has just nailed down the first ever investment from the new Finnish Climate Fund, to the tune of €10 million. That pumps Solar Foods’s finanical profile up to a total of €35 million to commericialize its proprietary Solein® microbial protein powder.
Solar Foods appears to have taken a look back at the 2016 research, and they are not taking the public awareness angle for granted.
The company is pitching its product straight to the tech-savvy, transparency-demanding foodie of the future.
“Solar Foods has turned sci-fi into reality — it is now possible to produce nutritionally complete protein using carbon dioxide in the air and electricity as its primary raw materials,” the company enthuses, explaining that its first industrial-scale demonstrator facility in Finland will include “the Solein Experience Hub and a future-food bar to provide citizens with an entirely new level of transparency in food production.”
“We want to disconnect food production from the accelerating consumption of natural resources. It is fascinating to be part of making this happen,” they add.
As for the aesthetic experience, Solar Foods has that covered as well.
“Solein vanishes into daily meals, while at the same time maintaining its rich nutritional value and offering a unified solution that caters to virtually every imaginable meal of today and tomorrow,” explains Solar Foods CTO and co-founder Juha-Pekka Pitkänen, adding that “Our vision is to change the way food is produced. The world has hope. The food of the future is no longer a utopia, it is already being produced.”
Solar Power Plus Carbon Capture For The Sustainable The Farm Of The Future
Sweet. Don’t break out the knives and forks just yet, though. Solar Foods is looking to start operations at the new facility in 2023, so let’s take this opportunity to take a closer look at the solar power angle.
Solar Foods estimates that Solein’s comparative greenhouse gas emissions involved in Solein production are only about 1% compared to meat protein, and 20% compared to plant protein production, partly due to the use of solar power to generate electricity for ambient air carbon capture and other systems.
If you’re thinking that the emerging field of agrivoltaics could possibly come into play, that’s possible. Agrivoltaics refers to the combination of solar power with farming practices that conserve soil and build soil health. The trend has already caught on among livestock farmers, who graze sheep and cattle amongst the arrays of solar panels on their land. The solar power plus farming trend is also coming into vogue as a means of expanding pollinator habitats.
Solar Foods envisions parking its systems in deserts where regular food crops can’t grow, but in other areas the solar farm component of the system could do double duty as a host for pollinator habitats or shade-tolerant crops, providing an additional layer of sustainability pixie dust to microbial protein farming.
Solar Power & The Fourth Agricultural Revolution
Commercial agriculture has changed over the years, but solar power is always at the heart of it.
As Solar Foods explained in a recent blog post, taking things down to the cellular level is the next logical step, sustainably speaking.
“It is being called the fourth agricultural revolution. The first one taking place when humans started farming around 12,000 years ago, the second was the reorganisation of farmland after the Middle Ages, and the third (also known as the Green Revolution) was the introduction of chemical fertilisers and pesticides alongside heavy machinery and mass production from the 1950s onwards,” Solar Foods wrote.
When you put it that way, “cellular agriculture” is not even as much of a switcheroo as the transition from the Middle Ages to industrial farming. It’s just more industrial farming, fine tuned with 21st century technology including artificial intelligence, robots, gene editing, and of course, carbon capture and solar power for maximum sustainability.
Follow me on Twitter @TinaMCasey.
Image: Microbial protein farming with solar power and ambient air carbon capture courtesy of Göttingen University.
Arevon Energy has kicked off operations at Vikings Solar-plus-Storage – one of the US’s first utility-scale solar peaker plants.
The $529 million project in Imperial County, California, near Holtville, features 157 megawatts of solar power paired with 150 megawatts/600 megawatt hours of battery storage.
Vikings Solar-plus-Storage is designed to take cheap daytime solar power and store it for use during more expensive peak demand times, like late afternoons and evenings. The battery storage system can quickly respond to changes in demand, helping tackle critical grid needs.
Vikings leverages provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act that support affordable clean energy, strengthen grid resilience, boost US manufacturing, and create good jobs.
The Vikings project has already brought significant benefits to the local area. It employed over 170 people during construction, many local workers, and boosted nearby businesses like restaurants, hotels, and stores. On top of that, Vikings will pay out more than $17 million to local governments over its lifespan.
“Vikings’ advanced design sets the standard for safe and reliable solar-plus-storage configurations,” said Arevon CEO Kevin Smith. “The project incorporates solar panels, trackers, and batteries that showcase the growing strength of US renewable energy manufacturing.”
The project includes Tesla Megapack battery systems made in California, First Solar’s thin-film solar panels, and smart solar trackers from Nextracker. San Diego-based SOLV Energy handled the engineering, procurement, and construction work.
San Diego Community Power (SDCP) will buy the energy from the Vikings project under a long-term deal, helping power nearly 1 million customer accounts. SDCP and Arevon have also signed an agreement for the 200 MW Avocet Energy Storage Project in Carson, California, which will start construction in early 2025.
Vikings is named after the Holtville High School mascot, and Arevon is giving back to the local community by funding scholarships for deserving Holtville High students.
Arevon is a major renewable energy developer across the US and a key player in California, with nearly 2,500 MW in operation and more than 1,250 MW under construction.
Read more: Minnesota’s largest coal plant goes solar: Sherco Solar comes online
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China’s EV giant BYD is aggressively expanding overseas. As it finalizes plans for yet another EV manufacturing plant, this time in Cambodia, BYD will set up shop next to newly opened Ford and Toyota facilities.
BYD’s impressive growth streak is not slowing down. In October, BYD sold over 500,000 new energy vehicles (NEVs), its fifth straight record sales month and the first time it has crossed the half-million mark in a single month.
With China’s auto market becoming flooded with low-cost competitors, BYD is looking to key overseas markets to drive growth.
After opening its first plant in Thailand earlier this year, a booming EV region, BYD plans to open up shop in another major Southeast Asian market.
According to Khmer Times, BYD is nearing a deal to establish a new EV manufacturing plant in Cambodia. Prime Minister Hun Manet said on Wednesday that the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) is in the final stage of negotiations with BYD to build a new electric vehicle facility in the region.
“We may be aware that BYD is a giant Chinese company specialising in EV production, comparable to Tesla, the largest EV manufacturer in the United States,” Mr Hun Manet said at the event.
BYD closes in on deal for a new EV plant in Cambodia
BYD will follow Toyota, which opened an assembly plant in Cambodia in May, and Ford’s first assembly plant in the region, which opened in June 2022.
Cambodia’s prime minister stressed the importance of attracting new investments. With geopolitical tensions rising, many companies are looking to new locations.
Southeast Asia is expected to become a major electric vehicle hub. The Cambodian government unveiled plans earlier this year to raise automotive and electronics exports to over $2 billion while creating more than 22,000 new jobs.
BYD opening a new EV plant would be “excellent news” for Cambodia, Natharoun Ngo Son, Country Director of EnergyLab, told Khmer Times.
An EV manufacturing plant will “provide an excellent opportunity to reskill or upskill the Cambodian workforce” for new higher-paying jobs. EnergyLab is launching a new skills development program early next year to prepare the Cambodian workforce for the auto industry’s shift to EVs.
The news comes after BYD launched its first electric pickup, the Shark PHEV (BYD Shark 6), in Cambodia last month.
BYD is also planning to open EV plants in Mexico, Brazil, Pakistan, Hungary, and Turkey as it competes with Ford and Toyota in the global auto market.
Electrek’s Take
According to a recent Bloomberg report, BYD is quickly catching up to Ford in global deliveries. BYD outsold Ford in the third quarter by around 40,000 units.
While Ford is cutting more jobs in Europe as part of its restructuring, BYD has been on a major hiring spree as it ramps up production to meet the higher demand.
BYD is known for its low-cost EV models, like the Seagull, Dolphin, and Atto 3, but the Chinese auto giant is expanding into pickup trucks, midsize smart SUVs, and luxury EVs.
Ford is well aware of BYD’s rise in the global auto ranks. CEO Jim Farley has warned rivals in the past about losing significant revenue if they cannot keep up with China. Farley said he was shocked by the advanced tech he saw after a trip to China in early 2023.
Although Ford is shifting gears to focus on smaller, lower-cost EVs, it may be too little too late. Ford is developing what’s promised to be one of the most efficient EV platforms in California, but its first model based on it, a midsize electric pickup, isn’t due out until 2027.
Will BYD overtake Ford in the global auto ranks? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
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Researchers at Canada’s University of Waterloo have developed a new lithium-ion EV battery design that can charge from zero to 80% in just 15 minutes and has a longer lifespan.
The new design also allows batteries to handle up to 800 charging cycles, significantly increasing their lifespan.
Yverick Rangom, a professor in Waterloo’s Department of Chemical Engineering, said, “If we can make batteries smaller, charge faster, and last longer, we reduce the overall cost of the vehicle. That makes EVs a viable option for more people, including those who don’t have home charging stations or who live in apartments. It would also increase the value of second-hand EVs, making electric transportation more accessible.”
The secret sauce here is in the anode, which traditionally relies on graphite. The researchers designed a method to fuse graphite particles together to improve conductivity. This tweak enables lithium ions to move fast without causing typical degradation or safety hazards associated with fast charging.
What’s cool is that they didn’t reinvent the wheel in terms of materials; the team worked with the same lithium-ion components already used in EV batteries today.
“We’re just finding a better way to arrange the particles and providing new functions to the binders that hold them together such as state-of the-art electron, ion, and heat transfer properties,” explained Michael Pope, co-lead of the research and professor at Waterloo’s Ontario Battery and Electrochemistry Research Centre. “This approach ensures that the technology can be scalable and implemented using current production lines, offering a low-cost solution to battery manufacturers.”
The next step? The research team is optimizing the manufacturing process and putting prototypes to the test to gauge industry interest. The goal is to make sure this new battery design isn’t just effective – it has to be scalable and ready for widespread industry adoption.
“It’s crucial that it can be implemented within the existing infrastructure for both battery production and charging stations,” added Rangom, lead researcher for the Battery Workforce Challenge.
The University of Waterloo researchers’ findings are published in the journal Advanced Science.
Read more: North Dakota is ramping up its EV charger installations
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