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Agriculture accounts for about 90% of total water consumption in the western United States and around 80% in the rest of the country.

This year, droughts, ferocious wildfires, and extreme heat waves are turning farmlands dusty and ranchlands into grass stubble too short to feed livestock. Without adequate water supplies, farmers and ranchers are suffering, facing unprecedented restrictions on water supplies they have relied on for decades.

But even without historic droughts, growing demand for clean water will create shortages — and soon. Water managers in 40 U.S. states expect some portion of their community to experience shortfalls by 2024. But there is a solution waiting in runoff drains, farmlands, and even the ocean.

As water insecurity grows and populations continue to increase, the country could tap unconventional sources, like salt water and wastewater, for agriculture (including irrigation and animal management), thermoelectric cooling, mining, oil and gas extraction, industrial and manufacturing processes, care for city parks and cemeteries, and even drinking water.

Still, technological, economic, social, and cultural barriers staunch the flow of a circular water economy — where water can be recycled again and again. That is why the National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) just published a master roadmap to help guide future national (and international) technology investments that will not only help keep crops watered and livestock well-fed but also make sure no one goes thirsty when devastating droughts sap our water supplies.

The U.S. Department of Energy formed NAWI in 2019 to accelerate the development of energy-efficient desalination technologies, which extract salts and other impurities from both salt water and wastewater. Their goal is for such devices to produce clean water with the same (or higher) quality as current water treatment methods for 90% of nontraditional resources within the next 10 years. Led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, the NAWI collaboration includes the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the National Energy Technology Laboratory, and more than 250 industry and academic partners.

Waste not. Growing demand for clean water will create shortages—and soon. Now, the National Alliance for Water Innovation’s new Master Technology Roadmap can guide industries to invest in the most promising technologies, so we can recycle salt water, wastewater, and other waste products again and again. Photo courtesy of the National Alliance for Water Innovation.

The master roadmap synthesizes the results of the 2020 NAWI Roadmapping initiative, which focused on technical challenges across five sectors: power, resource extraction (mining and oil and gas exploration and production), industrial, municipal, and agriculture. Though NAWI previously published individual roadmaps tailored to each industry, the master roadmap compiles research opportunities that span more than one industry and could speed the transition to a circular water economy.

“Sector-specific roadmaps gave us almost 90 different things we could focus on,” said Jordan Macknick, NREL’s lead energy-water-land analyst and NAWI’s topic-area lead for data, modeling, and analysis. “There’s no amount of money in the world that can address all those in one project in one coherent way.”

The master roadmap distills those 90 options into a smaller list of those with the greatest impact potential. One of those areas is cost.

Desalination devices that filter contaminants out of salt water or wastewater are not cheap. “We’re currently using these very big bulk separation technologies, like reverse osmosis, which use a lot of energy and are also very expensive, to remove trace contaminants,” Macknick said. “It’s almost like you’re using a sledgehammer to put a tack in a bulletin board.”

He and the broader NAWI team are researching ways to extract contaminants faster, cheaper, and smarter. For example, bulk separation technologies are not necessary to extract microscopic contaminants, like selenium or boron. Smaller, more precise technologies could perform the same job for less money and energy input.

Their goal is something called pipe parity. In Denver, Colorado, for example, if traditional water sources run out, what happens then? The city could pump water over the mountains, but that method gets expensive fast. If the NAWI team can design technology that makes recycled water the cheapest back-up option, that is a win.

But cost is not the only barrier.

“The traditionally conservative water industry is understandably risk averse,” Macknick said. “In general, that’s a good thing for our health. But it also makes the pace of innovation more challenging.” To incentivize the water industry to incorporate nontraditional water sources into their current infrastructure, Macknick and the cross-institutional team need to bring the costs down but also ensure the science is “bulletproof,” Macknick said.

And the water industry is not the only group that needs some convincing. Some consumers still balk at the idea of drinking recycled water.

“There’s a major perception issue when we talk about recycling or reusing water that, somehow, it’s not clean enough or as pure as the water we might get from a river and treat, when in fact, we’re oftentimes treating it to a higher standard than the water that we might pull directly from a river,” Macknick said.

Changing perceptions might take time, but, in the meantime, NREL can help speed the development of more efficient, cost-effective technologies that edge recycled water closer to widespread use. No single technologic breakthrough will get the job done; water treatment often uses a dozen different processes strung together. But with NREL’s deep knowledge of systems analysis, the laboratory’s researchers can analyze these processes as a whole and determine which changes might have the biggest impact.

NREL also previously led the development of an analytical tool called the Water Technoeconomic Assessment Pipe-Parity Platform (Water-TAP3), which evaluates water technology costs, energy use, environmental impacts, and resiliency trade-offs. NREL researchers also developed a data repository called the Water Data Analysis and Management System (Water DAMS), a national go-to for water technology and treatment data. And the laboratory does not just collect and analyze data. NREL’s advanced manufacturing researchers can help design entirely new materials to extract contaminants with greater speed and reduced cost.

NAWI’s new master roadmap will help guide future research at NREL and beyond. “The master roadmap is what is guiding our future investments,” Macknick said. “As the field advances, not only in the United States and with NAWI but also internationally, we want it to be a living document that changes as the sector advances and adapts.”

New technology, developed with guidance from the NAWI master roadmap, could allow farmers to reuse wastewater and even some of its extracted contaminants — phosphorous and nitrogen — as fertilizer. As climate change incites more droughts, wildfires, and extreme heat waves, farmers and ranchers could stay afloat with unconventional water sources.

Despite its name, wastewater need not be wasted.

Article courtesy of NREL.

 

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750W e-bikes in Europe? Discussions underway to update e-bike laws

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750W e-bikes in Europe? Discussions underway to update e-bike laws

The e-bike industry in the West has long been a tale of two territories. North Americans enjoy higher speeds and power limits for their electric bicycles while Europeans are held to much stricter (i.e. slower and lower) speed and power limits. However, things might change based on current discussions on rewriting European e-bike regulations.

New power levels are not totally without precedent, either. The UK briefly considered doubling its own e-bike power limit from 250 watts (approximately 1/3 horsepower) to 500 watts, though the move was ultimately abandoned.

But this time, the call for more power is coming from within the house – i.e., Germany. The Germans are the undisputed leaders and trend setters in the European e-bike market, accounting for around two million sales of e-bikes per year. Home to leading e-bike drive makers like Bosch, the country has yet another advantage when it comes to making – or regulating – waves in the industry.

And while there aren’t any pending law changes, the largest German trade organization ZIV (Zweirad-Industrie-Verband), which is highly influential in achieving such changes, is now discussing what it believes could be pertinent updates to current EU electric bike regulations.

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Some of the new regulations involve creating rules maxing out power at levels such as 400% or 600% of the human pedaling input. But a key component of the proposed plan includes changing the present day power limit of e-bikes from 250W of continuous power at the motor to 750W of peak power at the drive wheel.

The difference includes some nuance, since continuous power is often considered more of a nominal figure, meaning nearly every e-bike motor in Europe wears a “250W” or less sticker despite often outputting a higher level of peak power. Even Bosch, which has to walk the tight and narrow as a leader in the European e-bike drive market, shared that its newest models of motors are capable of peak power ratings in the 600W level. That’s still far from the commonly 1,000W to 1,300W peak power seen in US e-bike motors, but offers a nice boost over an actual 250W motor.

Other new regulations up for discussion include proposals to limit fully-loaded cargo e-bike weights to either 250 kg (550 lb) for two-wheelers or 300 kg (660 lb) for e-bikes with more than two wheels. As road.cc explained, ZIV also noted that, “separate framework conditions and parameters must be defined for cargo bikes weighing more than 300 kg (see EN 17860-4:2025) as they differ significantly from EPACs and bicycles in their dynamics, design and operation.” Such heavy-duty cargo e-bikes, which often more closely resemble small delivery vans than large cargo bikes, are becoming more common in the industry and have raised concerns about cargo e-bike bloat, especially in dedicated cycling paths.

It’s too early to say whether European e-bike regulations will actually change, but the fact that key industry voices with the power to influence policy are openly advocating for it suggests that new rules for the European market are a real possibility.

ride1up prodigy v2 electric bike brose motor

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China overhauls EV charging: 100,000 ultra-fast public stations by 2027

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China overhauls EV charging: 100,000 ultra-fast public stations by 2027

China just laid out a plan to roll out over 100,000 ultra-fast EV charging stations by 2027 – and they’ll all be open to the public.

The National Development and Reform Commission’s (NDRC) joint notice, issued on Monday, asks local authorities to put together construction plans for highway service areas and prioritize the ones that see 40% or more usage during holiday travel rushes.

The NDRC notes that China’s ultra-fast EV charging infrastructure needs upgrading as more 800V EVs hit the road. Those high-voltage platforms can handle super-fast charging in as little as 10 to 30 minutes, but only if the charging hardware is up to speed.

China had 31.4 million EVs on the road at the end of 2024 – nearly 9% of the country’s total vehicle fleet. But charging access is still catching up. As of May 2025, there were 14.4 million charging points, or roughly 1 for every 2.2 EVs.

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To keep the grid running smoothly, China wants new chargers to be smart, with dynamic pricing to incentivize off-peak charging and solar and storage to power the charging stations.

To make the business side work, the government is pushing for 10-year leases for charging station operators, and it’s backing the buildout with local government bonds.

The NDRC emphasized that the DC fast chargers built will be open to the public. This is a big deal because a lot of fast chargers in China aren’t. For example, BYD’s new megawatt chargers aren’t open to third-party vehicles.

As of September 2024, China had expanded its charging infrastructure to 11.4 million EV chargers, but only 3.3 million were public.

Read more: California now has nearly 50% more EV chargers than gas nozzles


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Two charged in $650 million global crypto scam that promised 300% returns

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Two charged in 0 million global crypto scam that promised 300% returns

A U.S. Justice Department logo or seal showing Justice Department headquarters, known as “Main Justice,” is seen behind the podium in the Department’s headquarters briefing room before a news conference with the Attorney General in Washington, January 24, 2023.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

Federal prosecutors have charged two men in connection with a sprawling cryptocurrency investment scheme that defrauded victims out of more than $650 million.

The indictment, unsealed in the District of Puerto Rico, accuses Michael Shannon Sims, 48, of Georgia and Florida, and Juan Carlos Reynoso, 57, of New Jersey and Florida, of operating and promoting OmegaPro, an international crypto multi-level marketing scheme that promised investors 300% returns over 16 months through foreign exchange trading.

“This case exposes the ruthless reality of modern financial crime,” said the Internal Revenue Service’s Chief of Criminal Investigations Guy Ficco. “OmegaPro promised financial freedom but delivered financial ruin.”

From 2019 to 2023, Sims, Reynoso and their co-conspirators allegedly lured thousands of victims worldwide to purchase “investment packages” using cryptocurrency, falsely claiming the funds would be safely managed by elite forex traders, the Department of Justice said.

Prosecutors said the pair flaunted their wealth through social media and extravagant events — including projecting the OmegaPro logo onto the Burj Khalifa, Dubai’s tallest building — to convince investors the operation was legitimate.

A video posted to the company’s LinkedIn page shows guests in evening attire posing for photos and watching the spectacle in Dubai.

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In reality, authorities allege, OmegaPro was a pyramid-style fraud.

When the company later claimed it had suffered a hack, the defendants told victims they had transferred their funds to a new platform called Broker Group, the DOJ said. Users were never able to withdraw their money from either platform.

The two men face charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, each carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The Justice Department, FBI, IRS-Criminal Investigation, and Homeland Security Investigations led the multiagency investigation, with help from international partners.

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