Extracting raw materials for new technology like electric vehicles can take a terrible toll on the environment. So New Zealand company Geo40 has developed a process for sourcing strategic minerals from our abundant geothermal resources. Over four decades ago, Mike O’Sullivan, founder and COO of Geo40, did a high school project examining whether precious minerals … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: National promises heavy crackdown on gangs, combined announcement puts ECE pressure on govt, and Samoa measles outbreak gets worse. National have set clear daylight between themselves and the government in their latest policy discussion document. The law and order policies are aimed at creating an overall … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Minister wants winter grazing cleaned up before next season, elite figures wade into port debate, and golfers win Chamberlain Park fight. Environmental and animal welfare concerns have been at the forefront of a hard hitting report on winter grazing. It came from a taskforce convened by agriculture … Read more
The lithium-ion battery has won this year’s Chemistry Nobel Prize. Justin Hodgkiss celebrates the slow and steady speed of technological developments. Back in the 1970s, when the lithium-ion battery research recognised by the Nobel Prize committee was still in the lab, mobile phones and laptops existed only in our imaginations or science fiction. Today, … Read more
New Zealand researchers are developing alternative batteries from common material to go beyond lithium, skipping the solar cell and downsizing monster redox-flows. In today’s tech-hungry world, lithium batteries are ubiquitous. Everything from your mobile phone to the neighbour’s electric car rely on the metal, and it’s easy to see why. Lithium-ion batteries pack a serious … Read more
Lithium-ion batteries are magnificent feats of engineering and vital for renewable energy. But if we’re not careful with them, they’ll create enormous environmental problems, writes Vector Senior Sustainability Advisor Juhi Shareef. Have you ever seen huge piles of tyres in New Zealand? I have. There are thousands of them throughout our country, and that’s mostly … Read more
If the future is going to be powered by renewable energy, the world needs to get a lot better at dealing with one very precious element, the Materialise conference on sustainability in Wellington has heard. The argument goes something like this: To fight climate change, the world needs to convert to technology that runs on … Read more