Weekly Solarpunk, of 12 June: River Cleanup Trespassers, Safer Water Supercapacitors, Tribal Dam Settlement, Solar Surplus Bottleneck

Weekly Solarpunk for 12 June follows 6 future-facing stories and member reactions, including River Cleanup Trespassers, Safer Water Supercapacitors, Tribal Dam Settlement, Solar Surplus Bottleneck. 1. River Cleanup Trespassers A video highlighted people who trespass along a London river to remove trash themselves when they believe official cleanup is not happening. According to Channel 4 News, the report follows litter pickers who are breaking the law in order to clear waste from the riverbank. Source link 2. Safer Water Supercapacitors Researchers say water trapped inside one-nanometer clay channels can act as the working electrolyte in a supercapacitor, pointing to a potentially safer way to store energy. According to Tech Xplore's summary of a Nature Communications paper led by Dr. Vasily Artemov at Hamburg University of Technology, the device combines water, clay, and graphene, reaches up to 1.6 volts, and stayed stable for more than 60,000 charge-discharge cycles in lab tests. Source link 3. Tribal Dam Settlement Seattle has agreed to a $1.35 billion settlement with three tribes over the Skagit River dams that powered the city's growth while cutting off salmon and damaging Indigenous communities. According to Inside Climate News, the deal is part of relicensing the dams, includes nearly $1 billion for fish passage, and is expected to raise electricity rates over time. Source link 4. Solar Surplus Bottleneck China has built so many solar panels that factories are sitting idle even as the world says it needs cheaper clean energy. In a Financial Times opinion essay, Adam Tooze argues that Chinese manufacturers can now produce about 1,000 gigawatts of panels a year, prices have crashed, and more than 40 companies have already failed, been bought out, or delisted. Source link 5. Swarm River Power This story is about a modular river power system that claims to generate hydroelectricity without building a dam. According to the linked video from German Science Guy, the first so-called swarm power plant is said to produce about 1.5 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year by placing multiple smaller units in moving water rather than blocking the whole river. Source link 6. Repair Cafe Revival Repair Cafes are being presented as a practical alternative to throwing away broken household goods, with one event in New Paltz, New York, fixing most of what people brought in. According to the Associated Press, volunteers at that gathering repaired 71 of about 85 items, from electronics and clothing to clocks and photos, while the movement that Martine Postma started in the Netherlands in 2009 now spans roughly 4,000 cafes. Source link That's it for today.