The Ministry of Ecology and Environment and three other government bodies have announced a campaign that aims to substantially clear the garbage in coastal areas by 2025, with ongoing, regular clean-ups established by 2027, Chinese news site Sixth Tone reported. It also calls for measures to be bolstered to prevent inland waste from reaching the sea.
The world’s largest solar farm, in the desert in northwestern Xinjiang, is now connected to China’s grid. The 3.5-gigawatt, 33,000-acre solar farm is outside Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital.
Assuming an EV consumes about 3,000 kWh per year, 6.09 billion kWh could power 2.03 million EVs annually.
A new water-based battery design is safer and more energy-efficient than traditional lithium-ion batteries, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences claim. Today’s lithium batteries have enabled the rise of EVs, but their flammable organic electrolytes make them a fire risk, and their energy density puts a cap on EV driving range. The new water-based design replaces those combustible components with a safer, more stable water-based electrolyte that can pack way more energy into the same space.
A Financial Times story reports that the asset value of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle factories has plummeted as legacy carmakers scale back production because of the growing popularity of electric vehicles. China’s 2023 ICE vehicle production is down a staggering 37% from its peak of 17.7 million in 2017, in a major win for climate action.
According a new analysis from Wood Mackenzie on the levelized cost of electricity for the Asia Pacific region, the cost of renewables reached a historic low in 2023. Renewable energy costs in Asia last year were 13% cheaper than coal and are expected to be 32% cheaper by 2030. Utility solar is now the cheapest power source in 11 out of 15 APAC countries. New-build solar project costs are expected to fall by another 20% by 2030.
Electric vehicles sales in China, the world’s largest automotive market, are surging. All plugin models accounted for 37% of the market in 2023, up from just 6% at the end of 2021. Full electrics (BEVs) alone accounted for 25%. Plugins are expected to cross the 50% mark for plugins and electric by 2026, with BEVs likely to account for over a third of sales, if current trends persist.
Biotech researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) say the new method could feed livestock much more efficiently than natural plants, while using a1/1000th as much land as farming.
Although sodium-ion battery technology has a lower density (and is less mature) than lithium-ion, its lower costs, more abundant supplies and superior cold-weather performance could help accelerate mass EV adoption worldwide.
The scientists from Shanghai’s Fudan University implanted new genetic code into a harmless virus and then injected the viruses into the children’s cochlea. They say the experiment has sparked hearing in four out of five children who received the treatment.
Hong Kong’s Court of Appeals ruled in favor of two same-sex couples in separate cases involving their rights to own and rent public housing. While same-sex marriage is not legal in the city, the rulings follow other decisions that have firmly established same-sex couples’ rights to equal treatment under the law.
