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Power New Technologies, Supercapacitors and Electrical Resistance-Free Superconducting Cables

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 In the future, the way we consume electricity may change, as well as the equipment that draws it from power plants and through transmission lines. Technological advancements have expanded electricity transmission from alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC), and solar panels in homes are now able to generate power. With the development of auxiliary devices such as energy storage systems (ESS), we are living in an era where homes and buildings are both power plants and power consumers.  KEPCO, which is in charge of transmission and distribution, is preparing for a different future by developing power technologies. Representative examples are the development of supercapacitors for frequency regulation and superconducting cables without electrical resistance. Supercapacitors Supercapacitors for frequency regulation are a complement to lithium battery-type ESSs. One of the many roles of an ESS is to keep the electrical frequency constant at 60 Hz. If the frequency is high...

US nuclear stocks are rallying...AI, quantum new technologies are essential for 'power'

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 Nuclear power stocks are leading the market as the era of U.S.-centered “energy supremacy” is expected to accelerate under Trump's second term. Nuclear power plant companies, small modular reactors (SMRs) and uranium mining companies have been rallying since Trump's inauguration.                                       Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant, Pennsylvania, USA According to the financial investment industry, U.S. nuclear power stocks have extended their gains after U.S. President Donald Trump declared a “national energy emergency,” according to the Financial Times on Jan. 26. The president said that he would treat nuclear energy on par with oil, coal, and natural gas, and emphasized that national energy independence is linked to national security, drawing attention to related stocks as he signaled all-out support. Constellation Energy (CEG), the No. 1 operator of nuclear powe...

Carbon-Free Energy (CFE) Initiative

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There are many different types of energy sources in the world. Some examples include natural gas (CH4) in the stove in your home kitchen, coal to heat a steam boiler in a thermal (coal) power plant, electricity from nuclear and renewable sources (solar, wind), and hydrogen, which is turned into water and power when reacted on a platinum catalyst. Recently, the U.S. and EU have emphasized renewables such as solar and wind, which can generate power without emitting carbon. In the case of nuclear power, they have said that they will include it as green energy if they have a high-level nuclear repository or plan to build one, and they have started demanding that exports to their countries pay for the CO2 they emit when they are manufactured. These US and EU policies are an embarrassment to an export-oriented country like our, South Korea. In addition to the energy we use directly to make our products (Scope 1) and the power we buy from power plants (Scope 2), we now have to manage the ...
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  The 2024 Climate Industry International Expo opened on the 4th at BEXCO with the theme of 'Ushering in a Carbon-Free Energy Era with Climate Technology'.   The expo, which will be held until the 6th, will be held with the theme of 'Ushering in a Carbon-Free Energy Era with Climate Technology' and will consist of 11 climate and energy conferences, 5 exhibition halls, 537 corporate exhibitions, and 55 side events. In addition, more than 50 countries will participate, including 30 embassies to Korea (16 countries with ambassadors), 24 national delegations, and 10 international organizations.   At the opening ceremony held in the convention hall (3rd floor) that morning, IEA Secretary General Fatih Birol and University of Central Florida Professor James Bacchus gave keynote speeches. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo emphasized the necessity of carbon-free energy and the importance of its global expansion through a video message at the opening ceremony.   Prime...

Solving environmental, food, and animal welfare issues with cultured meat technology

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To talk about him, you have to start with important issues like climate change, the food crisis, and animal welfare. This is because he is taking on the challenge of solving these global problems.  By 2050, the world's population will reach 9.8 billion people. As the world's population grows, so does meat consumption. Corporate animal farms are a response to this, but they are causing many problems, including animal welfare.  First of all, the “bang for the buck” is not good. It takes 2.7 kilograms of feed to produce 450 grams of beef. The amount of meat produced by slaughter is small compared to the amount of feed. In 2006, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reported that 18 percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions come from corporate animal farming systems. That's more than all cars, ships, trains, and airplanes combined. In the book The Birth of Meat Without Death (2021), the authors argue that we need to reduce meat consumption to make t...

New technology for group photos with a single profile picture

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SK Telecom in South Korea has developed an image generation technology that allows artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically create group photos with various backgrounds and poses by simply inputting a profile photo.  The company plans to utilize the technology, which goes beyond the limits of existing AI's performance in recognizing people, to upgrade various services including its AI personal assistant, A Dot. According to the information technology (IT) industry on Thursday, SK Telecom researchers recently published a new image generation model called "Instant Family," which preserves the identities of multiple people relatively accurately and realizes text commands entered by users as group photos, on the pre-publication site Archive. The Archive is a place for researchers to showcase their work before it is published in a peer-reviewed journal. The paper opens with a group photo of seven of today's leading big tech figures in AI - Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, ...

Potato starch solves the problem of fast charging electric vehicles

 South Korean researchers have developed a technique to increase the fast-charging stability of silicon, which is being eyed as the next-generation battery electrode material. According to the Korea University of Technology and Education on Wednesday, silicon is in the spotlight as the next-generation electrode material to increase the mileage per charge of electric vehicles. However, batteries using silicon are facing difficulties in commercialization due to their lack of stability and rapid volume expansion, especially when charged at high speeds. A team of researchers led by Professor Soo-min Park of the Department of Energy, New Materials and Chemical Engineering at Korea University of Technology and Education, Professor Inho Nam of Jungang University, and Professor Hyunwook Lee of Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) focused on the unique properties of potato starch, which is commonly encountered in everyday life. If you mix potato starch with a little wa...