air

Google is going to build a mega data center in a state where the drought is atrocious. Your cooling plan: use air

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The American state of Texas has been dealing with heat wavesdroughts and a increasing pressure on its aquiferswhich makes it on paper one of the worst places to set up a data center. Well, Wilbarger County in Texas is just the place chosen by Google to set up your next data center. But big tech hides an ace up its sleeve: it is not going to use water for cooling, but air. Context. Briefly, a data center is an industrial facility full of servers where information transmitted over the internet, such as AI responses or your Google photos, is stored and processed. And if your personal computer requires cooling when it has been working with a certain intensity for some time to dissipate heat, more of the same with servers, which operate 24/7. The usual thing in these plants is to use thermal dissipation systems with water, either with chillers, evaporation or direct cooling with immersion, thermally efficient solutions, but problematic if water is scarce. The problem? That Texas is an oven that is not for buns: its drought is pressing. But Texas is not a foreign place for Google: it has been in that state for more than 15 years, where it has operational centers in Midlothian and Red Oak and already plans to build two more campuses in Armstrong and Haskell Counties. It’s very serious. The project. The Wilbarger County data center will reduce water use so much that it will restrict its application to basic campus uses such as kitchens and services. As? Google has not provided details of the technology, only that it will be advanced air cooling. Cooling with air in such a hot scenario implies greater energy consumption, so the problem now becomes electricity. What Google proposes is a “Power first” model. In short: the data center goes hand in hand with its own renewable electricity generation plant. Google’s energy partner for this project is AESone of the largest producers of renewables in the US, with whom it has a 20-year energy purchase agreement at an agreed price. This is how both win: AES has stability to build the plants and Google has the guaranteed supply and price. Furthermore, according to Google, they already have the land and the interconnection signed, which saves bureaucracy and launches the project into the construction phase. Why is it important. Because according to EESI estimatesa medium-sized data center can consume 416 million liters per year for thermal dissipation alone, the equivalent of a thousand homes. And if there is a shortage of water, allocating it to meet the needs of a data center is hardly justifiable. Wilbarger’s project solves this with air cooling, removing the precious commodity of water from the equation, but also from the electrical grid itself: Google cooks it and Google eats it (with the help of AES). Given that the demand for computing continues to grow, a model that does not consume water or overload the network emerges as a solution to a resource management problem. In figures. For Google, Wilbarger County is not a pilot plant and its size demonstrates this: 0 liters of water for cooling. The project will provide 7,800 MW of power to the Texas grid. The agreement between the technology and energy companies is for 20 years. Google advertisement an investment item of 40 billion dollars for Texas in November 2025 and has provided a $30 million fund to boost energy initiatives in Texas from 2026 to 2028. It won’t be easy. Although Google has been cryptic when it comes to reporting what the technology, its capacity and needs will be, the reality is that when cooling with air in a hot climate, the pressure is transferred to the electrical grid. On the other hand, and although this specific project points the direction of a possible solution to this problem, we will have to see if and how it can be scaled, because there are more and more data centers and the climate is increasingly more extreme. In Xataka | Google doesn’t have rockets, but it is going to install data centers in space. SpaceX and Blue Origin rub their hands In Xataka | Data centers in space are the finger, Google’s purchase of an electrical company is the Moon Cover | Google Data Centers and Ganapathy Kumar

Gasoline prices are rising so much that a new subsidy is in the air. And her employers already reject her

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The sum of all numbers in a data set divided by the count of those numbers. This is how the arithmetic mean is defined, probably the most used statistical value. A first approximation to a story but it is by no means definitive. And the average tells us a small part of what happens. How is it turning out with the price of gasoline. Has gasoline gone up? The data They say yes but they are disparate. According to the portal dieselgasolina.com which monitors the price of Spanish gas stations, 95 gasoline has increased by two cents since yesterday and today it is purchased for 1.58 euros per liter. Diesel equals it in price and in this case it has increased by four cents. But the drivers’ feelings are very different.. Just a quick review of this map of eldiario.es in which the increase in the price of each service station is recorded. It clearly reflects that prices have risen where there is more population or in large mobility corridors, such as the most frequented highways. It is easy to find increases in gasoline to 1.70 euros/liter and diesel to even 1.80 euros per liter. With variations in the last week of more than 10%. That is, increases of more than 10 cents/liter in the last week. The average growth, therefore, is marked by other gas stations that have not changed their prices due to less frequent renewals. Click on the image to go to the original map. Source: eldiario.es The noise of the subsidy The rise in gasoline prices and, above all, diesel, which continues to be the vast majority in the Spanish vehicle fleet, has caused talk again about the application of a purchase subsidy by the Government. In March 2022, after a transport strikethe Government agreed subsidize the sale of gasoline and diesel to the final consumer with 20 cents/liter. Of those 20 cents, 15 were paid by the State and the remaining five cents were paid by the gas stations. Then, the price of both fuels was around 1.80 euros/liter and recovered them again despite the State’s efforts. That is to say, the subsidy somewhat alleviated the purchase of fuel but It certainly didn’t help curb prices.. Yet, In Portugal the aid reached 40 cents/liter and in Poland reduced VAT as a means to reduce the price. The situation does not invite optimism. Carriers are already beginning to complain the Government to implement an aid package to alleviate a situation that everything indicates will become even more complicated. Nacho Rabadán, general director of the Spanish Confederation of Service Station Employers (CEEES), described COPE the situation as “a black week for service stations”, ensuring that businessmen are eating part of the increase in costs from the rise in oil. However, CEEES has already informed the Government that they do not count on them if a new subsidy has to be applied to the purchase of fuel. They collect in The Independent that the association has sent a letter to the Executive and they rescue Rabadán’s words in which he assures that “in 2022, the payment of the bonuses had to be advanced by the service stations out of their own pockets and, on average, they amounted to 30,000 euros; we were the ones who financed the 20 cent measure. That cannot be repeated.” Those days, CEEES also defended that the procedure was erroneous and the low cost They threatened to close because, in their opinion, their business model would be put at risk if they had to advance the money. The big oil companies, on the other hand, they did enter into a price war. Recently, the CNMC accused Repsol to use the subsidy and subsequent discounts to eliminate its competition. At the moment, there is nothing firm on the table but the rumor of a possible subsidy for the purchase is taking shape again. All we have at the moment are statements from Carlos Corpus, Minister of Economy, collected by Expansion in which he points out that he says they will be “above the prices.” “Unfortunately, we already had to go through a similar episode in 2022 as a consequence of the invasion of Ukraine, so we are perfectly prepared to know what we have to do if necessary, protecting our citizens and companies through that shield,” Corps has made clear. For now, what that shield will be for citizens and companies is unknown. What is certain is that the gas stations want us to not return to the situation of 2022. Photo | Eric Mclean In Xataka | There is a hidden war to sell us the cheapest possible gasoline. One that Ballenoil and Plenergy already dominate

The Government remains committed to ending telephone SPAM and is now targeting electricity companies. It’s still a shot in the air

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The Spanish Government’s crusade against SPAM calls continues. At the beginning of the week, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge approved the new General Regulations supply, marketing and aggregation of electrical energy. The main purpose of this is, according to the Government, to protect consumers through new measures. And one of them collides head-on with a recurring practice of marketers: SPAM calls. The measure. After the entry into force of the new regulation, telephone calls to advertise or contract services are prohibited, as long as “they have not been expressly requested by the consumer in advance or they are the one who calls the company.” It will not have immediate effect, companies will have four months to adapt to the regulations, under penalty of fines of between 600,000 and 6,000,000 euros if they fail to comply, according to the Law 24/2013, of the Electrical Sector. There is more. In addition to the prohibition of calls without express consent, the Royal Decree establishes the obligation to provide a completely free customer service number, as well as a maximum period of 15 days to respond to user claims and complaints. It is also prohibited to cut power to electro-dependent consumers on holidays and eves. Very nice, but. Although the Government has been trying to tackle the SPAM problem for more than a year, the reality is very different. According to the OCU, 99% of Spaniards (me among them, this week) continue to receive unwanted calls. Some companies continue to take advantage prior consent to send advertising communications, and others are providing their call centers with telephone numbers outside the traditional prefixes to continue with their practice, despite the fact that the law penalizes it. An endless war. The war against SPAM does not only affect Image | Xataka In Xataka | If you are tired of receiving spam calls every day, good news: MasOrange is tired too

The answer was at the Torrejón Air Base

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An unexpected roar altered the nocturnal silence of Alcalá de Henares on the nights of February 9 and 10 and opened a small enigma among those who heard it. Without a clear cause at that first moment, the noise began to be commented on social networksaccompanied by recordings of neighbors trying to find an explanation. That initial confusion marked the starting point of a story that, as the hours passed, began to receive answers from the institutional level. The official explanation. The uncertainty began to dissipate when the Consistory announced that He had contacted the Torrejón de Ardoz Air Base to clarify the origin of the noise. According to municipal sources after that consultation, this came from fuel tests carried out on an airplane. Eurofighter on the ground, motionless on the track during the test. Why outdoors and at night? The explanation also goes through the place and time chosen for the rehearsals. According to the Air and Space Armythe measurements require the absence of solar radiation so as not to alter the infrared records, which is why they are carried out at night. At the same time, the tests are carried out outdoors, since the hangars available for engine tests are not sized for this model and this type of tests. With these conditions, it is coherent that its perception reached areas close to the base in certain circumstances. The objective of the tests. Beyond the acoustic episode, the checks pursue a specific technical purpose: to evaluate whether the SAF biofuel has an infrared signature lower than that of the conventional fuel commonly used. This test is part of a verification campaign developed throughout the week, which is influenced by both the measurement procedure and the environmental conditions. looking back. The Air and Space Army has been developing the BACSI project since 2020aimed at combining energy sustainability and operational digitalization within its air bases. Within this framework, different milestones have occurred, from the first tests with biojet mixtures in 2022 to the presentation of results at FEINDEF 2023 and the supersonic flights with SAF carried out in 2024, with fuel produced in Spain by Repsol and mixed at 30% with conventional fuel. One more test. The last test is scheduled for the night of this Wednesday, February 11. This implies that the noise that surprised many residents could once again be perceived in the area near the base, although this time with an important difference: we now know where it comes from. What was a shared mystery for two nights is thus transformed into a concrete explanation, also linked to a technical process that points towards more sustainable fuels within military aviation. Images | Air Force In Xataka | France and Germany have agreed to give Spain the worst news: one in which the F-35 and its “button” are the winners

22,000 million in the air and two other factories canceled

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A little more than five years ago, a star was born. FCA and PSA announced their merger under the name of Stellantis. The result was a gigantic conglomerate. In these five years Stellantis has never managed to position itself as an alternative to Volkswagen or Toyota by sales volume but its structure is enormous, with 14 brands in its portfolio. The first steps were hopeful. The company marked record yearswith profit margins that They were the envy of the sector and a strategic plan that embraced the electric car. A decision that even before the merger of both automotive groups seemed like the right path. Carlos Tavares led a reconversion based on the reuse of platforms for their generalist brands and deep electrification. So much so that they pointed to a date: In 2030 they would only sell electric cars in Europe and half of sales in the United States would also be electric cars. The strategy was in line with the plans of the European Union. But manufacturers have not offered products that live up to what the customer expected in terms of price and/or autonomy. European regulators, after much pressure from automakers (from which Tavares distanced himself on several occasions), have ended up making the rules a little more flexible. The ban on selling combustion engines is maintained in 2035 unless they are met some very strict exceptions. Yes indeed, the path to get there has been made slightly more flexible. All of this has had a direct consequence on a company that focused on finances and regulations, forgetting about customers, that regulators had room to change their minds and about their own history. Yestellantis tried to sneak in the electric Fiat 500 with a shoehorn in the United States. Eliminated mythical V8 engines of Dodge or RAM in that same country to comply with emissions. He threw 3,000 million euros into the trash with the development of electric cars for Maserati that will never see the light of day. And now, with Europe accepting the electric car at a more contained speed than expected, Stellantis assumes a amortization of 22,000 million euros in its accounts and the cancellation of new factory openings in Germany and Italy. The last chapter Of a story that has no end. At the moment it is the last chapter written but it will by no means be the last one that we have news of. And Stellantis and the electric car continue to leave enormous rivers of ink in their wake. Last Friday, February 6, Stellantis shares fell up to 27% in a fateful day for the company. The movement in the stock market was the immediate consequence of show some not very optimistic numbers. When presenting results, the company confirmed that an adjustment of 22,000 million euros was going to appear in its accounts. Those 22,000 million euros have a culprit: electric car. And it is that the company confirmed that in 2025 they would present losses in their income statements, assuming an impact on them of around 22,000 million euros. Actually, of those 22,000 million euros, 6,500 million are hard cash. Cash. Real money, to put it simply. These are the 6.5 billion euros that the company will have to pay in the next four years to those affected who will suffer the cancellation of their plans or the readjustment in the production of electric cars. The rest of the money corresponds to the forecasts that Stellantis expected for the future. That is, sales that will not be consolidated because, simply, these new models will not be manufactured or their production will be reduced. These types of announcements have a direct impact, again, on the stock market because the company not only sends the message that its profits will be slimmer in the future, it also confirms that its real value is lower. “The charges announced today reflect the cost of overestimate the pace of the energy transition that distanced us from the real-world needs, means and desires of many car buyers,” said Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa in words reported by Financial Times. Among the cancellations, Stellantis confirmed that it was canceling the construction of two new gigafactories in Europe, specifically those in Termoli (Italy) and Kaiserslautern (Germany). For the first of them, Stellantis planned a conversion to produce electric cars while building a gigafactory next to it. Now, this second option has already been ruled out and it remains to be seen what the future is of a factory that has been producing engines for Fiat for more than half a century. One of the options that Stellantis had chosen was to once again produce Fiat 500 hybrids and thus keep this engine plant alive. Both this factory and the second canceled plant, the German one, not only impact Stellantis. The company had a 45% stake in ACC, a joint venture made up of TotalEnergies (30%) and Mercedes (25%), which was going to be in charge of building three gigafactories in Europe. For this they had raised 4,000 million euros in capital but the Italian and German project have been paralyzed since 2024. Now, ACC has confirmed its cancellation and that the French plant will begin with a production equivalent to 13 GWh, very far from the maximum of 40 GWh for which it is designed. That is to say, Stellantis planned to embrace the electric car that was not being produced. To do this, it intended to build up to four gigafactories in Europe (Spain, France, Germany and Italy). Of them, only the Spanish and French are still running. Photo | Stellantis In Xataka | If Tavares is out of Stellantis it is because of a giant problem in the United States. One that already forces us to give away electric cars

Its design will not go unnoticed from the air

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In Bishoftu, about 40-45 kilometers from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is already moving earth for a project that aims high in every sense. Ethiopian Group has officially started work on a new airport that, according to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Aliwill be “the largest aviation infrastructure project in African history” when completed. But size is not the only message: Zaha Hadid Architects It proposes a gigantic terminal with the approximate shape of an X, a visual signature that also responds to a functional idea, making the passenger’s journey more intuitive within a complex designed to grow in phases. Ambition is no longer counted only in renders. The difference here is that this is no longer an idea: the works have begun and the plan arrives with a budget, deadlines and a defined operational design. Reuters places the project at $12.5 billion and confirms that Ethiopian has officially started construction, with the idea of ​​completing it in 2030. The group behind the state airline is not only promoting the work: it will also be in charge of the design of a planned complex with four runways, a detail that anticipates the operational scale it seeks to achieve. When the form is also logistics. As we say, the terminal in X works as an aesthetic statement, yes, but the architecture studio insists in that it is also a circulation decision. The firm explains that the docks are connected to a central axis that runs through the building and that this organization aims to reduce transfer distances, something key in an airport that aspires to manage large volumes of passengers. This is inspired by Great Rift Valley and that each dock will have its own identity in materials and color palette to reflect the diversity of the country. The key figures. Reuters reports that the airport is designed with capacity for 110 million passengers per year and space to park 270 airplanes, a leap that multiplies by more than four the capacity of the country’s current main airport. In a first phase scheduled for 2030, there will be a 660,000 square meter terminal and two runways, designed to serve 60 million passengers per year. An airport on the limit. This plan is not only born from an ambition for image or regional leadership, but also from an operational need. It turns out that the country’s main airport will reach its limits with current traffic in the next two or three years. This information explains why Ethiopia is not talking about tweaks or expansions, but rather about building a new airport hub relatively close to the capital. For Ethiopian Airlines, considered the largest African operator, the equation is as simple as it is forceful: without physical capacity, there is no way to sustain the business. Architecture designed for the climate. Zaha Hadid Architects maintains that the project aims for LEED Gold certification and that part of the strategy involves passive resources: natural ventilation, shading and semi-open spaces that take advantage of the climatic conditions of the area. Added to this is a package of more industrial measures, from solar panels to produce energy on the premises itself to water management designed for an infrastructure of this size. Terrestrial connectivity. The project includes linking the new airport with Addis Ababa and Bole airport through a high-speed line, a key element if the infrastructure wants to operate as an integrated system and not as an isolated piece. We are looking at a design that has been designed for a high volume of connections, with the expectation that 80% of travelers will be in transit without leaving the airport. That is why specific services are contemplated for long stopovers, from a hotel in the air zone to restaurant offerings and outdoor spaces with local vegetation. Images | Zaha Hadid Architects In Xataka | Spain has been dreaming of a megatunnel with Morocco for decades. To no one’s surprise, he will not be there for the 2030 World Cup

Ten years ago Beijing was an unbreathable city. Today its air quality is better than that of Madrid for a reason

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On December 8, 2015, schools were closed in Beijing. Construction stopped. Only a handful of cars could circulate on the streets. The atmosphere was unbreathable. We don’t say it, the city leaders said it at that time. As stated BBCit was the first time that the red alert due to contamination. In China, an action protocol with four levels had been launched to deal with this type of episode. That day marked a before and after. Just over a decade later, Beijing is one of the Chinese cities with the best air quality. The country still has a serious problem with pollution but the data show that the country’s capital has left those days of constant fog behind. And it has done so, in large part, by a huge investment in cleaning up transportation. Better air quality than Madrid That December 8, Beijing registered 291 micrograms per cubic meter of PM2.5ultrafine particles especially harmful to health. They are polluting emissions that can come from different sources but in whose production diesel engines intervene decisively. That’s why DGT environmental labeling that It is used in Spanish ZBEs discriminates (by age) between diesel vehicles and gasoline vehicles. Is 291 micrograms a lot? To get an idea, the WHO recommended At that time, it did not exceed 25 micrograms per cubic meter. Obviously, this pollution rate occurred on a specific day under specific circumstances, but the annual levels were so high that in 2013 they signed 89.5, as stated in Motorpassion. Last year, according to published data By the Beijing Municipal Ecology and Environment Bureau, the city signed 27 micrograms per cubic meter of PM 2.5. A fact that improves the air breathed in Madrid, “which did not exceed 31 micrograms of PM 2.5” on average, in the words of the Madrid officials. The decline is absolutely spectacular and is marked by profound changes in mobility, lowering the 30 microgram barrier for the first time in its history per cubic meter on the annual average. In addition, 311 days of 2025 were classified within the parameters that point to the best air quality. For this, Beijing launched a campaign against pollution which became especially relevant a little over a decade ago, although it already took its first steps with the 2008 Beijing Olympic Days. It was not until 2013 when the city took serious measures. More than a million coal-fired boilers in the city were replaced with boilers that run on gas or electricity. The city added more than 600,000 new energy vehicles (electric or plug-in hybrids that generally operate in completely electric mode). But, above all, 1.9 million cars that were considered too old and polluting were taken off the road. Low emission zones had a key effect in achieving this. Then, the 6NI mechanical (which was equivalent to our Euro 6) to let vehicles pass or not. Automobiles that, in addition, had to stay at home alternately (discriminating by license plate) when high pollution episodes were activated. The evolution of Beijing has been so spectacular in the last 10 years that it is common to see it as an example for those most polluted cities, like New Delhi, in India. Photo | zhang kaiyv and Quique Olivar In Xataka | Tire pollution is as serious as engine pollution. This company says it has found the solution

One of the most hostile places on the planet is, ironically, our best “air conditioning” against the greenhouse effect

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We knew that the Southern Ocean It is, in essence, the thermal lung of the Earth that is essential to regulate the temperature of the entire planet. But what we didn’t know exactly was how it managed to process such an amount of energy. Now, science has revealed that storms play a leading role that may be key to facing the global warming. Its usefulness. To put ourselves in context we must know that the Southern Ocean It has the ability to absorb more than 75% of excess heat that is generated by the emissions of greenhouse gases that humans themselves produce. This is something that makes it a true heat sink, potentially becoming the most important in the entire world. In this way, if we remove this Ocean from the equation of current life, the temperature of the atmosphere today would be much higher. A blind spot. The climate models that we use on a daily basis have it, since when trying to predict how water heats up, the calculations did not quite fit with what was happening in reality. Clearly, some type of element was missing here that we did not fully locate. But this has come to an end, thanks to the team led by Marcel du Plessis and Sebastiaan Swart who They have found the missing piece of the puzzle: ocean mixing driven by summer storms. A phenomenon that literally allows the ocean to ‘swallow’ atmospheric heat. How is it possible? The mechanism that this ocean follows is as violent as it is efficient. During the southern summer, the sun heats the surface layer of the ocean, and if the water remains stagnant, then the heat will remain on the surface stored in the water, making it easier for it to return to the atmosphere or accelerate the melting of ice. The correct thing to do in this case would be to literally bury it in the depths. And this is where storms come in, where the intense winds and extreme waves that are produced act like a giant mixer. In this way, the energy of the storm agitates the water, pushing heat from the surface into much deeper layers. Towards the depth. In this way, storms help the surface of the ocean cool, which gives it the ability to continue absorbing heat from the air in a more efficient way. And where does all this energy go? Well literally, When you go down to the deep sea you are ‘trapped’ there for decadesslowing down immediate atmospheric warming. Although we must keep our eyes on what will happen in the future. How it has been measured. This is a practically obligatory question when we talk about the deep sea, which are truly hostile places for anyone. That is why our best ally has been marine robotics. Instead of relying on satellites that have difficulty seeing through clouds or measuring depth accurately, this technology transferred to underwater gliders and autonomous buoys are capable of measuring temperature and salinity in real time. All this while a storm is passing over them, causing the phenomenon that has now been studied. In this way, this technology has given us the ability to monitor the ocean “from within” during events that are impossible to study on ships. We care (a lot). This discovery can be compared to that of a coin with two sides. On the one hand, we already have confirmation that the Southern Ocean is a very powerful ally in the fight against climate change. But on the other hand, we have a very disturbing question: what will happen if storm patterns change due to climate change itself? If the storms move or lose intensity in this area, we could lose this “sponge” of heat that is slowing climate change. The consequences would be quite clear: a large increase in the temperature of the atmosphere that would be felt throughout the planet. Images | jean wimmerlin Chris LeBoutillier In Xataka | We have known for 25 years that we were going to exceed 1.5 degrees of temperature increase and we have not cared

China bets on liquid air to stabilize its largest solar sea on the roof of the world

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In the vastness of Qinghai province, where the Tibetan plateau merges with the Gobi desert, dust and rock they have given up their domain to a mega-project of 610 square kilometers. This “sea of ​​silicon”—the size of the city of Madrid—is home to seven million photovoltaic panels that have transformed the ecosystem: the shade of the plates retains humidity and allows thousands of “photovoltaic sheep” graze today where before there was only sand. However, this massive deployment encountered a physical barrier. As researcher Wang Junjie explainssolar and wind energy are “random and intermittent”; When the sun sets in the Gobi, the power grid shakes. To stabilize this giant, China has gone beyond conventional lithium, betting on liquid air storage. White giants in the desert. On the outskirts of the city of Golmud, a row of white tanks stands sentinel against the horizon. It is the world’s largest liquid air energy storage (LAES) project, dubbed by Chinese media as the “Super Air Power Bank.” According to the Xinhua agencythis facility of the state-owned company China Green Development Investment Group (CGDG) has entered its final commissioning phase. It is not just any battery: its capacity is 60,000 kilowatts (60 MW) and it can release up to 600,000 kWh per cycle, a discharge capable of sustaining the daily consumption of tens of thousands of homes. Physics against lithium. Why has China opted for this technology instead of its popular lithium ion batteries? The answer lies in scale and geography. While lithium is ideal for mobile devices or cars, on an industrial scale it faces cost and degradation problems. Air has an advantage that is difficult to match: it is there and it costs nothing. AND, as CleanTechnica remindswhen it becomes liquid air its density skyrockets, up to 750 times more than that of normal air, which allows energy to be stored in large quantities without dams or geographical conditions. The alchemy of cold: From gas to liquid at -194°C. The operation of the system is a feat of cryogenic engineering. As detailed by Xinhuathe process is divided into three critical phases: Load (Compression): During the day, surplus solar from a nearby 250 MW plant powers giant compressors. The air is purified and cooled to -194 degrees Celsius (-317°F). At that extreme temperature, the air becomes liquid. Heat recovery: The heat generated during compression is stored in high-pressure spherical tanks to be reused. Discharge (Expansion): When electrical demand rises or the sun disappears, the liquid air heats up. When vaporized, its volume expands explosively (750 times), driving a turbine that generates electricity again for the grid. This cycle, according to researcher Wang Junjieachieves over 95% cold storage efficiency and 55% “round trip” efficiency, harnessing what would otherwise be waste heat and eliminating the need for rare materials. A global laboratory on the “roof of the world.” China is not the only nation in this race. The United Kingdom waits to complete a similar plant in Manchester by 2026, and South Korea too has made progress in this technology. However, the Chinese scale is, again, incomparable. However, the success of these projects in Qinghai is due to centralized planning which combines three sources: solar, wind and hydroelectric. At 3,000 meters above sea level, the cold, pure air improves the efficiency of the panels, and the electricity generated is already 40% cheaper than that of coal. This energy not only illuminates homes; It powers the data centers that power China’s Artificial Intelligence, using the plateau’s frigid air to cool the servers. From the factory to the engine of the world. As Professor Ningrong Liu reflectsChina no longer wants to be just the “factory of the world”, but the “engine” of that factory, exporting its engineering and its green network model. Golmud’s project It is the symbol of a paradox: the country that emits the most CO2 is also the one that builds the fastest carbon exit. In the silence of the Gobi, between cryogenic tanks and sheep herders, China is demonstrating that the air we breathe can literally be the fuel that sustains the 21st century. Image | freepik and Bureau of Land Management Xataka | On the roof of the world, China is building the largest solar park on the planet

Mediamarkt also has its own brands in technology and cooking with devices ranging from TVs to air fryers.

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Some stores sell products from other stores, others also act as marketplace and to a lesser extent they add devices from their own brands to their catalogs. Perhaps Amazon is the clearest example with its Fire TV Stick or its Amazon Echo, but MediaMarkt also has its own devices under its brands. ok., Peak, Isy and Koenic. Therefore, in this article we are going to review five of their electronic and kitchen devices. Peaq PTV 65WQU-5025E MediaMarkt has some of its own TVs under the Peaq brand and one of the most interesting is the Peaq PTV 65WQU-5025E. It is a television that incorporates a QLED screen of no less than 65 inches. It is compatible with HDR10 and also with the Dolby Audio sound format and its operating system is WebOS Hub. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Peaq PPA 550-RW Retro If there is a most curious device, it is the Peaq PPA 550-RW Retroa Bluetooth speaker in Robbie Williams edition. Yes, the singer of very popular songs like ‘Feel’. Among its specifications, the most notable thing is that it is a speaker that offers a 60W audio power and its autonomy is about 8 theoretical hours. It also has a retro design and incorporates a button panel at the top. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Peaq MIA PRO 11 MediaMarkt also has some very interesting tablets if we are looking for something economical that we can use anywhere in the same way as at home. The Peaq MIA PRO 11 for example you have 4G connectivity and has 256 GB of internal storage. It also incorporates an 11-inch IPS screen that offers Full HD resolution and is water and dust resistant (IP42). The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Isy IDO-3000 When I bought the Mac mini M4 I missed a greater variety and number of ports, so I had to resort to a hub. He Isy IDO-3000 It would have been great for me both because of the ports and its format. It is a 15 in 1 hub with base to place it vertically and incorporates a total of 15 USB-C, USB-A, HDMI, microSD and SD card slots and more. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Koenic KAF 924224 B The store also has some kitchen gadgets and some of the most interesting ones are air fryers. The Koenic KAF 924224 B It stands out mainly for having a double basket with a total capacity (of both baskets) of 9 liters, making it ideal for cooking several dishes at the same time. Besides, The separator can be removed so that there is a 9 liter basket instead of 4.5 liters each. It also comes with eight cooking programs and a touch panel on the front. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | MediaMarkt and Compradicción (header) In Xataka | Best televisions in quality price. Which one to buy and seven recommended 4K smart TVs In Xataka | Best air fryers. Which one to buy and 10 recommended air fryers from 51 euros

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