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How some salt has managed to overcome the efficiency of solar panels

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In the kitchen, a pinch of salt is enough to give life to a dish. In the laboratory, another very different salt promises a similar effect, to give a new flavor to solar energy. What for the scientists of the University College in London is a simple chemical additive, it could become the seasoning that revolutionizes the energy future. Seasoning the panels. A team from University College London (UCL) has proven To add Guanidininum Tiocyanate to Perovskitas allows you to manufacture more efficient and stable solar cells. In trials with tin and lead perovskitas in the lower layer of tandem cells – they achieved a 22.3% efficiency, near the record for that family. Scientists have underlined a double effect: more performance and more useful life by reducing microscopic defects during crystals. Just a pinch of salt. The secret is how crystals form. Normally, during manufacturing, Perovskita crystals are formed in a disorderly way, with microscopic imperfections that reduce their efficiency and shorten their useful life. In this way, the guanidinium tiocyanate enters that acts as a modulator: it slows down and controls that process, achieving smoother and more uniform layers. It is as if adding salt, the crystals had time to grow more orderly, without leaving holes or defects that then act as electrons traps. A complementary study at ACS Energy Letters deepened in this mechanism. According to the authors, Guanidinio cations not only improve the quality of the glass, but also facilitate the extraction of electric charge, reduce ion migration and increase stability. This is especially important in the inverted structures (PIN), which are considered more stable in the long term than conventional ones. In the words of the first author of the studyYueyao Dong (UCL): “By modulating the formation of crystals in a controlled way, we were able to create much higher quality films, a change that translates directly into more efficient and durable devices.” The next solar border. The implications go far beyond a laboratory record. The issue is that each layer of Perovskita’s tandem can be designed to absorb different parts of the solar spectrum, which allows to take advantage of more light and turn it into electricity. So, According to UCLusing this type of “salt” in the lower tandem layer could further push records, since other Pervskita tandem They have exceeded more than 40% laboratory efficiency. Can you climb? Perovskitas have another advantage: they are manufactured with low temperature processes, simpler and less energy intensive than silicon. That opens the door to light and flexible modules, integrable in facades, windows or Curved surfaces. However, the interesting thing about this finding is that the additive acts during the manufacture, without the need to redesign the device. In theory, this facilitates moving it from laboratory cells to industrial modules. A door that still has to cross. However, the biggest challenge is still pending: Long -term certified durability. Perovskitas still have to demonstrate that they resist years of sun, humidity and heat without degrading. To this is added the question of lead, present in many formulations. Precisely UCL’s work bet by the tin-pull mixture, with focus on stability and reduction of defects. They are steps in the right direction, but not the final goal. ACS ENERGY LOTTERS STUDY Add a curious nuance: Small dose of Guanidinio help; Too much can be counterproductive and stop cargo transport. In other words: this seasoning works as in the kitchen, where an excess of salt ruins the recipe. A simple touch makes the difference. Like a pinch of salt, it enhances the taste of a dish, a pinch of guanidinio tiocyanate can turn Perovskita into the main ingredient of the energy transition. What until recently was a promising but fragile material, it begins to consolidate as a real alternative to silicon. If science manages to stabilize and climb it, we could be facing the beginning of a new solar era: cleaner, more powerful and more accessible. Image | Unspash and Unspash Xataka | All solar panel technologies that exist and which are more efficient, in a graph that goes 1975 until today

Girona has managed to decongest its historic center copying a trick of Barcelona: erase from Google Maps

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Girona has made Google and Waze modify the routes that took cars, especially tourists, to cross the old town of their city known as Barri Vell. This historical area has the Restricted circulationwith priority for pedestrians and limited access to residents and businesses. For Avoid excess traffic and preserve the pedestrian character of the center, the City Council asked the managers of those browsers to prioritize alternative tours and clearly mark the restrictions of access to the area. Atasque between 2,000 years of history Before, Google Maps and Waze guided To many drivers inside the Barri Vell to take shortcuts, especially tourists who trusted the GPS to move around the city. The problem is that, like most historical centers, this generated Unduse circulation in narrow and cobbled streets that are not designed for road traffic and hindered the circulation of neighbors. Such and as they highlight in The newspaper, In Barri Vell the circulation is restricted and special authorization is required to access even for distribution and service vehicles that are subjected to an access time control to prioritize the pedestrian use of the monumental center with more than 2,000 years of history. “We have been working to guarantee pacification at Barri Vell and the priority for pedestrians to be the seal of the city,” wrote Lluc Salellas, mayor of Girona In his X profile. Touch the photo to go to the original message The municipal idea for decongestion The Gironés City Council sent letters to Google and Waze to request that Barri Vell be eliminated as a recommended route to avoid the passage of tourist cars in this area. This management took several months, but finally was effective and GPS applications stopped proposing the historic center as a shortcut for the internal displacements of the city. In addition, the municipal team works so that the information shown in the browsers be as accurate as possibleclearly indicating the places where tourists They can park outside the historic center and preventing vehicles from being reserved where the spaces for loading and discharge are reserved. “We have made Google and Waze clearly mark that Barri Vell is an area with restricted circulation; and therefore, do not send tourists’ cars so easily,” explained Mayor Salellas to The newspaper.es. Girona is not the only one that has “erased” Google Girona It is not the only city that has asked Google to modify the information it gives to its users to redirect tourism flows and reorder the traffic of its streets. Barcelona City Council applied a similar measure To decongest the accesses to Park Güell, one of its most visited tourist places, eliminating from Google Maps one of the bus lines that went up to the park. This action sought to avoid the saturation of tourists and prioritize the service for the use of their neighbors, freeing them from the saturation of thousands of tourists who visit Gaudí’s work every day. In Holland, a small town managed to make fun of Google Maps To decongest its streets coordinating their neighbors to send false reports of cut streets. That caused the GPS to redirect traffic to alternative routes by freeing its neighbors from excess traffic. In all cases, this coordinated strategy with GPS applications has managed to reduce mass tourism in the most sensitive areas of cities, demonstrating how technological ones can influence tourist flows. In Xataka | One day, all Germans in Germany appeared closed on Google Maps. The problem is that nobody knows why Image | Unspash (Brandon Gurney, Priscilla du Preez)

Thus we have managed to date it for the first time

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For decades, scientists have wondered about The origin of the Conduls, mysterious spherules of millimeter size silicates that form the main component of the most meteorites that fall to earth. They are, in essence, the fundamental bricks of asteroids and, by extension, of the planets. Now, A study Posted in Scientific Reports By Sin-Iit Sirono and Diego Turrini proposes an elegant and violent solution: their formation was a direct side effect of the Jupiter’s birth. The enigma of cosmic drops. Within the most primitive meteorites that reach the earth, we find tiny spheres of roco material, between 0.1 and 2 millimeters, Calls calls. These particles are incredibly abundant, reaching constitute more than 80% Of some meteorites, which suggests that they formed in a massive and fundamental process at the dawn of the solar system. Scientists consider them the basic components from which the rocky planets were formed, including the Earth. The mystery of how they formed. The problem is that, until now, no one had managed to convince how they formed. The analyzes indicate that the Conduls were folk drops that cooled at a very concrete pace, between 10 and 1000 Kelvins per hour. The mystery lies in which process Roca could melt on a mass scale in the cold space and then disperse it throughout the space. Jupiter, the culprit of the cosmic carambola. This is where the importance of this recent scientific study enters. Through complex numerical simulations, researchers have shown that the birth of the largest planet in our solar system was a cataclysm event that unleashed chaos. As the young Jupiter grew and his gravity became immense, he began to act like a cosmic tyrachinas, disturbing the orbits of the planetsimals (Rocky bodies of hundreds of kilometers) that are precursors of the planets and that surrounded him. Jupiter as the origin of meteorites. The model reveals that Jupiter launched at huge speeds (more than 2 km/s) to planet planets rich in volatile (such as water ice) that were in the cold exterior regions of the solar system. These frozen projectiles were catapulted towards the interior solar system, where they hit the Rocky planetsimals and dry that resided there. Water vapor as secret ingredient. This is where the core of discovery resides. Impact simulations show what happened in these high -speed collisions, highlighting instant fusion, since during the clash a huge amount of molten silicate was generated. An explosive expansion was also detected, making the ice contained in the PLANETSIMAL IMPACTOR He did not melt, but vaporized instantly by heat, creating a gigantic cloud of rapid expansion gas. Finally, this gas explosion acted as a cosmic spray, dispersing the melted rock in countless tiny drops. At the same time, the gas expansion itself cooled these drops at a pace that perfectly coincides with the measurements of the Conduls A discovery that gives ‘light’ to space. This mechanism explains for the first time both the millimeter size of the Conduls and their particular cooling speed, two characteristics that had been very difficult to reconcile in previous models. Jupiter’s birth certificate. The most fascinating consequence of this model is that it allows us, for the first time, to date Jupiter’s birth with great precision. Scientists know, thanks to the dating of meteorites, that the peak of Condulos formation occurred approximately 1.8 million years after the appearance of the first solids of the Solar System, known as Cais. The simulations of Sirono and Turrini show that the production of molten rock – and, therefore, of Candrulos – shoots right at the time that Jupiter enters its “increased gas increase in runaway”, that is, its main growth stretch. By connecting both events, it can be concluded that Jupiter was born (its main growth phase began) about 1.8 million years after the start of the solar system. A conclusion that solves several enigmas. This finding not only solves an old mystery about our origins, but also provides us with a clock to calibrate the events that shape our cosmic neighborhood. The formation of the “bricks” of the earth was not a quiet process, but a direct consequence of the violent and chaotic birth of its gigantic neighbor. In Xataka | Solar storms are increasingly threatening for the earth. NASA wants to prepare with a “digital twin” of the sun

The coast of Cádiz is crowded in summer. Except an inexplicable beach that has managed to flee from mass tourism

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Spain has a vast coastal strip of almost 8,000 km and much of it is formed by sand that every summer becomes Tourist boilersboth from other regions of Spain and abroad. Cádiz knows it well, although the Andalusian province can boast of conserving A (almost) virgin sand that has managed to avoid the traveler boom that saturates the country. His name: Castilnovo. A virgin beach? That’s how it is. That in summer you speak of the beaches and Cadiz coves is no novelty. After all, the Costa de la Luz and the Costa del Sol are two of the most busy destinations by tourists looking for sun and beach in the summer months. What is much less common is to find that one of those sandy sand is an almost virgin natural jewel, free of buildings, bars, hotels and hordes of veraneantes fighting for nailing its umbrellas. It is fair is what the Castilnovo Beach. Castilnovo Beach? His name may not be as known as that of the sands of Bologna, Burriana either Barrosaalso distributed along the Andalusian coast, but during the last weeks the beach of Castilnovo has activated the radar of the National Press and specialized media on trips. And it is logical. Located between the mouth of the salty and conilete rivers, this beach 3,000 meters It is a rare Avis of the Spanish coast, a haven of peace and tranquility that has managed to dodge the tourist boom of other points of the Spanish coast. And how is it? In words From the Conil Tourism Office it is an “extensive virgin beach ideal to enjoy long walks through a unique environment where nature is the protagonist”, a sand tongue of 3,000 kilometers That starts with Conil and ends near El Palmar, in the municipality of Vejer. “Beach of great landscape importance in which one of its most striking characteristics is the absence of constructions,” says the City Council before underline that the area includes dunes and salinas, in addition to cultivation fields, cattle and an “outstanding” variety of insects and birds, such as the SHATP SHAFT. No buildings? A look With Google Maps it shows that the landscape is quite different from that of the neighboring Costa de Sancti Petri. In Castilnovo, between the Palmar and Conil, a strip of fields is extended with hardly any constructions. In fact, the most emblematic is the tower that takes the name of the beach, an Almenara building that dating from the 16th century and is classified as a good of cultural interest (BIC). His aim It was to serve as a surveillance position to anticipate Berber attacks and identify the passage of Atunes. In 1755the same day Lisbon suffered An earthquakea tsamot destroyed part of the structure. Cádiz Diputación itself Highlight that “one of the most striking characteristics” of the beach is precisely that it lacks constructions. “The lonely Almenara Torre de Castilnovo rises on the horizon guarding the beach. A wide plain is extended around it where the crops, livestock land and the wet areas of the riverbank of the river are mixed on the wide surface, beyond the Las Marinas and old saline road dominate the land,” stands out. And how is it possible? Travel guides They usually emphasize that those who want to enjoy Castilnovo must keep in mind before what they will find there: a virgin space in which It is not strange See people practicing sports such as surfing, Windsurf or Kitesurf (even a nudist, although beach It is not cataloged as a naturist), but without the comfort of other sand. Usually The guides They point That has no beach bargain, bars, or nearby services. In some points there is not even coverage. And of course those who want to enjoy the landscape must walk and resign themselves to leave their car At a certain distance. The Diputación remember In addition, at least part of the space is protected by the City of Conil for its environmental importance. Images | Conil tourism, Roberto Vázquez González (Flickr)Google Earth and Diputación de Cádiz In Xataka | The beach of the crystals: Galicia has one of the most fascinating sands in Spain by chance

Bill Gates was so obsessed with driving a Porsche 959 that he managed to change the laws that prevented him

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Bill Gates, Microsoft’s co -founder is, in addition to one of the richest men in the worlda passionate about Supercars that Porsche manufactures. So much so that he even had to fight for more than a decade for the US government to change a law that would allow him to drive his Porsche through the streets of Seattle. Thanks to your perseverance, today Millionaires lovers of supercarlike Elon Musk or Larry Ellison, they can have their garages full of limited editing exotic hypercoches and drive them. The story of a Porsche 959 parked in customs Bill Gates is a great passionate about technology and engineering, so in 1987, he commissioned a brand new Porsche 959 that has just been presented. At that time, 959 was one of the most advanced supercarincluding one of the first biturbo engines with total traction and an electronic toe. The six -cylinder and 2.8 -liter engine of 959 delivered 450 horsepower and was able to reach 317 km/h. A prodigy of technology that the young and already millionaire Bill Gates did not resist driving. However, when his Porsche 959 arrived in the United States, he was held at Seattle Customs. The reason: the strict shock test imposed by US laws had not passed, and that prevented him from being able to circulate on public roads. The Porsche 959 was A technological revolution By the end of the 80s, a supercar that Porsche had developed with a huge expenditure that would never recover For direct sale. Due to the high cost that would add to the list of development expenses that they were not going to recover with sales, the German brand refused to perform the shock tests required by the United States. This left the Porsche 959 in anyone’s land and could not legally circulate in the country, and Porsche did not want to adapt it to comply with the regulations. Bill Gates then found an important problem, since his precious Porsche of the only 337 units were manufactured, he was CUSTOMS IN CUSTOMS of Seattle. Bill Gates’s obsession for that particular model led the millionaire to an unpublished situation that forced his brand new car to remain retained in Seattle customs for no less than 13 years. To ensure that he remained there, the millionaire paid throughout that time the $ 28 per day required by the Port Authority for keep the car parked In your deposit, adding a total of more than $ 138,000 for this concept for more than a decade. The Law “Show and Display” Bill Gates’ tenacity was essential to change this situation. Not satisfied with accepting that his car was confiscated in customs, the billionaire gathered the best lawyers and undertook a legal battle against US authorities to ensure that his Porsche 959 could legally circulate. For more than seven years, Gates pressed Washington to change the legislation and allow an exemption For importation and the use of certain rare and collectible cars that are not officially sold in the United States. In this way, the door opened to them US Millionaires and Collectors They can buy these exotic units and limited editions, although they do not meet certain legal traffic demands. Bill Gates’ perseverance was fruit and, in 1999, President Bill Clinton signed the Law “Show and Display” which allows certain historical or technologically relevant vehicles to be imported and driven under special conditions. This law only affects cars with less than 500 manufactured units and special editions, and limited its driving to no more than 2,500 miles per year (about 4,023 kilometers). These limits emphasized the orientation of the law to allow entry to collection pieces and rare units, not to regular use cars. Thanks to this law, the Porsche 959 of Gates was finally able to leave his captivity in the Customs of Seattle and circulate through the streets of the US. In Xataka | The fastest supercar of the 80s no longer beats speed records. Now height batting after falling from a truck Image | Porsche, Flickr (Government Tom Wolf)

Persees fall so fast to the earth that only three astronauts have managed to photograph them “from above”

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How do you see a fleeting star from the International Space Station? If it is already difficult to capture the persistent here, Although there are guides for itdo it from space, moving to 27,600 km/h, when the persistes pass that speed to eight times and burn in a second, demands patience. But at least three astronauts have achieved it: two Americans and one Russian, each with a very particular style. Image | Ron Garan, Nasa Ron Garan. The former NASA astronaut, flight engineer of expedition 28, took this photo on August 13, 2011, during The meteor rain of the Perseids. The International Space Station was flying over China, about 400 kilometers northwest of Beijing, when Garan managed to immortalize the flash of a persistent burning in the earth’s atmosphere. The photo was no accident. The astronaut had placed himself in the ISS dome with his fair camera during the Perseidas Activity Peak. The green and yellow glow that is perceived between the earth and the emptiness of space is the luminescence of the atmosphere: atoms and molecules that are excited with sunlight during the day and release this energy at night. As for the intense blue brightness under the solar panels of the station, it is dawn. Image | Scott Kelly, Nasa Scott Kelly. Known for spending a year in space to compare with his twin brother Mark, former American astronaut also took advantage of expedition 44 to take pictures. On August 12, 2015, Kelly achieved an image of the stelae left by the Perseids in the long exhibition photos. In the absence of Luna, the starry sky stands out almost more than our planet. From the perspective of the International Space Station, which orbits the Earth to about 400 kilometers of altitude, meteors such as Perseids go underneath, heating up to incandescence. The bright grains of dust travel about 60 kilometers per second, disintegrating about 100 kilometers on the earth’s surface. Image | Oleg Kokonnko, Roscosmos Oleg Kononenko. The Russian cosmonaut, which has traveled five times to space and is the person who has spent the most days out of the earth (1,111), He also has his photo of a Perseida. He took it on August 9, 2024 from the International Space Station. And although the city of the background is a bit climbing, the detail with which he managed to capture the fleeting star makes it an iconic image. It is believed that it is perseiled for the date. These meteors are particles expelled by the Swift-Tuttle comet throughout their orbit, which is close enough to the earth on these dates to be dragged by the gravitational field of our planet. The Pico de Activity occurs in mid -Augustbut you can see the persistes from the end of July to the beginning of August, full summer in the northern hemisphere, which makes them the most popular meteor rain to this side of the world. Image | Scott Kelly, Nasa In Xataka | Emptied Spain is an ideal place to see the Perseids: we have some ways to find the ideal place

Tamara was the background of the junk television barrel of the two thousands. Netflix has managed to reinvent it completely

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The nostalgia It has absolutely unsuspected vericuetos. Who gets out of fashion Retro video gamesthe eighty cinema franchiseseven the looks that we thought we would not see anymore It is one thing. But recover an absolutely dependent television fauna from a very specific point of our pop culture (realities absolutely outdatedthe sagas of characters that seemed fiction but were very real, the excessive and openly feast aesthetics of the beginning of the century) is something very different. Superstar. The culmination of this return from that literally indescribable area of the two thousands has worked with the series’Superstar‘, a highly fictional chronicle of those years produced by the Javis, created by Nacho vigalo and issued by Netflix. Tamara and Margarita Sixdedos, Leonardo Dantés, Paco Porras, Tony Genil, Loly Álvarez and Arlequín make up an absolutely locked microcosm in itself and that is equally eccentric in the series. And a concert, tip. In a line curiously parallel to the argument of the series (which, we insist, is far from being a biopic to use), this new wave of interest in tamarism has the most unexpected effect of all: A YURENA MACROCONGERthe artist previously known as Tamara, on March 23, 2026 at the Vistalegre Palace in Madrid. The event will be titled ‘Yurena: the concert that was never’ and its promoter describes it as “A unique event that rewrites the story of an artist to which television turned into a phenomenon and time, in legend. “ Reinvent the past. The main characteristic of the series is that (unlike previous incursions of the Javis in certain areas of the past, such as’Poison‘) At no time is it intended to be a reliable portrait of what happened, but each episode focuses on one of the characters involved to tell that so television that is “its truth.” To the extreme: if one of them said he had Michael Jackson eating macaroni at his house, we see him; If another said that he was kidnapped by a sect that abused him and revealed plans for the underground control of Spanish reality, we see it. And what remains. Because the Spain of that time gives for much more: of the imitators of Chiquito de la Calzada (an indescribable phenomenon already in itself) to the guests of the program of Jesús Quintero, going through the fauna of the film of Jesús Cárdenas or the Guirigais that each night were mounted in the programs of Javier Sardá and Pepe Navarro. A true lack of control, noisy and subversive, which is portrayed and analyzed in ‘superstar’ with a very personal author, Vigalondo, where they are, on an absolutely novel plane, Tamara and David Lynch. Maybe the only honest way of seeing it. The return. Of course, ‘superstar’ has not entered the most watched international top of Netflix, because tamarism is an absolutely Spanish phenomenon, incomprehensible beyond our borders. But it has served to unleash a new wave of tamarist claim: the concert in Vistalegre will be its culmination, although as the artist says, She has never stopped acting. Because tamarism never left, it continued in our subconscious, waiting for the time to come back. Header | Netflix In Xataka | Netflix premiered the first scene generated with AI in an original production, and nobody realized: the moment has arrived

Byd has shown us that the 400 kilometers load in five minutes is very real. And they have managed to change their minds

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Designed for heavy but practical transport for the daily car. And an advance that has raised some controversy in the battle that China-Occident in the battle for the electric car. It is the 1 MW charger of byd. The same one that, they promise, can load 400 kilometers of autonomy in five minutes and with which, in the words of Stella Li (vice president of the company) equals “the experience of Fill a deposit of gasoline “. It is definitely one of the advances in the electric car that has raised the most interest in recent months. And in Xataka we have tried it. Yes, it is very real In a concessionaire and next to other lesser power chargers. Byd has shown us the operation and recharge of its 1,000 kW or 1 MW charger. An experience that promises to match the times of gasoline but that, they assure from the company, is not primarily thought for cars. Last March, Byd hit the table showing your most powerful loaders to date. Immediately, domino’s chips fell and we knew that Catl and Huawei also confirmed that had ready their own ultra -grape load suppliers. The race for the electric car in China advances at a devilish pace that has taken us at the end of this June, just over two months later from the announcement, to see these loaders in operation. The expansion of the more than 4,000 points that the brand aspires to have very soon in its country clashes frontally with the slowness in Spanish facilities. Be that as it is, the truth is that two byd cars can now recharge in this type of facilities. They are the byd and tang l, two electric mounted on their super e-platform that can assume the power of its megawatt flash charger, a load point known as the 1,000-1,000-1,000: 1,000 kW, 1,000 amps and 1,000 volts. A BYD TANG L at the 1MW load station And that’s what we saw. First with a Byd Tang L and, later, with a Byd have l, the company showed us the system load capacity. For this it is necessary to plug the two hoses that leave the supplier. The car, like a Porsche Macan, has two load shots (one on each side) and plug at the same time. Once the two shots are connected, the load begins from the vehicle. And magic happens. In two minutes, 7% battery capacity has passed to almost 40% of it. One is hypnotized When you see on the central screen the 1,000 kW of load power and the percentage of the battery upload. The maximum peak does not last too much. But that is not too much problem. After 20%, the power falls to 750 kW and it remains so until 30%. It is not then that it is maintained with sufficiency in 700 kW or slightly below. Thus it will come with hardly any drop to 80%. At that pace, moving from a brief 7% to 80% autonomy leads to, just over five minutes. And that 80%, In a car with 83.2 kWh Battery are about 67 kWh available. To lower the data to the ground, two questions. Is it a lot of power? It is a lot of power. It is a barbarity. To get an idea, the most powerful load points that are in Spain Sinde 350 kW and begin to consider loads of 500 kW. Have a car that carries, when the power drops, at 700 kW is to fold the most advanced vehicles at the moment, from the Porsche Taycan and Audi GT e-tron to the KIA EV6 and Hyundai ioniq 5. Just a handful get these figures in Europe. Really load 400 kilometers in five minutes? Yes and no. We explain ourselves. The 67 kWh that would have available any of these two cars with 80% load equals just under 350 real kilometers with a consumption of 20 kWh/100 kilometers. If you talk about 400 kilometers in five minutes it is because the Chinese homologation system is much more lax than WLTP. This has led us to receive news from China from cars with 1,000 kilometers of autonomy that would not support an exam in Europe. Despite this, we must not crucify how to measure in the Asian country. You have to take into account the peculiarities of each market. The homologations are assumed, both the Chinese and the European WLTP try to simulate the use that an average driver would give it. That in China, where the car is used as a ciudad already low speed (also in the ringms) it is much more likely that the average consumption is lower than for a European driver. It is something that have confirmed different Chinese brands: the car is for urban use, for the long trips bullet trains and airplanes are used. Is it really practical? When Byd gave the news, the competitors soon answered. As we have seen, Catl and Huawei came out to point out that they also had similar widths for imminent expansion. From Europe the message was another: That loading power is useless. That was what they pointed out in Mercedes. An opinion that can be controversial and shared before going to China. Now, I thought things better. What they maintain in Mercedes is that so much power is not necessary because, generally, when we stop we are standing for more than five minutes. And it doesn’t matter if we are going to have coffee or, simply, fill the car deposit. In the latter we spend more time of five minutes. If we are barely stopped 10 minutes, it recharges it with a car that can fill its batteries at 350 kW of power does not change much with respect to Byd’s proposal. And, if this power is supported, in just 10 minutes almost 60 kWh capacity will have been filled. That is, 300 kilometers with the previous calculations. In practice, the difference is not much. A … Read more

After years of debacle, South Korea has managed to rebound his birth. Now it’s time to find out how the hell has done it

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Demographic statistics is nothing more than that: Demographic Statistics. Pure and hard mathematics, with objective and reading data. For years, however, their chronicles in South Korea transmit a dire air, as of announced death. And it’s normal. The country has seen how its birth rate descended to such low dimensions that in 2024 the country had to declare itself in “demographic emergency” and assume officially that it is a “society Super aging“ Now that seems to be changing little by little, which raises two questions: Has Korea achieved out of the demographic hole in which it has been immersed for years? And if so, how? They are key issues for Seoul, but also for other neighboring countries with birth problems, such as China either Japan. What happened? That against all forecast, South Korea Start to get used to to their demographic statistics arrive accompanied by positive signs. That does not mean that they are good at all, the country has managed to stop its demographic bleeding or its fertility rate stands above “Replacement level”; But they are favorable news after all. And that did not happen for a long time. A figure: 20,717. The latest data published by Statistics Korea show that in April they were born in the country 20,717 babies8.7% more than 19,059 counted during the same month of 2024. The data is interesting because it leaves several positive readings. The first is that three years ago the number of monthly lights remained below the 20,000 barrier. The second is that this 8.7% growth shows the highest year -on -year increase in the last three and a half decades. You have to go back to 1991 to find another similar percentage. More babies, more weddings. There are not only more babies. There are also more couples giving the ‘yes I want’. The data Statistics Korea show that in April 18,921 marriages in the country were formalized, which leaves an interannual increase of 4.9%. The data invites optimism for another reason: it is the thirteenth consecutive month in which this indicator is green. It may seem a minor issue, but in the South Korean society couple and birth They go hand in. There are studies that calculate that less than 5% From babies they are born out of marriage. Coincidence or trend? That is the question that surveys the birth data of Korea. Especially since the last years have been marked by the shadow of the pandemic, which modes to take many couples to postpone their wedding plans or even the decision to become parents. In his favor the country has to They are not the first in positive. Seoul already said goodbye to 2024 with a positive birth rate (the number of births 3.6% increased), something that had not happened for a decade. Looking for the causes. At this point, the question is obvious: beyond the influence of the pandemic, is there any factor that explains the rebound in birth in the country? The question is interesting for South Korea, but also for other nations that have been dealing with demographic challenges, such as Japan, China, Russia or many European nations, including Spainwhich in recent years has gained population thanks basically to foreigners. “The increase in births seems to be influenced by the increase in marriages since last year, the growth of the population of women between 30 and 39 years and various birth promotion policies by central and local governments,” Clarify Statistics Korea to the Yonhap News agency. In summary, after the birth rebound in Korea there would be three major factors: more weddings, the effect of the ‘Probebé’ policies and that in the country there are more women in the first section of the thirties. A concept: echo boombe. At least part of the demographic change would therefore be explained thanks to demography itself. And the key is in a certain group of the cohort of the echo boomers. The Guardian remember That the population born between 1991 and 1995 begins to reach the “ideal” age to marry and have children and that group has grown sensitively. If in 2020 there were about 1.51 million women between 30 and 34 years old, now there are already 1.65 million. To its possible effect, the wide range of policies that for years have deployed the South Korean authorities (both regional and state) to encourage the formation of couples and birth rate are added. And that includes from the delivery of generous ‘Baby checks’ to the application of Fiscal incentives, parental permitsinitiatives for Improve food of mothers or even appointment programs (with prize included) to form new couples. Well but not perfect. The latest data from Statistics Korea are good, but they are far from being perfect and of course they do not allow South Korea to launch the bells on the flight. On the contrary. Although birth is emerging, the country’s fertility rate remains at 0.79far from the replacement level that the country needs to keep its population stable without depending on immigration. In addition, although the number of births with respect to 2024 has increased, they remain clearly insufficient to stop the fall of the national census. The reason? Babies are born, but in the increasingly aging Korean society there are also more deaths. The deaths grew 0.8% year -on -year in April until adding 28,785. Images | Nathan Q (UNSPLASH) and Tommao Wang (UNSPLASH) In Xataka | Throughout Europe, birth rate collapses as soon as women begin to earn more money. Except in Sweden

The Chinese solar sector wanted to save itself from overproduction with a pact. Just managed to sink faster

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Despite being a reference country World Cup in renewable energy, China Face a perfect storm In its solar sector: price collapse, red margins and an uncontrolled overproduction. Given this situation, more than 30 solar manufacturers agreed to stop the offer to stabilize the market, imitating the OPEC model. A kind of “Solar Cartel” in the style of oil exporting countries. It hasn’t done very well … Six months later, the result has been a disaster. Far from stabilizing, production has reached historical maximums, the facilities have tripled and losses continue to accumulate. According to Bloombergdifferent executives in the sector have publicly expressed their frustration and accuse their competitors of betraying the collective pact. OPEC style? Some of the big Chinese photovoltaic companies seem to be following the example of OPEC. As He explained Oilprice, the famous oil sign has been adjusting its production to influence global prices. The logic is clear: if the offer is limited, the price drop is contained and war between producers is avoided. Something similar is happening in the solar sector. Longi, Tongwei and Ja Solar have signed a “self -discipline” agreement under the Chinese association of the photovoltaic industry. The reason? Profitability is falling as panel prices, modules and wafers continue to fall. The pact seeks to set production fees by 2025, depending on the installed capacity and market share of each company. Chronicle of an announced death. Like Santiago Nasar at 5:30, this pact also had an inevitable ending. Unlike the oil market – dominated by state giants – the Chinese solar sector is private, fragmented and fiercely competitive. According to Bloombergthe agreement was not binding or contemplated sanctions. It was nothing more than a declaration of good intentions. And while some expected others to fulfill, many took the opportunity to gain market share producing even more. The result was excess supply, prices in free fall and sunken balances. No rules and every machine. According to Oilpricethe plan included limiting new investments, raising the technical requirements and increasing from 20% to 30% the minimum capital required for new projects. The government also implemented measures to cool the overheated sector. However, instead of containing themselves, companies intensified production so as not to lose relevance. According to data cited by Bloombergsolar facilities tripled in a year, and manufacturers have not closed or reduced operations significantly. The damage has been tangible. Longi Green Energy, one of the leaders of the sector, reported in the third quarter of 2024 a loss of 174 million dollars (1,261 million yuan), its first major fall since 2016. In the words of the company itself, collected by Oilpricelast year marked the first collective loss of the sector in almost a decade. The Chinese government has already hardened the conditions for new investments, and there are voices that ask for a firmer intervention. But the truth is that the “OPEC Solar” has failed loudly. The market remains overflowing, depressed prices and competition more wild than ever. The mirage of coordination. Try to coordinate a privatized and fragmented industry with a voluntary pact has been, as has detailed Bloomberg, an idea “condemned from the beginning.” Far from an orderly cartel, the attempt has exposed the structural weaknesses of the Chinese solar model: brutal efficiency, but without rules or firewalls. China continues to lead the world in installed capacity for renewables. But its solar manufacturing sector now faces a hard truth: in a market without discipline or referees, surviving is more difficult than producing. Image | Grégory Roose (Pixabay) Xataka | China’s energy paradox: an ‘electrostate’ that continues to feed on coal

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