plants

we will not have to resort to our feces to grow plants

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In The Martianthe character played by Matt Damon was forced to use his own feces to grow potatoes in the inhospitable Martian soil. The dust lacking nutrients prevents any plant from growing on it. That’s why he had to desperately obtain nutrients. In the future the story could try to replicate itself, but a team of German scientists has found a somewhat more elegant way to grow crops in the soil of Mars: using cyanobacteria as fertilizer. A lifeless soil. The dust that covers the Martian soil, known as regolith, it is rich in mineralsbut it lacks the organic nutrients necessary for plants to grow on it. Therefore, if in the future an attempt was made to grow plants on Mars, it would be impossible. The rest of the planet doesn’t help either.. Soil is not the only limiting factor for growing plants on Mars. The extreme temperatures, which can reach 60ºC, and the atmosphere composed mainly of carbon dioxide are not great incentives either. On the other hand, there is the lack of liquid water and cosmic radiation seriously endangers any known form of life. The win win of agriculture. Growing food on Mars would be very advantageous for obvious reasons, such as feeding astronauts, but also because plants generate oxygen through photosynthesis. Considering how unbreathable the Martian atmosphere is, this would be very advantageous. The problem is that, to do so, it is not enough to use feces in the purest style of The Martian. The enemy is on the ground. Martian regolith is known to be covered in perchloratestoxic salts that hinder plant growth at many levels. For example, they prevent germination and alter the metabolism of plants. Fortunately, it has been detected that there are specific points on the planet where the wind has caused the accumulation of gypsum, displacing perchlorates. Since there are plants that benefit from gypsum as a substrate, you could try growing them in those spots. The problem is that this solution greatly reduces the growing locations and plants that can be chosen. A peculiar pantry. Many scientists have been researching for years ways to improve the diet of future space colonizers. If it cannot be grown directly in the ground, it will have to be done in the warehouses themselves. For example, already in 2015 lettuce was grown on the International Space Station. Much more recent is the cultivation of tomatoes on the Chinese space station Tiangong. In this case, has been achieved done in the air thanks to a technology that sprays water and nutrients in the form of mist to directly feed the roots of the plants. And if it’s complicated with plants, you can always resort to crickets. It is one of the bets for the future of the European Space Agency. Cyanobacteria to the rescue. Cyanobacteria are capable of using the carbon dioxide so abundant in the Martian atmosphere to generate oxygen in a process in which nutrients can also be extracted from the mineral-rich dust of the Martian soil. For this reason, a team of scientists from the University of Bremen has tried using them as fertilizer. To do this, once the cyanobacteria have been cultured, have resorted to anaerobic fermentation. This is carried out by inoculating bacteria that metabolize cyanobacterial biomass in the absence of oxygen. They are capable of growing in high concentrations of perchlorates and in the fermentation process they release very beneficial nutrients for plants, such as ammonium. In laboratory tests, in which this fertilizer was used to grow lentils, 27 grams of lentils were obtained from a single gram of cyanobacteria processed through fermentation. By the way, a little fuel. In the fermentation process, methane is also released, which can be used as fuel. These are all advantages for a future colonization of Mars. It’s not over yet. With this type of fertilizers, some of the barriers that prevent farming on Mars would fall. However, it should be noted that the study was carried out with a simulator of the Martian regolith, but without simulating the external conditions of the red planet. That is, neither extreme temperatures, low gravity nor cosmic radiation were taken into account. In the future it is hoped to test these cyanobacterial fertilizers again in a much better simulated environment. It is a necessary step so that there will truly come a day when food can be grown on Mars. Image | The Martian In Xataka |Interview with the author of The Martian: a story more of science than fiction

May loved ones be fertilizer for plants

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Beyond our cultural differences, most countries in the world (especially in the West) tend to share something: we do not like to talk about death. Nothing. That is why it is curious that in New York part of the public attention take a while revolving around one of its great cemeteries, Green-Wooda 190-hectare cemetery founded in the 19th century. Even more striking is that Green-Wood does not it’s news for its infrastructure or logistics, but for the new service it wants to implement: the “natural organic reduction”also known as “terramation” or (more graphic) “human composting.” And yes, it is exactly what it sounds like: treating corpses so that they become human compost. It may sound strange or macabre, but its defenders they assure which is an alternative and much more “ecological” way to say goodbye to the world. Green-Wood Earrings. We mentioned it before. In a world accustomed to living with its back on death, it is not common to find cases like that of Green-Wood, a huge cemetery of almost 200 hectares located in the western part of Brooklyn that has been arousing public curiosity for weeks. Recently media like CBS News, New York Posts or even The Wall Street Journal They dedicated extensive reports to it due to the decision of its managers to bet on a new (and controversial) service: the “terramation”. Put that way, the term may not be understood very well, but that changes when you use its most common synonym: “human composting.” If everything goes according to plan and the New York State Cemetery Board gives it the green light, New York families will be able to do so there starting next year. They won’t be the first. The “terramation” has already some time available in other parts of the US and there are other countries that have also approved it, like sweden. Last (and ecological) goodbye. When a person dies, the most common thing is that their body ends up in a coffin and rests underground or in a pantheon. It is also common (increasingly) that the deceased leave a record of their wish to be cremated. Burials and cremations, however, are only two of the ways in which we can say goodbye to this world. During recent years there have been developed alternatives much less popular (and with a legal framework that is sometimes more complicated), but which generate increasing interest. For example the “ecological burials”in which we seek to reduce as much as possible the contaminating footprint of the funeral. As? Avoiding the use of chemicals for embalming or coffins made with non-biodegradable materials. The idea is simple: make it as easy as possible for nature. Another option is the “aquamation”a cremation method based on water and alkaline chemicals. one step further. The “human composting” system like the one Green-Wood wants to incorporate goes one step further. The corpses are placed in special containers in which the natural degradation process is accelerated. Thanks to a regulated flow of air, temperature and humidity, as well as organic material, the microbes do their job and the body decomposes in just a few weeks. “They remain in a capsule for 40 days, a time during which, thanks to a gentle rocking, it becomes earth,” clarify from Green-Wood. If remains such as bones remain after this process, they are treated separately to add them to the final result: a kind of human ‘compost’ that can then be distributed throughout a garden or in which, for example, a seed can be planted to remember the deceased. The same thing that many families do with ashes, only after a more natural and ecological process. At least that’s how its promoters defend it, they insist especially in its environmental sustainability. What advantages are those? The underlying philosophy is the same as that of “ecological burials”, in which embalming and coffins are usually dispensed with, but with an extra advantage: since there is no burial, it does not need the space that a traditional burial requires. And that is not a minor detail in cemeteries like Brooklyn. Cremation also has that advantage, but there are experts who warn of its ecological footprint: during incineration, certain toxins are released into the atmosphere, in addition to a notable amount of CO2. “A 2021 report indicates that the impact on the greenhouse effect of a cremation, taking into account electricity consumption, transportation and the resources used, as well as natural gas, is about 430 kg of CO2 equivalent,” note professors Sandra van der Laan and Lee Moerman in an article published in January in The Conversation. “According to the same report, each standard burial in Australia is responsible for the emission of about 780 kg of CO2 equivalent.” Environment… and something more. Beyond its greater or lesser attractiveness in ecological terms, “human composting” offers another great advantage: costs and space. three years ago Guardian already reported that the promoters of “terramation” in the US offered the service for $7,000, not very different from a traditional cremation or burial, although in the latter case another crucial cost is added to the embalming and coffin: that of the land. Plots in cemeteries are a scarce commodity and this translates into both a logistical and cost problem. “Burial is increasingly inaccessible for many. It is expensive and cemeteries are running out of space, especially in urban areas,” warn Sandra van der Laan and Lee Moerman. Its analysis focuses on Australia, but is transferable to other countries. A scarce and “valuable” resource. “While many Australian cemeteries now have a limited term of use for plots (25 years in most cases, renewable up to 99), the space is still valuable,” warn the experts. They are not the only ones who point out that handicap. In a report recent for TWSJ On Green-Wood, Tom Fairless recalled that the Brooklyn Cemetery is running out of space. A prospect that is unlikely to improve as the baby boom cohort ages, passes away, and creates greater demand for funeral services, … Read more

If an all-out war breaks out between the US and Iran, the ultimate weapon will be desalination plants

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The whole world holds its breath looking at the same point on the map: the Strait of Hormuz. With markets trembling at the possibility of a barrel of oil breaking the $100 barrier and exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) paralyzing, the global narrative has turned this conflict into a purely energy crisis. But the reality is much more primary and terrifying. As the analyst Javier Blas warns in a forceful report for Bloombergthe real threat in the military escalation between the coalition led by the United States and Israel against Iran lies not in the oil wells, but in thirst. Oil, Blas points out, is essential for the global economy, but water is simply irreplaceable. If total war breaks out, the definitive weapon will not be energy, but biological survival. This vulnerability is not a secret. As the analyst himself revealsthe American CIA has been warning its policymakers about this matter for decades. In a secret evaluation in the early 1980s —now declassified—, the intelligence agency made it clear that the true “strategic product” (strategic commodity) of the Middle East is not black gold, but drinking water. Unable to engage in a head-on, symmetrical clash with the combined war machine of the United States and Israel, Iran has adopted a survival strategy based on attacking what are known in military jargon as “soft targets.” And they have already started. As detailed in another report by BloombergIran recently attacked a power plant in Fujairah, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is responsible for keeping one of the largest desalination plants in the world in operation. In neighboring Kuwait, debris from an intercepted drone caused a fire at another of its water facilities in Doha West. The offense doesn’t stop there. As we have explained in Xatakathe Saudi Ras Tanura refinery was hit by Iranian drones twice in a single week. The truly alarming thing is that this refinery is only 80 kilometers from Ras Al Khairthe largest hybrid desalination complex on the planet. The risk is physical and mathematical: attacks on the port of Jebel Ali in Dubai fell just 20 kilometers from a critical complex with 43 desalination units, according to Michael Christopher Low in The Conversation. The level of aggressiveness is overwhelming the region. The UAE have already faced more than 800 missile and drone attacks (exceeding in volume those received by Israel). Although most are intercepted, the impacts have caused fires in the Burj Al Arab and have damaged data centers of Amazon Web Services (AWS) in UAE and Bahrain. This last point is critical: As experts warn Chosun Dailythese data centers digitally manage the energy and water distribution network; A digital blackout is equivalent to a physical power outage. Survival hangs by a thread for 72 hours The region’s monarchies are “saltwater kingdoms,” How do you define them? The Conversation. Eight of the ten largest desalination plants in the world are in the Arabian Peninsula, concentrating 60% of global capacity. The population’s dependence on this technology, according to data from W.G.I. Worldis absolute: Kuwait: 90% of its drinking water comes from desalination. Oman: 86%. Saudi Arabia: 70%. United Arab Emirates: 42% (almost 100% in metropolises like Dubai). If Iran decides to target these plants, human collapse would be devastating. A great report of House of Saudbased on a 2008 US diplomatic cable leaked by WikiLeaksreveals a terrifying scenario about Riyadh. The Saudi capital, with more than 8 million inhabitants, receives more than 90% of its drinking water from the Jubail plant through a single 500 kilometer pipeline. The report is blunt: if the plant or its pipeline were destroyed, “Riyadh would have to be evacuated within a week.” There is not even room to improvise. As an analysis in Iran InternationalQatar admitted that, in a scenario of massive water pollution, the country estimated to run out of drinking water in just three days, which forced them to build 15 giant emergency reservoirs. However, as researcher Bailey Schwab points out in WGI Worldwater cannot be politically rationed for long in cities that depend on the State to survive extreme temperatures. The energy-water nexus: the asymmetric calculation The system’s vulnerability is asymmetric and deeply technical. As explained by the analysis of House of Sauddesalination plants consume massive amounts of electricity (they represent almost 6% of total consumption in Saudi Arabia) and are co-located with mega power plants. If a missile takes down the power plant, the water supply dies instantly with it. Additionally, there is an unsustainable gap in recovery times. While an oil refinery can restore part of its production in a couple of weeks (as happened after the attack on Abqaiq in 2019), as Bailey Schwab warns, the components of a reverse osmosis plant are extremely high-precision parts that, if destroyed, would take months to replace. And defending this is economically unsustainable. Iran is using Shahed-136 droneswhich cost between $15,000 and $50,000 per unit. Opposite, the monumental Ras Al Khair plant cost 7.2 billion dollars and sits just 250 kilometers from the Iranian coast. It is a trivial flight for drones that have a range of 2,500 kilometers. As if that were not enough, this vulnerability drags food security down with it. There is one fact that goes unnoticed in the economic press: 70% of food imports of the GCC transits through the Strait of Hormuz. Saudi Arabia imports almost 80% of its food (wheat, corn and barley) by sea. With marine insurers canceling war risk policies for merchant ships, Gulf countries not only face dying of thirst, but also food isolation. The paradox: Iran, a country drowned by its own drought If the situation in the Gulf is critical, that of the aggressor country is equally desperate, although for different reasons. An analysis by Fred Pearce in Yale Environment 360 (Yale E360) details that Iran faces its own “water bankruptcy.” The crisis has reached such a point that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned last November that the country “has no choice” but to … Read more

We have been dreaming of infinite “solar gasoline” for decades. A new material inspired by plants has just proven that it is possible

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Nature has been keeping a secret in broad daylight for millions of years: photosynthesis. For decades, science has pursued the dream of replicating this process to create clean, sustainable fuels, but “artificial photosynthesis” has always run into walls of inefficiency and technical complexity. Until now. In short. A team of Chinese researchers has developed a method that mimics the natural process of transforming carbon dioxide (CO2) and water into the basic components of gasoline. We are no longer talking about abstract theory; It is a system capable of creating “solar fuel” without depending on expensive chemical additives, bringing us closer to the holy grail of renewable energy. The advance, recently published in the magazine Nature Communicationscomes from a joint team of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Researchers have designed a new composite material: tungsten trioxide modified with silver atoms (Ag/WO3). The end of chemical “tricks”. The truly revolutionary thing about this “magic dust” is not only its composition, but what it manages to avoid. To date, most attempts at artificial photosynthesis cheated: they used “sacrificial agents”, organic chemical additives (such as triethanolamine) that facilitated the reaction but were irreversibly consumed in the process, making it unsustainable and expensive on a large scale. This new system breaks that barrier. According to the scientific studythe catalyst achieves the light-driven conversion using only pure water (H2O) as an electron donor. No additives, no tricks. The result of this reaction is the efficient production of carbon monoxide (CO). Although it sounds like a harmful substance on its own, in the chemical industry this molecule is pure gold: it is a key intermediate that, mixed with hydrogen, forms the “synthesis gas” necessary to manufacture complex hydrocarbons such as methanol or synthetic gasoline. Air fuel. We are at the gateway to “solar fuels.” The importance of this finding lies in its ability to decarbonize sectors that electric batteries cannot easily cover, such as commercial aviation or heavy shipping. Furthermore, the researchers stand out in their paper who have come up with a “universal strategy”. Its material (Ag/WO3) is not an isolated invention, but a versatile “charger” that can be coupled to various types of catalysts (such as cobalt phthalocyanine, C3N4 or Cu2O) and improve their performance drastically. In fact, by combining this material with cobalt (CoPc), they achieved an efficiency 100 times higher than that of the catalyst acting on its own, equaling the performance of old systems that used polluting additives. It is a pure circular economy: capturing the gas that warms the planet (CO2) and turning it into a valuable resource. The secret is to imitate the leaves. To understand how they have achieved this, you have to look at a tree leaf. In natural photosynthesis, the processes of breaking down water and fixing CO2 are separate. Plants use a molecule called plastoquinone (PQ) to temporarily transport and “store” electrons excited by the sun before using them, acting as an energy buffer. Without this buffer, the electrons would be lost before they could be used. Chinese scientists asked themselves: “Can we build an artificial plastoquinone?” And the answer was tungsten. The developed material works as a bioinspired cargo reservoir: The battery: Under sunlight, tungsten changes its chemical structure (a valence swing from W6+ to W5+), temporarily trapping electrons as if it were a micro-battery. The bridge: When the system needs energy to convert CO2, the silver (Ag) atoms act as a bridge, releasing those stored electrons just at the right moment to recombine with the “gaps” of the catalyst. This solves the big problem of artificial photosynthesis: time and load management. While the water oxidizes, the system “saves” the solar energy to have it ready when the CO2 enters. From the laboratory to the real world. The best thing about this research is that it has not remained a theoretical simulation under perfect lamps. The team built an experimental device equipped with a Fresnel lens (to concentrate light) and took it outside to test it under natural sunlight. The data from the outdoor experiment are revealing: Solar rhythm: The system began to produce detectable gas from 9:00 a.m., reaching its peak production between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m., faithfully following the intensity of the sun. Durability: The system demonstrated enviable robustness, maintaining its effectiveness over 72-hour test cycles without showing significant downtime. A bridge to the future. As reported by the South China Morning Postthis advancement builds a critical bridge between renewable energy and high-demand industrial applications. The study authors conclude that their work not only eliminates the need for unsustainable sacrificial agents, but provides a versatile design principle for building autonomous photocatalytic systems. Although there is still a way to go to see solar gas stations, the basic science—the mechanism for storing the sun’s energy in a chemical powder—is no longer a theory. Image | freepik Xataka | Germany has had a crazy idea to solve one of the problems of renewables: covering a lake with solar panels

100% robotic plants where not even the light turns on

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The automobile industry is going through a moment of evolution that we are all very aware of, especially in the face of the energy transition which we are witnessing. China is shown as a reference country in this technological revolution and its manufacturers are demonstrating it with a multitude of models that lay the foundation for the present and future of the automobile. Not only is there a technological revolution in many of the vehicles we see on the streets, but also in the manufacturing process of them. And before the end of the decade, at least one manufacturer will achieve a fully automated assembly line. This is the conclusion to which they have arrived analysts at Gartner and Warburg Research. China leads the race to inaugurate the first “dark factory“, factories where robots work without the need for lighting or human presence, which could forever change how cars are manufactured. Below these lines we tell you all the details. Why it is important. It is not just about robots replacing people in specific tasks, but about the total elimination of workers on assembly lines. China already has a wide range of “dark factories”factories with assembly lines where there is hardly any lighting and are operated by autonomous robots. However, car assembly has not yet been 100% automated, since the process still requires human hands. This would mark a turning point where artificial intelligence, humanoid robotics and digital manufacturing converge to redefine automotive production. Pedro Pacheco, research vice president at Gartner, account to Automotive News Europe that a U.S. or Chinese manufacturer will “likely be the first to create a line with 100% automation by the end of this decade,” and that several players in those markets “are already implementing disruptive manufacturing processes and showing more focus on humanoid robots.” Robotics and redesign. Until now, the installation of wiring and cockpit components have been the only elements of the assembly line that are not normally fully automated, explains Pacheco. From the media they say that manufacturers that make the leap towards total automation will do so through two routes: adding advanced robotics and redesigning vehicles to facilitate automated assembly. Automotive News Europe mentions splitting the wire harness into sections or integrating it directly into the body panels as an example. Another strategy is to not completely assemble the “body in white” before assembling the passenger compartment, thus facilitating access to the passenger compartment. The protagonists of change. Hyundai Motor Group plans to deploy humanoid robots from Boston Dynamics at its Georgia manufacturing complex starting in 2028, according to advertisement at CES in Las Vegas. The South Korean company aims to produce 30,000 robots per year and achieve production-scale deployment. Mercedes-Benz, for its part, has launched a pilot project with humanoid robots that could start working alongside assembly line employees before 2030. And Tesla is already manufacturing their optimus robots on a limited scale in California, with Elon Musk’s vision of creating an army of robots that help in his factories and take on other tasks that involve repetition of processes. Figures. According to Accenture, the integration of generative, agentic and physical artificial intelligence with robotics and digital twin technology it helps to significantly improve factory efficiency, with “enormous potential” to reduce costs and time to market by up to 50% or even more. McKinsey duck that $150 billion annually in potential economic value could be unlocked by accelerating R&D at large auto companies. Additionally, 12 of the top 25 manufacturers are already running pilots with advanced robotics in their facilities, according to they shared from the analysis firm Gartner. The debate on employment. Full automation does not necessarily have to translate into massive job lossesalthough it is certainly an issue that causes concern in unions. Workers could be reassigned to support functions such as maintenance, engineering, logistics, inspection or materials management, according to Pacheco. With proper training, employees could also engage in AI supervision, robotics maintenance, and software development. The International Labor Organization anticipates that, although some routine and manual tasks will be reduced, many positions will change their content and new jobs will emerge. And now what. China is the favorite to inaugurate the first completely robotic factory, but everything indicates that the United States is not going to be left behind either. Warburg Research analyst Fabio Hölscher consider that it is “not unrealistic” to expect to see the first automotive “dark factory” in China by 2030. Cover image | ChinaDaily In Xataka | That cars in Germany travel at 300 km/h is due to one reason only: their roads are prepared for it.

The water from the Tagus is going to stay in Castilla-La Mancha. So Alicante and Murcia already have a plan B: set up desalination plants

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Water management in the Spanish Levant is not only a question of engineering, but a political and territorial battle that is released in each cubic hectometer. While the reservoirs at the head of the Tagus fluctuate and the rules of the game change in the Madrid officesthe Segura Basin tries to shield its survival through technology. With the Tajo-Segura Transfer in the regulatory spotlightthe Government has been forced to accelerate its “plan B”: converting sea water into the lungs of European agriculture. Green light to the preliminary projects. The Segura Hydrographic Confederation (CHS) already has on the table the design of the two desalination plants that promise to give a break to the Cuenca Plan. Mario Urrea, at the head of the organization, has signed the contracts to draw up the preliminary projects for works that will cost 1.34 million euros in the technical phase alone. However, the plan has already collided with local political reality. According to local mediathe exact location of the plant planned for the left bank (Torrevieja area) is a point of friction: the Torrevieja City Council and the Generalitat Valenciana have already expressed a “frontal rejection” of the possibility of the new plant being installed in said municipal area. To avoid this premature shock, the CHS refers generically to the “surroundings of the La Pedrera reservoir”, although technically the most viable thing would be to locate it next to the existing plant in Torrevieja, very close to the sea. The puzzle of numbers. The objective is to achieve water guarantee criteria, but the details reveal notable confusion in the scope of the plan. While the Government initially pointed out to a 100 hm3 plant for the Torrevieja area, the current specifications reduce that figure by half, placing it at 50 hm3. However, planning suggests that, adding the capacities of both facilities, up to 150 hm3 per year could be contributed to the system. The surgical distribution of this unconventional resource will be structured as follows: Right Bank Desalination Plant (Águilas): It will produce 50 hm3 annually. Of these, 33.5 hm3 will be used to relieve overexploited underground masses such as Alto Guadalentín and Mazarrón, while 16.5 hm3 will reinforce direct supply in Lorca, Totana and areas of Almería. Left Bank Desalination Plant (Torrevieja): With a projected production of up to 100 hm3 (according to the horizon of the basin plan), it will allocate 58.5 hm3 to alleviate the undersupply of the Cartagena and Alicante Field (Albatera, San Isidro), in addition to dedicating 41.5 hm3 to the recovery of aquifers such as Cabo Roig. A divided plan under the stigma of energy. The project has been divided into two strategic lots with an initial execution period of 12 months for its drafting. The lot on the right bank has been awarded to the company Typsa for 674,575 euros, with the mandate to study its connection with the existing desalination plant in Águilas. For its part, the lot on the left bank has been awarded to Ayesa Engineering for 669,286 euros, with the mission of connecting the infrastructure with the La Pedrera reservoir to distribute water through the post-transfer channels. A critical aspect is sustainability. Both preliminary projects must necessarily include the design of photovoltaic solar plants to reduce the high electrical cost of desalination. However, this point raises skepticism: as the local press remembersthe Government has not yet managed to materialize the solar plant in 2024 for the current Torrevieja desalination plant due to lack of location. The time factor: an insurmountable obstacle. Despite the signing of these contracts, the solution will not be immediate. The Ministry estimates that these desalination plants will take between five and six years to be operational, given that after drafting the preliminary project comes a complex phase of environmental processing, public information and possible expropriations. For irrigators, this calendar is “unaffordable”. They find themselves trapped in a temporal clamp; While climate change and the new transfer rules impose cuts today, the promised alternative will not arrive, in the best of cases, until the beginning of the next decade. Water peace or temporary truce? The commitment to desalination is the central axis of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition’s strategy to close the Segura water gap. However, with the transfer rules about to change and an execution of works that is projected into the next decade, the new desalination plants are born in a climate of technical and political uncertainty. The signature of Mario Urrea puts the paper on the table, but water—and territorial peace—still seem to be far away on the horizon. Image | CHS Segura Xataka | After the rains, the battle between communities begins: the Tagus is full and the Segura basin is already demanding its water

Reopening nuclear power plants sounds very spectacular, but Google has a plan B in case it’s not enough: solar energy

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Data centers for are insatiable monsters those who are responsible for them must feed. OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft, xAI, Anthropic and Google are burning money riding colossal data centers for training and management of artificial intelligence. But these installations are not expensive to set up: they are also expensive to maintain. They require a considerable amount of energy to functionand Google has just received a ‘shot’ of renewables. All thanks to a direct connection to the largest system in the United States. Renewables to power AI. Google and TotalEnergies have just signed a agreement of energy purchases for 15 years. The contract stipulates that the energy company will deliver 1.5 TWh of electricity from its Montpelier solar plant, in Ohio, to Google. The plant is still under construction and they estimate that it will have a capacity of 49 MW, but the most important thing is that it will be connected directly to the electricity system. PJM. It is the largest network operator in the United States. It covers 13 states and data centers are representing a relevant portion of the operator’s pie: in its last annual auction, the load of these facilities PJM capacity sale triggered at 7.3 billion dollars, 82% more. Astronomical needs. In the statement from TotalEnergies, the company that this agreement illustrates its ability to meet the growing energy demands of the major technology companies. The problem is that it is not enough. If we focus on Google, the consumption of its data centers was 30.8 million megawatt hours of electricity. The company has been focused on AI for years, but the recent ‘boom’ has made it double what its centers consumed in 2020 (14.4 million MWh). Currently, data centers are estimated to account for 95.8% of Google’s total electricity budget. But it’s not just Google: the International Energy Agency esteem that global data centers consumed 415 TWh last year, representing approximately 1.5% of global electricity consumption. It seems little put in percentage, but Spain consumed in 2024 231,808 GWh, or 231 TWh, in 2024. The data centers of a handful of companies alone consumed twice as much as an entire country. And the estimate is that this data center consumption will double by 2030, reaching 945 TWh. Renewables are not enough. Now, although renewables are a support for the total energy required by data centerssolar and wind power have two limitations: intermittency and variability. Generation depends on weather conditions and time of day, meaning it fluctuates dramatically even throughout the same day. This instability clashes head-on with the high reliability and availability requirements of data centers. These are installations that must operate continuously and cannot assume cuts or Unforeseeable drops in supplysince AI or cloud storage would suffer the consequences. These renewables require backup batteries, but it is complicated and expensive to have such a large number of batteries just to power data centers. Pulling the gas and looking at the nuclear. That’s where other sources come into play. On the one hand, nuclear. In October 2024, Google signed the world’s first corporate agreement to acquire nuclear energy from SMR reactors. The first will come into operation in 230 and it is expected that, together, they will be able to satisfy the technology company with 500 MW of capacity by 2035. On the other hand, natural gas. In October of this year, the Broadwing Energy Center project began, a new natural gas power plant that will have a capacity of 400 MW and is scheduled to come into play at the end of 2029. Decarbonization and pressure. And the big question is… doesn’t the use of gas for AI clash with the technology companies’ objectives of achieving decarbonization percentages for both 2030 and 2050? We have already seen that oil companies have been getting off the renewables bandwagon because they have seen that fossil fuels are still relevant in the technology industry, but in the case of Google, they rely on the fact that projects like the Broadwing Energy Center They will have CCS systems. This means that it will have carbon capture system that will be able to permanently “sequester” 90% of the emissions. It means burying the problem, literally, since the CO₂ will be stored a mile underground. In 2020, before the AI ​​boom, the company established the goal of operating with carbon-free energy 24 hours a day, seven days a week by 2030. It will be interesting to see how they plan to offset these emissions thanks to renewables, but the IAE estimates that the demand for data centers will not stop growing in the short term and that adds another problem: a increased pressure on the electrical grid which is added as another element to manage. Because the big underlying problem is that the demand for energy is growing at a faster rate than the capacity to generate new electricity, and it is something that has an impact on companies’ bills, but also in homes. Images | Unsplash, Google Data Center In Xataka | China does not have a spending problem with AI. What it has is a huge income gap compared to its main rival

The EU is beginning to suspect manufacturers’ plants

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The Chinese automotive industry has set out to conquer Europe. He is doing it bringing your cars directly from the factories in China, partnering with European groups and also in the most optimal way for the market: opening factories in our territory. It is the optimal way to avoid tariff packagesyes, but there is a problem: there are companies assembling their cars with removable kits. And that is not liked in Europe. Recently, Stéphane Séjourné, Vice President of Prosperity and Industrial Strategy of the European Commission, commented to the Italian media La Stampa who are attentive to the situation of some Chinese manufacturers. The focus, in fact, is on those who have settled in Spain. “Currently, there are manufacturers in Europe who assemble chinese cars with Chinese components and Chinese personnel. It’s happening in Spain and Hungary, and it’s not right”. It’s not the first time he says it. A little over a year ago, tariffs on electric cars coming from China came into force. They don’t have to be Chinese (the Tesla Gigafactory in Shanghai are included in those tariffs, for example), but the Asian country has designed a way to assemble cars in foreign countries with a double objective. These “removable” kits They are parts of cars that are manufactured and assembled in China to later dismantle them when they see that everything works, send them in pieces to the destination country and, on the new floor, the workers assemble them again. It’s not like building a car, but like rebuilding a giant LEGO. Ebro is an example. Assembly plant or manufacturing plant? a few months ago we already have that this “void” was something that they already contemplated from Europe, but there was a second reason. In July, China’s Ministry of Commerce held a meeting with a dozen domestic manufacturers who were given a maxim: the secrets of the electric vehicle industry must be protected as much as possible. That means key vehicle systems would be made in China, where it’s easier to maintain control. Valdis Dombrovskis is the executive vice-president of the European Commission and has already expressed his doubts about the value that will be created in the European Union with this way of proceeding. “What part of know-how Will it be stored here? Is it a simple assembly plant or an automobile manufacturing plant? “There is a substantial difference,” he said. Returning to Séjourné, he assures that he does not believe that tariffs are the answer because “they destroy the value chain and create trade tensions.” He does not give an answer about what should be done, but comments that we Europeans “need to be less naive and put ourselves back to the standards of all the major economies in the world.” The Chery factory in Barcelona, ​​for example, is one of the Chinese factories that have operated in SKD, or Semi Knock Down, mode. As our colleagues point out Motorpassionfrom China the car is sent half disassembled, without elements such as the steering wheel or wheels, and then they are assembled again on European soil. The idea is that pass to the CKD or Completely Knock Down mode. This implies that They will arrive completely disassembled and will be assembled in Barcelona completely, including welding, painting and there will be an integration of local suppliers that will improve that value chain and create wealth in the surroundings of the factory. What they criticize from Europe is that the operators are, sometimes, workers who come directly from China. An example, also on Spanish soil, is the CATL gigafactory in Zaragoza. They will create batteries to supply the Stellantis plant in Figuerelas and it is expected to generate 3,000 direct jobs. But, when it came time to build the factory, There will be close to 2,000 workers from China those who do the work. One eye on removable kits, another on hybrids Because the objective of the European Union is for the brands that reach our territory to generate wealth in the countries in which they are established. There are relevant examples of this. SEAT gives direct work more than 15,000 people between the Martorell plants, but indirectly generates thousands of other jobs. Similar happens with Toyota in Valenciennes. In the French plant they employ about 4,000 people, but they generate thousands of indirect jobs in the surrounding area because logistics, auxiliary industry, local suppliers, etc. come into play. In fact, they point that Toyota in Europe directly and indirectly employs 94,000 people. But although Europe’s focus on protecting community interests is focused on the electric car, we have already said on occasion that hybrids and plug-ins are the real threats. In May 2025, Chinese brands reached 5.4% market share, with more than 60,000 cars sold compared to 3% in the previous period. In that same time, the European market only grew by 1.3%. These figures were achieved thanks, above all, to the hybrids that brands like MG or BYD have brought to our territory. And this success does not come from nowhere: Chinese hybrids offer a good price-power-design ratio, with attractive and very competitive prices against which European and Japanese manufacturers barely compete. The solution? Complex. Séjourné also commented that Europe is “the only continent that lacks strategic thinking in terms of industrial policy”, and the solution may be to apply something similar to what, precisely, China did in the past. When foreign brands wanted to establish themselves in the Asian giant, they had to partner with local companies so that there was a transmission of knowledge and wealth. And, perhaps, that is the way for foreign brands to establish themselves in Europe. In fact, this is exactly what Josep Maria Recasens, president of Renault Spain, is asking for, who has also stated that Europe “cannot allow them to make four plates with wheels.” Images | Ebro, BYD In Xataka | Chinese cars are “indistinguishable in quality” from European ones. We don’t say it, the industry itself says it

The war in Ukraine has crossed a red line in Europe. They are no longer drones violating airspace, they are nuclear plants

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Ukraine has once again placed the nuclear alarm at the center of the European conflict after denouncing that Russia is deliberately attacking the electrical substations that feed the Khmelnitsky and Rivne power plants. According to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, drone attacks are not isolated incidents, but planned operations to endanger continental nuclear security. It happens that drones are reaching European power plants. The drone offensive. Over the past weekend, Moscow launched more than 450 drones and 45 missiles against various regions of Ukraine, causing at least seven dead and damage to critical infrastructure. In Dnipro, a drone hit a residential building, killing three people, while other attacks occurred in Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia. kyiv accuses Russia of instrumentalizing the atomic risk as a psychological weapon and trying to cause an accident in plants that still depend on external electricity supply to avoid a collapse of the cooling system. Nuclear risk. In parallel, Moscow is advancing with its own nuclear agenda: the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, confirmed that the Kremlin is working on proposals for a possible nuclear test on the direct order of Vladimir Putin, a response to US President Donald Trump’s recent statement that Washington could resume their own tests. The atomic stress between both powers, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, has plunged Europe into a scenario of unprecedented vulnerability since the Cold War. The epicenter of the threat: Belgium. While Ukraine try to contain the Russian offensive on its own territory, Western Europe has begun to feel the echoes of a hybrid war that expands beyond the front. In Belgium, one of the countries with the highest density of critical infrastructure on the continent, there has been a wave of raids of drones over strategic installations. The most alarming took place at the Doel nuclear power plant, located next to the port of Antwerp, when three drones were initially detected at dusk on November 9, which were later confirmed as five different devices flying over the complex for almost an hour. The energy company Engie, which manages the plant, assured that operations were not affected, but authorities activated the National Crisis Center and reinforced security in the area. Belgium nuclear plant near Doel And more. Hours before, air traffic at Liège airport was had suspended briefly after multiple reports of drones, and in the previous days both Brussels airport and the Kleine Brogel air base (where NATO nuclear weapons are stored) had been targeted of similar sightings. Research points to a coordinated pattern affecting several northern European countries, including Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands, where unidentified aerial intrusions have also been reported. Suspicions of espionage. Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken has linked sightings with possible foreign espionage operations and pointed to Russia as the most plausible suspect, although without conclusive evidence. The country’s intelligence services consider that drones could be part of a recognition strategy aimed at evaluating the European response capacity to combined attacks on critical infrastructure. The accumulation of incidents led the Belgian government to convene a National Security Council, after which the Minister of the Interior, Bernard Quintin, assured that the situation was “under control”although he recognized the seriousness of the incursions. The United Kingdom, France and Germany announced sending specialized personnel and equipment to assist Belgium in the detection and neutralization of hostile drones, a gesture that underlines the shared fear that the border between visible war and covert war is becoming dangerously blurred. Technological epicenter. Faced with this new dimension of the conflict, Ukraine has positioned itself as a key actor in the technological response. President Volodymyr Zelensky advertisement the upcoming opening of defense production offices in Berlin and Copenhagen before the end of the year, with the aim of strengthening industrial cooperation on drones and electronic weapons. These “export capitals”, according to his wordsthey will finance the domestic production of scarce equipment and help European allies build their own defensive systems. kyiv, which has made the use of drones one of the pillars of its military strategy, now offers your experience to countries that are beginning to suffer firsthand the effects of the Russian hybrid war. Ukraine as a test. In parallel, Ukrainian creativity in the improvised field of defense is reflected even in unusual solutions: old fishing nets French drones, made from horse hair, are being reused to create tunnels where the propellers of Russian drones become trapped. In contemporary warfare, technology intersects with craftsmanship, and ingenuity has become a form of national survival. Nuclear vulnerability. The incidents in Belgium and Ukraine reveal the same constant: the European nuclear infrastructure (plant, wiring, energy, logistics) has become a target symbolic and strategic. The attacks on Ukrainian substations that feed power plants and the drones that fly over Belgian reactors expose the fragility of a continent that depends on complex systems where any sabotage can multiply its effects. The threat no longer comes only from missiles, but from invisible swarms of drones, of disinformation, of political and technological engineering that undermines stability from within. Russia, faced with isolation and with a still powerful military industry, seems willing to use this asymmetry as an instrument of prolonged pressure. The European responsestill fragmentary, is beginning to be articulated between military cooperation, technological innovation and civil defense. Plus: the lesson left by this sequence of attacks and suspicions seems clear. In the Europe of 2025, the border between energy security and military security has fadedand the future of continental stability could depend less on the size of armies than on how quickly a drone is detected on radar before reaching a nuclear power plant. Image | Trougnouf, Wwuyts In Xataka | The latest tactic of the Russians in Ukraine breaks with the previous one: they have gone from appearing “out of nowhere” to directly disappearing In Xataka | Orion was the Russian version of the US’s most lethal drone. Ukraine can’t believe it when it opens: it’s not a version, it’s the work of the US

that building nuclear power plants becomes increasingly cheaper

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While Western countries debated for or against nuclear energy, with the construction of new plants weighed down by decades of delays and cost overruns, China has not only continued building: He has done it against the trend of the sector. For the first time in more than 50 years, a country has made building nuclear reactors increasingly cheaper, faster and scalable. The difference is overwhelming. The only two reactors built in the United States this century (at the Vogtle plant in Georgia) took 11 years to complete and cost a whopping $35 billion, equivalent to about $15 per watt of capacity. According to a analysis published in NatureChina is building its new nuclear power plants for just $2 a watt. It is not an anomaly, but a trend. Construction costs in the United States have increased tenfold since the 1960s, and in France they have almost doubled. In China they halved during the 2000s and have remained stable since then. The big question is how they have achieved it, and whether the rest of the world can imitate them. The Chinese nuclear recipe. Building a nuclear power plant remains one of the most complex engineering projects on the planet. If China has managed to do this in an increasingly efficient way, it is thanks to a mix of standardization and unwavering state support. The three state nuclear giants receive low-interest loans, which greatly reduces the cost of financing. Unlike the West, where each project has been a new experiment with unique designs, China has often focused on building a handful of models, scaling its nuclear capability rapidly. But these are just the last steps of the recipe. To get here, Beijing had to invest in mastering each link in the supply chain. Made in China. As detailed in a extensive New York Times reportthe country has developed a robust national industry capable of forging everything from reactor vessels to the most critical components of each nuclear power plant. Components made in China, such as cargo pumps or ring cranes, cost half as much as their imported equivalents. A perfect example is the American-designed AP1000 reactor. Both the United States and China faced enormous challenges building this model. But as problems led to delays and skyrocketing costs that nearly buried the American industry, China paused, studied every flaw, and ended up developing an improved, nationalized version of the reactor: the CAP1000. It is now building nine reactors of this model within just five years, and at a drastically lower cost. The winning strategy. “China demonstrates that the construction and operation costs of nuclear power do not have to increase unabated,” explains Dan Kammenprofessor at Johns Hopkins University. Breaking the curse of cost overruns requires “more than technology: it requires an intelligent and strategic approach,” says Kammen. The result of this approach is that China is on track to overtake the United States as the largest nuclear power in the world in 2030. Today it has almost as many reactors under construction as the rest of the world combined. It is not a simple bet, but a State policy that does not end at its borders. China has already put two Hualong One reactors into operation in Pakistan, and has plans to continue expanding throughout Asia, Africa and South America. Waiting for the SMR. While China perfects the construction of large already proven reactors, Western countries follow a radically different path: betting on innovation through the private sector. Dozens of startups are working on a new generation of small modular reactors (SMR), theoretically cheaper and faster to build. Tech giants like Google, Amazon and Microsoft They have invested billions in them to power their energy-hungry data centers. The problem is not only that This technological advance will take years to maturebut China does not live apart from it. The country is already taking giant steps in future technologies, such as fourth-generation gas-cooled reactors or research into thorium reactors. And he could repeat the same strategies that have worked with traditional reactors. Image | CNNC In Xataka | China has turned the energy sector upside down: the first fusion-proof nuclear power plant is already a success

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