Ford's powerplant pickup - btbirkett@gmail.com - Gmail

Ford's powerplant pickup - btbirkett@gmail.com - Gmail

Welcome to the Hyperdrive daily briefing, decoding the revolution reshaping the auto world, from EVs to self-driving cars and beyond. You can the full article featured in today’s newsletter on the web here. News Briefs China cuts purchase tax on low-emission vehicles in half. Hyundai faces a climate dilemma at one of its top plants. Tesla, VW keep workers isolated as Shanghai eases lockdown. The F-150 Lightning’s Key Capability Spend an afternoon driving the Ford F-150 Lightning around the vineyards and redwood-shaded back roads of California wine country and the pickup’s considerable power is apparent. What makes the electric version of America’s best-selling vehicle a potential game-changer, though, is not its acceleration (zero to 60 miles per hour in 4.3 seconds) or its range (up to 320 miles on a charge). It’s the ability to tap the Lightning’s battery pack to power your home or the electric grid during increasingly frequent climate-driven blackouts. The extended-range Lightning’s 131 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion pack boasts almost 10 times the capacity of a Tesla Powerwall, an $11,000 home backup battery that can’t be driven to the supermarket. The Lightning is “a mini powerplant for your home,” says Jason Glickman, executive vice president for engineering, planning and strategy at California utility PG&E. “At scale, when these vehicles are enabled to send energy back to the grid, flex alerts and notices of grid emergencies will be a thing completely of the past.” The version of the pickup aimed at commercial fleets, called the Lightning Pro, starts at $39,974 before state and federal rebates and tax credits. If the Lightning is plugged in when a blackout hits, the home automatically begins drawing electricity from the battery. When power is restored, the system disconnects and then resumes charging the vehicle. Ford says the Lightning can fully power an average home for roughly three days.

Japan's Deep Ocean Turbine Trial Offers Hope of Phasing Out Fossil Fuels - Bloomberg

Japan's Deep Ocean Turbine Trial Offers Hope of Phasing Out Fossil Fuels - Bloomberg

IHI's deep-ocean Kairyu has two counterrotating turbines.Source: IHI Corp./NEDO

Green

Cleaner Tech

Deep Under the Ocean, a Fresh Source of Green Power Takes Shape

Tested in one of the world’s strongest ocean currents, a prototype generator could herald the start of a new stream of renewable energy

By

Erica Yokoyama

May 30, 2022, 10:00 PM GMT+1

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Power-hungry, fossil-fuel dependent Japan has successfully tested a system that could provide a constant, steady form of renewable energy, regardless of the wind or the sun. 

For more than a decade, Japanese heavy machinery maker IHI Corp. has been developing a subsea turbine that harnesses the energy in deep ocean currents and converts it into a steady and reliable source of electricity. The giant machine resembles an airplane, with two counter-rotating turbine fans in place of jets, and a central ‘fuselage’ housing a buoyancy adjustment system. Called Kairyu, the 330-ton prototype is designed to be anchored to the sea floor at a depth of 30-50 meters (100-160 feet).

In commercial production, the plan is to site the turbines in the Kuroshio Current, one of the world’s strongest, which runs along Japan’s eastern coast, and transmit the power via seabed cables.

“Ocean currents have an advantage in terms of their accessibility in Japan,” said Ken Takagi, a professor of ocean technology policy at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Frontier Sciences. “Wind power is more geographically suited to Europe, which is exposed to predominant westerly winds and is located at higher latitudes.” Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) estimates the Kuroshio Current could potentially generate as much as 200 gigawatts — about 60% of Japan’s present generating capacity. 

Like other nations, the lion’s share of investment in renewables has gone into wind and solar, especially after the Fukushima nuclear disaster curbed that nation’s appetite for atomic energy. Japan is already the world’s third largest generator of solar power and is investing heavily in offshore wind, but harnessing ocean currents could provide the reliable baseline power needed to reduce the need for energy storage or fossil fuels.

The advantage of ocean currents is their stability. They flow with little fluctuation in speed and direction, giving them a capacity factor — a measure of how often the system is generating — of 50-70%, compared with around 29% for onshore wind and 15% for solar. 

Power Efficiency in Japan

Ocean-current turbines have a similar capacity factor to coal plants

Source: Bloomberg NEF (2H 2021)

Discover Why Islamic Art Is an Enduring Influence on Cartier Jewelry - 1stDibs Introspective

Discover Why Islamic Art Is an Enduring Influence on Cartier Jewelry - 1stDibs Introspective

Ian Bremmer: power of the "Goldilocks crisis"

Ian Bremmer: power of the "Goldilocks crisis"

The collection of Sir Nicholas Goodison | Christie's

The collection of Sir Nicholas Goodison | Christie's

National Zoning Atlas Launched to Make America's Patchwork of Codes Accessible and Comprehensible | Cornell AAP

National Zoning Atlas Launched to Make America's Patchwork of Codes Accessible and Comprehensible | Cornell AAP

'This is our last generation': Viral lockdown video puts focus on China’s population crisis

 

https://view.newsletters.cnn.com/messages/16526848616390e6e4f5bb0ce/raw?utm_term=16526848616390e6e4f5bb0ce&utm_source=cnn_Meanwhile+in+China+-+05.16.2022&utm_medium=email&bt_ee=v2B3h4c3EGtOAh40pvocvDnIM0G%2F1MNuokUm3ZXj2YjNVjB7u%2FKqQPYKOUWHvzgI&bt_ts=1652684861641

For generations of Chinese parents, the success of their children has long been one of their most important goals in life — and they are known to be willing to make great sacrifices for it.

 

And so when a Shanghai family refused to be taken from their home into government quarantine during the city's sixth week of lockdown, a police officer warned them with what he thought would be a powerful threat to bring them to heel — their children's future.

 

"If you don't obey the orders from the city government, you will be punished, and the punishment will affect three generations in your family," the hazmat-suited officer said, pointing his finger at the camera in a video posted on Chinese social media.

 

"We are the last generation, thank you," a young man, who is not seen in the video, replied adamantly, in an apparent suggestion he is not planning to have any children.

 

The video ended there, with no indication of whether the family was eventually taken away. But it spread like wildfire on China's internet, resonating with many young Chinese who are fed up with the increasing pressure on them to have children — from a society and government that many say have provided them with little of the material and emotional security they need to raise a child.

 

"I laughed at first but in the end I felt a sense of great sadness. He is resisting by giving up his reproductive rights," said a user on Weibo, China's Twitter-like platform.

 

Carrying on the family line has long been a filial duty in traditional Chinese culture. But in today's China, not having children — or delaying it — has become a form of soft resistance and silent protest against what many see as the disappointing reality they live in, with deep-rooted structural problems stemming from a system that they have little power to change.

 

"It is a tragic expression of despair of the deepest kind," Zhang Xuezhong, a human rights lawyer and former law professor in Shanghai, wrote on Twitter about the video.

 

"We've been robbed of a future that is worth looking forward to. It is arguably the strongest denunciation a young man can make of the era he lives in."

 

Over the past decade, an increasing number of Chinese millennials have delayed — or outright rejected — marriage and childbirth, as they confront high work pressure, skyrocketing property prices, rising education costs and discrimination against mothers in the workplace.

 

Last year, just 7.6 million Chinese couples registered for marriage, a 44% drop from 2013 and the lowest in 36 years. At the same time, the country's birth rate dropped to 7.5 births per 1,000 people, a record low since the founding of Communist China, with nine provinces and regions registering negative population growth.

 

The Chinese government is worried. For decades, it had strictly enforced a one-child policy that forced millions of women to abort pregnancies deemed illegal by the state. But as China's birth rate plummeted, demographers warned of a looming population crisis.

 

Beijing scrapped the one-child policy in 2016 and relaxed it further last year to allow couples to have three children, with local governments churning out a flurry of propaganda slogans and financial incentives to encourage more births — but the birth rate has continued to nosedive.

 

Some officials and policy advisers have appeared tone-deaf to young people's demands. Last month, a law professor and delegate to the Jinzhou municipal People's Congress in Hubei province suggested that in order to promote marriage and childbirth, the media should reduce or avoid reporting on "independent women" and the "double-income-no-kids (DINK) lifestyle," because they are not in line with the country's "mainstream values." The suggestion drew a backlash online.

 

As the pandemic drags on, the sense of disenchantment among many of the country's younger generation has only grown.

 

The increasingly frequent and stringent lockdowns — and the chaos and tragedies that arose from them — have made citizens realize how fragile their rights are in the face of a state apparatus that brooks no dissent and a callous bureaucracy trained to take orders from above with little flexibility.

 

That is especially so in Shanghai, which is reeling from seven weeks of stringent lockdown. In the country's wealthiest and most glamorous city, residents have been subject to widespread food shortages, lack of medical care and forced quarantine in spartan makeshift facilities. Authorities initially separated young children from their parents in isolation, and only reversed course after a public outcry.

 

The mounting frustration and anger erupted on Chinese social media, and in some cases, censors struggled to keep up. Some residents protested from their windows, banging pots and pans and shouting in frustration. Others clashed with police and health workers in the streets — something rarely seen in a country where dissent is routinely suppressed.

 

Over the past week, local officials forced residents to hand over their keys after they were taken away to quarantine, so that health workers could go in and soak their personal belongings in disinfectant — with little scientific justification for their actions or regard for private property rights.

 

For many residents, that was the last straw. Even their homes — their private space and last refuge — could not be spared the zealous enforcement of the government's zero-Covid policy. Some say their lives have become dispensable in the pursuit of what officials deem the "greater good," with residents left powerless to protect their loved ones.

 

To many young people, the crisis unfolding in Shanghai is setting off alarm bells. If even China's most developed city with the largest middle-class population, the supposedly most open-minded bureaucrats and the most cosmopolitan culture could not be spared such authoritarian treatment, will other cities fare any better?

 

"Who is willing to have children when things have come to this? Who dares to have children?" asked a user on Weibo.

 

"Your reign ends with me. And the suffering you have caused also ends with me," said another.

 

The fast-spreading anger soon attracted the attention of censors. By Thursday evening, most of the videos had been scrubbed from the Chinese internet. On Weibo, several related hashtags, from "We are the last generation" to "Last generation," have been censored after attracting heated discussions.

 

But suppressing what young people want to say will not help persuade them to have children. On the contrary, that is likely only to add to their disaffection.

Nectar Gan is China Reporter for CNN International in Hong Kong. She covers the changes taking place in China, and their impact on the world.

How to Do More for Ukraine by Oleg Ustenko & Michael R. Strain - Project Syndicate

How to Do More for Ukraine by Oleg Ustenko & Michael R. Strain - Project Syndicate

How to Do More for Ukraine

May 13, 2022OLEG USTENKO interviewed by MICHAEL R. STRAIN

Russian President Vladimir Putin's failure to achieve a rapid victory in Ukraine has left Ukrainians with an unwavering confidence in their own ability to win the war – eventually. But much will depend on Western governments' own willingness to use all of the economic-policy tools at their disposal.

On May 6, 2022, economist Michael R. Strain of the American Enterprise Institute spoke with Oleg Ustenko, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief economic adviser, to discuss the international response to Russia’s war and the situation on the ground. Speaking from an undisclosed location in Ukraine, Ustenko makes clear that the United States and Europe could do more to end the war, to aid in Ukraine’s reconstruction, and to ensure that Russia cannot repeat its aggression in the future.

Michael R. Strain: The European Commission recently issued a proposal to phase out imports of Russian crude oil within six months and refined products by the end of 2022. That would need to be approved by all EU member states. What’s your reaction to the proposal as it stands?

Oleg Ustenko: The Russians are using energy revenues to finance their military machine, so we welcome this step very much. But it’s not enough. Russia is receiving $1 billion per day for its energy exports. You can imagine how many missiles, weapons, and bombs they can buy in the six months before the embargo is fully implemented.

Our position is straightforward. We want this embargo to go into effect at once. We don’t have an extra six months to wait while Russia continues to kill our citizens. Under the circumstances, we believe that Europe must act immediately.

MS: US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen commented on this issue on April 21, when she emphasized the importance of Europe reducing its dependence on Russian energy over the medium term. But she also said: “We need to be careful when we think about a complete European ban on, say, oil imports.” That, she warned, “would clearly raise global oil prices,” with “a damaging impact on Europe and other parts of the world.” She also said that “counterintuitively, it could actually have very little negative impact on Russia, because although Russia might export less, its price for its exports would go up.”

Do you have a response to that?

OU: Of course there will be costs, but only in the short run, because there will be changes made in the medium run to reduce the burden on Europe. These will come from two different sources. First, we should expect that oil-producing countries – not only in the Middle East but also in Africa – will increase output if Europe institutes a ban on Russian imports. That should move prices down. Second, the Chinese economy is slowing, which means it will consume less oil. That, too, will move markets toward a new equilibrium and reduce prices.

MS: That’s the short term and the medium term. What about over the long term?

OU: It would be a win-win situation, because everybody’s income is going to be more predictable and their wealth more secure.

MS: But you agree that if Europe instituted a ban on oil imports from Russia, this would boost the price of oil and thereby help Russia in the short run. What steps could be taken to mitigate that short-term effect?

OU: We could also deal with that situation. The marginal cost of production for Russian oil is around $10 per barrel. Russia should be allowed to keep $10 per barrel sold, and any amount above that should be seized through sanctions. This money should go into a special fund for rebuilding Ukraine.

MS: We’ve been talking about Europe being more aggressive in restricting or banning oil imports from Russia. What about natural gas?

OU: That issue is a little more difficult. In our view, Europe should continue to purchase Russian gas, but the proceeds from the sale should go into an escrow account administered by a special board. With the board’s approval, some of the funds could go to Russia for critical imports such as pharmaceuticals. This would leave Russia with some incentive to continue selling natural gas to Europe, even in the face of the new sanctions. And the board could approve greater disbursements to Russia if it withdraws from Ukraine and stops the war.

MS: Why would Russian natural-gas producers sell to Europe under those conditions?

OU: What else are they going to do with the gas? Maintaining their pipelines is costly regardless of whether they are delivering gas. Either they will comply with this regime or they can stop production forever.

MS: Who would administer the escrow account?

OU: It should be a special board nominated by our allies: the US and European Union countries or the European Commission. And Ukraine must be represented on the board.

MS: Apart from more aggressive restrictions on oil and natural-gas imports, what other economic-policy options would you like to see Europe pursuing?

OU: We would like to see new sanctions imposed on the individuals in power in Russia. There have been some sanctions for top-level individuals, but not yet for their family members. All members of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s party, United Russia, should be cut off from Europe. They and their family members are still spending their time in Europe, rather than enduring life in Russia. They should be stopped from doing that, so that they have a greater incentive to put pressure on Putin to end the war.

Moreover, all trade with Russia must be stopped. For example, insurers should be prohibited from providing coverage for ships departing from Russian ports. Without insurance, there will be no trade. Who is going to ship uninsured goods from Russia? Finally, more could also be done to exclude Russian banks from international payments.

MS: The US has instituted a ban on Russian energy imports and placed some curbs on new US investment in Russia’s energy sector. What else do you think the US should be doing to assist Ukraine through economic policy?

OU: The US has a unique ability to convince our European allies to move forward with a stronger sanctions regime. For example, it could push Europe to introduce travel bans on all members of the Russian ruling party, or to disconnect Russian banks even more from the international financial system.

MS: The war has already lasted longer than many observers initially thought it would. How concerned are you about Europe and the US being able to sustain the will to incur economic costs in the form of higher-priced energy, food, fertilizer, and other commodities?

OU: In my view, there is no real choice. If Putin is allowed to win in Ukraine, he will have even greater territorial ambitions in Europe. This is already a prominent part of Russian propaganda. The Kremlin really believes it is reconstituting a great Russian empire. If the world is willing to capitulate in Ukraine, Russia’s ambitions will be strengthened.

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

WHAT UKRAINE HAS LOST

MS: Tell me about the economic costs of the war so far, in terms of the Ukrainian government budget and the Ukrainian economy.

OU: In the first week of the war, we lost around $100 billion in assets. After that, the costs increased exponentially. Our latest estimate of losses is close to $650 billion. That refers only to assets. The total economic cost of the war is in the realm of $1 trillion. That is an unbelievably huge amount of money for us. Last year, Ukraine’s GDP was its highest on record, at $200 billion. We are talking about losses five times greater than our annual pre-war GDP. Around 50% of our businesses have either been destroyed or have closed.

On top of that, we are an export-oriented country. Around 40% of our GDP comes from exports, and around 60% of our exports rely on passage through the Black Sea. Although we still control the main ports in Ukraine, Russia controls the Black Sea, which makes moving our goods there extremely risky.

MS: Let’s talk about rebuilding. Yellen was also asked about using some of Russia’s frozen central-bank reserves to help Ukraine rebuild. She responded that, “We would carefully need to think through the consequences. … I wouldn’t want to do so lightly and it’s something that I think our coalition and partners would need to feel comfortable with and be supportive of.” She also said that legislation might be required in the US to pursue this option.

OU: Her response was problematic, at least to my ears. What about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? Was that legal or even remotely appropriate? What are we talking about? Her response definitely had a very negative effect on the overall mood.

MS: Say more about that.

OU: People are expecting to be compensated for this war. To hear that there may be a long process for deciding whether the aggressor’s frozen reserves could be used to help Ukraine – to hear that there are questions about its legality – is simply unacceptable to us.

Moreover, Russian propaganda immediately seized on Yellen’s words, saying something to the effect of: “Look, this is exactly what we were saying. There’s no way that Ukrainians are going to be compensated for the costs of the war. No, it should be on their own budget.” They are already driving home the message that they are not going to pay for the damage they have inflicted on Ukraine.

A NEW UKRAINE

MS: But even if the frozen Russian reserves, some $300 billion, were made available, that wouldn’t be enough to fulfill Zelensky’s recent promise to “create the best conditions for investment in all of Europe.” What is Ukraine’s strategy for attracting investment after the war?

OU: In a 2018 survey of US companies in Ukraine, I found that American businesses here faced three main problems. The first was property-rights protection. A related problem was the unreliability of the judicial system. You need strong courts to defend property rights, and if the courts are not operating properly, you will be reluctant to invest here. The third problem is a consequence of the first two: corruption.

After the war, Ukrainian society will not tolerate any of these problems any longer. We have suffered them for decades – since independence in 1991 – but we won’t have them after the war. Ukraine hopes to join the European Union, which means that it must meet the requirements for membership. That starts with fixing the institutions of property-rights protection and the court system, and ending corruption. We are going to have a much better investment climate in the country.

MS: What changes are you considering for your tax system?

OU: The president has tasked us to come up with ways to lower taxes on investment significantly.

MS: Why is EU membership so important to Ukraine?

OU: From an economic perspective, it’s extremely important, because it means that we can be a part of the broader European production chain. We can improve our business climate, reduce risk, and attract more investment. That will lead to a higher quality of life for our people. In addition, I would say that the Ukrainian people believe they’re part of Europe and want to be recognized as European.

MS: Let’s suppose the war has ended and you’ve addressed the three historic challenges you mentioned, as well as lowering taxes on business investment. If I’m a foreign CEO or investor, I might still be skittish about investing in Ukraine or about expanding business operations there. Even though Russia has been defeated, I might be worried that it still has territorial ambitions in Ukraine. What would the Ukrainian government say to alleviate my concerns?

OU: I would say two things. First, this is why we need to make sure that all the sanctions we are proposing are enacted. We must ensure that Russia does not have the resources to finance its military machine. They might still have the will; but if they don’t have the funds, they will not be able to do so.

Second, you are absolutely right about risk. All investors will be worried about that for a long time. We therefore need to think about the kinds of war insurance we can provide to each investor coming to Ukraine.

MS: So, if I lost money because of another invasion, there would be some insurance protection for me. Can you say more about how that might work?

OU: The funds in escrow accounts from Russian natural gas sales could be used for this purpose. Since Russia would be able to use only some money from these escrow accounts, there would be ample reserves. If Russia were to invade again, investors in Ukraine could be compensated using those funds.

UNDER THE SHADOW OF WAR

MS: Let’s look beyond economics. You’re a Ukrainian citizen living in Ukraine in an undisclosed location. Tell me about your experience over the last few weeks.

OU: Everything has already become routine. We know what we must do each day. There are no differences between weekdays or weekends. What is most difficult is that, even though we know for sure that Ukraine will win the war, we don’t know when it will happen.

In the meantime, we are not able to use our property. We are not leading normal lives. We cannot go to the gym or even do normal grocery shopping. We have just a few things to wear. We have some very basic foods – nothing special, certainly no restaurant dining. Everything is very, very simple. This is how everybody lives now in Ukraine.

And this is not the worst-case scenario. Many other people have been killed, and it hurts a lot when you hear of this news, when you talk to people and see the evidence – the terrible photos and videos. You understand that people are losing their lives. As for the soldiers, they are sleeping in the fields. Everything is very painful and very difficult.

Our first desire is to win this war. But our second desire is to punish Putin’s regime. They must pay a price. That is the common belief in Ukraine. Nothing should be forgiven. After everything we’ve gone through, all the evidence we have, they must pay a price.

MS: You once told me that you used to enjoy walking in the woods. Why can’t you still do that?

OU: Because there are mines, even in the woods. Who knows how many years it will be until simple things like walking in the woods return to normal. Unfortunately, that is the situation. The same is true for our maritime sites. Mines are strewn across the Odessa region and on the Black Sea beaches.

MS: Tell me about the mood of the Ukrainian people.

OU: Everybody is just waiting for the peace. As soon as peace comes to our land, everything will change immediately. Our people are energized to rebuild the country, and they have come together. We are all viewing ourselves as one united nation. Ukrainians, Ukrainian-Russians, Ukrainian-Belarussians, Ukrainian Jews – we all think of ourselves as one united family.

MS: You’ve always expressed confidence that Ukraine is going to win the war. Why is that?

OU: If Putin had been able to win the war, he would have done it in the first several days. But he failed. At this point, I doubt that even he believes that he can win. And even if he is still under the delusion that he can, I seriously doubt that his armed forces believe it anymore. We have seen on the internet where Russian military personnel are discussing it. They do not believe in their chances of victory.

As for the spirit of the Ukrainian people, I would say it is the same as the spirit of the Americans. Independence is part of our DNA, and the Russian way of life – in terms of democracy, liberty, respect for other human beings – is not acceptable to us.

Ukrainian hearts and minds are the first and the main thing that Putin lost. Before, it was possible to stipulate some ideas about Russian history or Russian culture; but no longer. Now, he has lost all Russian historical or cultural claims on Ukraine. I know many people who refuse even to watch anything related to Russia – no Russian movies, Russian songs, Russian poetry, or Russian literature. Putin has lost Ukrainians, which means he is going to lose the war eventually.

MS: Former US President George W. Bush recently described Zelensky as “the Winston Churchill of our time.” Do you agree?

OU: Yes.