OLU IBEKWE

A battery made with urea, commonly found in fertilizers and mammal urine, could provide a low-cost way of storing energy produced through solar power or other forms of renewable energy for consumption during off hours. Developed by Stanford chemistry Professor Hongjie Dai and doctoral candidate Michael Angell, the battery is nonflammable and contains electrodes made from abundant aluminum and graphite. Its electrolyte’s main ingredient, urea, is already industrially produced by the ton for plant fertilizers. “So essentially, what you have is a battery made with some of the cheapest and most abundant materials you can find on Earth. And it actually has good performance,” said Dai. “Who would have thought you could take graphite, aluminum, urea, and actually make a battery that can cycle for a pretty long time?” In 2015, Dai’s lab was the first to make a rechargeable aluminum battery. This system charged in less than a minute and lasted thousands of charge-discharge cyc...

Washington (AFP) – Sub-Saharan Africa, where more than a half billion individuals live without power, trails the world in government strategies that advance sustainable power , as per another World Bank report Wednesday. A great part the world, nonetheless, has gained ground toward making energy extensively accessible, creating renewable power sources and expanding proficiency, the inaugural Regulatory Indicators for Sustainable Energy report said. In a survey of 111 countries, the World Bank found that through 2015 nearly 80 percent had begun to adopt policies to expand electrical grids, connecting them to solar and wind generation, and to help make electric utilities creditworthy and financially viable while keeping energy prices down. More than a third of countries, home to 96 percent of the global population, were at an advanced stage and progress was not limited to rich countries. Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda outperformed their peers in access to energy, while P...

Zambian President, Edgar Lungu yesterday hosted a meeting with the African Presidents attending the African Union 28 th assembly in the Ethiopian capital to promote ending child marriage across the African continent. The President pleaded to other leaders to implement a common African position in putting an end to child marriage which now seems to be rampant across the continent. According to Edgar, 15 out of 20 countries with a high prevalence of child marriage are in Africa. Three quarters of the 16 million adolescent girls that give birth annually are already married. The child wife is exposed to health risks during pregnancy and more prone to child birth complications. According to the United Nations, the leading cause of death for girls aged between 15 years to 19 in the developing countries are complications from pregnancy and child birth. According to Lungu, if the government worked towards a low birth rates then there would be a smaller young populati...