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Photoncycle aims to store energy cheaply using a clever hydrogen solution

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The solar energy sector has been fighting interseasonal energy storage for years. The ability to harness surplus solar energy through the summer months for winter use stays an elusive goal, with existing solutions equivalent to batteries becoming insufficient due to prohibitive costs and limited lifespan. Meanwhile, hydrogen, despite its clean-burning properties, has been sidelined due to inefficiency and high costs.

Photoncycle — a startup emerging from the depths of an accelerator on the Oslo Science Park in Oslo, Norway — is working on a solution. Startup claims that with a vision as clear because the summer sun, solid hydrogen technology can store energy more efficiently ammonia synthesis reactor. The claim is that this technology provides more economical storage than every other battery or liquid hydrogen solution available on the market.

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A diagram showing Photoncycle’s vision of a complete system installed in a home. Image credits: Photocycle

“Lithium-ion batteries use expensive metals. Our material is super cheap: storing 10,000 kilowatt hours costs about $1,500, so it’s almost nothing. In addition, our data storage solution is 20 times more dense than a lithium-ion battery and does not waste electricity,” explains founder and CEO Bjørn Brandtzaeg in an interview with TechCrunch. “This means we have a system where energy can be stored over time, allowing for seasonal storage. This is completely different from traditional batteries.”

Photoncycle uses water and electricity to produce hydrogen. This in itself will not be unusual in the event you follow fuel cell vehicle technology. However, the corporate’s approach includes an progressive twist: a reversible, high-temperature fuel cell. This advanced fuel cell can produce hydrogen and generate electricity in the identical device.

The core of Photoncycle’s innovation is hydrogen processing. They process hydrogen after which use technology to convert and store it in solid form. The company claims that this storage method will not be only secure due to the non-flammable and non-explosive nature of the solid, but in addition highly efficient. It enables the storage of hydrogen with a density roughly 50% greater than liquid hydrogen, which is a significant advance in hydrogen storage solutions. These innovations form the cornerstone of the Photoncycle system, facilitating the secure and dense storage of hydrogen, which the corporate says represents a huge breakthrough in energy technology.

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Current clean energy solutions, equivalent to rooftop solar, are limited by inconsistent supplies due to the unpredictable nature of weather conditions. A sturdy reusable energy storage solution could overcome these schedules, ensuring a stable energy supply when these renewable sources encounter inevitable intermittent periods.

Great in theory, but not without its own challenges.

“The Netherlands is the country in Europe with the highest density of rooftop solar energy. We are currently seeing huge growth due to high energy prices; everyone wants rooftop solar,” Brandtzaeg says. However, he adds that this method can backfire for homeowners: “Last July within the Netherlands in the midst of the day it was 500 euros per megawatt hour to export electricity

Placing energy storage along with an energy-producing house effectively allows homes to be disconnected from the grid. Photoncycle says it has tested and worked with the core components of its solution – the following step is to integrate it into the system. The company says that if successful, it could seriously threaten Powerwall, Tesla’s lithium-ion battery solution.

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David Gerez, CTO at Photoncycle, and Ole Laugerud, Photoncycle chemist, in Photoncycle’s purpose-built laboratory, which has been operating for nearly two years. Image credits: Photocycle

“It’s a relatively complex system – that’s why so many PhDs from different fields are working on it. The reason why Elon Musk said hydrogen is stupid is because you lose a lot of energy when you convert electricity into hydrogen and vice versa,” says Brandtzaeg. He believes his company can turn this bug into a feature. “In residential buildings, where 70% of energy demand is for heating, it is possible to use excess heat to provide hot water. We will focus on markets where people currently use natural gas for heating, and then we will replace the gas boiler in the home, using existing water infrastructure.”

Brandtzaeg’s confidence within the operational framework of the concept is convincing. He pointed to a small model of their operating facility within the labs, scaled down to the scale of a automobile battery. Brandtzaeg believes this scaling needs to be seamless and cites it because the primary reason they felt confident in implementing the project.

When it comes to providing power, hydrogen takes a while to generate electricity, so for buffering, the corporate relies on an intermediate, more conventional battery to balance the load. The company definitely attracts the eye of investors: Photocycle has just raised $5.3 million (€5 million) to construct the primary few energy storage devices in Denmark, which Photoncycle has chosen as its test market.

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“Based on the interest, we could have raised 10 times more than we did. However, after this increase, I am still the majority owner,” says Brandtzaeg. “I wanted to maintain control of the company for as long as possible and not raise more capital than necessary to bring this service to market.”

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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The latest model AI Google Gemma can work on phones

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It grows “open” AI Google, Gemma, grows.

While Google I/O 2025 On Tuesday, Google removed Gemma 3N compresses, a model designed for “liquid” on phones, laptops and tablets. According to Google, available in a preview starting on Tuesday, Gemma 3N can support sound, text, paintings and flicks.

Models efficient enough to operate in offline mode and without the necessity to calculate within the cloud have gained popularity within the AI ​​community lately. They will not be only cheaper to make use of than large models, but they keep privacy, eliminating the necessity to send data to a distant data center.

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During the speech to I/O product manager, Gemma Gus Martins said that GEMMA 3N can work on devices with lower than 2 GB of RAM. “Gemma 3N shares the same architecture as Gemini Nano, and is also designed for incredible performance,” he added.

In addition to Gemma 3N, Google releases Medgemma through the AI ​​developer foundation program. According to Medgemma, it’s essentially the most talented model to research text and health -related images.

“Medgemma (IS) OUR (…) A collection of open models to understand the text and multimodal image (health),” said Martins. “Medgemma works great in various imaging and text applications, thanks to which developers (…) could adapt the models to their own health applications.”

Also on the horizon there may be SignGEMMA, an open model for signaling sign language right into a spoken language. Google claims that Signgemma will allow programmers to create recent applications and integration for users of deaf and hard.

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“SIGNGEMMA is a new family of models trained to translate sign language into a spoken text, but preferably in the American sign and English,” said Martins. “This is the most talented model of understanding sign language in history and we are looking forward to you-programmers, deaf and hard communities-to take this base and build with it.”

It is value noting that Gemma has been criticized for non -standard, non -standard license conditions, which in accordance with some developers adopted models with a dangerous proposal. However, this didn’t discourage programmers from downloading Gemma models tens of tens of millions of times.

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(Tagstransate) gemma

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Trump to sign a criminalizing account of porn revenge and clear deep cabinets

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President Donald Trump is predicted to sign the act on Take It Down, a bilateral law that introduces more severe punishments for distributing clear images, including deep wardrobes and pornography of revenge.

The Act criminalizes the publication of such photos, regardless of whether or not they are authentic or generated AI. Whoever publishes photos or videos can face penalty, including a advantageous, deprivation of liberty and restitution.

According to the brand new law, media firms and web platforms must remove such materials inside 48 hours of termination of the victim. Platforms must also take steps to remove the duplicate content.

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Many states have already banned clear sexual desems and pornography of revenge, but for the primary time federal regulatory authorities will enter to impose restrictions on web firms.

The first lady Melania Trump lobbyed for the law, which was sponsored by the senators Ted Cruz (R-TEXAS) and Amy Klobuchar (d-minn.). Cruz said he inspired him to act after hearing that Snapchat for nearly a 12 months refused to remove a deep displacement of a 14-year-old girl.

Proponents of freedom of speech and a group of digital rights aroused concerns, saying that the law is Too wide And it will probably lead to censorship of legal photos, similar to legal pornography, in addition to government critics.

(Tagstransate) AI

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Microsoft Nadella sata chooses chatbots on the podcasts

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Satya Nadella at Microsoft Ignite 2023

While the general director of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, says that he likes podcasts, perhaps he didn’t take heed to them anymore.

That the treat is approaching at the end longer profile Bloomberg NadellaFocusing on the strategy of artificial intelligence Microsoft and its complicated relations with Opeli. To illustrate how much she uses Copilot’s AI assistant in her day by day life, Nadella said that as a substitute of listening to podcasts, she now sends transcription to Copilot, after which talks to Copilot with the content when driving to the office.

In addition, Nadella – who jokingly described her work as a “E -Mail driver” – said that it consists of a minimum of 10 custom agents developed in Copilot Studio to sum up E -Mailes and news, preparing for meetings and performing other tasks in the office.

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It seems that AI is already transforming Microsoft in a more significant way, and programmers supposedly the most difficult hit in the company’s last dismissals, shortly after Nadella stated that the 30% of the company’s code was written by AI.

(Tagstotransate) microsoft

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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