Broadly speaking, “sustainable fuel” refers to fuels that can be produced and used without depleting resources or harming the environment. They can come from different renewable sources such as wind, solar, hydro, and bio-based sources, and are a key solution to reducing the negative impacts of traditional fossil fuels. 

Many companies around the world are producing sustainable fuels for different use cases, but the most promising of them is probably “Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF),” specifically designed for current planes.

The benefits of SAF are consequent.“Whereas fossil fuels add to the overall level of CO2 by emitting carbon that had been previously locked away, SAF recycles the CO2 which has been absorbed by the biomass used in the feedstock during the course of its life,” the International Air Transport Association (IATA) explains, noting that “SAF can reduce emissions by up to 80% during its full lifecycle.”

And SAF is far from a science fiction concept. The Association, representing about 300 airlines, estimates that more than 50 airlines now have experience with SAF, with “450,000 flights that have taken to the skies using SAF.” Over 300 million liters of SAF were produced in 2022.

Here are some of the most committed companies to eliminating fossil fuel from planes.

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1. Boeing

Boeing has been pioneering sustainable fuel for 15 years. Along with Virgin Atlantic and GE Aviation, the manufacturer conducted “the world’s first SAF flight using a commercial aircraft” in 2008. In 2018, the Boeing ecoDemonstrator made the industry's first commercial airplane test flight with 100% SAF in both engines, in partnership with FedEx. In 2021, the company confirmed its commitment to delivering commercial airplanes capable to fly on 100% SAF before 2030.

In February 2023, Boeing announced its decision to purchase 5.6 million gallons (21.2 million liters) of blended sustainable aviation fuel (produced by Neste), more than double the company's SAF procurement from last year. "This SAF procurement makes up 25% of Boeing's total jet fuel needs for last year, and we aim to increase that portion in the years to come,” Boeing said.

2. Airbus

SAF is “a proven alternative fuel for immediate CO2 reduction,” Airbus says, and plenty of successful milestones prove the commitment of the company to make the transition to SAF happening quickly.

In March 2021, an A350 with one of its engines fuelled by 100% SAF took off from Toulouse, France, in “the first in-flight study of its kind using a commercial passenger jet.” Two months later, the same A350 was flying operating both engines on 100% SAF. 

March 2022 saw ”The first A380 flight powered by 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel.” The SAF, produced in France, was made primarily from "used cooking oil and other waste fats.” And in November 2022, the Royal Air Force and Airbus carried out “the world’s first 100% SAF flight using an in-service military aircraft”, which was also the first 100% SAF flight of any aircraft type carried out in UK airspace. The same month, the manufacturer signed a deal with three Chinese airlines to promote the use of sustainable aviation fuel for commercial flights in China.

All Airbus aircraft and helicopters are already capable of flying with up to a 50% blend of SAF today, but “the goal is to enable 100% SAF capability by 2030 for commercial and military aircraft and for helicopters,” Airbus said. 

3. Neste

Headquartered in Finland and operating in 14 countries, Neste is considered the world's leading manufacturer of SAF. Its proprietary technology allows the use of almost any waste fat or vegetable oil in the production of sustainable fuel.

As of today, the company produces 100,000 tons of SAF, but its production “will increase to 1.5 million tons (around 1.875 billion liters) annually by the end of 2023.” 

The company confirms that SAF reduces greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) but quotes other benefits too. “Because of the lower particulate emissions, the environmental benefits of SAF are actually even more significant than the 80% GHG emission reductions,” it describes.

Nippon Cargo Airlines (NCA), the only international cargo airline based in Japan, confirmed it has started using Neste MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel for several cargo flights in November and December 2022. On the 1st of January 2023, Brussels Airlines received a first delivery of Neste’s SAF and plans to operate its first flight using SAF this year. The same month, Emirates, the world’s largest international airline by destinations, operated its first demonstration flight using Neste’s SAF.

Interestingly, Neste also announced in January 2023 that, from now on, “all diesel-powered ground handling vehicles and machinery at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in the Netherlands will be using its renewable diesel fuel, produced from 100% renewable raw materials.”

4. Lanzajet

LanzaJet, based in Chicago, was formally spun off from LanzaTech in 2020 but the company started developing and testing sustainable fuels in the 2010s.

Through patented technology, the company creates SAF and renewable diesel from waste-based and sustainable ethanol sources, such as low-carbon sugarcane, energy crops, forest residuals, agricultural wastes, and organic waste. 

The company received investments from major industrial partners,  such as Suncor, Mitsui, ANA, British Airways, Shell, and Microsoft, and has concluded many commercial agreements in the recent past. In November 2022, British Airways, LanzaJet, and Nova Pangaea Technologies signed an agreement to accelerate Project Speedbird to develop cost-effective sustainable aviation fuel for commercial use in the UK. The project includes the construction of a SAF production facility in North East England, expected to be completed by 2026. The SAF produced there would “reduce CO2 emissions, on a net lifecycle basis, by 230,000 tonnes a year, or the equivalent emissions of approximately 26,000 British Airways domestic flights.” Overall, Project Speedbird has “the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 770,000 tonnes a year.”

Lanzajet is also currently on track to build in Georgia, USA, “Freedom Pines Fuels”, the world’s first ethanol-based alcohol-to-jet sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production plant,” expected to be fully operational in 2023. The plant will produce 10 million gallons (38 million liters) of SAF and renewable diesel per year, which will “approximately double the amount of current SAF production in the United States.”

5. Raven 

Wyoming-based Raven transforms waste – municipal solid waste, organic waste, and methane – into high-quality, clean hydrogen and synthetic fuels, through a purely thermal and chemical reduction process. “Our unique patented technology is based upon non-combustion - producing fewer emissions – and can process multiple and mixed wastes simultaneously,” the company explains. 

The process involves heating waste until it is transformed into synthetic gas, followed by the separation of hydrogen from carbon. The excess carbon is sequestered in a usable powder, resulting in a near 100% waste utilization potential.

The reduction of emissions is indeed significant. ”Our synthetic fuels reduce NOx by 16.7%, smoke emissions by 40.3%, hydrocarbons by 49%, carbon monoxide by 33% and particulate-matter by 21%,” Raven underlines.

In December 2022, the company received a €1.7 Million Grant from the European Commission to support a Waste-to-Hydrogen production facility in Spain, expected for 2024. In January 2023, Raven signed deals with Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways to supply Sustainable Aviation Fuel, with a commitment to support a 10-year supply. The agreement involves “an initial 50,000 tons of SAF supply in the first year, 2025, with annual incremental increases to 200,000 tons for year 10.”

Worth mentioning too

If sustainable aviation fuel is key to reaching a net-zero future, progress is also made on other forms of fuel for other uses.

In Utah, USA, the Wasatch Resource Recovery facility has implemented a process to divert organic waste from the landfill, and demonstrate that we can produce biogas from organic trash with significant environmental benefits

The waste is collected from businesses, then transported to the facility and processed by a series of machines to remove any contaminants or non-food material. The organic material is ground up and then heated to aid the growth of microbes which break down the organic matter and produce biogas. The biogas is purified and converted into biomethane (renewable natural gas) and sold into the market as renewable “green” power. The remaining product is a nutrient-rich, carbon-based fertilizer used to grow crops. 

This process has already diverted close to one billion pounds (440,000 tonnes) of food waste from the landfill, allowing the heating of 724,000 homes for a day.

Elsewhere, Nevada-based Select Fuel uses advanced technology to convert plastic waste into a valuable petrochemical by-product. “At least 75% of plastic waste can be converted into multiple bioenergy products,” the company says, explaining that it can produce different forms of fuel, at scale, able to power any Internal Combustion Engine (ICE). Select Fuel’s solution allows to produce four types of Renewable Fuel: renewable aviation fuel (SAF), renewable vehicle fuel (for racing or passenger cars), diesel, and condensate (used to dilute highly viscous oils).

In December 2022, Select Fuel established a partnership with Italian iconic luxury brand Bertone, to supply renewable fuel for its newly launched BG110 sports car, presented as “the world’s first hypercar running on fuel made from plastic waste.”

The bottom line

Promoting the use of sustainable fuels is crucial to mitigating the impacts of climate change and ensuring a sustainable energy future.

The good news is that sustainable fuel is a reality — right now. The fact that we can fly a typical long-haul plane with used cooking oil is not a small feat. Using SAF, it is possible to reduce planers’ emissions by up to 80%, without a complete transformation of today’s aircraft design.

SAF production is boosted by several national policies and state initiatives (like the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge in the U.S., launched in 2021 to expand the production and use of SAF, reinforced in 2022 by possible additional tax incentives). But SAF production needs to scale up quickly to make its impact real, according to a detailed study by Rhodium Group (December 2022). “Industry stakeholders and policymakers alike understand the vital role SAF could play in decarbonizing US aviation,” the report reads, “but more must be done to overcome the existing supply-side and demand-side hurdles, which greatly inhibit the scaling of SAF.” 

Still, actual progress is being made, allowing us to be optimistic about the capacity of the air transport industry to reduce the global carbon and environmental impact of air transport. Until the mid-2030s, when other solutions (such as hydrogen-powered planes) could emerge, SAF should be a key solution to make planes effectively greener.

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Hundreds of new products were presented or launched in January (many at the CES in Las Vegas), and plenty of them are innovative and interesting. But only a few are game-changing, marking a transition, a disruption, or a new evolution in their respective industries. It doesn’t mean they will succeed commercially, but they sure are making an impression. We bet on these trendsetting products.

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1. eTukTuk — An electric TukTuk with crypto payments

What it is. A small urban electric vehicle (EV) built to replace traditional TukTuks in Sri Lanka, coupled with a blockchain-based network of charging stations (on the Cardano blockchain).

Why it matters. According to London-based newspaper City A.M., a partner in the project, there are 1.2 million traditional TukTuks in Sri Lanka alone — and they are a huge source of pollution. The transition to EV for this class of transportation is mandatory to reach carbon-neutral goals. Cryptos and blockchains bring some innovative mechanisms to the equation: a secure transaction system to pay for services without the need for cards or cash while allowing the development of an incentivized phygital network where drivers, passengers, and other participants earn rewards in crypto tokens. Light electric urban vehicles and blockchains, a possible winning combination.

2. Displace TV — A wireless and cordless TV

What it is. A 55" TV set with no wires and no ports, powered by a hot-swappable battery. Thanks to a proprietary active-loop vacuum technology, the TV can be stuck to any surface in seconds without any additional fixations. It receives all its content from a separate base unit and is piloted and controlled through hand gestures, voice, or a dedicated app. 

Why it matters. This product marks a departure from the traditional TV set form factor — or even from the very idea of what a TV is: it simply becomes a large (and light) display that can be easily moved, hang on walls and windows, or placed anywhere you want. Although the wireless-ness aspect of the TV implies the need to periodically replace or recharge its battery, the concept of cordless displays will probably go a long way. Plus, this TV entirely gets rid of the remote — another noticeable evolution. This could herald the quick disappearance of any standalone devices with buttons designed to pilot a TV, replaced by AI systems and cameras, allowing voice-and natural hand gestures recognition. We are entering a new era where TVs are light, movable, and (really) smart.

3. U-Scan — A hands-free connected home urine lab

What it is. A connected electronic device that sits within any toilet bowl and is able to monitor and detect several biomarkers found in urine. (Coming in the second half of 2023)

Why it matters. Many wearables are monitoring a few health-related metrics, but they still stay on the surface of reality. Urine analysis traditionally requires a not-so-pleasant sample-taking process and a trip to a lab. Most importantly, they are not performed as often as they should. Continuous urine screening without having to change any habit and  “from the comfort and privacy of one’s own bathroom” is clearly a game-changer. Get used to it, your bathroom with soon know you (and your body) inside out.

4. Parky — A mobile autonomous robot able to recharge EVs

What it is. A mobile robot created in South Korea that can automatically find direction to your EV and recharge it thanks to its internal battery.

Why it matters. The idea of using robots to recharge electric vehicles is smart. For the user, it removes the hassle of finding an available dedicated spot at a charging station. For the parking lot owners and charging station operators, it avoids the necessity of complex and costly cabling of parking spaces. It’s easy to imagine similar systems spreading, with fleets of robots crawling in parking lots, or even in streets, to bring juice where and when it’s needed. Let charging stations become mobile.

5. OWO — A vest to feel real body sensations from virtual interactions

What it is. A wireless and customizable haptic system allowing you to feel physical touch when playing games or in Virtual Reality (VR). The vest can simulate 30 different sensations, from a punch to an airflow, an insect bite, or an abdominal wound.

Why it matters. Although plenty of haptic devices have been created before, OWO’s solution is light, easy to wear, and compatible with all kinds of gaming devices. It is bringing VR immersion one step closer to reality, à la Ready Player One, and shows the way to a future where virtual worlds are — physically — felt and experienced.

Worth mentioning too

Evie is a “medical grade health wearable for women” shaped as a smart and elegant ring. It gives detailed health metrics, monitors sleep patterns, and allows the precise tracking of the menstrual cycle. (Coming in 2023)

The eKinekt BD 3 bike desk by Acer is a desk combined with a stationary bike that lets users exercise as they work, using kinetic energy from the pedaling to power and charge devices. One hour of constant cycling at 60 RPM can generate 75 W of self-generated power. (June 2023)

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Our world generates more than 2 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste every year. That’s an average of  0.75 kg per person per day worldwide, with huge variations (from 0.11 to 4.54 kg) depending on countries (World Bank, 2018). Global waste is expected to grow to 3.40 billion tonnes by 2050.

A large part of this waste is not managed in an environmentally safe manner, and only a fraction is recycled. In the U.S., the country generating the biggest amount of waste, only 6% of plastics and 30% of glass bottles are recycled (World Economic Forum, 2022).

Solutions to this problem exist. Upcycling, defined as the process of reusing waste materials to create new items of higher quality or value than the original, is certainly one of them. All around the world, dozens of companies, of all sizes and from all industries, are inventing new ways to not only reduce waste but to create better products with it. Here are a few showing the way.

1. Rothy’s — Shoes from plastic bottles

American brand Rothy’s launched in 2016 in San Francisco and has since then opened a dozen of stores all over the U.S., along with its own factory in China. 

All Rothy's products (a whole range of shoes for women, men, or kids, along with bags and accessories) are made from recycled plastic water bottles and other post-consumer materials. The process starts by hot washing and sterilizing the water bottles, then melting them down into pellets and stretching them into fibers. The uppers are knit with these fibers, and then hand-sewn to soles made from recycled foam and rubber, or algae-based foams.

So far, more than 146 million single-use plastic bottles have been turned into shoes and the company said it has “repurposed more than 493,000 pounds (224 tonnes) of ocean-bound marine plastic.”

Rothy’s also started an in-store recycling program in 2022 (consumers can bring back their used shoes and get a discount voucher), and intends “to close the loop and achieve the goal of fully circular production by 2023.”

2. Looptworks — Goods from excess textile materials

Founded in 2009 in the USA, Looptworks has the mission “to transform the world's excess textile materials into premium upcycled goods, recycled fibers and downcycled goods,” helping to eliminate global textile waste.  

The company has released a line of 100% recycled and recyclable t-shirts and fleece sweatshirts, designed to be durable and last longer than traditional clothing. A takeback program to repair or recycle garments is also proposed. The production of these clothes uses 95% less water than traditional clothing.

Looptworks has developed partnerships with some of the world’s biggest brands, including Adidas, SHEIN, the NBA, and Southwest Airlines. In December 2022 a partnership with Cycle Dog was made to create a practical line of dog gear upcycled from excess materials and recycled bicycle tire tubes. 

3. Bureo — Garments and accessories from discarded fishing nets

California-based Bureo is producing NetPlus, a material made from 100% post-consumer recycled fishing nets. The nets are collected, deconstructed, and re-formed into 100% recycled pellets, then extruded and spun into yarn. 

The material is used to manufacture T-shirts or objects like “the first skateboard deck made from recycled fishing nets,” but is also included in the supply chain of several partner brands to produce various textiles and accessories, from hats or shirts by Patagonia, to sunglasses by Costa.

Working directly with fishing communities and ports, the company has already collected more than 3,300 tons (7.2 million lbs) of discarded fishing nets.

4. Alterpacks — Containers from spent grains

Spent grains (such as malt and barley) are grains that food manufacturers have used in their production cycle and then disposed of, going to a landfill or used as compost or animal feed. Singapore-based start-up Alterpacks upcycles these spent grains to create 100% organic food containers and cutlery.

All products are freezer and microwave friendly, and certified by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration and the Singapore Food Agency as safe for direct food contact.

5. Koushi — Protective helmets from scallops shells

In Japan, Koushi has developed a solution to upcycle scallop shells that would have otherwise been discarded as waste. The shells are finely crushed and sterilized before being transformed into protective helmets called Shellmets, stronger than standard plastic helmets and available in 5 colors. 

Compared to using standard materials, the process reduces CO2 emissions by approximately 50%.

6. Gomi — Portable speakers from non-recyclable trash

British sustainable design studio Gomi uses only raw materials from waste streams that would otherwise be landfilled or incinerated, especially plastics and reclaimed battery cells, in order to create upcycled products. 

Their flagship product is a fully functional portable speaker made from discarded components and second-hand battery cells from Lime’s e-bikes. The company also created other zero-waste products, such as portable or wireless chargers. Gomi’s new collection will drop in March 2023.

7. The new raw — Furniture from plastic waste

In Rotterdam, the Netherlands, designer studio The new raw is dedicated to “crafting plastic waste with robots.” In practice, the company has built dedicated large 3D printers that use filaments from plastic waste to shape original designs.

The process was used to create various pieces of sustainable and recyclable furniture: home furniture (chairs, sofas), street furniture (benches, elements for open-air playgrounds), or limited series for partner brands (beach fitting rooms and sunbeds made from upcycled marine plastic waste, for Coca-Cola in Greece).

8. Regen Fiber — Concrete from decommissioned wind turbine blades

Regen Fiber is a new U.S. business that has created a patent-pending, eco-friendly process to recycle decommissioned wind turbine blades into reusable materials for manufacturers in the concrete, mortar, and other industries. This process prevents the blades from ending up in landfills or releasing combustion byproducts into the atmosphere. The primary end-product is a top-performing reinforcement fiber that increases the tensile strength, toughness, freeze-thaw resistance, and durability of concrete and mortar applications. 

The company is piloting the process at a facility in Des Moines, Iowa, and will begin commercial-scale operations in the second half of 2023 at a new manufacturing facility being built in the state. Regen Fiber is also already recycling new wind turbine blade manufacturing scrap materials at a commercial scale.

Worth mentioning too

Initially founded by two skippers with the intent to upcycle damaged sails and scrap parts from yachts, Ukraine-based start-up REwind has changed its course and is now producing garments from parachutes, in a dedicated collection named #Demilitarization. Created “to capture the reality of the war that is currently taking place in Ukraine,” all items, from hats to jackets, from ponchos to backpacks, are produced “from trophy parachutes ’S-4U’ used by the army of Russian occupiers.”

The bottom line

Upcycling works. It can even be considered as a kind of “contemporary alchemy,” transforming “trash” into “beauty”, or at least into products that are sometimes high-end, often desirable, and always sustainable. This is the very definition of creativity and innovation: solving an actual problem while improving over the starting point.

Whether crafted by hand or scaled up at the industrial level, upcycled products are here to say. And so is the logic of transforming pretty much any solid waste into something useful and better, making this world a greater place.

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Drinking water is still a problem on this planet. According to the U.N., “in 2020, two billion people live without safely managed drinking water services.” A situation with dramatic consequences, as “829,000 people die annually from diseases directly attributable to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene practices.” 

Although the situation has improved significantly since 2000, with 2 billion people gaining access to safely managed water services, “122 million people still collect drinking water directly from rivers, lakes, and other surface water sources,” UNICEF notes.

And many experts predict that global warming and climate change could make matters worst, leading to a “water crisis” and increasing water scarcity in many places, with dire consequences for populations and cultures.

But the situation could also improve, thanks to innovation and advances in the materials and energy domains. So-called “Atmospheric Water Generators” (AWG) — devices that use electricity to harvest water from the air — have been around for at least a decade and are becoming increasingly efficient. Other "renewable water" solutions have recently emerged and look very promising. They allow water to be harvested from an inexhaustible source and are powered only by renewable energy (mostly from the sun). 

Simply put, the difference between the two types of systems comes down to "passive condensation vs. active condensation", with the latter requiring additional energy to operate. Either way, there are solutions for turning the air around us into clean, drinkable water. These are some of the leading companies in the field.

1. Source (renewable)

Source is an Arizona-based company that has created “the world’s first renewable drinking water system”: off-grid hydropanels that only use the power of the sun to extract clean drinking water from the air. 

The process works in 3 steps: “Fans draw in ambient air and push it through a hygroscopic, or water-absorbing material, that traps water vapor from the air. The water vapor is extracted and passively condenses into a liquid that is collected in a reservoir. Minerals are added to make perfect drinking water.” The water produced is free from contaminants and “meets or exceeds the water quality standards in the Safe Drinking Water Act and the FDA standards for an approved source for bottled water.”

A standard installation is 2 hydropanels, each the size of a big TV, and costs between $5,500 and $6,500 in the U.S. It can produce up to 6 liters of drinking water per day.

Source’s hydropanels have been installed in 50 countries all around the world, including by major international brands, from Patagonia’s offering free water in its flagship store in Honolulu, Hawaï, to Starbuck installing 30 hydropanels in East Timor, Indonesia, to provide clean water to coffee growers. In January 2023, global hospitality leader Accor announced it will bring Source bottled drinking water to prominent hotels in Singapore.

2. Uravu (renewable)

In India, the start-up Uravu Labs is on a mission “to make 100% renewable water available and affordable to all in a few years.” It has raised a total of $2M in funding over 2 rounds, the last one in August 2022.

Uravu is developing a system that produces potable water from the air,  consisting of a solar heat unit, a thermal storage unit, a condenser unit, and two desiccant units, among others. The system ensures that the condenser is near 100% capacity while producing water from the air throughout the day and the night (the whole process is detailed here).

The company already delivered a five liters per day model and got pilot orders from customers in the brewing or real estate industries. Insisting on how scalable its solution is, Uravu intends to create bigger harvesters, gradually scaling up to 200 and 2,000 liters per day (LPD) by the end of 2023. The 200 LPD model will target places “where renewable water is generated on-spot and water is consumed there itself, like residential/offices/hospitality,” while the bigger models will be aiming at industries, especially the beverage industry using water to produce other beverage products.

3. Watergen (electrical)

Watergen was founded in Israel in 2009 and launched its first atmospheric water generator in 2012.

The company has developed a unique, patent-protected, and energy-efficient technology to extract water from the air using heat exchange and condensation, for 7-15 cents per liter (depending on local electricity costs). “Purification and filtration systems combined with a UV lamp and low-temperature water circulation ensure clean, safe and tasty drinking water that complies with all international standards,” Watergen emphasizes.

It offers a full range of electric water harvesting devices, whether for home use (Genny, producing up to 30 liters per day), or commercial use, from the GEN-M1 producing 220 liters (58 gallons) per day and consuming 2.2 kW, to the GEN-L, able to pump up to 6,000 liters (1,585 gallons) of water from the air per day, with a power use of 60 kW/h.

4. Akvo (electric)

In India, Akvo Atmospheric Water Systems was founded in 2016 to develop air-to-water systems.

It commercializes a full range of half a dozen Atmospheric Water Generators, from the Akvo Pod targeting home users (able to produce up to 50 liters of water per day) to much bigger solutions. Among them, the Akvo Water Block, “a modular and scalable water supply system,” is designed to facilitate large water supply needs, each block being able to generate up to 500 liters of water daily, using 4 kW of power (at 30°C and 80% Relative Humidity).

Some promising research

Water Generators are gaining traction. According to Straits Research, “the Atmospheric Water Generator Market Size is projected to reach $7.76 Billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 18.35%” (compared to $1.6 Billion in 2021). New models, including some designed for domestic use, are appearing and becoming more affordable. For instance, in 2022, the American company Kara Water launched Kara Pure, a $3,799  domestic Air-to-Water dispenser that makes up to 10 liters (2.5 gal) of alkaline water per day. 

Butt the real challenge is to produce water without using electricity. The good news is, on top of existing solutions created by the start-ups mentioned above, researchers all around the world are making significant progress to develop innovative, efficient, and sustainable solutions to harvest water from the air.

In 2020, the National University of Singapore presented “a polymer–metal-organic framework that provides simultaneous and uninterrupted sorption and release of atmospheric water.” The passive system, which requires no additional energy to work, demonstrated continuous water delivery for 1440 hours, “producing 6 g of fresh water per gram of sorbent at 90% relative humidity.”

In Switzerland in 2021, researchers at ETH Zurich presented a technology allowing to harvest water 24 hours a day, “with no energy input, even under the blazing sun.” The device consists of a specially coated glass pane that reflects solar radiation and radiates away its own heat. On the underside of the pane, water vapor from the air condenses into water. Under ideal conditions, the device could harvest “up to 0.53 decilitres (approximately 1.8 fluid ounces) of water per square meter of pane surface per hour.” 

In 2021 in the U.S., a research team from X (Alphabet Group, Project H2E) presented their findings on improving access to clean drinking water, along with a prototype of an off-grid device able to harvest water from the air using only sunlight The device could output 150 mL/h/m2 of water — “enough water to keep a person hydrated in many dry places.” 

The same year, GE was awarded a four-year, $14.3 million project by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) to develop and design “a highly compact, portable device that literally can produce clean, safe water out of thin air,” able to produce enough daily water for 150 troops.

In 2022, a three-month trial in Saudi Arabia demonstrated that a system based on layers of hydrogel placed under photovoltaic panels could extract water from the air without using any electricity. The water was used to irrigate a small patch of plants. 

The bottom line

Whether based on solar energy or requiring an electric plug, today’s available solutions are already making a difference, as they can bring clean and drinking water where it’s needed. At the very least, these solutions help to reduce the carbon footprint associated with water distribution and dramatically decrease the associated waste. “A single Hydropanel eliminates the need for 54,000 single-use plastic water bottles over its 15-year lifespan,” Source notes.

For the coming years and decades, the current advance of research on the sustainable harvesting of water from the air using renewable energy allows us to be optimistic about our ability to tackle the water scarcity problem.

It may come as a surprise, but solar cars have been around for a long time (decades). Several high-profile solar car races have been organized around the world for more than 30 years. The most famous one, the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge in Australia, started in 1987 and is still held every two years. Teams of university students race over a 3,000 km route in “a solar-powered vehicle designed, engineered, and built with their own hands.”

In recent years, the technology behind solar cars has made significant progress. In December 2022, a UNSW Sydney's student-built solar-powered car set a Guinness World Record for “Fastest EV over 1000 km on a single charge” (the car averaged nearly 85 km/h over 12 hours).

Several companies are now working on commercializing solar-powered vehicles for consumer use. While these cars cannot fully rely on solar energy for standard use, they could still help reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and increase the autonomy of electric vehicles (EV) without taking extra juice from the grid.

Here are four companies leading the way.

1. Lightyear

Founded in 2016 in the Netherlands, Lightyear is arguably the main contender in the race to build a usable solar car.

Its first model, Lightyear 0, entered into production in 2022. The luxury fastback sedan is covered by 5 m2 of solar panels, bringing up to 70 km (43 miles) of additional daily range. Under perfect conditions, the manufacturer claims that it can give an annual solar yield of up to 11,000 km (6,800 miles). 

With a $250,000 price tag, the Lightyear 0 is not for everybody and mostly serves as a proof-of-concept. But in January 2023, the company gave a glimpse of a new solar-powered car, the Lightyear 2, boasting a projected range of 800 km (500 miles) and a starting price of under $40,000. Lightyear claims that the car will have the smallest energy footprint on the market, with “lifetime emissions half than that of conventional EVs” and “3x less charging than a conventional EV per year.”

2. Sono Motors

Sono Motors is a German company founded in 2016 with “the mission to accelerate the revolution of mobility by making every vehicle solar.”

Its flagship car, the Sion, is covered with photovoltaic cells integrated into the body that can add “an average of 112 km (70 miles) per week of driving range to the car's battery, through the power of the sun.” A fleet of 13 full series-validation vehicles and 32 Body-in-Whites has been produced, but the car has not entered mass production.

Despite having raised over €330 million from investors and generated 34 patents, Sono Motors faces difficulties to launch the production of "the world’s first affordable solar electric vehicle (SEV).” In December 2022, the company started #savesion, a crowdfunding campaign aiming to raise €105 million to help fund the project. At the time of writing, the campaign has raised €42 million from 8,000 people. 

The company itself is not in trouble though. “If we cannot complete the campaign, we intend to focus on our attractive solar B2B business, which is significantly less capital intensive,” read a press release from December 8, 2022. Earlier last year, Sono Motors presented a “Solar Bus Kit”, a B2B retrofit solution that reduces fuel consumption and inner-city greenhouse gas emissions of buses, positioning itself as a Solar Technology Supplier and Solar Mobility OEM.

3. Squad Mobility

Squad Mobility was funded in 2019 in The Netherlands.

The company is developing a compact Solar City Car with portable and swappable batteries, designed towards European Union L6 and L7 regulations (light vehicles): a 45 km/h L6 for two persons and a 70 km/h L7 for up to 4 people. The solar roof can add up to 22 km (14 miles) of extra range per day in Europe, added to the range of 100 km (62 miles) provided by the batteries (excluding solar).

With a retail price starting at €6250 ex. tax and a footprint of only 2.4 m2, the car intends to offer an alternative sustainable solution for daily mobility needs, optimized for sharing platforms. Production is scheduled to begin in 2023, starting with deliveries in Europe.

4. Aptera Motors 

Aptera is an American company created in 2006 to jumpstart the electric vehicle market. It went bankrupt soon after but was relaunched by the same founders in 2019 as a Solar Electric Vehicle (SEV) brand.

The company is producing the Aptera, a leisure-oriented, 3-wheels, ultra aerodynamic electric vehicle able to recharge under the sun. Presented as the world’s “most efficient Solar Electric Vehicle, that requires no charging for most daily use,” the futuristic car could boast 1000 miles of autonomy. Whether driving or parked, it is continuously charging from the sun.

The production-intent design for Aptera, Delta, was presented in December 2022, and the production should start in 2023, with a target consumer price starting from $25,900.  

Worth mentioning

Several of the biggest electric car manufacturers are proposing optional solar roofs as a complimentary charging source to extend their vehicles’ range.

For instance, a solar roof on the 2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5, a midsize electric crossover, can add up to 2,000 km (1,240 miles) a year in sunny locations. The Ocean, an all-electric SUV by American electric vehicle company Fisker Inc., has one of the largest solar roofs in the industry. According to the company, it can produce “up to 1,500 clean, emissions-free miles per year, and under ideal conditions may increase to beyond 2,000 miles (3,200 km) – all powered by pure sunshine.”

The bottom Line

Solar cars may not change the face of transport in the short term, but they will increase the range of vehicles without costing the user — or the grid. For some use cases, such as short daily commutes with the car staying parked outside for most of the day, solar cars could actually become a viable, eco-friendly, and much cheaper option.

The market for solar cars is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. “It is expected to expand at a CAGR of about 12.3% during the forecast period (2022-2032), and will be valued at $288.4 million by 2032,” per this 2022 study, noting that “Europe will dominate the market with an 80.5% share in 2022, followed by the Americas with a 16.9% share.”

In the more distant future, it is hard to imagine this trend will fade. "In 10 years, having a solar body part will only be slightly more expensive than just using steel. And solar-panel cars will be normal within 20 years,” predicts Emanuele Cornagliotti, lead engineer at Lightyear.

Solar cars may not be efficient enough to ”change everything” just yet, but they are already too much of a potential game-changer to ignore.

1. H3 Dynamics - Self-contained hydrogen propulsion pods for drones and airplanes

The pitch

A lightweight propulsion nacelle containing a hydrogen tank, fuel cell system, electric motor, and propeller — in short, a fully self-contained powertrain that can be attached under the wings of drones or airplanes. 

(presented earlier this year, demonstrated in a first flight in mid-November 2022, announced as a key component of the first Australian hydrogen-electric VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) unmanned aircraft system in December 2022).

Why it matters

Decarbonizing air transport is one of the keys to the eco-transition. Removing fossil fuels from the equation is often thought of as a long-term endeavor (2035 and beyond), but H3 Dynamics proves otherwise with a ready-to-fly solution. The idea of self-contained propellers, avoiding in-plane tanks and batteries, and easy to adapt to existing fixed-wing aircraft, is truly promising.

2. LG - Artsy and eco-friendly air conditioner

The pitch

An air conditioner hidden behind a 27-inch LCD screen to display personalized content. Through a dedicated app, users can select static or animated images from a growing collection of artistic visuals, or their favorite family photos. The unit delivers energy-efficient cooling, “using up to 70% less power than a conventional residential air conditioner,” while operating at noise levels as low as 20 decibels.

Why it matters

This new addition to LG’s ARTCOOL Gallery lineup confirms a trend: A/C units cease to be cumbersome (and rather ugly) devices with purely functional attributes, to become fully connected, decorative, central elements of the digital home. The air-conditioner as “a framed work of art” also boasts a significant efficiency improvement, on par with the necessity to reduce power consumption for such devices (energy consumption for space cooling has more than tripled since 1990, with significant implications).

3. Ledger - Eye-catching and easy-to-use hardware crypto wallet

The pitch

Ledger Stax is a credit-card-size device to store up to 5,000 different digital assets (cryptocurrencies, tokens, NFTs). Equipped with an e-ink touch display, the wallet can be personalized with a picture or NFT as a lock screen and offers a “smooth experience” with “clarity and comfort” through navigating and signing transactions, without compromising on security (offline storage of private keys on a Secure Element chip).

Why it matters

The sexy device, designed by former Apple lead designer Tony Fadell, marks a departure from the traditional USB-key form factor of standard hardware crypto wallets. The product becomes less “geek” and “technical”, to offer better usability while increasing its desirability (closer to an attractive compact high-end smartphone, than to a security dongle). It confirms that hardware wallet providers are now targeting a much larger audience, on the road to mass adoption of crypto-currencies, NFTs, and Web3.

4. Skydio - Base stations for autonomous drones

The pitch

American start-up Skydio’s Dock and Dock Lite are “the smallest, lightest, and smartest cloud-connected base stations for drones available on the market.” These solutions give customers “complete remote and autonomous visibility into tasks like site inspection and monitoring, mapping, and situational awareness – indoors and outdoors – from anywhere in the world.”

Why it matters

With a wide range of applications, from aerial photography to delivery services, drones have become increasingly popular due to their versatility and utility. But they need to scale, which requires increased integration and autonomy. Skydio’s solution is leading the way into more automated and seamless remote drone operations.

5. Treecard - A wooden debit card with planet-friendly rewards

The pitch

A standard debit card (Mastercard) made from sustainably sourced wood and recycled plastic bottles, and associated with eco-friendly programs, such as environment-first rewards for users or collected fees used to plant trees.

Why it matters

At the very least, Treecard is emblematic of an evolution toward a more sustainable future. Yes, even one of the most iconic of plastic objects, the “plastic card,” can be made of wood (and therefore made easily recyclable). The rest, like using financial tools to plant trees and build a fossil-fuel-free future, is logical but still remarkable.

Our society is now widely based on technology, and technological innovation is what is shaping the world. From agriculture to medicine, from commerce to media, from industrial processes to human relations, digital technologies changed everything — and, arguably, improved everything.

All this may sound trivially obvious, but it would be a mistake to take it for granted. In fact, there is a rather strong move, all around the world, to stop technology and limit innovation. We believe it's a very bad idea. 

Yes, new technologies always have flaws and pitfalls, but their benefits overwhelmingly surpass the problems they create.

Progress is part of the human DNA

In many countries, some high-ranking officials have suggested banning 5G networks, limiting Internet use, eradicating cars, or stopping Bitcoin. 

Everywhere, militants and politicians are fighting against the most innovative technologies, whether it's artificial intelligence, blockchains, electric cars, or solar panels. Some see satellites as a mere "sky pollution" while others propose to shut down airports to save energy. In France, a country that pioneered vaccination, automobile, and photography, a major public media outlet recently proposed — seriously — "to stop progress.” Insane, if not terrifying.

At their deepest core, human beings are inventors. If we lose that, if we lose the ability to dream and develop new abilities through creativity, we lose everything.

We need more technology, not less

We will not build a better Internet with cookies banners or consent forms — but with new protocols, innovative business models, and new user-centric solutions giving people back control over their data and identity (Web3, dApps, decentralized IDs, NFTs and such).

We will not build a more fair and more transparent financial/monetary system through central banks' digital currencies (CBDC), which are identical to existing fiat currencies (and possibly much worst) — but with decentralized, open-sourced, mathematically issued digital money like Bitcoin.

We will not significantly improve air pollution by increasing taxes, reducing speed limits on highways, or stopping planes from flying — but by inventing new engines, new fuels, and new transport systems that are inherently less polluting.

It is a huge mistake to think that policies and regulations alone will bring all solutions. The wonderful device you have in your pocket, usefully replacing more than a dozen of devices from 20 years ago, was not invented by governments. Neither was the device that will help doctors save your life if you’re in serious trouble.

All over the world, hundreds of thousands of innovators, entrepreneurs, and researchers are inventing new solutions to the world’s problems.  They — not governments nor eco-militants — are holding the keys to a better future. Better yet, they are inventing these keys, through innovation and creativity. Without technology, there is no actual solution.

Be positive

A worldwide pandemic, a war, and an energy crisis, coupled with legit concerns about the health of planet Earth, have led the world into a state of panic and distress. FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) is the new normal. 

But there is no reason to panic, really. Yes, climate change is a major challenge. But to face it, we need to rely on what we do best, and what we have been doing for centuries: pushing the limits, inventing, and creating. We have all the tools and knowledge to build a better world — a world that is smarter, more transparent, and much more eco-friendly.

The future will be decentralized and decarbonized.

The future is about innovating.

The future is bright.