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]]>International differences in income inequality, in fact, reveal close to nothing about international differences in wealth inequality, say Pfeffer, associate professor and associate chair of the department of sociology at the University of Michigan and Waitkus, assistant professor of sociology at Tilburg University and researcher at the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science. For instance, many countries that are considered egalitarian when viewed through the lens of income-based comparisons (e.g., Scandinavian countries) are quite unequal when it comes to their wealth distribution. "While national levels of income inequality and wealth inequality tend to be largely independent from each other, a notable exception is the United States, which combines very high levels of income inequality with even higher and more exceptional levels of wealth inequality and concentration," the authors say.
The overall lack of association between income inequality and wealth inequality also means that previous income-based frameworks for understanding cross-national variation in economic inequality are inadequate for explaining wealth inequality across nations. In their study, the authors also seek to pave the way for explanations of wealth inequality that provide a deeper understanding of the institutions that drive it.
They do so by examining which aspects of national wealth portfolios can best account for a country's position in the international ranking of wealth inequality. Pfeffer and Waitkus find that cross-national variation in wealth inequality among working-age households is centrally related to the national distribution of housing equity.
Primarily drawing on measures between 2012 and 2014, the authors used harmonized measures of household's net worth—adding housing equity (home value minus mortgages), financial assets (e.g., savings, stocks, investment funds), and other non-housing real assets (e.g., business equity, vehicles, and other durables), and then subtracting any other financial liabilities and debts (e.g., consumer loans, student debts)—for 15 countries included in the Luxembourg Wealth Study (LWS):
Austria, Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.
The authors calculated housing wealth as the difference between home values (how much a house would sell for) and remaining mortgage principal (how much is still owed on the house), reflecting the authors' interest in "the interwoven influence of housing markets and financialization as they mutually determine the distribution of housing wealth." The findings consistently show that cross-national differences in wealth inequality and concentration chiefly reflect the level of inequality in and concentration of housing equity. A country's distribution of housing equity is thus central to its overall level of wealth inequality.
Moving forward, "Housing equity should be the central building block of the comparative analysis of wealth inequality," the authors say. "Our study provides a first step toward connecting the study of wealth inequality to emerging work on housing markets and financialization that can help us understand why countries' levels of wealth inequality are so much higher and different from income inequality."
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Thermal-imaging sensors that detect and capture images of the heat signatures of human bodies and other subjects have recently sprung into use in thermostats to check facial temperatures for contactless COVID-19 screening at building entrances. Under these circumstances, the smartphone industry is actively considering the incorporation of such sensors as portable features to create the add-on function of measuring temperature in real time. Additionally, the application of such technology to autonomous vehicles may facilitate safer autonomous driving.
A research team led by Dr. Won Jun Choi at the Center for Opto-Electronic Materials and Devices in the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) has developed a thermal-imaging sensor that overcomes the existing problems of price and operating-temperature limitations through collaborative research with the team of Prof. Jeong Min Baik from Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU). The sensor developed in this work can operate at temperatures up to 100 degrees Celsius without a cooling device and is expected to be more affordable than standard sensors on the market, which would in turn pave the way for its application to smartphones and autonomous vehicles.
To be integrated with the hardware of smartphones and autonomous vehicles, sensors must operate stably without any difficulties at high temperatures of 85 degrees Celsius and 125 degrees Celsius, respectively. For conventional thermal-imaging sensors to meet this criterion, an independent cooling device would be required. However, high-end cooling devices of sufficient quality come at a price of over 2 million Korean won; even such devices do not make the sensor suitable for operations at temperatures as high as 85 degrees Celsius. Therefore, the conventional thermal-imaging sensors have not been applied in these fields.
A joint research team from KIST and SKKU has developed a device using a vanadium dioxide (VO2)-B film that is stable at 100 degrees Celsius. This device detects and converts the infrared light generated by heat into electrical signals; this eliminates the need for cooling devices, which account for over 10% of the cost of thermal-imaging sensors and consume large amounts of electricity. The device was able to obtain the same level of infrared signals at 100 degrees Celsius as at room temperature. Furthermore, as a result of fabricating and using an infrared absorber that can absorb as much external infrared light as possible, heat signatures were detected with three times more sensitivity and converted into electrical signals. The device shows around 3 milliseconds of response time even at 100 degrees Celsius, which is about 3~4 times faster than conventional ones. Such high response speeds enable the device to capture thermal images at 100 frames per second, far exceeding the conventional level of 30-40 frames per second. This makes the device an interesting candidate for use in autonomous vehicles, as well.
Dr. Choi of the KIST says that "by means of our work with convergence research in this study, we have developed a technology that could dramatically reduce the production cost of thermal-imaging sensors. Our device, when compared to more conventional ones, has superior responsivity and operating speed. We expect this to accelerate the use of thermal-imaging sensors in the military supply, smartphone, and autonomous vehicle industries."
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The team at Form Energy describe their new battery as a multi-day energy storage system—one that can feed electricity to the grid for approximately 100 hours at a cost that is significantly lower than lithium-ion batteries.
The basic idea behind the iron-air battery is that it takes in oxygen and then uses it to convert iron inside the battery to rust, later converting it back to iron again. Converting back and forth between iron and rust allows the energy that is stored in the battery to be stored longer than conventional batteries.
The batteries are much too big and heavy for use in small applications (or cars)—each battery is approximately the size of a washing machine. Instead, they are meant to be hooked together in massive grids capable of storing enormous amounts of electricity for days at a time. Cells are stacked inside of a water-based, non-flammable electrolyte, which the company claims is similar to that used in standard AA batteries—the cells are made of iron and air electrodes.
When grouped together, thousands of the batteries could be used to store huge amounts of power—they suggest that a grid covering approximately one acre using their low-density batteries could provide power for a one-megawatt system. The high-density version, would be triple that.
On the website, officials with Form Energy suggest that their batteries provide a solution to a growing problem—managing the variability of renewable energy sources.
They suggest that other current battery technologies are not cost-effective, noting that they typically cost up to $80 per kw/hour of storage.
Their new battery, they claim, costs under $6 per kw/hour in its most basic form, and approximately $20 per kw/hour when outfitted as part of a total system—a price point, they further claim, that many in the field describe as necessary for renewable systems to replace those based on fossil fuels.
They also note that some big names have invested in their company, such as Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, and that they have already forged deals with some utilities, such as Great River Energy in Minnesota.
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Collective battery storage beneficial for decarbonized world
"Battle Born Solar Project" developers this week withdrew their application with the federal Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the Moapa Valley hilltop where the panels were planned, KLAS-TV Las Vegas reported.
California-based Arevia Power told the television station that its solar panels would be set far enough back on Mormon Mesa to not be visible from the valley. But a group of residents organized as "Save Our Mesa" argued such a large installation would be an eyesore and could curtail the area's popular recreational activities—biking, ATVs and skydiving—and deter tourists from visiting sculptor Michael Heizer's land installation, "Double Negative."
Solar Partners VII LLC, another California firm involved in the project, submitted a letter to the Bureau of Land Management saying it intended to withdraw its application "in response to recent communication" with the agency, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
The proposed plant would have spanned more than 14 square miles (37 square kilometers) atop the scenic mesa and had an 850 megawatt capacity—roughly one-tenth of Nevada's total capacity and enough to provide daytime energy to 500,000 homes, according to the company.
The stalled project presents a setback for the Western state, which aims to transition to 50% renewable energy by 2030 and currently generates roughly 28% of its utility-scale electricity from renewables.
Gov. Steve Sisolak sent a letter to federal officials in 2020 requesting they fast-track the project.
Although a majority of the state's voters approved an energy transition ballot question last year, large-scale projects like Battle Born Solar have drawn backlash from conservationists, endangered species advocates and local businesses that cater to tourists.
Nevada fulfills most of its energy needs using natural gas plants or through importing power produced elsewhere. But developers have rapidly scaled up their investments in solar and geothermal in the windswept lands north of Las Vegas, where sunshine and open land are abundant.