ENVIRONMENTAL CENTS: AI and Search Engines, Plus Green News

Is it possible to do an online search without AI? Bruce Saller finds out. Plus, this week Saller points readers toward new and interesting news dealing with the environment.

By Bruce Saller
COLUMNIST

Photo by Mike Setchell on Unsplash

I have collected some news on green technology that you will hopefully find interesting. But first – a way to do internet searches without using Artificial Intelligence (AI).

I investigated if there was a way to stop Google from always performing an AI search along with the traditional search since the AI search consumes 10 times the power of a traditional search. There are lots of ways to inhibit showing the AI results, but none to prevent the AI search.

I researched other popular search engines and found they also use AI during their searches, even if they don’t display separate AI results. There is one option, however, that does not use AI - the Vivaldi browser and its search engine. (Also available for androids and iOS). Vivaldi does not use AI and has no plans to ever use it. You can read their reasons here.

I downloaded their browser and did some sample searches without any issues. Using it is an easy way to decrease your energy usage (and maybe even reduce the need for all the new data centers). Please add a comment to this article if you find another solution.

Here are the articles I found interesting:

China has installed the world’s largest offshore wind turbine in Hainan capable of generating up to 20 Million Watts (MW) of electricity. Each turbine is expected to produce 80,000 MW Hours annually, enough to power about 7,000 homes. The largest US/European turbines generate 16 MW.

China is (finally!) using less coal. In the first quarter of 2025, China used 4.7% less coal for electricity than the first quarter of 2024, and is projected to use about 1% less than 2024 for the year. Even though China continues to build new coal plants, it is leading the world in adding renewable generation and now has installed over half of the world's solar panels. China plans to use less coal each year and to start lowering total carbon emissions prior to 2030.

Four Battery Energy Storage Systems are being installed in Texas, each made from 500 recycled electric vehicle batteries. The four facilities will store 100 MWH of electricity to supplement solar and wind generation.

A new more efficient solar panel is being developed. Current silicon solar panels have an average efficiency of around 22%, with a top efficiency approaching 25%. Adding a layer of perovskite (materials with a specific crystal structure) increases the efficiency of the panel. Earlier this year solar panels made of perovskite-silicon cells achieved 28.6 efficiency, and newer cells recently achieved 34.85 efficiency in laboratory conditions.

A stepping stone to an electric car with solid state batteries is being debuted this month in China. Semi-solid state batteries still use Lithium anodes and cathodes but use gel-like material as the electrolyte instead of a liquid. These batteries are expected to be safer, cheaper, smaller and charge faster than Lithium-ion batteries. A few Chinese companies have announced plans to produce cars with solid state batteries in 2027.

Commercial flights of electric aircraft, known as eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) may be coming soon. Archer Aircraft and Joby Aviation are vying to see who obtains the first FAA type certification, which will allow them to start commercial operation. The companies are on track to have Archer’s Midnight and Joby’s S4 aircraft start air taxi service in 2025.

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