Poland's agricultural sector has felt the squeeze from the geopolitical turmoil in the Middle East that has upended global energy and supply chains, with farmers facing soaring fertilizer prices and grappling with dwindling purchasing power.
The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and the consequent blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical strategic corridor handling one-quarter of global seaborne oil trade, as well as significant volumes of liquefied natural gas and vital fertilizers, have throttled global energy flows and caused fertilizer prices to spike.
Wiktor Szmulewicz, president of Poland's National Council of Agricultural Chambers, noted that global costs of fuel and nitrogen fertilizers, which are mainly produced from gas, have skyrocketed amid the current crisis in the Middle East.
He said that while Poland, as one of Europe's major fertilizer producers, owns its own nitrogen fertilizer plants, it has not been spared from the impact of the price hikes.
"So we in Poland have nitrogen plants that produce nitrogen, but they produce them on the basis of gas, which has become more expensive, so the prices of fertilizers have also increased. Many farmers have no choice but to buy in these fertilizers and the production costs will be much higher. Fertilizer costs are quite a significant expense of agricultural production, reaching 50 percent, and sometimes even more," he said.
Facing these challenges, many farmers like Maciej Wroczyk are being forced to adjust their farming practices, and are now relying more heavily on organic fertilizers in a bid to reduce their expenses. He said he is turning his attention to his soybean crops to ride out the current storm.
"The soybeans don't need a lot of fertilizers. The soybeans don't need nitrogen fertilizers, so the cost of production are very, very much lower than on the other plants," said Wroczyk.
The knock-on effect is being felt widely, with rising fertilizer prices weakening farmers' purchasing power and squeezing profit margins for local fertilizer plants.
"Certainly, our fertilizer sales dropped about 40-50 percent. Of course, lower sales mean the company's margins are also decreasing," said Thomas Helechi, owner of a fertilizer factory.
Szmulewicz also said that tensions in the Strait of Hormuz have not only caused Polish agricultural production costs to soar, but have also hampered agricultural exports, further exacerbating the already difficult situation for the country's farmers.
Polish farmers grappling with soaring fertilizer prices as Iran war bites
Polish farmers grappling with soaring fertilizer prices as Iran war bites
Polish farmers grappling with soaring fertilizer prices as Iran war bites
Major breakthroughs by Chinese scientists have laid the foundation for a future where space-based solar power stations are capable of wirelessly transmitting energy to Earth and spacecraft, though significant engineering problems remain.
A research team from Xidian University in northwest China's Shaanxi Province has made significant progress on the Sun Chasing project, or "Zhuri" in Chinese. The team has developed a ground-based test system for wireless power transmission that can charge multiple moving targets at the same time.
In recent tests, the system achieved a wireless power transmission efficiency of 20.8 percent from direct current to direct current over a distance of 100 meters. It delivered 1,180 watts of power. The team has also built a wireless charging system for drones. In a test, a drone flying at 30 kilometers per hour was able to receive 143 watts of stable power from 30 meters away.
A space solar power station works exactly as its name suggests: a huge array of solar panels placed in orbit. It would collect sunlight in space, where the sun always shines, and then convert that energy into microwaves or lasers to beam down to Earth or directly to satellites and spacecraft. This could address two significant issues: supplying uninterrupted power for space missions and alleviating energy shortages on the ground.
"The construction of space solar power stations could become a major undertaking in the future. One potential benefit is access to a virtually unlimited power supply. Because energy can be collected continuously in space 24 hours a day, electricity could be supplied on an uninterrupted basis," said Fan Guanheng, an associate professor at the School of Mechano-Electronic Engineering at Xidian University.
"Secondly, it could reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, thereby lowering carbon emissions and helping protect the environment. Thirdly, it could support the development of charging infrastructure in space and enable wireless microwave charging for spacecraft, changing the way power is supplied to space vehicles," the professor added.
In 2018, the research team launched the first phase of the Sun Chasing project to build a ground test system. By June 2022, they had completed the world's first full-link, full-system ground validation system for a space solar power station. Now, the team has moved to phase two. The goal now is to solve the challenges of generating high power in space and transmitting it efficiently over long distances.
According to Duan Baoyan, an expert at Xidian University and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, recent breakthroughs include improving the efficiency of solar energy collection and conversion, increasing the precision of microwave beam control to reduce energy loss, and making the transmitting and receiving antennas smaller and lighter, which is critical for space application.
The team has also solved the problem of how to power multiple moving targets at once using a single transmitter. This means that in the future, one space power station could potentially supply electricity to several satellites or ground vehicles at the same time, Duan said.
Despite the advances in ground-based validation, a series of technical challenges must still be overcome before the technology can be deployed in space.
"The first issue that needs to be addressed is the adaptability of components to the space environment, as conditions in space are completely different from those on Earth, including radiation exposure and extreme temperatures. Another challenge involves the deployment and retraction design of transmitting and receiving antennas. We also need to develop thermal management systems to cope with extreme temperatures and temperature fluctuations in space. These are all areas where further breakthroughs are needed," said Qian Sihao, an associate professor at the School of Mechano-Electronic Engineering at Xidian University.
"We have now completed the development and validation of a ground-based test system, and our next step is to carry out in-orbit wireless microwave power transmission," Fan said.
With ground validation complete, the team now turns its attention to overcoming the harsh realities of space, aiming to demonstrate in-orbit wireless power transmission and bring the vision of orbital solar energy closer to reality.
Space-to-earth solar power moves closer to reality although hurdles remain: scientists
