drone – Alameda Point Environmental Report

Pesticide drone manufacturing OK’d on State Tidelands

On September 5^th, by a vote of four to one, the City Council approved an eight-year lease of an Alameda Point hangar to an autonomous electric aircraft manufacturing company called Pyka In c. Their planes are designed for spraying pesticides on agricultural land. While the company hopes to one day be selling autonomous planes for cargo delivery, the bulk of the discussion at the meeting centered on environmental concerns raised by residents about industrial-scale aerial spraying of petroleum-based pesticides.

Pesticide drone company is a bad fit for Alameda Point

At its September 5 meeti ng, the City Council will consider whether to lease a hangar at 950 West Tower Avenue at Alameda Point to a company that makes autonomous aircraft for spraying pesticides on agricultural crops. The lease proposal can be rejected on the grounds that the use of synthetic pesticides is completely at odds with principles of environmental sustainability.

Saildrone launches world’s largest deep ocean exploration drone

News Release from Alameda Point company Saildrone:

ALAMEDA, Jan 11, 2021 – Saildrone, Inc. has launched a 72 foot (22 m) version of its uncrewed surface vehicles, known as saildrones. Powered by wind and solar energy, saildrones are capable of extreme-duration missions of up to 12 months in the open ocean. This latest and largest version, the first in the Surveyor class of USVs, is called the Saildrone Surveyor, and carries sonar equipment capable of seafloor mapping down to 7,000 m.

Enhanced seabed mapping is vital for the security, safety, and economic health of nation states, and is critical to the growth of the “Blue Economy,” which, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), is valued at $1.5 trillion a year and creates the equivalent of 31 million full-time jobs.

Coinciding with the start of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, the launch of the Saildrone Surveyor presents a paradigm shift in enhanced seabed mapping, which is currently done with very large and expensive manned ships. The Surveyor, uncrewed and powering its robust sensor suite by harvesting renewable energy, delivers an equivalent survey capability, but at a fraction of the cost and carbon footprint of a traditional survey ship. Continue reading “Saildrone launches world’s largest deep ocean exploration drone”