Archive for January, 2008
« Previous EntriesSeeking Alpha – Oil Prices, Electric Cars and the Wisdom of Carlos Ghosn
Thursday, January 31st, 2008I found this very interesting article over at SeekingAlpha.com today. In it, Jim Kingsdale talks about 3 lessons from Carlos Ghosn, who is chief executive of Renault-Nissan. The three lessons are:
The world is split into two distinct economies, one stable and one growing rapidly.
Jevon’s Paradox is alive and well in India [...]
Screen printed solar cells can be used in windows
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008According to Science Daily, a new solar cell being developed by members of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE can be screen printed with a whole bunch of different patterns and colors which will allow them to be incorporated directly into a building’s design. For example, the solar cells can even be [...]
New vertical axis wind turbine design – Windpower’s Aerogenerator
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008WIndpower’s Aerogenerator
The picture doesn’t give a good sense of the size of this thing, but the new Aerogenerator vertical axis turbine being designed by Windpower is 144 meters high, and would generate up to 9 megawatts of wind power electricity. According to an article in the Guardian, the Aerogenerator would generate nearly 3 times the [...]
CIGS firms duke it out for efficiency crown
Monday, January 28th, 2008The makes of CIGS (Copper Indium Gallium Selenide) solar cells are all claiming various levels of efficiency. The latest comes from Global Solar Energy, Ine (GSE), who today announced that they have achieved a breakthrough for their cells and have achieved an average of 10 percent efficiency “on a flexible, lightweight substrate over [...]
Ducted Wind Turbine from Marquiss Wind Power aimed at rooftops
Saturday, January 26th, 2008Marquiss Wind Power announced that they’ve raised $1.3 million in funding to help commercialize their Aeropoint ducted wind turbine. As you can tell from the pictures, the Marquiss Aeropoint Ducted Wind Turbine looks a little different than other wind turbines – its small (19 ft tall), and pivots to take advantage of wind direction. The [...]
Honda’s Home Hydrogen Fueling Station
Thursday, January 24th, 2008In conjunction with Honda’s planned limited release of its FCX Clarity hydrogen powered car this year (see Up, up and away – the hydrogen car is here), Honda plans to sell a home hydrogen fueling station, the Home Energy Station IV, which helps stop the chicken and egg syndrome envisioned for hydrogen powered cars. (Basically, [...]
New UltraBattery to rev up hybrid electric vehicles
Monday, January 21st, 2008A new hyrid car battery called the “UltraBattery” has been developed by an Australian technology group named CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization). The UltraBattery supposedly lasts longer, costs less and is more powerfull that the batteries that are currently used in today’s hybrids. The UltraBattery combines a supercapacitor and a [...]
New solar cell nanotech research – the whole is greater than the sum of the parts
Saturday, January 19th, 2008According to SolidStateTechnology.com, researchers who are combining two different types of solar cell materials are getting efficiciencies far better than either one alone. In fact, while the researchers hoped that the efficiency would be as good as the sum of the two different materials, what they got were efficiencies as much as 3 times [...]
Wind power growth gusts strongly in USA in 2007
Friday, January 18th, 2008USA Today is reporting that US wind power grew 45% in 2007, which was the largest rise since the 1980’s. The study, released by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), cites federal tax credit, new state renewable energy mandates and global warming concerns as the reasons.
An additional 5,244 megawatts were installed in 2007. [...]
Cape Wind project takes another step forward
Tuesday, January 15th, 2008Cleantech reports that a draft environmental impact statement from the US Departement of Interior stating that the Cape Wind project is environmentally and economically superior to alternate sites. The project, which has been tied up in knots for years, plans to place 130 turbines over 24 square miles in Nantucket Sound. The report says that [...]
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