Archive for May, 2008
« Previous EntriesCold Fusion back in the news
Saturday, May 31st, 2008Yoshiaki Arata, a scientist from Osaka University in Japan, has reignited the cold fusion debate with an apparently successful public demonstation of cold fusion. The process that Arata and his co-researcher Yue-Chang Zhang is using forces deuterium gas under pressure into an evacuated cell that contained a matrix of zirconium oxide containing palladium nanoparticles. [...]
DOE report shows possibility of 20% of US electicity via wind by 2030
Thursday, May 29th, 2008A newly published report from the US Department of Energy shows that 20% of all US electricity could be powered by wind by 2030. To reach that, the US would have to triple its annual construction of wind power sites.
The current political and environmental pressures are mentioned – “The threat of climate change [...]
FinancialTimes.com: An industry charged up: Electric vehicles are poised to go mainstream
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008just a quick link today to a very good article on the current status of electric cars – head over to FT.com to read it. The author talks about the different directions companies are taking with regard to electric cars, and overall trends in the industry. Click the link above to read [...]
Hydrogen generator that increases MPG being tested in San Antonio
Sunday, May 25th, 2008Researchers at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio are testing a water fueled hydrogen generator that could be used with standard gasoline engines to increase mileage. The hydrogen generator, created by Steve Gerhlein, an auto mechanic in San Antonio , has installed a system in his cars that generates hydrogen using water mixed with [...]
Honda coming out with new hybrid lineup beginning next year
Wednesday, May 21st, 2008Honda Motors is coming out with a new line of hybrid cars beginning next year. One important point Honda is stressing is that the hybrid versions of their cars will be only about $1,900 more than their gas only models, which seems to be a lower price gap than currently exists in models from [...]
Minnesota Power adding wind transmission capacity
Sunday, May 18th, 2008Minnesota Power recently announced that they plan to acquire a direct current (DC) transmission line in order to transport planned additional wind power electricity from North Dakota. Minnesota Power is spending $80 million to buy the power line from Square Butte Electric Cooperative.
The line currently transports power from the coal based Milton [...]
Nanostructures will raise thin-film solar cell efficiency
Saturday, May 17th, 2008Researchers at the University of California, San Diego are working towards thin-film ’single junction’ solar cells that have the potential for almost 45% sunlight to electricity conversion.
The US Dept of Energy awarded an $885,000 grant to the team of electrical engineers led by Professor Edward Yu to continue developing their thin-film [...]
T. Boone Pickens is putting his money where his mouth is
Thursday, May 15th, 2008We told you last month about how T. Boone Pickens, the founder of Mesa Petroleum was talking about building the world’s biggest wind farm. Some great quotes – “You need a giant plan for America. Not the pissant 83 megawatt [windfarm] deals being stamped all over the country. There needs to be a huge plan [...]
Project Better Place shows off electric car bound for Israel
Monday, May 12th, 2008The joint venture between the Silicon Valley startup Project Better Place and Renault-Nissan, showed off its prototype all electric Renault sedan in Tel Aviv on Saturday. The project, which has the endorsement of Israel’s government, hopes to have Israel become the first country in the world to have large numbers of electric cars. [...]
Slowing down the internet saves energy?
Wednesday, May 7th, 2008According to NewScientistTech, it does. Actually, what scientists at the University of California and Intel Research Labs are finding is that by delaying data flow into a network for just a few milliseconds, data centers can achieve energy savings of up to 50%.
This small delay is enough to smooth out bursts and lulls in the [...]