February 2012
6 posts
Whole Hog: The Superfast Electric Motorcycles... →
unexpectedtech:
(Photo by Juan Romero, courtesy of Mission Motors)
When the checkered flag fell on MissionMotors’ 90-mile-per-hour lap this summer at the 2011eGrandPrix, it wasn’t just that one of the world’s fastest electric motorcycles had completed the 2.2-mile track in record time. It also brought the day closer when you will drive home, far more slowly, the world’s most efficient and...
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Stanford pioneering a wireless electric highway →
infoneer-pulse:
Stanford researchers may have solved the problem of range anxiety by wireless charging technology that could one day create an electric highway.
Wireless recharging already is used by some electric vehicle charging stations to fill up batteries without cords or plugging into an outlet. MIT helped pioneer this technology and spun it off into a wireless charging startup,...
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January 2012
15 posts
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A University Heated By Country’s Largest... →
unexpectedtech:
How do you heat and cool 47 buildings and 25,000 people without using any fuel, and only minimal electricity?
By digging. Or more specifically: by installing an elaborate underground geothermal energy system that can both heat water during the winter, and cool it in the summer.
Geothermal electricity production may still be in its infancy in the U.S. But Ball State University,...
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Solar Power Off the Grid: Energy Access for... →
poptech:
The money is on the table. It’s just on the wrong plates. Purchase and finance of solar power for 1.2 billion people would cost about $10 billion a year over a decade. The 11 countries with the largest number of households without electricity spent $80 billion each year subsidizing fossil fuel — only 17 percent of which benefits the poor. In 2010, the World Bank spent $8 billion on...
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Gorgeous Lexus Hybrid Makes Us Say, ‘Damn!’ →
unexpectedtech:
Hot damn.
Lexus, a company with a design ethos perhaps best described as visual Valium, is rolling into the Detroit auto show with a drop-dead gorgeous sports coupe. Not just any sports coupe, mind you, but a hybridsports coupe. An exciting hybrid sports coupe.
Exciting? Lexus? Yes.
The sexy LF-LC 2+2 concept, designed at Toyota’s Calty design studio in SoCal, is an attempt...
December 2011
10 posts
Electricity from the Air →
unexpectedtech:
Flying windmill: Multiple exposures show the flight pattern of the Makani Airborne Wind Turbine, built by Makani Power. The electricity-generating glider is attached to the ground by a carbon-fiber tether. The craft flies “crosswind,” or perpendicular to the direction of the wind, as a kite does. In early tests, prototypes have generated five kilowatts of electric power. Larger...
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Breakthrough could double solar energy output →
unexpectedtech:
A new discovery from a chemist at the University of Texas at Austin may allow photovoltaic solar cells to double their efficiency, thus providing loads more electrical power from regular sunlight. Not only that, but it’s way cheap. Chemistry professor Xiaoyang Zhu and his team discovered that an organic plastic semiconductor could double the number of electrons harvested out of...
Call for members
I am a bit too busy to regularly keep up with Electric Power, is there anyone who would like to become a member to keep people updated with whats going on in clean transportation?
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Daimler Tests Cordless Electric Vehicle Chargers →
unexpectedtech:
Having a few electric vehicle charging stations here and there isn’t a big deal. But if they ever become common in cities, they’ll be an eyesore, with their long, tangled black cords clumped onto their sides or sprawling across parking spaces to the outlet on the side of a car. Charging stations could also be a tempting target for vandals.
A much more elegant solution would be...
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New wave of ocean energy to be trialed off the... →
unexpectedtech:
Anyone who has ever been scuba diving in a bull kelp forest will tell you - the stuff does not stand still. The marine aquatic plant consists of a long skinny-but-tough stem (or stipe) that is anchored to the sea floor and topped with a hollow float, from which a number of “leaves” (or blades) extend to the surface. The result is a seaweed that extends vertically up through the...
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Gasoline Fuel Cell Would Boost Electric Car Range →
unexpectedtech:
If you want to take an electric car on a long drive, you need a gas-powered generator, like the one in the Chevrolet Volt, to extend its range. The problem is that when it’s running on the generator, it’s no more efficient than a conventional car. In fact, it’s even less efficient, because it has a heavy battery pack to lug around.
Now researchers at the University of Maryland...
November 2011
11 posts
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WatchMotherboard TV: The Thorium Dream
This is a great documentary on the element radioactive Thorium. It was set aside in the early nuclear research days in order to produce uranium and plutonium for weapons. I highly recommend you give it a watch and research this element and the new research on the subject.
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In our case, it was the latter. While the idea of building small, thorium-based...
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jtotheizzoe:
Here Comes Solar Energy - Paul Krugman
Is there a “Moore’s Law” taking over for solar energy?
These days, mention solar power and you’ll probably hear cries of “Solyndra!” Republicans have tried to make the failed solar panel company both a symbol of government waste — although claims of a major scandal are nonsense — and a stick with which to beat renewable...
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October 2011
19 posts
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USA.gov: Find Ways To Conserve Energy This Month →
realcleverscience:
usagov:
This October is Energy Awareness Month, and it is a good time to go over your energy routine and think of ways to conserve energy in your home and daily life…
Pay attention to the energy use in your home so you can monitor how much you are using. Simply unplugging some large energy consumers when they are not in use, such as home entertainment systems, and turning...
