Monthly Archives: June 2008
Former Intel CEO and Chairman and Time’s Man of the Year in 1997, Andy Grove, is known for his ability to sense when larger circumstances require changes in a company or an industry — and what those changes should be. "The drumbeat of the electrical transportation is accelerating like nothing I’ve ever seen in my life," Grove said. "The most important thing I would like to do is light that almost half-assumed truth up in neon lights. Electricity in transportation has to be done. It is urgent. It is important that everything else is secondary," Grove said. Grove says the fledgling … Continue Reading
Data storage in the United States accounts for about 1.5% of all electricity consumed – more than all of the television sets and almost as much as 6 million household. It is one of the fastest growing areas of power consumption, predicted to overtake aviation in greenhouse gas production if present trends continue. Internally, computers run on direct current. Every computer which is connected to the power grid has to convert the AC current from the grid to DC. The heat loss in this conversion can account for as much as a third of the total power consumption of a … Continue Reading
In announcing plans for the UK to spend £100 billion pounds ($au207 billion) on renewable energy over the next 12 years, British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, said "This is a green revolution in the making. It will be a tenfold increase on our current deployment of renewables, and a 300% increase on our existing plans: the most dramatic change in our energy policy since the advent of nuclear power." The comprehensive, 289-page strategy calls for the installation of seven million solar panels; a 90 per cent increase in the use of ground source heat pumps, 3,500 onshore wind turbines and … Continue Reading
Pratt & Whitney has developed a jet engine that is significantly cheaper to run, more efficient and less polluting than current engines. The "geared turbofan" engine burns 12 to 15 percent less fuel than other jet engines and cuts carbon dioxide emissions by 1,500 tons per engine per year. Current jet engines have fans that suck air into the combustion chamber, where it is compressed, mixed with fuel, and ignited. The resulting gas blows through a turbine, generating thrust. This is inefficient because the fan is connected directly to the engine and, so, turns at the same speed as the … Continue Reading
Mazda Corporation has announced that it will begin testing the world’s first hydrogen hybrid cars with a dual-fuel system, enabling the use of either hydrogen or petrol, on public roads in Japan this year. Mazda will display its Premacy Hydrogen RE Hybrid minivan and RX-8 Hydrogen RE at the G8 Hoddaido Toyako Summit in July. The next step will be commercial leasing in Japan during this fiscal year. Mazda claims that the hybrid system will give the minivan a range of 200 kilometres using hydrogen fuel. The vehicle will also incorporate plant-derived materials in its interior plastics and seat covers.
GlaxoSmithKline, the world’s second largest pharmaceutical company, which has spent a fortune researching cancer, has announced that it is making most of its information available to the research community for free. Glaxo’s logic is that academics and small companies to do pioneering work — identifying new targets for medications, discovering early warning signs and figuring out the underlying biological malfunctions that cause cancer. It is only when those groundbreaking studies have been done that large corporations can step into the picture and create new products. The information, which is available through the National Cancer Institute’s CaBIG website (cabig.nci.nih.gov), is related … Continue Reading
The Dutch Government has announced that it will invest 7.5 billion euros ($12.25 billion Australian dollars) in energy supply between now and 2011 with priority given to renewable energy, energy saving and CO2 reduction. About 4 billion euros ($6.5 billion) of the 7.5 billion euros will be invested in renewable energy. Just over 1 billion euros ($1.65 billion) will be spent on energy conservation and 1 billion euros on reducing CO2 emissions. The Dutch investment highlights the lack of commitment by the Australian Government which plans to spend just $150 million on renewable energy research and development, $500 on clean … Continue Reading
At the end of last year, China’s installed base of wind power totaled just over 6 gigawatts. This led in April to the current Five Year Plan being revised to increase the target for 2010 from 5 gigawatts to 10 gigawatts. Experts now believe that China has already exceeded 10 gigawatts capacity and could achieve between 20 and 27 gigawatts by 2010 and as much as 100 gigawatts by 2020. The key to China’s potential is Inner Mongolia. Although there is only 170 MW currently online in the region, a further 960 MW is under construction and approximately 4 GW … Continue Reading
Innovalight, a start-up company in California, plans to produce a liquid "silicon nanomaterial" using "quantum dots" which can be printed using the same roll-to-roll printing technology used for printing on paper. This means it will be able to put the ink on flexible surfaces like clothing and portable chargers. At the same time, the company claims that there will be cost savings over traditional silicon products because their process uses less silicon and has a more efficient manufacturing process as well as some unique optical advantages. Innovalight says that by controlling the sizes of the dots (from 2 to 10 … Continue Reading
The Nikkei business daily has reported that Mitsubhishi Motors Corp will tie up with France’s PSA Peugeot Citroen in the production of electric vehicles, supplying technology and next-generation batteries. Mitsubishi Motors is planning to commercialise a pure electric vehicle by 2010. Mitsubhishi will supply Peugeot with technology relating to the conversion of electricity into drive power and the prevention of batteries from overheating. It will also supply lithium-ion batteries, which can store more energy in smaller packages and are seen as crucial for extending the cruising distance of purely electric vehicles. The two automakers may also look at forming a … Continue Reading
Videos
Renewables News- Vic Council Approves Wind Farm with Community SharesBuloke Shire has approved a planning permit for a five-turbine wind farm spanning 5.t hectares at Coonooer Bridge, west of Bendigo..It is the first wind farm planning permit approved since 2011 when the Victorian Government introduced tough planning laws that … Continue Reading → […]
- NZ Electricity Co Offers Solar PV with BatteryVector Limited, the largest electricity and gas distribution company in New Zealand, is offerring a "home solar power solution", incorporating intelligent battery storage into a traditional solar PV system. In the introductory phase of the programme, a limited number of … Continue Reading → […]
- Sydney City Revises Trigen Power PlanThe City of Sydney has decided not to pursue its plan for a trigeneation power precinct at Green Square at this time but has re-affirmed its commitment to cutting carbon emissions using trigeneration, among other technologies, The decision to halt … Continue Reading → […]
- Vic Council Approves Wind Farm with Community Shares
