Monthly Archives: February 2010
The Chinese Government has blocked General Motors attempt to sell Hummer to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery, a private Chinese company that manufactures heavy vehicles and road-building equipment. As a result, General Motors will now dismantle the brand. John Smith, General Motors’ Vice President of Corporate Planning and Alliances, said that "GM will now work closely with Hummer employees, dealers and suppliers to wind down the business in an orderly and responsible manner." The Chinese Government did not give details of its reasons for blocking the purchase but according to Yale Zhang, a China auto-industry market analyst "The purchase of … Continue Reading
American 60 Minutes has shown this segment on teh Bloom Box, a new fuel cell system that its makers say can cost-effectively generate electricity on the spot, without being connected to the electricity grid. Large corporations are already testing the device; the manufacturer foresees one in every home. (The segment begins with an advertisement.) Watch CBS News Videos Online
UCLA graduate student Hexian Deng and biochemistry professor Omar M. Yaghi, have developed synthetic crystals that can be used to trap carbon dioxide. Their “designer crystal” approach opens the door for low cost, scalable applications, such as trapping carbon dioxide from factories or vehicle exhaust pipes. The new synthetic crystals can code information, just as DNA does, but in a more simple form based on the sequence of pores in the material. The result is a material with a sponge-like ability to trap gasses with a high degree of selectivity that results in highly efficient carbon capture. The researchers claim … Continue Reading
General Motors has released the newest version of its hydrogen fuel cell engine and says that hydrogen fuel cells could be cost cometitive with other technologies by 2015. General Motors’ "second generation" fuel cell is half the size of previous "Project Driveway" stack. Although significantly smaller in size and weight it is capable of generating more electric power than the previous version. The weight has been reduced to 130kg, the number of parts has been cut nearly in half and the amount of platinum catalyst has been reduced from 80g to just 30g. A GM Hydrogen Fuel Celll Test Vehicle
In an interview with BBC, Carlos Ghosn, the head of Renault-Nissan, has outlined how he is pinning the future of his company on the electric car. "I think the trends we’re seeing are all pointing in the same direction," he said. "Oil is a challenge, both price and availability. Regulations about environments are going to get tougher and tougher. I think the new generation is much more demanding about respect for the environment than we have ever imagined." Mr Ghosn believes that the only technology which could compete with electric cars is the hydrogen fuel cell car but these are … Continue Reading
Scientists at Northwestern University in Chicago have developed a new material which permanently traps only the radioactive ion cesium and not other harmless ions like sodium. The material is made from layers of a gallium, sulfur and antimony compound. It has been found to be extremely effective in removing radioactive cesium – which found in nuclear waste but is very difficult to clean up – from a sodium-rich solution, similar to real liquid nuclear waste. The cesium triggers a structural change in the material, causing it to snap its pores shut, like a venus flytrap, and trap the cesium ions … Continue Reading
One of the biggest challenges for architects and developers wanting to integrate solar power generation with building materials is aesthetics. Many building-integrated solar technologies are also somewhat inefficient, which means that large parts of a building have to be covered with solar energy-gathering materials to get significant benefits. The Center for Architecture and Science, which is a research and development collaboration between Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and architecture and engineering companies, including the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, thinks that its "Dynamic Solar Facade" can overcome these challenges. The Dynamic Solar Facade is a glass frontage with rows of transparent, … Continue Reading
Swedish and American researchers have succeeded in producing a new type of lighting component that is inexpensive to produce and can be fully recycled. The invention paves the way for glowing wallpaper made entirely of recylclable plastic. OLEDs (organic light-emitting diodes) have recently been introduced commercially in some mobile phones, cameras and TVs. These consist of a light-generating layer of plastic placed between two electrodes, one of which must be transparent and is currently made from indium tin-oxide alloy. OLEDs are relatively expensive because indium is rare and expensive and is difficult to recycle. Now researchers at Linköping and Umeå … 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
