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Yearly Archives: 2010
BBC Show To Broadcast 4,000-mile Europe Tour in a Think Electric Car
Media has influenced people's minds since its birth. That's why BBC, one of the largest media trusts worldwide, is trying to resuscitate the idea using an electric car in the minds of those who thought they could only fuel with gasoline. The documentary will be called "BBC Electric Ride", and will be broadcast on Radio 4 starting June 19.
Coulomb Technologies Installs 4,600 EV Charging Stations In The U.S. for Free
Probably following Ford's 5,000 home charging stations giveaway, Coulomb Technologies plans to install 4,600 electric vehicle charging stations, with a third of them installed only in the company's homeland: California. They already have 700 charging stations around the U.S., charging 130 electric car owners.
Porsche 911 Turbo Beaten by Eliica EV in Japanese Drag Race
Remember the Eliica electric car? This ugly 2.4-ton Japanese vehicle is shown how it does a Porsche 911 Turbo. The Porsche hangs in with the Eliica up to 95 km/h, but it's left more than 2 seconds behind when the EV reaches 150 km/h.
Dutch Scientists Say Reducing Speed Limits to 50 MPH Would Cut CO2 Emissions by...
Holland is a country many people mention for its cleanliness and low-speed driving (120 km/h max on motorways). Still, there's room for more, as Mattijs Otten and Huib van Essen from the University of Delft released a study saying that the CO2 emissions would be reduced by 30% in the long run by reducing the speed limit to 80 km/h (50 mph).
Orange Brags Having Installed More Than 3 GWh of Solar Power in Africa
Mobile phones and devices are more and more present on the market, with a figure of 5.8 billion users expected by 2013. Thus, mobile telephony networks, through their corporate responsibility programs, have to plan their expansion taking into account the CO2 amounts their base stations emit, 24/7.
Mini Black Hole for Microwave Energy Created by Chinese Scientists Could Have Green Uses
Two researchers from the State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves at Southeast University from Nanjing, China, have discovered and prototyped a device that acts like a black hole for electromagnetic waves in the microwave spectrum. It consists of 60 concentric rings of metamaterials, a class or ordered composites that can distort light and other waves.
PCB-Embedded Li-Ion Battery Unveiled in a Tokyo Exhibition
Oki Printed Circuits Co Ltd has exhibited a technology that embeds a 170μm-thick thin-film all-solid-state lithium-ion (Li-ion) rechargeable battery into a regular printed circuit board (PCB).
New Engine Prototype That Mixes Gasoline and Diesel Gets 55 Percent Efficient
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison have recently unveiled a concept engine that can be from 20 to 30 percent more fuel-efficient than classic models. It would also be substantially cheaper to produce, since the emissions are lower than those of conventional engines and expensive catalyst units are not needed any longer (in some cases, their price can reach that of the engine's).
Research Institutions to Develop Passive Magnetic Bearings for Various Application
Bearings are generally indispensable for any mechanical application that requires motion, and while the good-old classic bearings have proved their strong and weak points, a new generation of magnetic bearings is about to get born in the minds of mechanical engineers.
Shimizu's Master Plan For a 11,000 Km Long, 400 Km-Wide Lunar Solar Belt
A Japanese company, Shimizu, dreams of turning the Moon's ecuator into an 11,000 kilometers long solar collector, and bring that energy "down" to Earth via a 20-km wide dishes, through microwaves and lasers. The belt would have widths ranging from a few to 400 km. Now, how brilliant is that?
