Japan-based OS Co. Ltd has revealed its latest invention in the field of solar panels. The company has developed a portable power generation system called "Mobile Solar Unit GSR-110B" that comes with a retractable solar panel.
A water purification system developed recently by Gustavo Castro and his colleagues from Brazil is actually based on banana peels, with no other complex filters or other electronics involved.
ABB, a Swiss-based engineering company, has presented a prototype of their innovative superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES), at a DOE ARPA-E conference which took place in Washigton D.C. at the beginning of this month. Their 3.3 kWh proof-of-concept SMES is not very cost-effective for the moment, but may one day provide cleaner storage solutions for excess alternative energy.
Vermot AG, the creator of the unique Veritas RSIII sports car, has recently declared that the its V10-powered retro ride will be equipped with a hybrid drive. The company also plans to launch a full electric version by the end of 2013 and a coupe version this summer.
Although few for the moment, electric cars in Japan already have a bright future when it comes to charging, as a consortium made from ten companies want to give beverage vending machines another use: you guessed.... EV chargers.
If everything goes well, we'll see Suzuki Motors' hydrogen fuel cell scooter on our roads soon. The company has recently announced that the Burgman has passed vital approval and European certifications.
A new technology that could bring an increase in solar cell efficiency has been presented by Purdue researchers. They use an ultra-fast pulsing laser which creates "microchannels" needed to connect the solar cells in series, for building a usable system.
According to Swedish researchers, storing energy as compressed air rather than in batteries would reduce the price of hybrid cars. Some hybrid and electric vehicles are already using brake energy to activate a generator that charges the batteries.
I have been acknowledging the work of most scientists and their discoveries kept my interest awake to see what's new every morning. It's seldom times, though, when I read something like "the U.S. Energy Secretary congratulates DOE scientists for the discovery of a biomass-derived liquid that can be produced cheaply and can replace gasoline without any engine modifications," I have to wonder...
Graphene has lately been the electronic industry's spoiled kid - everybody wants to have a piece of the research, but few have the tools and inspiration to find something new. A team of researchers from the University of Arizona have found a material that can play the role of an insulator for the one atom-thick graphene layer. The team published their study in Nature Materials.
