Plug-In Supply, Inc has just unveiled the "PbA10" Conversion System last week at the Plug-in 2008 conference in San Jose. Their system is based on the CalCars'Open Source design, and it turns a standard 2004-2008 Toyota Prius into a Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) with an all-electric range of 10-15 miles and improved average mileage of up to 100 miles per gallon (plus 1 cent/mile of electricity).
Based in the 1960s, the idea of sending a solar powered satellite into outer space to provide electricity to ground stations has been brought up over the years several times by the Department of Energy (DOE) and The Department of Defense (DOD) of the United States.
Here's a method of producing a battery out of some Cola, salt, aluminum and copper coins. It lights a LED and it can be an interesting source of free energy!
Researchers from the Ohio State University invented a material that could be used in the automobile industry to recover the heat lost through the cars' exhaust systems. The same technology could work in power generators and heat pumps, said project leader Joseph Heremans, Eminent Scholar in Nanotechnology at OSU.
Michael Strizki's house is the most low impact house I've ever seen. He lives his life off-grid, because his home system feature solar panels, 10 hydrogen tanks filled with the excess energy from the solar panels, with the hydrogen taken out of water, and a 15 year-old geothermal system, that covered its price 8 times since it was installed.
After the hit with the water powered car, the Japanese researchers invented a plastic motor! The plastic motor is made out of a polymer that contracts when it is exposed to ultraviolet light and expands to visible light.
This video is a clip from a 1978 CBC News, showing Jack Nicholson driving a hydrogen powered car. The concept existed since then, the hydrogen was packed in high pressure tanks, and the engine's timing (top dead center) was retarded a bit (probably 8 degrees, it's a common value). And, as extra value, the hydrogen was obtained from solar power, through some solar panels, cutting edge tech at that time.
The main idea is simple: find yourself a river, make sure its falling abruptly enough to have the necessary speed and velocity to spin your turbine, and make the necessary piping and flow control system.
They only have four wind turbines, which is not much (and probably so are their enegy consumption habits). The four turbines are part of a larger setup made up from 75 of such turbines, helping the power grid of three counties.
In the desert of Sahara, in North Africa, a solar farm has been built. The area is slightly smaller than Wales but some scientists said yesterday that it could one day generate enough solar power to supply all of Europe with clean electricity.
