One of the 100 most influential people of 2009 by Time magazine is a 42 year old Israeli businessman, Shai Agassi. Whom happens to be developing a global network of charging spots and “battery switch stations,” which will effectively work as gas stations for electric cars. He is a man on a mission to wean the world off it’s oil addiction and turn everyone into electric car drivers. With his California-based company, Better Place, Agassi has partnered with car maker Renault-Nissan to produce the first generation of emission-free electric cars, the Renault Fluence ZE design delivers comfort, styling and flexibility. The world’s first switchable battery electric car will be available in early 2011, which Agassi says “will not be more expensive than your average Sedan.” (more…)
The Ability of Light to Produce Electrons, and Thus Electricity, Has Been Known For Over 100 Years.
At the Albuquerque, New Mexico’s Sandia National Laboratories, scientists have developed tiny glitter-sized photovoltaic cells that could revolutionize the way solar energy is collected and used. (more…)
4 Times As Efficient and Lasts Over 20 Times Longer
Sometimes called the electronic light bulb, the induction lamp offers high efficiency and a very long life because it operates without an electrode nor a filament. At the center of the lamp is the induction coil powered by an electronic unit at the base of the lamp. This coil produces a magnetic field in the lamp that ultimately produces light. This coil is sometimes referred to as an energy-coupling antenna. Since the induction lamp has no filament to burn out, so the lamp does not fail catastrophically as do incandescent bulbs. As the phosphors in the glass housing age, the induction lamp simply dims. (more…)
Explore the potential impacts of climate change on our planet Earth and learn about solutions for adaptation and mitigation, in the context of the United Nation’s Climate Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen. Plus you get a
chance to see what all of words have been trying to communicate or as the old adage goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words!”
Currently underway on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., twenty teams are competing in the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Solar Decathlon 2009. Also sponsored and managed by DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Solar Decathlon is an international event in which DOE challenges university teams to design and build homes that run entirely on solar energy. Each team received $100,000 from DOE to uniquely design, build and operate an energy efficient, fully solar-powered home for this unique competition. The teams ship their partially constructed homes to the National Mall. Then they assemble (more…)
In operational testing since July, at Heathrow Airport in London, a network of personal driverless pods are taking passengers non-stop to their destinations, cutting down on congestion and pollution. ULTra (Urban Light Transport) is an innovative form of Personal Rapid Transit (PRT). It is designed to meet the expectations of passengers – convenient, inexpensive, reliable, safe and easy to use, while also satisfying public demands for value for money, ease of construction and environmental benefit. As convenient as, or in congested environments more convenient than, the car, but with minimal environmental impact. (more…)