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We’ve reached a point in the hybrid and electric car market where we’re patiently, yet frustratingly, sitting around waiting for someone to produce a high-powered and long-capacity battery, all while being inexpensive and available for the standard market, rather than just the luxury vehicle segment. Electric cars have advanced by leaps and bounds, with implausible technology becoming another aspect which

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THE FUTURE IS GOING TO BE MIGHTY FUTURISTIC, STARTING RIGHT NOW What Is It? Having pioneered and legitimized the hybrid electric car with the Prius 20 years ago, Toyota is aiming to do the same with hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles as it launches the 2016 Mirai (the word means “future” in Japanese). The product of 20 years of R&D,

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From the driver’s seat of the Toyota Mirai, the world’s first mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell car could be a plusher and more powerful version of the Prius – if it wasn’t for the H20 button on the dash which releases a trickle of water. Until now, car companies have been slow to bring hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to market. But

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Toyota Mirai and Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell owners will be able to refuel their new FCVs for free for three years, but only because it’s hard to put a price on hydrogen. According to Autoblog, a seminar held at the Mirai launch regarding hydrogen revealed the fueling stations currently in place in the United States aren’t able to accurately measure

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Progress is being made in the rechargeability and reaction kinetics of sodium-air batteries by researchers from the Canadian Light Source and Western University. The understanding of sodium-air battery systems and their chemical composition and charging behaviour will play a role designing more road-worthy batteries for EVs. The limited mileage of today’s EVs because of the low energy storage of current

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A Power-to-Liquids (PtL) demonstration rig which is the first of its kind in the world was officially inaugurated on 14 November by Dresden-based sunfire GmbH. The ceremony was attended by German Federal Minister of Education and Research Johanna Wanka, Board Member Pieter Koolen of venture capitalist Bilfinger (in which Total and EDF participate) as well as a number of other

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Although the growth in renewables has led to the shutdown of many gas- and coal-fired power plants, power producers believe their plants will still be needed to provide backup capacity. But grid storage batteries are becoming increasingly competitive with ‘peaker plants’, says Paul Siblerud of US storage company ViZn Energy Systems in an interview with Roy L. Hales of The

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The head of one of the world’s leading solar PV manufacturers and developers, SunPower’s Tom Werner, predicts that solar will be a $US5 trillion industry within 20 years, and represents one of the greatest ever opportunities in the history of markets. Giles Parkinson of Reneweconomy.com reports on a recent investment briefing given by Werner. “We’ve just scratched the surface of

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The US-China Joint Announcement on Climate Change made on 11 November, has been hailed by many as a historic breakthrough in the fight against climate change, but it has also met with quite a bit of scepticism. Robert Wilson, who publishes the blog The Energy Transition on the website of The Energy Collective, argues that the agreement between the two largest economies

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China’s pledge to cap greenhouse gas output may curtail car-ownership dreams across the world’s most-populous nation, even as domestic auto sales are on pace to top a record 23 million vehicles in 2014. The CHART OF THE DAY tracks annualcarbon emissions by the world’s two biggest economies, with China’s output almost doubling in the decade since U.S. levels began to

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