Tag: industry news

The Australian renewable energy industry has warned that it faces destruction if – as is now widely anticipated – the Abbott government decides it wants to drastically scale back the renewable energy target, or even close it to new entrants.Miles George, the head of Infigen Energy – the country’s largest listed renewable energy company – warned that such an act

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Norwegian architecture firm Jarmund/Vigsnæs Arkitekter (JVA) recently completed a stunning wooden cabin that shelters hikers from extremely harsh winds and storms. The Rabot Tourist Cabin is located amidst mountains and glaciers in Okstindan, and it was built from local timber boards. Due to its isolated location, this energy-efficient building generates its own power by gathering energy from the sun. The

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Word on the street is that Tesla may be working on a 500-mile graphene battery. Graphene is, of course, a kind of supermaterial, and it’s possible Tesla is looking into it, but I’m also a bit skeptical. First, let’s look at the reasons why someone might think Tesla is working on an electric car battery that uses graphene. Graphene could

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Indian renewable energy companies are preparing for long-term investments as the new government gets ready to introduce favorable regulatory initiatives to expand renewable energy infrastructure. One of India’s leading renewable energy companies, Welspun Group, has announced plans to invest Rs 15,000 crore – or $2.5 billion US – to develop wind and solar power capacity over the next three years.

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Indian wind turbine manufacturers and project developers have been advised by the government to make efforts to increase annual capacity addition to five times its current level, a leading Indian newspaper has reported. The new Indian government is looking to promote aggressive investment in the wind energy sector after it re-introduced financial incentives in this year’s budget. The current rate

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Vivian Li, assistant professor in the Department of Design and Merchandising, and William Sanford, associate professor in the Department of Geosciences, are trying to find patterns in how certain nanoparticles move underground. If successful, they could train the nanoparticles to indicate when specific chemicals are present in the subsurface, including those found in underground water deposits. These modified “smart” nanoparticles,

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Stanford University Professor Hongjie Dai has developed an emissions-free electrolytic device that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen at room temperature. In 2015, American consumers will finally be able to purchase fuel cell cars from Toyota and other manufacturers. Although touted as zero-emissions vehicles, most of the cars will run on hydrogen made from natural gas, a fossil fuel that

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China is the world’s top energy consumer, with the vast majority of its electricity coming from domestically-mined coal. But the Asian nation is cutting its dependence on coal, oil and natural gas and replacing it with solar at a breakneck pace. Between January and the end of June, China added 3.3 gigawatts of solar capacity, double the additions over the

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When Mercedes-Benz contacted me last month to ask whether I would be interested in driving its new B-class electric, I thought they were either too sure of themselves or foolish. Why else would they ask a self-proclaimed Tesla fanboy to reconsider his “breakup” with them? In February 2013, I wrote that after driving my Model S, I couldn’t drive my

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Michigan battery company Sakti3, a spinout of the University of Michigan, which is financed by the worlds top cleantech fund, Khosla Ventures, and the worlds largest automotive investor, General Motors Ventures, has claimed that the company’s solid state battery will be able to double the range of an electric car. The solid state batteries would enable a vehicle like the

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