I have to give my congratulations to new energy car maker Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) for creating the kind of buzz and excitement this week that only names like Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and smartphone sensation Xiaomi have typically been able to muster. In the last 2 days, the company and its charismatic founder Elon Musk were all over the Chinese headlines
Under favourable atmospheric conditions any elevated structure can generate upward lightning flashes. Even aircraft can do so — in fact, height and movement are two of the factors that contribute to this phenomenon. The tips of wind turbine blades move at speeds of several tens of metres per second. However, no one had previously demonstrated the relationship between this movement
The Big Island For the past five years, home for me has been on the northern end of the island of Hawaiʻi. For those unfamiliar with the Hawaiian islands, they consist of eight major islands. The biggest of these islands is the island of Hawaiʻi, also known as the “Big Island.” The Big Island has a land area of 4,028
There is still a significant swath of the U.S. that will continue to run on coal and gas even as many states meet their renewable portfolio standards heading toward 2020. In January, renewable energy made up nearly 100 percent of new installed electricity capacity in the U.S., mostly driven by utility-scale solar. Last October, a study conducted by the Federal
Two groups of researchers have recently advanced the field of solar cells with a cheaper and efficient replacement for platinum and better synthesis of zinc oxide. Working on dye-sensitized solar cells — researchers from University Malaya (UM) and National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) have achieved an efficiency of 1.12 %, at a fraction of the cost compared to those used
Finding new and different methods of harvesting renewable energy is a key component of building a more sustainable future, and while solar power, wind power, and ocean energy are often the focus of large-scale renewables research, it turns out that something that we take for granted, our toilets, could be used to also generate electricity. Researchers in South Korea have
French car manufacturer Peugeot just unveiled its new plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) concept, the EXALT, at the Beijing Motor Show — which opened to the public on April 21st. The new PHEV, interestingly, incorporates a number of different man-made materials onto the car’s body in order to mimic the look and feel of shark skin. Not something I had
National elections are underway and dominating headlines and conversations across India. In parallel, the timely release of the second new consensus report from the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) documenting the impacts of climate change, has confirmed again the current and growing risks to the economy, human health and food supply of India’s communities. This latest warning of
Plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) are here, and more are coming. One study forecasts that more than a million plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) will be sold in California, New York, Washington, and Florida alone between 2013 and 2022. There is a need for proven technologies that can predict the grid availability of a collection of independently operated vehicles. Yet the
Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. today announced it has acquired HiTek Power Group (HiTek), a privately-held provider of high-voltage power solutions. Based in the United Kingdom, the company offers a comprehensive portfolio of high-voltage and custom-built power conversion products ranging from 100V to 500kV designed to meet the demanding requirements of OEMs worldwide. These products target applications including semiconductor wafer processing