Archive for the 'Technology' Category
VW: Auto Industry Needs 40 Giga Factories by 2025
July 10th, 2017Via: Automotive News Europe: A massive shortage of lithium ion battery cells could plague the global car industry in the coming decade if capacity equivalent to 40 Tesla gigafactories is not added by 2025, according to estimates from Volkswagen Group. Ulrich Eichhorn, head of r&d for the world’s largest carmaker, increased projections made just 13 […]
Genetically-Modified Cyborg Dragonfly Drone
July 10th, 2017Via: Popular Mechanics: DragonflEye was created by genetically modifying regular dragonflies with “steering neurons” in the insect’s spinal cord, which are light sensitive. Tiny, fiber-optic-like structures in the dragonfly’s eyes send pulses of light to their brains, functionally controlling where the insect flies via remote control. The dragonfly also carries a miniature “backpack” with sensors […]
Cryptocurrency Miners Wipe Out Supplies of Graphics Cards in U.S. and Europe
July 10th, 2017I’m trying to understand the logic of people trying to mine Ether with GTX 1070s costing between $500 and $600 or more right now!? These cards launched with a retail price of $349 for the commodity models. (Fancy factory overclocked or water cooled models would cost more.) The situation is even worse on AMD RX […]
Houston Startup Plans to Store Wind Energy Underground
July 8th, 2017Via: Houston Chronicle: Texans have long stored oil, natural gas and other forms of energy in underground salt caverns, so it’s only natural that a Houston startup wants to store wind energy there, too. The method is in the company’s name, Apex-CAES, where CAES stands for compressed air energy storage. The company plans to use […]
Tertill: Solar Powered Weeding Robot
July 8th, 2017Via: IEEE: Tertill is a solar-powered, weed-destroying, fully autonomous and completely self-contained robot designed for your garden. Put it out there, forget about it (mostly), and it will brutally exterminate any weeds that it can find, as long as they’re short.
100 MW/129 MWh Powerpack System for South Australia
July 7th, 2017Via: Tesla: This week, through a competitive bidding process, Tesla was selected to provide a 100 MW/129 MWh Powerpack system to be paired with global renewable energy provider Neoen’s Hornsdale Wind Farm near Jamestown, South Australia. Tesla was awarded the entire energy storage system component of the project. Tesla Powerpack will charge using renewable energy […]
Facebook’s Company Town
July 7th, 2017Via: Mercury News: Aiming to address long-neglected community needs and to accommodate its burgeoning workforce, Facebook has proposed a vast expansion of its Menlo Park campus. The new campus would include several office buildings, hundreds of homes, retail, a grocery store, and parks and plazas, all part of what the social network giant envisions as […]
Tony Seba: Clean Disruption – Energy & Transportation
July 7th, 2017Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — Via: Colorado Renewable Energy Society (CRES):
Volvo: All Vehicle Models After 2019 Will Be Electric of Hybrids
July 5th, 2017Via: Reuters: All Volvo car models launched after 2019 will be electric or hybrids, the Chinese-owned company said on Wednesday, making it the first major traditional automaker to set a date for phasing out vehicles powered solely by the internal combustion engine. The Sweden-based company will continue to produce pure combustion-engine Volvos from models launched […]
Tesla Powerwall 2 User Discussion Thread
July 3rd, 2017Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — There is very little concrete information publicly available about the Powerwall 2’s actual capabilities. I think that the reason for Tesla’s coyness is that they are still heavily iterating on the systems that have been sold to customers. Tesla does this with cars that people […]
