Archive for the 'Energy' Category
Battery Prices Dropping Faster Than Predicted
April 9th, 2015Via: Bloomberg: The most important piece of news on the energy front isn’t the plunge in oil prices, but the progress that is being made in battery technology. A new study in Nature Climate Change, by Bjorn Nykvist and Mans Nilsson of the Stockholm Environment Institute, shows that electric vehicle batteries have been getting cheaper […]
Stanford: New Aluminum-Ion Battery, “7,500 Cycles Without Any Loss of Capacity”
April 7th, 2015Non toxic. Very safe. Does it scale? Hope so. It’s nowhere near market ready, but exciting anyway. Via: Stanford University: Stanford University scientists have invented the first high-performance aluminum battery that’s fast-charging, long-lasting and inexpensive. Researchers say the new technology offers a safe alternative to many commercial batteries in wide use today. “We have developed […]
Inexpensive Electric Cars Sooner Rather Than Later?
April 6th, 2015Via: MIT Technology Review: Electric cars may seem like a niche product that only wealthy people can afford, but a new analysis suggests that they may be close to competing with or even beating gas cars on cost. The true cost of lithium-ion batteries in electric cars is a secret closely held by manufacturers. And […]
Turkey Power Outage Shuts Down Public Transportation and Half of Provinces
April 1st, 2015Via: Guardian: A huge power cut has caused chaos and shut down public transport on Tuesday across Turkey, with the government refusing to rule out that the electricity system had been the victim of an attack. The nationwide power cut, the worst in 15 years, began about 10.36am in Istanbul, the state-run Anatolia news agency […]
Some of Tesla’s Papers Remain Classified by U.S. Government
March 25th, 2015This is from 2013. Via: National Geographic: 5. Many of Tesla’s inventions were classified. When Tesla died in 1943, during World War II, the Office of Alien Property took his belongings, Alcorn said. Most of his things were later released to his family, and many ended up in the Tesla Museum in Belgrade, which opened […]
France Decrees New Commercial Buildings Must Be Partially Covered in Plants or Solar Panels
March 20th, 2015Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — While I’d be thrilled to see more commercial buildings with plants and solar panels on top of them, I’m not so thrilled with the strong arm legislation used to get there. On the overall scheme of things, green rooftops and solar panel systems would be […]
Oil Supplies Hit 80-Year High
March 18th, 2015Via: Yahoo: WTI crude (CLJ15.NYM) prices are taking another leg down, hovering at the $42 a barrel level after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that “U.S. crude oil inventories are at the highest level for this time of year in at least the last 80 years.” EIA reported commercial crude inventories increased by 9.6 […]
Makani: Google’s Energy Harvesting Kites
March 17th, 2015Via: Google: Makani is working to accelerate the shift to clean, renewable energy by developing energy kites, a new type of wind turbine that uses lightweight electronics, advanced materials, and smart software to generate more energy with less materials—all at lower cost.
How About That Erl?
March 17th, 2015Via: MarketWatch: U.S. oil prices were dipping lower in early Tuesday trade after sinking to a six-year low on persistent worries about a supply glut on Monday. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in April CLJ5, -1.78% traded at $42.85 a barrel, down $1.04, or 2.4%, from Monday’s settlement […]
Flashback: “Oil Industry Helps Solve Radioactive Waste Problem”
March 16th, 2015Via: Truthstream Media: Truthstream uncovered several published newspaper accounts from the Spring of 1964 concerning a then-newly disclosed plan to dump nuclear waste produced by the atomic energy industry into hydraulic fracturing (fracking) wells using a cement slurry technique developed by Halliburton & Co. The top two fracking companies in the nation at the time […]
