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Archive for the ‘energy’ category: Page 174

Nov 8, 2019

Engineers aren’t trained to be ethical—and that needs to change

Posted by in categories: business, energy

This summer, the FaceApp debate exploded on social media, as people questioned the motives of the Russian engineers behind the technology that scanned millions of people’s faces, with no indication of what happened to the data given to the app.

Privacy is presumably top of mind for the general public, but people’s urge to literally see the face of their own future selves seemed to outweigh that threat.

FaceApp may serve no benefit beyond entertainment. But today, every company effectively becomes a tech company by leveraging advanced data analytics to fuel their business.

Nov 7, 2019

French Scientist Invents Machine that Can Turn Plastic into Diesel and Gasoline

Posted by in category: energy

French inventor figures out how to turn plastic waste into fuel.

Nov 7, 2019

Israeli develops piston engine that runs on water, alcohol – no gas

Posted by in categories: energy, finance, transportation

MayMaan’s potential, explains Doron Shmueli, extends beyond the financial significance of replacing gasoline with water and ethanol. “It is geopolitical. There is a huge advantage to taking away the importance of fuel from terror-sponsoring countries. Countries like China vote against us in the UN because they are blackmailed by those countries.”

Eitan predicts that their water and ethanol-based fuel technology will eventually trickle down to passenger cars, but that it will take time, due to the conservative nature of the auto industry, which is currently embracing electric technology.

When Yehuda showed his revolutionary technology to Nakash, he advised him not to publicize the product, but remain in “stealth mode,” until the product was fully developed. “We have stayed under the radar for the past six years, but we decided that this is the right time to expose ourselves and talk to people and let the world know that such a solution exists,” says Yehuda.

Nov 5, 2019

What’s Next: Vehicles driven by electromagnetic propulsion technology

Posted by in categories: energy, transportation

When we think about eco-friendly vehicles, most of the time we think about electric and hybrid vehicles. At other times, we might even go as far as coming up with vehicles that operate on bio, solar or wind energy. However, this is not all. There are innovations that are breaking all the barriers of thought and technology. One such innovation is electromagnetic propulsion technology. We are seeing many vehicle designs that are utilizing it. Therefore, it would be no wonder if it becomes mainstream in our distant future.

Vehicles driven by electromagnetic propulsion technology

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Nov 4, 2019

New Battery Lets Electric Cars Go 200 Miles on a 10-Minute Charge

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability, transportation

While some high – end electric vehicles ( like the most expensive Teslas ) are starting to approach those kinds of ranges, it still takes around 50 minutes for a full charge using the most powerful superchargers available. That’s a long time to hang around if you’re doing a cross-country trip that requires multiple pit stops.

The result is range anxiety, where people worry about running out of juice and facing delays due to the long time it takes to recharge their car s. There are two ways to tackle the problem: building higher-capacity batteries or charging existing ones faster.

Bigger batteries are a tricky problem, because vehicles face a balancing act between weight an d capacity. After a certain point the extra weight of batteries cancels out the boost in power they provide. There’s plenty of work into batteries with better energy density—how much charge they can hold for a specific weight—but there aren’t any major breakthroughs on the horizon.

Oct 30, 2019

Researchers transmit energy with laser in ‘historic’ power-beaming demonstration

Posted by in categories: energy, military

It was the second day of a three-day-long tech demonstration at the David Taylor Model Basin at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Bethesda, Maryland, where attendees had gathered to stand around in the dark to look at something they mostly couldn’t see.

It was a long-range, free-space power beaming system — the first of its kind. Attendees that day, May 23, could see the system itself—the two 13-foot-high towers, one a 2-kilowatt laser transmitter, the other a receiver of specially designed photovoltaics. But the important part, the laser that was beaming 400 watts of power across 325 meters, from the transmitter to the receiver, was invisible to the naked eye.

Oct 30, 2019

A US transit industry first: TriMet’s new electric buses powered entirely by wind

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability, transportation

In what is believed to be a transit industry first in the United States, TriMet’s all-electric buses will be powered by 100 percent wind energy. TriMet and project partner Portland General Electric made the historic announcement on Tuesday, April 16, 2019. As Oregon’s largest transit provider, TriMet has committed to a non-diesel bus fleet by 2040. The initial journey toward a non-diesel fleet now begins with battery-electric buses that will be powered by PGE’s Clean Wind℠ renewable energy program.

“Today, we are riding the winds of change. TriMet’s commitment to a zero-emissions bus fleet by 2040 and support of wind power put the agency and our region at the forefront of a cleaner future.”

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Oct 26, 2019

Toyota is working on innovating a solar-powered electric car that can ‘run forever’ and never needs charging

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability, transportation

Coupled with a high enough battery capacity to keep a vehicle running during darker hours, solar-powered cars have the potential to completely outdo other new types of tech that are currently in the pipeline — from hybrid vehicles to hydrogen-powered cars.


  • Toyota, Sharp, and NEDO have teamed up to manufacture a unique car that could “run forever”, according to Bloomberg.
  • There have been promising advances in developing thin enough solar panels for curved surfaces, as well as in tech for charging vehicles while they’re in motion.
  • The solar cells the companies are working on attaching to the car are only 0.03 mm thick, so they can be attached to curved areas on cars like the roof, the hood, or the hatchback.
  • By pairing more efficient solar cells with high-capacity batteries to keep vehicles running at night, solar cars have the potential to outperform hybrid vehicles and hydrogen-powered cars.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

A solar-powered electric car that runs without needing charging may sound impossible, but Toyota, Sharp, and NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization of Japan) have joined forces to hopefully make it a reality.

By pairing together the best solar panels on the market with the most efficient batteries available — not to mention years worth of experience with car-manufacturing — the companies are hoping, theoretically, to produce a vehicle that might run forever.

Oct 25, 2019

Alphabet’s Makani Tests Wind Energy Kites In The North Sea IEEE Spectrum

Posted by in categories: drones, energy, engineering, sustainability

The idea is simple: Send kites or tethered drones hundreds of meters up in the sky to generate electricity from the persistent winds aloft. With such technologies, it might even be possible to produce wind energy around the clock. However, the engineering required to realize this vision is still very much a work in progress.

Dozens of companies and researchers devoted to developing technologies that produce wind power while adrift high in the sky gathered at a conference in Glasgow, Scotland last week. They presented studies, experiments, field tests, and simulations describing the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of various technologies collectively described as airborne wind energy (AWE).

Continue reading “Alphabet’s Makani Tests Wind Energy Kites In The North Sea IEEE Spectrum” »

Oct 24, 2019

This Type of Algae Absorbs More Light for Photosynthesis Than Other Plants

Posted by in category: energy

Though evolutionary mergers between cells, some algae have developed the ability to convert a wider spectrum of light energy into sugars.