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'The animated map, from an anonymous researcher, is beautiful, mesmerizing — and made using highly illegal means.'
 

(graphic courtesy of The Week)
 
So, how did they do it? I'll let Peter Weber at The Week explain:

&&&

Coated Carbon Nanotubes Used to Generate Electricity

(This is a re-post from 2010)

But since it involves fossil fuels and that ol' demon carbon, Al Gore's head will explode with the wrath of Shiva, and the nanotubes will be impounded with a millstone of oppressive taxation and cast into the lowest level of Gaia's abyss.

Or something.

"Carbon nanotubes are thin sheets of carbon rolled up into teensy tubes each with a diameter about 30,000 times smaller than a strand of hair.

When carbon — one of the most abundant elements on Earth — is rolled up into tubes, it exhibits some extraordinary properties such as high heat conduction, which the team exploited in the new study.

A carbon firecracker
The researchers coated the nanotubes with a fuel, such as gasoline or ethanol, and applied heat to one end. The result: The fuel reacts and produces more heat, which ignites more fuel to create even more heat.

The process creates “a wave that travels like dominoes falling in a line [down the length of the nanotube],” said study team member Michael Strano, a chemical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The resulting heat wave, it turns out, also creates a wave of electrons moving in one direction — aka electricity.

“The thermal wave squeezes electrons out of the nanotubes like a tube of toothpaste,” Strano explained.

The devices built in the MIT lab produced 10 times more power than a lithium-ion battery of equivalent mass."

Sounds promising, in geek sorta way. Kinda like storing solar electricity via massive liquid metal batteries - which operate at 700 degrees Celsius!

I prefer nuclear power generation, but I'm silly that way.

Solyndra Building For Sale

Once the darling of the Obama Administration, Solyndra received a $535 million federal government loan guarantee in 2009.  Pres. Obama made a personal visit to the factory in 2010 to champion 'green energy.' Solyndra filed for bankruptcy in 2011. Approximately 1,100 employees lost their jobs.

In 2012, a local CBS affiliate caught on tape Solyndra employees destroying millions of dollars worth of high tech raw materials, rather than returning them to the supplier whom Solyndra owed millions of dollars.

From a disconcerted MSNBC:

"Once a site linked to the future of American manufacturing, and now the legacy of a political scandal and bankruptcy, the former Solyndra building is officially on the market.

Jones Lang LaSalle has been retained to help move the manufacturing plant in Fremont, Calif. -- all 739,232 potential square feet. (The facility could be expanded to be this big.) Since it's a bankruptcy property, and the sellers are trying to raise as much as possible at auction, there is no price range associated with the posting of the property."

Commercial real estate market analysts predict it will bring only $150 million - or half of what this political money pit cost the tax payers to build. Did I mention it's earth quake resistant? BTW, all those solar panels on the roof can generate 1.2 megawatts of electric power.

Interested parties should go to SolyndraBuilding dot com for more info.

Can I get a commission check on the sale of this building, too?

TY IP

The Roberts Electric Car gets 40 Miles per Charge

It's inventor, Charles Roberts, built the vehicle in Chicago in 1896. The two shown here are the few still road worthy examples of the machine.

"Driven by a tiller instead of a wheel, the Roberts car was built seven years before the Wright brothers’ first flight, 12 years before the Ford Model T, 16 years before Chevrolet...."

Welcome to the future.

One hundred and fifteen years later, and hundreds of billions of dollars in tax payer provided government subsidies to political cronies for pay offs and the modern electric car (like the Chevy Volt) still gets....  40 miles per charge.


That's a text book definition of 'progressive.'


So, even though electric automobiles appeared on the roads long before well known name brand gasoline vehicles, the Electrics were relegated to the dustbin. Why? Customers preferred the power, convenience and long distances gasoline engines provided in a world where leg and animal power once was the norm.

 And not too long ago, children, in a land nearby, people weren't burdened with a nanny state gub'mint determining winners and losers in the market place of ideas. These people were called 'customers' and those businesses which provided quality goods and excellent service prospered and those businesses that did not went extinct. No gub'mint waste or fraud was required!

Seriously.

Hate Cold Weather? So Do Electric Cars.

"In a car where all power is supplied by a battery pack you can see where this would be a problem. The batteries don't produce as much power so the car has less power. The batteries also have to work harder so the effective range of the car is also significantly reduced. Charge time will also be longer. Cold has a negative impact on all aspects of battery operation."

"Alongside the negative impact on the batteries cold also has a negative impact on the driver as well. Drivers need to be warm to operate the vehicle effectively so on top of the reduced range and power of the batteries just from the temperature they also must operate the car heater to keep you warm. This will further reduce the range of the car."

And if the power grid goes dark, like during the recent snow storms which pounded the U.S. East coast , these vehicles cannot be recharged.  FYI.



Because that electricity has to come from someplace.

Despite these facts, coupled with the limited battery range (40-90 miles), even under the best of conditions; limited recharging options on the road; expensive recharging options at home; the pricey purchase price tag ($35-40k) when compared to traditional gasoline models ($20k); expensive battery replacement costs ($15k); and fizzling U.S. sales (down 5.8% from previous year; poor sales figures hold true for S. Korea and other Asian nations, as well. Japan was the exception.), during his recent SOTU address to Congress, Obama set a target of putting one meeelllion electric vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015.

(is "target" allowed in the new civility?)

No doubt advances in technology will bolster battery efficiency, and improved production processes will lower unit costs, but instead of allowing market forces to determine the efficacy of this new technology, the Obama administration will use - you guessed it - your tax dollars.

For instance: $300 million for GSA's purchase of 3,100 hybrids in 2009;  $2.4 billion in grants awarded during 2009 for advanced battery and vehicle manufacturing;  personal tax credits of up $7500 for the purchase of new EVs, which Congressional Democrats are already proposing to expand (naturally);  increasing the White House vehicle research budget to $590 million (you did know the W.H. has a vehicle research budget. Of course you did); a competitive grant program offering up to $10 million apiece to 30 communities to build public recharging infrastructure for EVs; etc.

Vice President Joe Biden was on the road last week talking up this massive tax dollar give away for electric vehicle technology (me thinks V.P. Biden was conveyed about by petroleum fueled planes and cars to tout the need for electric vehicles, but I could be wrong).

"We have to create whole new industries in the 21st century,” Biden told a crowd of workers, company officials and politicians at Ener1's car battery plant about 25 miles east of Indianapolis."

Naturally, "We" means "your tax dollars."

Ener1's received $119 million grant from the Feds in 2009.

I like electric / alternative technology. I really do. But not when an entire nation is demonized by the federal government for killing the planet, and arm twisted to park this fledgling, nearly impractical EV technology in our driveways, or instructed as to what light bulb we can use in our house, or how much corn liquor is in our gasoline, or how much salt is on my french fries. I'm fed up with this smug bunch in D.C. informing me about their superior way for me to live my life, and then demanding I pay more for the privilege.

"So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them, because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted." - Sen. Barack Obama, Jan. 2008

Something tells me this smug bunch hasn't thought this through very well.

TY IP

Can a work light be sexy?

Popular Mechanics thinks so.

"Each of the Might D Light's hinged panels has 40 super-bright LEDs protected by a polycarbonate lens. The design allows you to hold the product like a lantern, stand it up, lay it down, hang it from its hook or tilt either panel so it illuminates the work surface from two angles, reducing shadows and glare. A rare-earth neodymium magnet in each panel pulls the light firmly to a steel surface, whether that's your car's fender or a washing machine you're repairing."

I want.

Cooper Lighting LED130 80 LED Rechargeable Folding Worklight. Great price. Free shipping.

Coated Carbon Nanotubes Used to Generate Electricity

But since it involves fossil fuels and that ol' demon carbon, Al Gore's head will explode with the wrath of Shiva, and the nanotubes will be impounded with a millstone of oppressive taxation and cast into the lowest level of Gaia's abyss.

Or something.

"Carbon nanotubes are thin sheets of carbon rolled up into teensy tubes each with a diameter about 30,000 times smaller than a strand of hair.

When carbon — one of the most abundant elements on Earth — is rolled up into tubes, it exhibits some extraordinary properties such as high heat conduction, which the team exploited in the new study.

A carbon firecracker
The researchers coated the nanotubes with a fuel, such as gasoline or ethanol, and applied heat to one end. The result: The fuel reacts and produces more heat, which ignites more fuel to create even more heat.

The process creates “a wave that travels like dominoes falling in a line [down the length of the nanotube],” said study team member Michael Strano, a chemical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The resulting heat wave, it turns out, also creates a wave of electrons moving in one direction — aka electricity.

“The thermal wave squeezes electrons out of the nanotubes like a tube of toothpaste,” Strano explained.

The devices built in the MIT lab produced 10 times more power than a lithium-ion battery of equivalent mass."

Sounds promising, in geek sorta way. Kinda like storing solar electricity via massive liquid metal batteries - which operate at 700 degrees Celsius!

I prefer nuclear power generation, but I'm silly that way.

Green Hypocrisy Illustrated

Because that electricity has to come from someplace.

"So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them, because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted." - Sen. Barack Obama, Jan. 2008

I prefer nuclear power generation, but I'm silly that way.

TY TS via MF & also S-L

It's Electric...

Smith EV to Assemble All-Electric Trucks in Kansas City, MO.

"Smith Electric Vehicles U.S. Corp., a Delaware corporation headquartered in Kansas City, Mo., announced March 27 its plan to assemble all-electric zero-emission commercial vehicles in Kansas City. The new assembly plant will be located at a portion of an airline overhaul base at Kansas City International (KCI) Airport and is expected to create 120 jobs by 2010. Production of the first zero-emission commercial trucks is scheduled to begin third quarter of 2009.

SEV U.S. Corp will initially focus its production on battery-electric-powered vehicles for depot-based predictable-route delivery fleets."

Frito-Lay North America and Pacific Gas & Electric have already signed letters of intent to purchase the primary production model known as the 'Smith Newton'.

"It has a range of more than 100 miles and a payload of up to 16,280 pounds. The 50-mph vehicle will use a 120 kW drive system produced by Enova Systems, and a lithium-ion iron phosphate battery pack.

Smith is also working with Ford to electrify Ford's light-duty van, the Transit Connect. That vehicle has a top speed of 70 mph, a 100-mile range and a payload of up to 1,600 pounds. Production for that van is scheduled for next year."

Oops. Evil tax breaks for corporations may have been the deal maker in this job producing scenario: Missouri gives $3M in tax incentives for Smith Electric plant.

From a democrat governor! Oh, the horror.

It's unclear if Smith EV benefited from Pres. Obama's recently announced $2.4 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) designed to spur R&D in electric vehicle technologies.

What is clear is that someone needs to tell Ol' no clean burning coal Joe that all this electricity for recharging batteries still has to come from someplace.

It's Electric...

MIT's 90 MPH Solar car to Race in the 2009 World Solar Challenge.

The rules of this contest are simple: Design and build a car capable of crossing the Australian continent on the power of sunlight!

The MIT team named the machine 'Eleanor', the Solar Race Car. I don't know why, either.

The 2009 World Solar Challenge, taking place in Australia from October 25th to 31st, will see some of the most efficient solar vehicles in the world compete in a seven day, 2,000 miles race from Darwin to Adelaide. One of the competitors will be Eleanor, the new electric race car by MIT's Solar Vehicle Team.

Helpful hint, guys. Bring lots o' drinking water!

It's Electric...

"Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it."

A super-charged lithium ion battery?

If you own a cell phone, Ipod, or laptop computer, you own a lithium ion battery. They're long lasting - and take a long time to recharge. In small electronic items that's not a huge problem, but in the blossoming electric automobile technology, it's an interminably long one. Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) appear to have found a solution:

"In an attempt to pick up the pace, the M.I.T. researchers coated the lithium iron phosphate material with an ion conductor, which in this case was a layer of glasslike lithium phosphate. Sure enough, the charge-carrying ions traveled much faster from their storage medium; a prototype battery the scientists built completely charged in about 10 to 20 seconds.

The results have impressed some battery experts. "I think this work is a really exciting breakthrough with clear commercial applications," says Yi Cui, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at Stanford University.

Two companies have already licensed the technology, according to Kang. Researchers are not sure how much these batteries will cost when they hit the market, but Kang says they should be reasonably priced, given that it should be relatively cheap to produce them."

There's still big hurdles to over come in electric auto tech. For example: Current shelf life is only about 3 years, whether you use them or not; Lithium ion batteries are degraded by their own generated heat, and in extremely, very rare cases have been known to burst into flames; Plus Li-ion batteries are drastically damaged by a deep recharge cycle, and ruined when completely discharged (you know how frustrated you get when you're s.o. drives on fumes...?)

Oh. Don't forget to tell Ol' no clean burning coal Joe that this electricity still has to come from someplace.

It's Electric...

Inventor unveils rechargeable SunCat Batteries via mini-solar panels.

All together: Now why didn't I think of that!

TY OG!

It's electric...

UMich develops 'fish technology' to produce electric power from slow water currents.

Yes, really. Michael Bernitsas, a professor in the U-M Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering developed the technology and a prototype device.

"VIVACE is the first known device that could harness energy from most of the water currents around the globe because it works in flows moving slower than 2 knots (about 2 miles per hour.) Most of the Earth's currents are slower than 3 knots. Turbines and water mills need an average of 5 or 6 knots to operate efficiently.

VIVACE stands for Vortex Induced Vibrations for Aquatic Clean Energy. It doesn't depend on waves, tides, turbines or dams. It's a unique hydrokinetic energy system that relies on "vortex induced vibrations.

Here's how VIVACE works: The very presence of the cylinder in the current causes alternating vortices to form above and below the cylinder. The vortices push and pull the passive cylinder up and down on its springs, creating mechanical energy. Then, the machine converts the mechanical energy into electricity.

Bernitsas says VIVACE energy would cost about 5.5 cents per kilowatt hour. Wind energy costs 6.9 cents a kilowatt hour. Nuclear costs 4.6, and solar power costs between 16 and 48 cents per kilowatt hour depending on the location.

The researchers recently completed a feasibility study that found the device could draw power from the Detroit River. They are working to deploy one for a pilot project there within the 18 months.

This work has been supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation, the Detroit/Wayne County Port Autrhority, the DTE Energy Foundation, Michigan Universities Commercialization Initiative, and the Link Foundation. The technology is being commercialized through Bernitsas' company, Vortex Hydro Energy."

TY GM

It's electric...

Lower cost, higher output wind turbines in the works.

"ExRo Technologies, a startup based in Vancouver, BC, has developed a new kind of generator that's well suited to harvesting energy from wind. It could lower the cost of wind turbines while increasing their power output by 50 percent.

The new generator runs efficiently over a wider range of conditions than conventional generators do. ExRo's new design replaces a mechanical transmission with what amounts to an electronic one. That increases the range of wind speeds at which it can operate efficiently and makes it more responsive to sudden gusts and lulls.

ExRo has developed and tested a lab-scale prototype. Its estimates of increased power production come from models that use data from existing wind-turbine sites. By the end of this year or early next year, the company will begin field-testing a small, five-kilowatt wind turbine. Ritchey says that the company won't have firm figures for power production until those tests are complete. The next step will be to install larger, megawatt-scale generators in existing wind turbines."

For the full article, click here.

TY FiD

It's electric...

Cylindrical Solar Cells boost efficiency and electrical output.

"With a cylinder, we are collecting light from all angles, even collecting diffuse light," says CEO Chris Gronet, who founded the solar cylinder company in 2005 based on an idea he had late one night while pondering less expensive ways to install photovoltaic panels. Because the arrays do not have to be angled or anchored into the roof, he adds, "we have half the installation cost and can install in one third the time."

As it stands, Solyndra's CIGS solar cells convert as much as 14 percent of the sunlight that hits them to electricity and, all told, Gronet expects that a Solyndra system will deliver twice as many kilowatt-hours of electricity from a given rooftop.

The cylindrical design also allows Solyndra to lay its arrays flat and to space them so that the wind can flow through them, rather than lift them up like it can with angled arrays. This means that the solar cylinders can be installed without affixing them onto the roof—and still withstand up to 130 mile-per-hour (209 kilometer-per-hour) winds.

It's electric...

It's cramped, quiet, goes from 0-60 in 5 seconds and tops out at 120 MPH.

Oh, it also has a plug. You maybe can buy one in 2010.

All that comes from a 200kW motor -- 268 hp in traditional gearhead terms -- that makes a wheelspinning 650 Nm, or 480 lb-ft of torque...

What's equally impressive is Chrysler's goal of delivering somewhere between 150 and 200 miles of range per charge. The midship-mounted lithium-ion battery pack should require an overnight charge plugged into a standard outlet, and less than half of it if you set up a 220-volt quick charger.

Motor Trend test drives the Dodge EV.

I have my doubts about the 200 mile per charge range, but if it's true, that will be one of the biggest hurdles for consumer demand since we're spoiled by far ranging gasoline predecessors.

That and sticker price. Plus Biden's confusion on clean burning coal plants. Hey, that electricity has to come from someplace!

Chrysler & Jeep have their lithium-ion battery offerings, too.

It's a brave new world, boys n girls.

It's electric...

And gasoline. But the 1.0-liter, three-cylinder internal combustion engine simply powers a generator which recharges a pack of lithium-ion batteries.

The ‘Chevy Volt’ hits the road - in beta mode only. It's the flailing General Motors Corporation's entry into the hybrid market.

But, like most prototype productions cutting new teeth, it's over priced. Guestimates are around $35,000 to $40,000. GM test runs claim top end of 80 MPH, but a very limited range of just 40 miles per recharge. I wonder if the Marshal will allow it on the golf course?

GM predicts that ‘real’ prototypes wearing the actual Volt bodywork will be running around by next spring. Production models should be available just over a year after that. “We’re good for November 2010,” says GM’s vice chairman, Bob Lutz.

But will the lithium-ion battery tech be obsolete before the showroom models even arrive? Texas based Eestor Corp. says, "Yes".




PS: Keep "your" money, John McCain. American ingenuity will survive just fine without gub'mint intervention (and strings), thank you very much.

Victoria's Circuit: the power of breast motion.

No, this ain't some one handed, beta-male geek freak. And my interest in this mechanical mammary motion is strictly academic. Of course.

Actually, a woman, Adrienne So, wrote this article, and investigates the possibility of harnessing the often annoying (to women) kinetic energy inherent in an athletic female.

"Then one day recently I had an idea. As I rode public transportation to the office, my messenger bag slung uncomfortably across my chest, I thought, "Why not put the girls to work?" Human-powered devices are showing up everywhere, from Rotterdam's sustainable dance floor to human-powered gyms in Hong Kong. The time seemed perfect—perhaps even overdue!—for a bra that could harness the untapped power of breast motion.

Of course, even a bra that perfectly maximized motion (without sacrificing support and comfort) would be useful to me only if there were a way to turn that motion into energy.

For a primer on how to do that, I turned to Professor Zhong Lin Wang of Georgia Tech, who is currently working to develop fabric made from nanowires that will capture energy from motion. Wang's wires are about 1/1,000th the width of a human hair. When woven together in a fabric, these nanowires rub up against one another and convert the mechanical energy from the friction into an electric charge.

A square meter of fiber produces about 80 milliwatts of power, which is enough to run a small device like a cell phone. Wang expects to have a shirt available for purchase within five years."

I love science.

Japanese create big busted, kissing 'girl' robot

The good news: 'she' only costs $175. The bad news: it's a robot! you twit. (video)

"She's very lovable and though she's not a human, she can act like a real girlfriend," said Minako Sakanoue, a spokeswoman for the maker, Sega Toys.

Using her infrared sensors and battery power, the diminutive damsel named "EMA" puckers up for nearby human heads, entering what designers call its "love mode".

Japan, home to almost half the world's 800,000 industrial robots, envisions a $10-billion market for artificial intelligence in a decade.

Krykee. We hardy deserve evolutionary success.

It's electric...

Honda announces production of an all electric/fuel cell car - the FCX Clarity.

Fuel-cell vehicles are widely considered the ultimate longer-term alternative to today's conventional cars as they run on an inexhaustible and cheaper source of fuel -- hydrogen, have no harmful exhaust emissions, and do not compromise driving performance.

The vehicle, which uses a lithium-ion battery, can run 620 km (385 miles) on a single fueling as measured under Japan's fuel efficiency test method, and has a top speed of 160 km per hour (99 mph)(!).

Apparently, electricity and water vapor are the only by-products of this hydrogen cell technology, although this technology may be a class action parasite lawyer magnet as hydrogen is an extremely flammable gas (think Hindenburg Zepplin c. 1937), and much harder to transport and dispense compared to liquid gasoline.

But, I'll leave that to smarter people than moi.

The FCX Clarity will be sold through a newly established fuel-cell vehicle dealership network in the United States from July, Honda said. In Japan, sales are slated to start in autumn.

The main hurdles for their proliferation are a lack of fueling stations and the high cost of development.