Items tagged with Energy
Tesla has just made it official that its much-anticipated Gigafactory will have its grand opening on July 29th. The company itself hasn't issued a public statement on this event, but invites have already been sent out to Tesla owners and others in Tesla's good graces. To say that those who get invited by Tesla is an exclusive club would be an understatement. To qualify for the invite, a person had to act as a referrer to at least five others who ultimately ended up purchasing a Model S. Think being able to purchase a Model S is a luxury? Imagine being able to convince five (or more) friends to snatch one up, too! Tesla's Gigafactory 1 should help reduce the cost of its vehicle batteries...
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There are few who would disagree that solar energy is an amazing thing. It's not really "free" energy per se, in the grand scheme of things, given that absorbing solar rays requires expensive equipment to harvest energy from the sun. However, beyond that little barrier to entry, solar is becoming more practical as an alternative energy source and the future looks, well, bright. One of the perks of solar energy is that it's also usually safer than providing power through other means (like nuclear, for example), but that doesn't mean that flukes can't happen. Remember when you were young and your mother told you to be careful where you aimed that magnifying glass on a sunny day? Well,...
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Facebook on Wednesday announced plans to build a new data center in Fort Worth, Texas. This will be the social network's fifth data center, with the other four located in Altoona, Iowa; Prineville, Oregon; Forest City, North Carolina; and Luleå, Sweden. It will be one of the most advanced, efficient, and sustainable data centers in the world, as it will be powered by 100 percent renewable energy. To help make that possible, Facebook is constructing a 200-megawatt wind energy plant on 17,000 acres located about 90 miles away in Clay County. That's overshooting Facebook's needs, so spare energy will go into the local grid via Citigroup Energy, Alterra Power Corporation, and Starwood Energy Group....
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Last month HotHardware reported on how Ohio-based Nikola Labs wowed the crowd at the Disrupt conference — and the Internet — by presenting a smartphone case. Of course, it didn't trot out one of your typical keep-the-dings-off smartphone cases, though, but one that can capture the 90 percent of waste energy pumped out by a typical smartphone in the form of radio frequencies (RF), and convert that energy into DC power that can be channeled back into the encased device to provide it with a 30% energy boost. Science or science-fiction? Too good to be true? The punditry and would-be scientists served and volleyed the idea for a cycle or two, weighing...
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Mobile phones charged with energy taken out of thin air. What sounds like a modern take on a very old magic trick is actually the Unique Selling Proposition of a smartphone case developed by Nikola Labs and presented for the first time on Monday at the TechCrunch Disrupt event taking place this week in New York City (the Ohio-based company was selected to pitch to the crowd "after being selected by the TechCrunch editorial team and the audience"). According to its developers, the Nikola Labs case is able to use its proprietary energy harvesting circuit to capture the 90 percent of waste energy that a smartphone pumps out in the form of radio frequencies (RF) — Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, LTE,...
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In terms of overall capabilities, both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are a good improvement over the previous generation. But, one thing that's not been talked about too much is that with these increased capabilities have come higher power requirements - and the differences are somewhat staggering. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, both of the "next-gen" consoles can draw up to 2 or 3x the power of the previous generation. That's a massive leap, given it's generally expected that future consoles will be faster, but more power-efficient. So, what's responsible? The biggest reason is that both consoles will be regularly used for non-gaming content, and for those purposes, the...
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It's still pretty impressive to think that Nest makes only a thermostat, yet the design and engineering has garnered praise from all over. Soon, however, it looks as if Nest will move to the next level as a company. Today, it acquired MyEnergy, a company that will reportedly help Nest "help people understand and address home-energy consumption." The acquisition also accelerates Nest's services for energy providers, giving them a cost-effective way to share data with their customers. MyEnergy has users in all 50 U.S. states and spans more than 1,500 utility territories, allowing people to track their electric, gas, and water usage in one place online. "Giving our customers more in-depth access...
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In the midst of Google's Android growth, Chrome explosion, Chromebook entries and Fiber roll-outs, it's actually easy to forget that Google does other things as well. There's search, Glass, and energy. Yes, energy. Google has been dabbling in energy for some time now, which makes sense given the tremendous amount of power that it uses worldwide. This week, the company announced an expansion of options for companies to buy renewable energy. To date, Google has committed more than $1 billion to renewable energy project investments, signed agreements to procure wind power near our data centers, and installed solar panels at our corporate headquarters. To go along with that, Google is expanding its...
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In the world of consumer technology, innovation is moving ahead at a breakneck pace. But there's one area in particular that's struggling mightily: batteries. We just can't seem to keep up with power demands, and as newer and faster gizmos come out, it's requiring an awful lot of energy to keep them lit and online through all hours of the day. So, if we can't make batteries any better, stronger or longer-lasting in the short term, how about making them recharge 1000 times faster? That's the idea put forth by a new project out of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. These new microbatteries are said to "out-power even the best supercapacitors and could drive new applications in radio...
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In the race for "smaller, faster, better," memory chip makers probably have it the toughest. They're already dealing with immensely small objects, but as software evolves, we're sure in need of lots more of the stuff to keep our app addiction on course. One of the troubles, however, is power consumption. Most consumers probably don't realize just how much energy is sucked out of their laptop, tablet and phone by nature of RAM being in there, and that's one of the things that Toshiba is looking to address with its latest introduction. The company this week announced the development of an innovative low-power technology for embedded SRAM for application in smart phones and other mobile products....
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Wireless power feels like one of those technologies that really should have taken off by now, but it just hasn't. And it's really tough to pin down exactly why that's the case. Every year about this time, usually during the CES before-and-after period, we start to hear rumblings all over again. Now, Texas Instruments is announcing that it has joined the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP). TI will continue to develop new bqTESLA wireless power receiver and transmitter integrated circuits that comply with existing and future versions of the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) Qi standard, and also create products that support the A4WP magnetic resonance specification. Organized in April, A4WP is a...
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Now that Facebook's a properly official public company, it'll be doing things it never had to do before. Things like "being transparent." With the world watching, the company is a much different place, but even before the IPO, it looks as if Facebook was tracking something that'll be highly important in the years ahead. Following in the footsteps of countless other technology mainstays, Facebook has just announced its 2011 carbon footprint, energy mix and energy use. Why? According to the company, it's making the move because it "believes in the power of openness, and because it hopes that adding another data point to our collective understanding of our industry’s environmental impact will...
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Around here, we're always looking for more juice. More battery life. Another AC outlet. Wireless charging, for the masses. We aren't quite living in "the future," but Sanho has been providing portable power for a long, long while. Now, the company's introducing a new product, the HyperJuice Plug. It's a colorful battery pack that claims to be the world's first 15,600mAh portable pack that can charge two iPads at the same time. It also includes a retractable wall plug, two USB sockets and a realistic price point. It'll distribute 15W of energy over two USB ports, always delivering the maximum required charging power to connected USB devices. Many people have bemoaned the fact that iPad will only...
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Outside of wireless power, having a display that can actually recycle energy might be the other holy grail of consumer electronics energy. Now, researchers from UCLA have created a new technology that may bring this dream into reality. The new technology uses photovoltaic polarizers in order to turn ordinary LCDs into ones that could be powered by sunlight and their own backlight. This technology allows the displays to convert ambient light, sunlight and their own backlight into electricity. The energy-harvesting polarizer for LCDs (something called a polarizing organic photovoltaic) can potentially boost the function of an LCD by working simultaneously as a polarizer, a photovoltaic device...
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The massive earthquake, and resulting tsunami, that struck Japan in March is still fresh in the minds of those who populate the island nation, and the after-effects will be felt for months and months to come. But one of the most beautiful things about technology is how it enables one to lend a hand to another. Maybe it's a comforting e-mail. Maybe it's bailing someone out by phoning in an answer. Or maybe it's the re-purposing of a robot to help with the clean-up efforts in Japan. The U.S. Department of Energy has been working around the clock to modify a TALON robot, a remotely-controlled device that will now be used to inspect reactors and provide analytical data to officials. The modified...
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Have you ever left for vacation and forgot to change the thermostat? Although it may not be worth flying home for, setting the thermostat a few degrees higher while you're away from home can save on cooling costs (especially if you'll be gone for a few days). Thanks to a new offering from TXU Energy, Texans can now use a smartphone to manage and adjust their home's temperature. The new service is available for users of the TXU Energy iThermostat. With the thermostat and new TXU Energy iThermostat mobile website (txu.com/control), you can manage your home's heating and air conditioning. The website is compatible with the latest models of Apple iPhone, Apple iPod touch, Apple iPad, BlackBerry...
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Oh, batteries. Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em. It sounds like a power ballad, but it's the story of our lives around here. We've been dealing with lofty promises and batteries that kick the bucket far too early, for years now. And the fact that we're still dealing with lead-acid batteries is sort of a baffling thing to wrap one's mind around. But all of that just might be changing. We won't get our hopes too high until fuel cells become the viable alternative that we have been told that they are, but we strangely have more faith in a vegetable than a science lab to revolutionize the battery. A vegetable? Yes, indeed. Yissum Research Development Company Ltd., the technology...
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Energy creation has been a huge, huge matter over the past few years. Researchers have turned to "green power" in order to generation electricity from varied renewable resources, but one area that has stumped science for awhile now is the ability to harness energy from movements that we make every day. Imagine if a roadway could generate energy simply by the heat and friction felt from tires passing over it. What if a battery pack on your body could harness energy from friction produced in your gait? The latter is becoming closer and closer to reality, all thanks to innovative research happening at UC Berkeley. Researchers at the university have recently made great strides in producing microscopic...
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Mother Earth may be hurting from that oil spill down in the Gulf, but there's still some bright news on the "green" front: the new, tougher Energy Star standard went into effect this week, making it tougher for companies to ship and sell gizmos that aren't power efficient. Beginning on May 1, the new Energy Star 4.0 standard for televisions will go into effect, and while the standard was announced last September, it hasn't officially been the latest and greatest until now. With the new standard, the "maximum amount of power an Energy Star TV can consume will drop by about 40 percent." After May 1, no televisions will be able to be manufacturerd will be able to carry an Energy Star logo unless...
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Intel Intelligent Home Energy Management Energy-efficient computing based on Intel architecture now brings power-saving energy controls to your home. The Intel Atom processor is the heart of a low-power embedded computing panel designed to exchange monitoring and control data with smart appliances, smart plugs, smart electric utility meters and sensors located throughout the home. Intel recently demonstrated at their Tech Heaven event, a concept design for a central control center that provides family members with information to not only control utility costs, but also help them plan their daily activities, access personal messages and activate home security systems. See more about how Intel...
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Not that any of you bother to RTFM (Google it) anyway, but for what it's worth, Ubisoft is doing away with paper-based manuals and replacing them with in-game digital copies instead. The new initiative applies to games for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3, starting with Shaun White Skateboarding this holiday 2010, Ubisoft said. "It's pretty cool that Ubisoft is making a conscious effort to go green with its new video game packaging," commented Olympic Gold Medalist Shaun White. "I'm excited for my new skateboarding game to come out and stoked that it will be the very first Ubisoft game to be part of their green packaging initiative." According to Ubisoft's internal research, producing one...
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Few institutions impact the world of consumer electronics as often as MIT, and it's a known fact that the entity has been working towards wireless power for years now. Wireless power remains one of the Holy Grails of electronics; even with wireless video and audio solutions in the market, there's still a power requirement that demands at least one cable. It's the reason that wireless surround speakers can't easily be mounted anywhere; you still have to run power to each one, or at least signal wires with power running through them. But MIT is getting closer and closer to making wireless energy a reality. The latest research shows that efficient actually improves when multiple devices are charged...
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