Hitachi Appliances has unveiled air-conditioners that are intelligent, in the sense; it can detect the locations of their remotes and intensively heat or cool the air around it. This will help to save around 14% of electricity when they are being used as heaters. This function can be activated by using the Area Eco operation and then the air conditioner will determine the location of the remote and sends air to its surroundings. The indoor unit is equipped with three infrared transmitter diodes, which are directed to the right, center and left. It will also determine the horizontal location of the remote based on which transmitter diode sent signals that were received by the remote. With this kind of function, it is possible to save at least 14% of electricity in heating operation and up to about 25% of electricity in cooling operations. Eight types of Hitachi air-conditioners are set to be released with power consumption ranging from 2.2 kW to 7.1 kW. The models will be launched early in December 2009 especially the 6.3 kW and 7.1 kW and the other models by early November.

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Panasonic has announced that it will be developing a battery charger with a 200V power outlet for electric vehicles which will be available from June 2010. Elseev, the name given to the charger can be installed outdoors and is mainly for the public facilities like municipal offices and libraries and also parking areas of private companies. The dimensions of the charger are 280 x 210 x 1600mm and have one 200V outlet unit. There is a key lock and also an interlock for added safety. The price of the charger is expected to be 200,000 Japanese yen which is approximately US$ 2200. The company is also planning such type of chargers for individual houses but that will a little later most probably when EV and hybrid vehicles become a common sight.

[Techon]

Purdue University researchers have claimed they have a got a breakthrough that could change the entire face of the cooling designs currently done by engineers for the electronics ranging from cars to computers. Suresh Garimella, the R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University, and doctoral student Tannaz Harirchia, have developed and tested new mathematical formulas concerning the properties of boiling liquids in microchannels. As for those who don’t know what microchannels are which includes me too, microchannels are nothing but tiny channels through which fluid is directed in some types of high-power electronic cooling systems. These researchers have been on this for quite some time now. The details of this breakthrough will be presented on October 8 in Belgium at Therminic 2009 which is an annual conference on thermal research and technology for microelectronics. This research has been funded by Indiana’s 21st Century Research and Technology Fund and Purdue based National Science Foundation Cooling Technologies Research Center.

[Cnet]

A bank chain in California will be setting up electric car charge stations that will be equipped with solar-photovoltaic panels. Solar installer SolarCity and Rabobank has unveiled the first charge point near a bank branch in Santa Maria. The bank plans to build a network of four charging stations from Los Angeles to San Francisco and is considering putting solar panels on the buildings. The company owns the solar panels at the Santa Maria location and sells the electricity they generate to the bank. The bank does not plan to charge customers to access the charge points. The station at Santa Maria can generate around 30,000 watts and also has a net meter that runs backward when the panels are producing more electricity than the bank is consuming. These charging stations have been funded by California Air Resource Board. These kind of charging stations are zero-emission in the true sense.

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Everyone is going electric these days and it is the same for the Phantom I guess too and why not! This mammoth of a vehicle can drink a lot of gasoline like it is water. But will an all-electric battery support this giant? Of course, there are issues that have to be overcome, most importantly being the battery for the three ton vehicle. The battery would be featuring lithium ion cells. These rumors if you would have noticed are not very new and hot but the latest addition to this old rumor is the range extender.

[Autoblog]

The construction was stopped way back in November 2008 of the Filene development that was being carried out in downtown Boston. The building barely has a shell. The bones of the building are already there but sub street level there is a giant hole that leaves a gouge in the city’s plan. But Howeler and Yoon Architecture and Squared Design have not lost hope yet and they have teamed up to design a vertical tower of prefabricated eco-pods filled with bio-fuel producing algae for the space. This new tower would become the new center for testing new algae species and different growing methods.

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In just another 3 or 4 months you could be carrying a bag that will be able to charge your mobile, iPod or even your laptop. Konarka Technologies has launched the Power Plastic 20 series that are a new line of solar panels for portable charging applications. The solar company has developed a flexible photovoltaic material that converts light into energy. This can be used in carrying bags, café umbrellas and battery chargers for lighting, mobile phones and other mobile devices.

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The major contributor to carbon dioxide is from air travel. Whatever offsets are being done is just a small part of the larger solution. San Francisco airport is launching the Climate Passport program that will allow travelers to offset the impact of their travel by air with the help of the airport kiosk. This gives an opportunity for the people to calculate how much will be the impact on the environment if they use air travel and they purchase offsets to address that impact while at the airport. The money that has been collected from this is used for doing projects that have minimal impact on the environment. The offsets for Climate Passport customers, supplied by San Francisco based carbon firm 3Degrees, are currently sourced from the Garcia River Forest, a conservation-based forest management project located in Mendocino County, California. This was a forest that was heavily cut before and now it has been reforested with Redwood and Douglas fir trees. This has helped in absorbing a lot of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. A part of the fund will be used to develop local San Francisco carbon reduction projects. These offsets will also help in the planting of urban trees in the city of San Francisco. All travelers can look for this kiosk on both sides of the international terminal and in terminal 3.

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The E-move charging station is a solar powered filling station in the city of Bozen in Denmark and it can charge 8 vehicles at a time. This is a prototype station that is designed by Valentin Runggaldier and he is of the opinion that the solar station can generate up to 2000 kWh in a year. But I don’t know if this machine can be used for charging cars because you would have to leave them there for a lot of hours. You could use it for charging your mobile phones, laptops etc. This is a test machine and if this becomes a success he plans to sell it to private companies, governments etc.

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109 years ago Professor Ferdinand Porsche developed the first hybrid. But it is the year 2009 when Porsche made the statement that it is going to develop an electric sports car. It will enter the market as soon as it can get the battery technology sorted out. Porsche is planning to bring out its electric cars in style by introducing it first in the Cayenne and Panamera models by 2010 or late 2011. Michael Macht, the recently appointed president of Porsche stated that the company will be first coming up with Cayenne and Paanmera hybrid models and maybe at a later stage a full working model of the 911 in electric mode. But hold your breath! There are some recent spy photos that reveal that the electric 911 is already way ahead in the development phase. Looks like BMW, Audi and Mercedes have one more to compete with.

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When you look at the e-tron, it closely resembles the R8, body-wise. But it is full stop there. The 3320 lb-ft of torque is brought out by four electric motors. Can your R8 do that? Well it is not a car from some science-fiction story! But hell yeah, James Bond can look into this car for his next mission! The speed is electronically limited to 124 miles an hour and it has a total range of 154 miles from the lithium ion battery pack. But it is the Quattro setup that gives the e-tron its Audi style and sense. The R8 is capable of distributing power to whatever corner the torque-vectoring management system determines is appropriate. It also has the advanced MMI which includes a fold-out central display with all the multimedia functions integrated into a touch-sensitive surface on the steering wheel. This is one car I am looking forward to see commercialized.

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If you thought you can make solar energy only with the help of the sun, time to think again. You can now make solar energy with the fluorescent tubes that keeps buzzing on top of you. And where do see them the most. In your office! New Energy’s solar cells in their transparent SolarWindow generate electricity by using the visible light in artificial fluorescent lighting typically installed in offices and commercial buildings. Researchers tested the ultra-small solar cells on a 1”x1” substrate against today’s popular solar materials for their capacity to produce electricity under varying artificial light conditions, mimicking the levels of light exposure in homes and commercial offices.

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According to Tom Lopez, standard technology when mixed with a creative mind can lead to great things. This inspired the 62 year old who has a degree in aerospace engineering to build an entire line of lawn equipment powered by the sun. He is hoping to license his solar powered farm equipment to another company and wants to commercialize it. All this started when Tom’s wife’s gardening equipment started breaking down years ago. He removed two-stroke motor in a tiller and replaced it with an electric motor that was powered by solar charged batteries. And then it all began. He bought few more motors and fitted them with solar panels on the frame. The walking tractors were next line to be modified and he converted them to run on solar-powered batteries. He built 10 of them and sold all of them. He is now hoping to have his riding tractor ready by spring. The tractor can be used by commercial landscapers. It runs on eight 6-volt batteries. It has 4 12-volt solar panels mounted on the top of the tractor to charge the batteries.

[Reporterherald]

What can you do in two months time? How much of it can you do? Bet you are wondering on the first question still! Well this 22 year old college kid built a ride-able electric motorcycle in just two months. How many of you can do that? Plus it looks sexy and sleek. I mean, you would give a second look at this even if it is standing next to the Suzuki Hayabusa. Tom Miceli built the Ion during his final year at Appalachian State University. He studied industrial design, and his senior project required him to create something that reflected all he had learned. Now that is clever way to find out whether you were sleeping in class. As a kid, he had the passion to draw fast cars and now you would already guess what he would be making. He made an electric bike which is friendly on nature but there is no sacrifice on performance. He stripped a 96 model Kawasaki Ninja to the frame and made the Ion capable of more than 70 miles an hour and a range of 60 miles.

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In California alone, 200,000 wine barrels are discarded or retired as they say each year. Imagine the amount of barrels that are being retired every year from the entire wine producing places around the world! It could be in millions! Some of them end up as planters or firewood but the majority end up in landfills. But Darryl Hogeback had something different in his mind. He is the founder of Savante Wine Cellars and he is passionate about using every part of the used barrel by recycling the wood into custom wine cellars. The Stave Oak Collection is handcrafted using mortise and tenon construction, meaning there is no use of nails, staples or screws. Well this only shows that there is no limit to recycling, if we put our mind to it.

[LATimesblogs]