For students from Hocking College's alternative energy and vehicular hybrids program spending the quarter on the Andros Island in the Bahamas was no spring break. Applying what they have learned about wind, solar thermal, solar PV and micro-hydro power systems, their goal was to make the village of Forfar totally self-sustainable.
A new technique could pave the way for improving the workhorse lithium ion battery used in automobiles, cell phones and other devices so that it can recharge in seconds
RAPID RECHARGE: Scientists tweaked a battery material to permit a super-quick flow of charge-carrying ions in and out.
A new twist on the familiar lithium ion battery has yielded a type of power-storing material that charges and discharges at lightning speed. The finding could offer a boost for plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles and possibly allow cell phone batteries to regain a full charge in seconds rather than hours.
Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) report in Nature today that they devised a way for lithium ions in a battery to zip in and out about 100 times faster than previously demonstrated. "We took a basically great material called lithium iron phosphate [LiFePO4] and we tried to improve it further," says study author Byoungwoo Kang, a graduate student in M.I.T.'s Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
The solar industry is booming. With waves of investment and grants, the solar power industry is for the first time becoming a serious business. New power plants will soon be pumping power out to consumers, while other firms market to sell panels directly to the consumer, providing them with a more direct means of experiencing solar energy.
The cost of operating an automobile has intrigued me since I started riding a bike as an adult. From asking owners, I estimated in 1965 that a car cost about 25¢ a mile to operate, which caused a fellow student to scream at me. In the late 70's, when I was an owner, I figured the operating cost at 14¢ a mile, which was unrealistically low. We tend to believe what we want to believe.
T. Boone Pickens, a conservative billionaire who made his money in oil, is creating strange bedfellows with his aggressive plan for renewable energy such as wind power and natural gas.
Last month, he held two conference calls with more than 27,000 members of the Sierra Club to talk up the plan. The environmental group, with some reservations, is on board. Last week, he met with Al Gore.
Today, he is scheduled to be on the University of Michigan campus, selling his ideas to students. He said he expects a packed house.
Shin Abe doesn't find it odd that the picturesque little Japanese town of Kuzumaki, where he has lived all his life, generates some of its electricity with cow dung. Nor is the 15-year-old middle school student blown away by the vista of a dozen wind turbines spinning atop the forested peak of nearby Mt. Kamisodegawa. And it's old news to Abe that his school gets 25% of its power from an array of 420 solar panels located near the campus. "That's the way it's been," he shrugs. "It's natural."
To Abe, it is. But the blase teen has grown up in an alternative universe - one that might be envisioned by Al Gore. That's because Kuzumaki (population 8,000) has over the past decade transformed itself into a living laboratory for the development of sustainable and diversified energy sources. "When I was growing up, all we had [to generate power] was oil," says Kazunori Fukasawaguchi, a Kuzumaki native who now serves in local government. "I never imagined this kind of change." (Read TIME's Top 10 Green Ideas of 2008.)
The thought of extensive writing and research is already tiring. You will not feel like even doing it especially if you know that your friends have much time in their social lives and you are stuck in your academic responsibilities.
Taken from the list of the top 20 most influential new media figures under the age of 30 this year, CBR has compiled the top 10 who are directly involved with technology. After a survey of Birmingham University students, it was revealed that the founder of Snapchat, Evan Spiegel, came out on top.
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