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Sony Corp will invest $369 million (40 billion yen) to power up its lithium-ion battery production operations, adding new facilities and augmenting existing lines. The infusion, which Sony said is the first phase of investment in lithium-ion batteries the company is undertaking as part of efforts to reinforce core areas of its component and semiconductor business over the next three years, will be used to construct new production facilities and to enhance existing lines at Sony's lithium-ion battery production sites in Japan, the Motomiya Technology Center and Tochigi Technology Center of Sony Energy Device Corp. Sony said it is making the investment in response to the growing demand for lithium-ion batteries and that the new production facilities will focus on electrodes, battery cell production lines, and charge and discharge equipment, among other technologies. Sony further reminded its expanding lithium-ion battery production in Singapore and China, and said that in total its monthly production capacity will increase from the current level of 41 million cells per month to 74 million cells in 2010. Sony's $369 million investment will start in its current fiscal year and continue through the second half of its fiscal year 2010. Sony's fiscal Q1 2008 concluded in June. Meanwhile, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co recently committed $923 million (100 billion yen) to build a plant in Osaka, Japan, that is expected to bring its cell production to about 75 million a month from its current 25 million cells per month. Sanyo Electric Co has also reportedly announced plans to invest, promising $1.15 billion (125 billion yen) to develop its rechargeable-batteries business over the next three years. That investment is expected to increase cell output to 90 million per month from Sanyo's current 70 million cells per month. All three of the Japan-based companies last year suffered from loses brought on by their battery operations. Sony-made lithium-

Hydrogen fuel-cell cars have received a great deal of attention over the years as a clean alternative to petroleum-based transportation, producing only water for exhaust. Certainly the technology is known. Demonstration vehicles have been produced by several manufacturers and Honda is starting to roll out a fleet of 200 FCX Clarity fuel-cell cars, available for lease to select customers for US $600 per month. These autos are costing Honda hundreds of thousands of dollars each though, according to Honda's president Takeo Fukui (Wall Street Journal, June 16 2008), and it will take another decade before their cost falls below US $100,000. Although fuel-cell cars remain a long way from providing commercially viable transportation for the vast majority of people, cars are not the only application for fuel cells. Fuel cells are reaching commercial viability sooner in other applications such as portable electronics, including laptops, cell phones, MP3 players and games, aiming to supplement the ability of batteries to power these mobile devices for extended periods of time. There are a number of reasons why fuel cells may prove more competitive in portable electronics than in cars, including the favorable cost, lifetime requirement and easier distribution in this market. One of the companies developing fuel-cell technology for portable electronics is Polyfuel, using its proprietary hydrocarbon membrane technology for direct methanol fuel cells. The cost of power for portable electronics, according to Polyfuel president and CEO Jim Balcom, is up to US $10,000 per watt, compared with US $20-50 for autos, making portable electronics a much more attractive market than cars initially.

South African smelting technology developer Tenova Pyromet is increasing its presence around the globe through a growing number of large projects and the continual development and improvement of its technologies. Formerly known as Pyromet, Tenova Pyromet is now part of the multinational Tenova group of industrial companies, with which Tenova Pyromet has the advantage of being closely networked. When Italian holding company Tenova bought Pyromet in September 2006, the company changed its name and acquired the benefit of having Tenova stand surety for the company's credit line. This allowed for growth within Tenova Pyromet at a rate previously unexperienced by the company, owing to the unfreezing of large sums of financial resources.

Venture capital is one of the pulses of the industry, and so a headline that VC investments are dropping by double digits is enough to catch the eye of anyone involved in the high tech ecosphere. But when you look at more data, things don't look bleak. On one hand, according to Dow Jones VentureSource, investment is down:\n\nIn the second quarter of 2008, quarterly venture capital investment in U.S. companies slipped below the $7 billion mark for the first time in 18 months. According to the Quarterly U.S. Venture Capital Report released today by Dow Jones VentureSource (http://www.venturecapital.dowjones.com), investment fell 12% in the second quarter compared to the same period last year with $6.64 billion put into 602 deals, the lowest quarterly deal count since 2005. The $7.58 billion invested in second quarter of 2007 was the second-highest quarterly totals recorded since the end of the dot-com boom in 2001.\n\nYet it's not all bad news because there was " steady deal activity and investment in the first half of the year," according to Dow Jones VentureSource director of global research Jessica Canning.\n\n"The movement of venture dollars from the traditional areas of information technology and health care toward burgeoning sectors like renewable energy, power management, and agriculture - or 'clean technology' areas - proves that venture capitalists are making good on their promise to tap opportunities in the massive energy market," said Ms. Canning.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has launched the EnergySmart Hospitals initiative, with the aim of increasing the use of energy efficient technologies in hospitals across the United States. \n\nThe EnergySmart Hospital initiative will provide hospitals with design strategies, advanced energy design guides, technology assessments, case studies, training sessions, and an interactive Website to help hospitals increase their energy efficiency. The initiative intends to improve energy efficiency in existing hospitals by 20 percent and to help develop new hospitals that are 30 percent more efficient than current building standards. It will also support hospitals in meeting the challenge of lowering costs while delivering quality patient care and maintaining healthy healing and work environments. \n

Driven by the need for increased speed, portability and wiring density, the interconnect pitch on semiconductor packages, and the corresponding high density interconnect (HDI) substrates, continue to shrink. The combination of filled blind microvias and build-up technology provides a means to achieve the required wiring densities. With the rapid growth of this technology, the use of electrodeposited copper for filling blind microvias has become a widely adopted process for manufacture of both HDI printed circuit boards (PCBs) and also semiconductor package substrates.

BP has a lot of money, and they want to focus a big chunk into cellulosic ethanol. So, they're partnering up with Verenium and giving the company $90 million over the next year and a half in order to gain some of Verenium's technology and hopefully speed up commercialization of cellulosic ethanol. Looking towards sugar cane, miscanthus, and energy cane, they're hoping to scale up biofuel's availability from these and other sources. The $90m will go towards helping put up low-cost production facilities across the US, and will give BP licenses to intellectual property of Verenium. BP's president Sue Ellerbusch said that this partnership positions BP as having the best technology in cellulosic ethanol production and makes them leaders in the area. Not surprising since they're forming other partnerships that help them corner the biofuel industry, including partnerships with DuPont, Tropica BioEnergia and D1 Oils. BP's fuel sales during 2007 accounted for 10% of the global biofuels market. So they're serious about making sure that biofuels become more easily available.

"Recently, carbon-free copper smelting technology, a technology with full independent intellectual property rights, has passed expert examination organized by China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association (CNIA) in Dongying, Shandong province. It is the first time zero-carbon emissions in the copper melting process has been realized and also opens a new gate for low-carbon development of China's nonferrous metals industry."

"One of the highlights at the booth will be the Cooled Charging Cable - the new technology which is an ideal fit for high-power charging stations. The Cooled Cable can multiply power-throughput of a charging cable and reduce charging times to below 20 minutes, making rapid charge times for all electric cars possible. This innovation puts super-fast charging within reach - even with big battery packs of new electric vehicles and trucks. The cables are thin, simple and easy to handle, bend-protected and have ideal grip position."

"Water is necessary for many applications apart from sustaining life. Because it may not be available in sufficient quantity or at the quality required, some form of treatment may be necessary to meet the needs of an application. More stringent water quality specifications normally require more elaborate treatment methods. Challenges of availing clean water suitable for specific applications have led to innovations in water production to meet the needs of each sector. This research service reports on innovations in water production that specifically impact each key sector. It gives the industry snapshot of each key sector, its current water scenario, innovation landscape, global trends and technology roadmap till 2025. Several examples of innovative non-technological ways to produce or provide water are presented at the end of the report. Some key patents and contact details of key industry players are also given."

"The IEA estimates that of all efforts required to deliver a 50% reduction in global emissions by 2050 24% will need to come from end use fuel efficiency, 12% has to come from end use electricity efficiency and a further 7% will need to come from power generation efficiency. There is substantial potential for improving thermal efficiency of Europe's power plants. Our coal plants operate at an average 38% (BAT - Best Available Technology - on new coal plants delivers 46%). Our gas plants operate at an average of 52% efficiency (BAT- Best Available Technology - on new gas plants delivers more than 60%). Due to the age of the installed base, the average efficiency of Chinese coal plants is now higher than in Europe."

The Nikkei \nreports\n \nthat Toyota's newly established department for battery research (\nearlier post\n) is focusing on metal-air cells as the \nnext-generation battery technology for its vehicles.

Earlier this week Google.org, the philanthropic arm of web technology company Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), announced its first two investments under its RechargeIT initiative, which aims to accelerate the adoption of plug-in electric vehicles. Google.org's official blog stated that RechargeIT, which released a request for proposals last Septmber, invested a combined $2.75 million into ActaCell, an Austin, Texas-based battery developer, and Aptera Motors, a Carlsbad, California-based electric car maker. In the blog posting Karl Sun, an investments principal Google.org, said, "Both of these innovative companies and their capable teams are working to develop technology that is crucial to helping us realize the RechargeIT vision: millions of plug-in vehicles on the road." The ActaCell investment was part of a larger Series A funding round that raised $5.8 million for the company, which began at the University of Texas at Austin. Funders included DFJ Mercury, Good Energies and Applied Ventures, the venture capital arm of Applied Materials (Nasdaq: AMAT).

Two Japanese companies are working together to develop carbon fiber materials for use in cars, according to a Reuters report. Toray Industries (3402.T) and Mitsubishi Rayon (3404.T) hope to mass produce the lightweight material by 2010 in an effot to make vehicles 40% lighter and up to 30% more fuel efficient. They also intend to develop technology to recycle carbon fiberin order to bring costs down. For years, proponents of carbon fiber materials have supported its widespread use in vehicles, but the cost of the highly engineered materials was prohibitive. Now with gasoline and steel prices on the rise, carbon fiber is becoming more economically feasible. The Nikkei business daily reported that Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. were participating in the partnership, along with Toyobo Takagi Seiko Corp and researchers from the University of Tokyo. However, both Nissan and Honda denied that they were participating in the project. A spokeswomam for Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization said teh government is also researching the further use of aluminum and other light-weight metals to replace steel.

Last week the Spanish government announced plans to cut subsidies for solar photovoltaic (PV) power by about 75%. Although the nation expects to surpass its 2010 goal for installed solar by four fold, the down side is that generous subsidies for the industry have resulted in a ballooning tariff deficit for the country, which has risen to 4.85 billion euros, upfrom 745 million last year. Reuters reported that lending to the Spanish photovoltaic plants has risen to $3.59 billion in the year to day, up from $230.9 million euros last year and $192.44 million in 2006. As a result, the Spanish government will as the energy regulator to cap subsidies for new PV solar capacity at 300 megawatts (MW) per year--200 MW for rooftop systems and 100 MW for ground-mounted systems, which have been the highest growth area. CSP has been slower than PV technology in its emergence on the renewable energy scene, but expectations for the technology, which focuses the heat of the sun to produce steam to drive electricity producing turbines. Projects underway in the U.S. and Spain are expected to produce electricity that is cost-equivalent to electricity produced from burning coal or natural gas.

It looks ordinary, like a razor-thin metal ribbon. But the high-temperature superconductor power transmission cable the Long Island Power Authority recently installed in Ronkonkoma revolutionizes how electricity is delivered, utility and federal officials said. The cable -- which is a fraction of the size of a traditional copper wire but can carry three times the power -- made its ceremonial debut yesterday with officials from LIPA, the U.S. Department of Energy and officials from the company that makes the cable. It went online April 22, the world's first use of the new technology in a commercial power grid. Utilities around the world are looking at superconductivity to improve efficiency of their grids and make them less vulnerable to blackouts. LIPA has buried three 2,000-foot wires in its right-of-way, and it will be installing a second generation of the wire in the same area as a test. "We view superconductor power cables as an important option that will help us further enhance the reliability of our grid as we meet our customers' increasing demands for electric power," LIPA chief executive Kevin Law said. He said the new cable allows the utility to increase capacity where its system has bottlenecks while increasing reliability and longevity and lowering costs. The wire, manufactured by American Superconductor Corp., conducts 150 times the electricity of the same sized copper wires, strand-for-strand. This means transmission cables can be far smaller and still conduct as much as three to five times more power in a smaller right-of-way.