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A U.S. government official said dramatic improvements to lithium batteries are needed before they can efficiently power vehicles. Experts believe lithium-ion batteries are widely predicted to replace nickel metal-hydride batteries currently used in most hybrid vehicles like Toyota Co's popular Prius. The biggest challenges are extending the life of high-power lithium batteries and bringing down their relatively high cost, Tien Duong of the U.S. Department of Energy said on the sidelines of a lithium battery conference held at this government laboratory. "Life means 10 years, plus. For hybrids we know (their batteries) last 10 years plus. For the PHEV (plug-in electric vehicle), we don't know," Duong said. He did not specify what the costs should be. "One of the phenomenons that cuts short the life of the battery is power. You may have a lot of energy, but if you run out of power, that's no good," he said.

African Eagle Resources (AIM: AFE; AltX: AEA) today announced a 20% resource increase at its first copper project, Mkushi in Zambia, that will extend the life of the mine by two years. The project is the company's most advanced project and will generate first revenue for African Eagle over the next three to five years. Mark Parker, managing director of African Eagle, told Mineweb today the Mkushi project's feasibility study was scheduled to be completed by the fourth quarter of this year and the company plans to be in open pit production here by 2010. A full mining licence for the project has also been approved. The project's larger resource of 18.5mt at a grade of 0.83% copper has been upgraded to the indicated category which gives the company and investors greater confidence in it. The bigger resource has extended the life of the mine from six to about eight years, while its profitability level will still be further refined. Parker said the feasibility study has not produced any unwanted surprises at this stage and the company has covered any "unknown unknowns" around the project. Mkushi will produce about 30,000t of contained copper annually once the project is up and running.

"A peer-reviewed life-cycle assessment (LCA) study shows a major decline in energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions for primary aluminum production in the U.S. and Canada. The study covers all life cycle impacts from aluminum production through semi-fabrication."

This all comes from these chaps, Tuscan Foundry Products, who have done some 'research' that says, the whole life cost of copper and cast iron rainwater products is a third of that of PVC and Aluminium over a 100 year life cycle.

"a series of articles aiming to inform how to safely extend the life of commercial aircraft from the electrical wire interconnection system (EWIS) perspective"

"Some of Lectromec's conclusions from the data review: One would typically anticipate a high number of failures at the beginning and end of an aircraft's life cycle (component life cycle article here), but incidents for aircraft with less than 10k hours represent only 7% of all reported incidents. Many of the aircraft individually reviewed in the 30 - 40k cycle range were 8 - 10 years old with about 10k cycles. Date of aircraft entering service is not readily available with the data (to be included in future data reviews). If this assumption holds, then most wire incidents around the time of the first aircraft D-check. The most common system to be reported is the emergency path lighting system. Many of the EWIS errors were found during routine service checks. The hazard of these EWIS failures to the aircraft/crew is not easily ascertained from many of the reports. Of the 725 records reviewed: 25 reports identified shorting. 15 reports including detection of smoke - 8 of these were identified as faulty smoke detectors. 5 reports including mention of electrical arcing There were some incidents that were reported to have included smoke/fire. An example of this is the following: "

Lining the walls of the Romanian cultural Institute, hang large photographic displays of gritty urban scenes, mounted on torn and wrinkled paper. The exhibition 'Innermost Recess' explores the unchartered territory inside the iconic building that is Ceausescu's People's Palace.

"Developed by Prysmian's R&D Headquarters in Italy, P-Laser technology is eco-sustainable. The HPTE insulating system of P-Laser cables uses thermoplastic materials unlike traditional XLPE cables with cross-linked polyethylene insulation. The metal used for the conductor and the outer cable screens under the protective sheath is also recyclable, making the cable 100% eco-friendly. From the efficiency point of view, P-Laser technology allows grid operators to work at temperatures above the typical 90°C as usual with XLPE traditional technology. This higher thermal performance allows them to increase the power transmission for the same conductor section, or a longer cable life at the same temperature, but above all it allows higher capability. This is particularly important in the event of emergencies, grid congestion and "N-1" conditions (disconnection because of malfunction or maintenance of an adjacent line)."

Component service life a pace of recapitalization

"On the other hand, we know very little about the behavior of nanomaterials or about environmental and health risks when these products enter various waste streams at the end of their life cycles. "

Fuel cell technologies - Part 9-102: Evaluation methodology for the environmental performance of fuel cell power systems based on life cycle thinking

"Donald Sadoway: The missing link to renewable energy Tweet this talk! (we'll add the headline and the URL) Post to: Share on Twitter Email This Favorite Download inShare Share on StumbleUpon Share on Reddit Share on Facebook TED Conversations Got an idea, question, or debate inspired by this talk? Start a TED Conversation, or join one of these: Green Home Energy=Hydrogen Generators-alternative sources Started by Kathleen Gilligan-Smith 1 Comment What is the real missing link in renewable energy? Started by Enrico Petrucco 8 Comments Comment on this Talk 60 total comments Sign in to add comments or Join (It's free and fast!) Sort By: smily raichel 0 Reply Less than 5 minutes ago: Nice smily raichel 0 Reply Less than 5 minutes ago: Good David Mackey 0 Reply 3 hours ago: Superb invention, but I would suggest one more standard mantra that they should move on from and that is the idea of power being supplied by a centralised grid. This technology seems to me to be much more beneficial on a local scale, what if every home had its own battery, then home power generation becomes economically more viable for everyone. If you could show that a system like this could pay for itself in say 5 years then every home would want one. Plus for this to be implemented on a large scale requires massive investment that could be decades away. Share the technology and lets get it in homes by next year. Great ted talk. Jon Senior 0 Reply 1 hour ago: I agree 100%. Localised energy production would also make energy consumers more conscious of their consumption and encourage efforts to reduce it. We can invent and invent all we want, but the fast solution to allowing renewable energies to take centre stage is to reduce the base energy draw. With lower baseline consumption, smaller "always on" generators are required to keep the grid operational. Town and house-l

The battery technology for plug-in HEVs and EVs (both fixed and removable) has evolved tremendously over the last decade with the introduction of lithium-based batteries complementing lead-, nickel- and sodium-based technologies. These technologies will all continue to have a significant impact on electro-mobility as they may give cost and/or performance advantages for specific applications, for example as start-stop and hybrid solutions. The selection of a technology depends on the requirements for performance, life and cost for a given application. Given the diversity of possible operating modes, there is no one battery system or technology that covers the entire range of application needs sufficiently. On the contrary, different battery energy storage technologies exist and each of them has a role to play in the future as the best solution to the needs of a system depending on their specific attributes: * Lead-based: for start-stop micro application, up to mild HEVs * Nickel-based: for HEV applications only * Lithium-based: for HEV, plug-in HEV and full EVs * Sodium-based: for Plug-in HEV and full EVs

cable longevity