What If Electric Cars Were Better?

What If Electric Cars Were Better?

Electric vehicles are still too expensive and have too many limitations to compete with regular cars, except in a few niche markets. Will that ever change? The answer has everything to do with battery technology. Batteries carrying more charge for a lower price could extend the range of electric cars from today's 70 miles to hundreds of miles, effectively challenging the internal-combustion motor. 

To get there, many experts agree, a major shift in battery technology may be needed. Electric vehicles such as the all-electric Nissan Leaf and the Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in hybrid from GM, rely on larger versions of the lithium-ion batteries that power smart phones, iPads, and ultrathin laptops. Such gadgets are possible only because lithium-ion batteries have twice the energy density of the nickel–metal hydride batteries used in the brick-size mobile phones and other bulky consumer electronics of the 1980s. 

Using lithium-ion batteries, companies like Nissan, which has sold 20,000 Leafs globally (the car is priced at $33,000 in the U.S.), are predicting that they've already hit upon the right mix of vehicle range and sticker price to satisfy many commuters who drive limited distances.

The problem, however, is that despite several decades of optimization, lithium-ion batteries are still expensive and limited in performance, and they will probably not get much better. Assembled battery packs for a vehicle like the Volt cost roughly $10,000 and deliver about 40 miles before an internal-combustion engine kicks in to extend the charge. The battery for the Leaf costs about $15,000 (according to estimates from the Department of Energy) and delivers about 70 miles of driving, depending on various conditions. According to an analysis by the National Academy of Sciences, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles with a 40-mile electric range are "unlikely" to be cost competitive with conventional cars before 2040, assuming gasoline prices of $4 per gallon.

Estimates of the cost of assembled lithium-ion battery packs vary widely. The NAS report put the cost at about $625 to $850 per kilowatt-hour of energy; a Volt-like car requires a battery capacity of 16 kilowatts. But the bottom line is that batteries need to get far cheaper and provide far greater range if electric vehicles are ever to become truly popular. 

This Article Originally Came From The Internet

Bus tour to spread the word on Siemens' Hull development

Bus tour to spread the word on Siemens' Hull development

A "GREENPORT bus" will be hitting the city's streets to deliver information about plans for the Siemens wind turbine factory in Hull.

The wind energy giant is investing £80 million in the facility, while Associated British Ports (ABP) is investing a further £130 million in the port infrastructure.

The development, earmarked for an area of land in Alexandra Dock, is known as Greenport Hull and the factory is expected to lead to thousands of new jobs.

Now, ABP is planning to take an exhibition bus around the city to bring information about the plans to the heart of the community.

The exhibitions will take place between Wednesday, January 11, and Friday, January 13.

A spokesman for Greenport Hull said: "We want to ensure as many residents and businesses can attend the exhibition as possible.

"There will be an exhibition bus travelling to the areas near the proposed development.

"The exhibition will also be stopping in the city centre at Queen Victoria Square.

"Exact timings and locations will be confirmed in the coming days and we hope people will use the opportunity to find out more and share their views."

Siemens first revealed Hull as the preferred location for its £80 million offshore wind turbine factory in January.

If approved by planners, the facility will be complemented by a 600m-long deep water riverside berth being constructed by ABP.

ABP and Siemens submitted five planning applications for the development last week, as revealed in the Mail.

Since then, hundreds of people have visited the dedicated Greenport website, created so people could pre-register their skills and experience, giving them the chance to apply for jobs once they are advertised.

Businesses hoping to get involved in the supply chain can also register their services and products, which will be added to a comprehensive database.

In the week before the planning application was submitted, the site attracted 106 visitors.

In the week following the application, this figure had soared to 599.

Hull City Council's planning department described the applications as "the most significant the city has received this century".

Councillor Sean Chaytor, chairman of the planning committee, said: "We have been following developments on ABP's and Siemens's proposals for Greenport Hull very closely throughout 2011, and are pleased to see the applications have now been submitted."

Exact locations for the exhibition will be made public in the coming weeks.

The council is now urging anyone with a view on the proposal to write to the planning department.

This Article Originally Came From The Internet

Apple will overtake HP as top global PC supplier

Research by analyst firm Canalys shows Apple will overtake HP to become the top global PC supplier before the second half of 2012 as global PC shipments reach 415 million units, fuelled by tablet PC sales. 

Tim Coulling, analyst at Canalys, said Apple's PC market share has grown from 9% to 15% within four quarters. He expects global PC shipments to be increased 15% due to tablet PC sales. 

“Pads, particularly the iPad, have radically changed the dynamics of the PC industry over the past year, already propelling Apple into second place in the worldwide PC market in the third quarter of 2011," he said. 

Canalys expects Ultrabooks to drive some growth in notebook sales over the next five years, although prices will need to “drop considerably” to reach mass consumer adoption. HP’s Ultrabook unveiled last week was priced from $899.99. 

The analyst firm predicts flooding in Thailand will continue to disrupt the global hard disk market, reducing shipments of desktops, netbooks and notebooks.

The latest figures by research firm Gartner showed HP maintained the largest stake of market share (19%) in the third quarter of 2011. However, Apple and Samsung were the only UK PC suppliers to show any market share increase, by 22% to reach 230,000 shipments and 40% to reach 217,000 shipments respectively. ....more

This Article Originally Came From The Internet

Green IT? Green IT!

Green IT

Last week, it was announced that Facebook has agreed to work with Greenpeace to promote clean energy, and encourage major utilities to develop renewable energy generation. So the goal is to run on clean, renewable energy rather than using traditional sources, thus saving money and becoming - at the risk of sounding extremely cliché - more environmentally friendly. 

The NGO is now trying to get other IT giants like Apple, Microsoft and Twitter to follow Facebook's lead and move towards clean energy. According to Greenpeace, the amount of electricity used by major IT companies to power their energy-hungry data centres is set to triple by 2020. 

Whenever I ask an IT exec whether they know the carbon footprint of the technology running in their organisations, the answer is invariably no. Or "we are working on it," but they rarely ever have real results to show in that respect. 

But some organisations have made progress. At Computer Weekly's UKtech50 event earlier this month, the technology director at Guardian News & Media Andy Beale was talking about the concept of digital sustainability, whereby companies would be able to measure the carbon emissions of a single click. More information about their work can be found here and here.

I found Andy's talk fascinating, but you could tell by the expressions on some of the attendees' faces that this is an extremely novel concept. How many organisations can say they are genuinely using technology in a sustainable manner AND using IT to reduce their employer's impact on the environment?

I would be very interested in hearing from any IT chief who is actively working on such initiatives.

Sure, the industry needs better and clearer guidelines on how to do this effectively, but those in charge of technology must be better informed and more proactive when it comes to green IT. If you are not working on it because you don't know where to start, then ask for advice. If you are doing this already, then share best practices openly. 

Given the CIO's powerful position to drive change when it comes to running a corporate environment in a more sustainable manner, rolling eyes and/or not doing anything about is not only irresponsible. It is simply not an option......more

This Article Originally Came From The Internet

The coolest smartphone in history

Nokia have unveiled the Nokia Lumia 800 The Dark Knight Rises Special Edition, a limited run of just 40 handsets that have been created in honour of the last film in Christopher Nolan's trilogy.

Using the Nokia Lumia's already effortlessly stunning black form-factor the smartphone has a minimalist bat symbol laser-etched onto the back of the phone letting everyone know that this is just one of 40 in the world.

Inside you'll find the usual Windows Phone 7.5alongside all the features that Nokia include with Nokia Drive and Nokia Music to name just a couple. What you also get is a unique Dark Knight Rises live tile which directly updates with exclusive information about the film plus some exclusive Bane wallpaper.

Coming in its own numbered box this handset is definitely one of a kind and will probably be worth much more than the Nokia Lumia 800's £400+ price.

......more

This Article Originally Came From The Internet

The Trouble with India's People Car - the Nano Car

Tata created the world's least expensive automobile. The only problem now is selling it.

Ratan Tata, head of the 143-year-old Indian conglomerate that bears his family name, is known as a passionate innovator so committed to risk-taking in his $83 billion empire that he gives an annual award for the "best failed idea." But that prize could go to Tata himself for one of his own dream projects: the Nano car.

The launch of Tata Nano in 2009 was hailed as a milestone in automotive history. At 123,000 rupees, or $2,400, the Nano was dubbed "the world's cheapest car" and called a flagship example of Tata's idea of frugal innovation. It illustrated how engineering could be used to open markets in a country where per capita income is around $1,000 a year.

At first, Tata's "people's car" looked as if it could be India's Model T. Where Ford had used assembly-line innovations to create the first mass-market car, the Nano would push affordability to an extreme. Tata's engineering team introduced a lightweight hollow steering column and tore up plans for the car's floor 10 times. Smaller tires were designed using less rubber and the wheels have three lug nuts instead of four. According to the market research firm Frost and Sullivan, the German auto supplier Bosch stripped out as many as 700 of the 1,000 functions of its electronic fuel injection and engine controls to develop cheaper versions for the Nano. All told, Tata filed around 35 patents on the technology that went in to the car's design.

When the Nano was unveiled, accolades rolled in, including the Frost and Sullivan Innovation Award. Analysts predicted that the vehicle would increase by a staggering 65 percent the number of Indian families able to own a car.

Instead, the Nano has become a hard lesson in marketing to the bottom of the economic pyramid. Just 70,432 of the cars were sold during the fiscal year ending in March. At first, some target customers were intimidated by Tata's glittering showrooms (about half of Nano buyers had never owned a car before). Others apparently just didn't like the idea of purchasing the world's cheapest car. In a country where incomes have doubled in the past five years, the Nano is seen as a glorified version of a tuk-tuk, the three-wheeled motorized rickshaw often seen on the streets of developing nations. Many consumers stretched their budgets to buy the Maruti-Suzuki Alto, which has a bigger 800cc engine.

Tata may have misjudged the market by offering too little with its people's car. "If you start with a very basic product, soon the customer wants more," says David Cole, chairman emeritus of the Center for Automotive Research, a nonprofit automotive-industry research group. "To precisely hit the market when you are pioneering a segment is difficult."

Tata says it is "confident" in the Nano but has been revamping its marketing plans. Ratan Tata himself went out to meet with dealers and executives even struck a deal to display cars at Big Bazaar, a chain of retail discount stores where one can buy plastic buckets and curry powder. So far, sales continue to be choppy and are falling well short of Tata's ambition of selling 20,000 cars per month

One answer could be more technology. Tata has diesel and electric, versions of the Nano on the drawing board, although Cole wonders if such strategies will work. "If the market is soft, you cannot solve market problems by adding technology features," he says. "Hybrid or diesel versions can potentially double the costs of Nano–a very risky step."

Tata continues to push ahead with frugal innovation, including a $700 prefabricated home and a low-cost water filter called Swach. One idea that didn't make it was an inexpensive all-plastic door designed for the Nano. But it was a good effort. The door was a nominee for the "Dare to Try" award, the one for the best failed idea........more

This Article Originally Came From The Internet

A Brighter Way to Make Solar Cells

Making solar cells involves subjecting silicon wafers to temperatures in excess of 1,000 °C. The process normally involves the use of heating elements, and requires a lot of energy.

A new optical furnace developed by researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, heats up solar wafers by focusing light on them—a much more efficient process that uses about half the energy of a conventional furnace. More importantly, the new design also uses light to remove certain impurities from the silicon wafers, a step that can improve the power output of finished cells.

The work is at an early stage—so far the researchers have only improved the efficiency of the resulting solar cells by half a percentage point. But based on lab tests, they think they can increase the efficiency by four percentage points, from about 16 percent efficient to 20 percent, which would be a big deal in the solar industry, which celebrates even half-a-percent increases.

High temperatures are needed at more than one step during solar-cell manufacturing. Furnaces are used to introduce dopants into the silicon to create electric fields within the material, to create electrical contacts, and to oxidize surfaces to improve efficiency. The new furnace also allows for better control of some of these processes, which can improve a solar cell's efficiency.

By precisely designing the shape of the interior of the furnace, the researchers can control exactly where the light is focused, ensuring the wafers are heated evenly. It's not enough to make sure the wafer is evenly illuminated—the edges have to receive more light because they lose heat more rapidly than the rest of the wafer.

The process reduces thermal stress on the wafers, and it allows for precise control over the chemical reactions that heating enables. Precise control of the rates and timing of the heating can also improve the electrical contacts on the solar cell, improving its efficiency. And it makes it practical to introduce an oxidation step. Oxidation has typically been used by only a few manufacturers for high-end solar cells, but the new process would make it cheaper and thus allow more manufacturers to use it.

Sopori says NREL has developed processes that take better advantage of photonic effects than the rapid thermal processing furnaces. As photons interact with the silicon, they can cause deleterious impurities such as iron to move out of the material, while keeping advantageous ones such as boron, which is needed for the solar cell to perform properly.

The researchers haven't yet realized the complete four percentage point improvement in efficiency in part because the new processing steps aren't all compatible with other steps in conventional manufacturing. Sopori says they are working to modify the other steps to take full advantage of the optical furnace.

NREL is also working with Advanced Optical Systems to develop a machine that can process not just one wafer at a time, as with the lab version, but up to 2,000. Such high throughput will be necessary if the furnaces are to compete with conventional ones, which are cheap to operate. ......more

This Article Originally Came From The Internet

Water purifying ball

The Solarball is a graduate`s project of Jonathan Liow, who has decided after a trip to Cambodia to utilize his designer talent to create something that could help people in the Third world enduring critical lack of clean and drinkable water. When put on the direct sun, the Solarball can clean up to three liters of water per day. Thanks to the sun the contaminated water evaporates out. As the result, only a water condensation will be kept inside the ball which is safe and clean. Liow`s Sollarball is just a prototype dealing with a number of problems, as the little quantity of water that it can produce or durability of the plastic. Anyway, his pioneer design get him to the final of the 2011 Australian Design Award-James Dyson Award.

Source and photos are from the internet.More Details

Peugeot, Fiat, GM Lead European Car Sales Drop as Economy Stalls

PSA Peugeot Citroen, Fiat SpA and General Motors Co. led declines in European car sales as the region’s economy slipped closer toward a recession.

Registrations in November dropped 3 percent to 1.07 million vehicles from 1.10 million units a year earlier, the Brussels- based European Automobile Manufacturers Association, or ACEA, said today in a statement. Eleven-month sales declined 1.1 percent to 12.6 million registrations.

Four of the region’s five biggest markets contracted, with France and Italy leading declines at 7.7 percent and 9.2 percent respectively. The European Central Bank cut its 2012 economic- growth forecast for euro countries on Dec. 8 to a range of minus 0.4 percent to plus 1 percent, from plus 0.4 percent to 2.2 percent previously. European manufacturing contracted in November and economic confidence fell.

Peugeot and Renault, France’s largest carmakers, have both announced production-capacity cuts to trim inventories. Turin, Italy-based Fiat is working to stem an increase in debt as its domestic car market approaches a 30-year low.

The ACEA compiles figures from European Union member countries plus Switzerland, Norway and Iceland. Western European car sales, which don’t include figures from the nations that have joined the EU since 2004, fell 2.7 percent to 1 million vehicles.

European sales at Paris-based Peugeot, the region’s second- biggest carmaker, dropped 13 percent, while registrations at Fiat declined 12 percent. General Motors, whose main brands in Europe are Opel and Vauxhall, saw its sales fall 11 percent.

Carrier IQ: How to remove the software from BlackBerrys

A senior executive at RIM has provided instructions on how to remove CarrierIQ software from its devices. The instructions are part of the BlackBerry Knowledge Base, under the general entry for removing third-party software. According to eWeek, the executive said that users would be able to remove the software just like any other third-party program. RIM said earlier this month that it does not install CarrierIQ software on its devices, and as part of its policy carriers are prohibited from installing it themselves — a policy that some carriers have apparently ignored. Check out the source link for the cure.

This article originally appeared on theverge.com as RIM provides instructions for removing CarrierIQ from BlackBerrys .

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