More homeowners are investing in solar panels as a more environmentally (and budget) friendly energy source. But solar panels work best when the sun shines directly on them, which means they’re only working at their full potential for one or two hours of the day.
Volkswagen’s upcoming, all-electric I.D., previewed in concept form a few months ago at the Paris Motor Show, is as important to the company as the original Beetle and Golf. The concept car showed off all kinds of futuristic tech that seemed like fantasy, but one of the I.D.’s coolest feature will make it to production–its heads-up display.
As the move towards a healthier environment and one that is filled with the latest innovations and technologies gets closer, Outrider looks to follow the trend and release their new product into this thriving market. Please enter the Outrider Horizon Electric Bike.
The list of benefits to purchasing an electric car has long included cleaner air and cheaper fuel, and now the American Lung Association (ALA) has added another to the list: government savings.
Traffic lights are finally getting smarter in Pittsburgh.
Thanks to a new pilot program from the tech startup Rapid Flow Technologies, Steel City now boasts 50 intersections whose stoplights are running artificial intelligence software known as Surtrac that reduces wait times on empty or lightly-traveled roads.
A public square in Sandpoint, Idaho now has what looks like a light-up dance floor — 30 hexagonal tiles with flashing LEDs.
But each tile is actually a solar panel, and collectively, the tiles will soon power a nearby fountain and restroom, according to Spokane-based news station KREM 2.
Hydrogen may be winning the zero-emissions battle.
In 2016, those who still say battery-electric vehicles don’t have a future probably haven’t spent much time in California. The California Air Resources Board (CARB)’s policies, which predate those of the federal government, treat the internal-combustion engine as a chronic offender that is beyond hope for reform. For 26 years, the state has been keeping the faith in a single solution: zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs), a category that includes both hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles and battery-electric vehicles.
Scotland unveiled the first turbine for the MeyGen tidal stream project, the world’s first large-scale tidal energy farm. The project will initially install four turbines, but will eventually have 269 turbines, enough to power 175,000 homes.
“Radio frequency energy harvesting” might sound like snake oil — Free energy, pulled out of thin air? Yeah, right! — but the idea of using radio waves to transmit power has been around for more than a century and is finally coming into its own with the Internet of Things. Between Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cell phones and myriad other wireless signals, there are plenty of ambient RF sources to draw from. And even though only small amounts of energy can be reclaimed this way, it doesn’t take much to keep a simple sensor or actuator running.
Eon Musk has confirmed the next step in the evolution of sustainable energy: Rather than adding solar panels to an existing roof, the panels will BE the roof. What seems like an obvious progression for this technology is actually a unique move in the market.
Batteries are becoming more and more crucial in our lives every year. From our smartphones to our laptops, and increasingly even our cars, batteries make the world go round. The only problem is that today’s generation of lithium batteries are increasingly incapable of providing energy on a scale that we need – especially when it comes to the charges they hold and the time it takes to recharge them. But there is a solution on the horizon, and it is being made possible by a radical material shift. For scientists from Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia, have developed a new battery (technically speaking a supercapacitor) made from 3D printed graphene, which can hold a larger charge of energy, is recharged in a matter of seconds and will last a lifetime.
The spectacular growth of the New Energy Vehicle (NEV) market in China continues; state media reports that sales were up a massive 162% to 170,000 units in the first half of the year. NEVs include pure-electric vehicles (EV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV).
The 170,000 NEVs were divided by 134,000 EVs and 36,000 PHEVs.