By Tina Casey •
July 29, 2009
Y-Carbon, a company founded by scientists at Drexel University and Georgia Tech, is looking to bring new green jobs to old factory regions with a low-cost process for manufacturing nanoporous carbon. The process can be adjusted, or tuned, to produce a material with precisely sized pores. Nanoporous carbon has an enlarged surface area which makes it ideal for water filtration, desalination, and certain medical treatments. The real excitement, though, is in the use of nanoporous carbon to improve the storage capacity of supercapacitors. It could lead to a breakthrough in storage technology for a wide variety of sustainable energy applications including solar and wind generators.
By Andrew Williams •
March 17, 2009
A team of US and Korean scientists have announced a major breakthrough in energy storage that could pave the way to a new generation of ultra-efficient electric cars, mobile phones and laptops.
The prototype capacitor, much more powerful than exisiting batteries, is capable of storing power at the same massive density as a supercapacitor (an incredible 10 billion tiny capacitors in every square centimetre), but releasing it as quickly as the fastest electrostatic capacitors.
Speaking about the invention, Gary Rubloff of the University of Maryland said, “Our primary target [for this technology] is as part of a hybrid battery-capacitor system for electric cars, but there are many [potential] small scale applications, [including] better electrical storage systems for cellphones or laptops.”
By Nick Chambers •
January 15, 2009
Editor’s Note: This list represents the ten “best” electric and plug-in hybrid cars (as I see them) coming out in the next two years, but, after that initial culling, this list has been organized by release date, not preference.
With the onslaught of electric concepts and announcements coming out of the 2009 Detroit Auto Show, you’d think that the entire world is about to junk their old jalopies and rush out and buy electric cars tomorrow.
But, alas, as much as millions of Americans would love to pay 3 cents a mile on their daily commutes, our choices for electric cars are, at the moment, severely lacking.
Although the promise of the 2009 Detroit Auto Show reeks of desperation, it’s not all smoke and mirrors. Believe it or not, there are a bunch of noteworthy electric cars, both all-battery and extended range plug-ins, reaching US production sometime in the next two years.
So, if you’ve got the time to wait and you find yourself longing for the cheapest, quietest, and most earth-friendly commute you could imagine, take a gander at this list… electric bliss is closer than you probably thought.
