General Electric is sending its troops to Colorado to conquer the
thin film solar panel business. The 38th state will play home to a new facility that leverages the supermodel-thin panel know-how of PrimeStar Solar, which GE scooped up back in 2008. In traditional solar panels, sand is refined into silicon ingots, sliced wafers of which are then placed in a frame. The thin film process eliminates this, sandwiching layers of semiconductors between panes of glass — saving time, money and, most importantly, energy. The factory will open ahead of schedule in 2012 and is reportedly capable of producing a new panel every
ten seconds. You can learn all of that and more in the press release we’ve got for you after the break.
Continue reading GE’s new factory will push out one solar panel every ten seconds
GE’s new factory will push out one solar panel every ten seconds originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink
Tags:
app,
energy,
environment,
general electric solar,
new-facility,
photovoltaic,
press,
primestar solar,
sci/tech,
sliced-wafers,
solar panel,
supermodel,
thinfilm,
thinfilmsolar
Part jet ski, part electric water scooter, 100 percent awesome. That’s the Exoconcept Exo — a new sea-born vehicle for stealth missions and the occasional run-in with Mr. Living Vicariously. The craft comes in a few flavors with shells made of high-end carbon fiber or ABS plastic, and engines ranging from 3.5-7kWh. Capable of cruising the open waters at a max speed of 15-27 knots (17-31 mph), it doesn’t really rival the thrust of some of its non-electric cousins, but it’s certainly fast and quiet enough for some reconnoitering or good old fashioned family fun. With four racks of Li Fe PO4 high capacity batteries, the motor powers a water jet turbine drive system to cut through waves without any sound pollution. Unfortunately, zipping around on electric power doesn’t come cheap — at €7,290 (or $9,939), it’ll probably only appeal to those who also own the lake needed to enjoy it on. But hey, at least you’ve got until Q1 2012 to save up!
Continue reading Exoconcept EXO all-electric jet ski: perfect for lake recon, your next indie action film
Exoconcept EXO all-electric jet ski: perfect for lake recon, your next indie action film originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink
Tags:
electric-power,
electricvehicle,
electricvehicles,
entry,
environment,
exoconcept exo,
green,
indie-action,
lake,
li fe po4 batteries,
nes,
recon,
spies,
turbine drive,
web
New York’s boys in blue will soon be able to creep up on evildoers with even more subtlety, thanks to some new electrified vehicles the city unveiled yesterday. As part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s environmentally-friendly PlaNYC initiative, 70 new EVs have been added to the city’s fleet of public cars, in the hopes of lowering emissions and creating a “greener, greater New York City.” Joining the force are ten Ford Transit Connect cargo vans, ten Navi-star E-star trucks and a full 50
Chevy Volts — some of which will be used as NYPD squad cars. These newcomers will be shared among nine different departments, joining 360 other city plug-ins already purring their way across the five boroughs. Bloomberg is also working toward adding EVs to New York’s army of 13,000 taxis — which we’re totally cool with, as long as they’re not
minivans. Zip past the break for a rather Homeric press release.
Continue reading Chevy Volts invade NYC police fleet, give cops all new ways to taze bros
Chevy Volts invade NYC police fleet, give cops all new ways to taze bros originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Jul 2011 01:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink
Tags:
art,
book,
chevy,
city,
entry,
environment,
fordtransitconnect,
plug in,
used-as-nypd
When they’re not busy carving handsets out of teak (or rockin’ out with their pupils), the folks over at NTT DoCoMo apparently focus their efforts on saving the environment. Next year, the Japanese provider will begin outfitting its expansive cellphone tower network with ten “green transmission stations,” to be powered by an artillery of biofuels, wind and solar energy. This kind of infrastructure would obviously bring a smile to the face of ol’ Mama Nature, but it could also help mitigate the adverse effects of power outages and elfin insurgents. And for that, we should all be grateful.
NTT DoCoMo to power cellphone towers with renewable energy, tenderness originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 20:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink
Tags:
app,
electricity,
energy,
environment,
environmentalism,
nature,
ntt docomo,
solar power,
their-efforts,
web
When we go somewhere new, we wish we could spend more time taking in the sights and less time looking at our phone for directions and info about our surroundings. Apple’s well aware of this conundrum, and has filed a couple of patent applications to let you ogle your environment while telling you where to go and what you’re seeing. One app is a method for combining augmented reality (AR) information and real time video while allowing users to interact with the images on screen — so you can shoot a vid of a city skyline with your iPhone, touch a building where you want to go, and let it show you the way there. The second patent application is for a device with an LCD display capable of creating a transparent window, where the opacity of the screen’s pixels is changed by varying the voltage levels driving them. Such a display could overlay interactive info about what you see through the window, so you can actually look at the Mona Lisa while reading up on her mysterious grin. Of course, these are just patent applications, so we probably won’t be seeing any AR-optimized iDevices anytime soon (if ever), but we can dream, right?
Apple seeks to spruce up the real world with interactive augmented reality, has the patent apps to prove it originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink
Tags:
app,
art,
conundrum,
environment,
interactive,
iphone,
phone,
surroundings
