Technology Archives - Page 14 of 18

Foldable Electric Scooter — Awesome! (Crowdfund It)

After sharing our recent post on the crowdfunding campaign for MicroPower Chips, someone from MOVEO also contacted me about its campaign for its foldable electric scooter. This is the lightest such scooter out there, according to MOVEO, and it really does fold up in such a way that it is easily transportable — includes luggage wheels and all. It reminds me of the Transformers, one of the best cartoons ever (note: I haven’t seen the movie). Naturally, I couldn’t pass on covering this crowdfunding campaign. If you prefer videos, there’s one on the campaign page, where the crowdfunding push was just launched (like, moments ago). By the way, don’t be alarmed if you click on over to the campaign page and notice that it’s note on Kickstarter or IndieGogo. The crowdfunding platform is called JumpStartCity and is actually quite new. But anyway, back to the foldable electric scooter. The goal of the campaign is to “complete the development and start a limited series production…

The Big Book of Building Energy Data, 2008-2012

Jeff St. John for GreenTechMedia The past four years have seen the flowering of energy efficiency in the commercial and industrial sectors, with new technology, new financial models and old-fashioned bottom-line cost-cutting pressures driving the trend. But what’s the big picture that emerges from this broad shift toward cleaner, greener buildings? Last week, nationwide energy management firm Ecova released a white paper that helps answer some of those questions. Ecova, a subsidiary of Spokane, Wash.-based utility Avista, manages about $20 billion a year in energy bills for Fortune 500 companies and others, with a client base that adds up to about 8 percent of the country’s power demand, making its big data repository a pretty good benchmark for what’s going on in the energy management sector. Here are some highlights from the report, which covers changes between 2008 and 2012, along with charts that help explain where the trend lines are headed. Consider it yet anothe…

BMW New Sporting Hybrid: “Concept Active Tourer Outdoor”

by Nino Marchetti via Earthtechling BMW, even as it prepares to debut the i3 as its first ever electric car under its i brand, continues to tinker with concepts envisioning the use of green vehicle technology in different scenarios. It previously brought to public light the Concept Active Tourer, a plug-in hybrid crossover, and now refines this design study in the form of the Concept Active Tourer Outdoor. Described by BMW as a “fresh route to combining sporting aesthetics and style with sustainable drive technology, compact dimensions and functionality,” the Active Tourer Outdoor’s drivetrain system marries a transversely mounted 1.5-litre petrol engine with front-wheel drive with an electric motor that offers total system output of over 140 kW/190 hp. Performance specifications of this hybrid are fairly decent, going to 100 km/h (62 mph) in under eight seconds and hitting a top speed of around 200 km/h (125 mph). Average fuel consumption comes in under 2.5 litres per…

Yesterday’s Thomas Edison and J.P. Morgan To Solar Power Today

This article was first published on Medium. By Billy Parish, Co-founder of Mosaic The first person whose home blazed with electric light was J.P. Morgan. The financier also owned the first business lit with incandescent bulbs. In the latter case, Thomas Edison himself was on hand to flip the switch. Edison needed funders like Morgan, and later the Vanderbilt Family, because he was launching an endeavor that required huge capital expenditures. He was establishing the groundwork for the electrification of a planet, and to accomplish his goals he needed big finance. Fast forward to the present: J.P. Morgan Chase is now the world’s second largest financial company, General Electric is the world’s third largest company of any kind, and the U.S. electric grid is the largest machine ever built. Our energy system and our financial system have always run in tandem. The two grew up together and they have played off of each other to become history’s largest and, arguably, mos…

Texas Center Eyes Building A Better Wind Farm

Pete Danko for EarthTechling Image: The new SWiFT research facility (image via Texas Tech University) On the wind-swept plain of the Texas panhandle, government, academic and industry researchers are now taking on the challenge of making wind power better, with a particular focus on the hugely important question of how turbines arrayed in a group affect each other. “Some estimates show that 10 to 40 percent of wind energy production and revenue is lost due to complex wind plant interaction,” said Jon White, Sandia National Laboratory’s technical lead for the just-commissioned research center at Texas TechUniversity, dubbed SWiFT, for Scaled Wind Farm Technology. Wake energy loss and wake-induced loads are the kinds of thing that can be simulated and studied with sophisticated computer programs. But at SWiFT, reseachers have actually turbines installed in the field, three to start with more possibly to come, to work with. There are also two 60-meter weather tower…

14 Best Links to Latest EV and Hybrid News

Aching for some more electric vehicle (EV) and hybrid news? Aching for more Tesla news, Toyota Prius news, Fiat 500e news,… Tesla news? Scroll through the links below: Electric Vehicles & Hybrids Mobile Apps For Electric Cars On The Rise Tesla Wins In New Hampshire & North Carolina Forget The Prius Effect — Here Comes The Matrix Effect Cadillac PHEV Targeting Driving Dynamics Lighting Motorcycles Beat Out Gas-Powered Competitors At Pikes Peak Monster Tajima Sets New EV Record At Pikes Peak Toyota 2015 Fuel Cell Car Aims For 300-Mile Range Whodunnit? Did Tata’s Nano Kill Jag’s Hybrid Supercar? Free Tesla Model S Lease When You Buy This $1.3 Million Home 2013 Fiat 500e First Impression EV Lease Scheme Launched In London With 50 Leafs Tesla Motors Opens More Superchargers For 4th Of July Interview With Lightning Motorcycle’s Richard Hatfield, Winner At Pikes Peak 2013 Breaking: 2014 Honda Fit Hybrid Leaked In JDM Brochure Other Clean T…