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Zenn Motor Co. Inc. said on Monday it will stop producing its low-speed, low-range electric vehicle in spring 2010 to focus exclusively on commercializing drivetrains for what it sees as the vehicle of the future. Shares of Zenn jumped as much as 14% as the company took another step in changing its strategy from developing and marketing its own electric car to supplying other automakers with components that generate and deliver power in electric vehicles. "We are absolutely 100% focused on electric drivetrain technology," Zenn spokeswoman Catherine Scrimgeour said. The small Toronto-based company said its 2010 model will be its...

WASHINGTON, D.C. November 13, 2009 -- A group of researchers at the City College of New York is developing a new way to generate power for planes and automobiles based on materials known as piezoelectrics, which convert the kinetic energy of motion into electricity. They will present their concept later this month at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society's (APS) Division of Fluid Dynamics will take place from November 22-24 at the Minneapolis Convention Center. About a half-inch by one inch in size, these devices might be mounted on the roof or tail of a car or...

At an event in Columbus, Ohio, this afternoon, Secretary Chu announced that the Department of Energy is awarding $620 million for projects around the country to demonstrate advanced Smart Grid technologies and integrated systems that will help build a smarter, more efficient, more resilient electrical grid. These 32 demonstration projects, which include large-scale energy storage, smart meters, distribution and transmission system monitoring devices, and a range of other smart technologies, will act as models for deploying integrated Smart Grid systems on a broader scale. This funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be leveraged with $1 billion in...

ELECTRIC UTILITIES HAVE BECOME INCREASINGLY INTERESTED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE BENEFITS of energy storage systems. This has been influenced by advances in storage technologies as well as an increased need to buffer the adverse impacts of the rapidly increasing penetration of renewable energy resources. Advances in smart grid technologies are also helping utilities to aggregate and control distributed storage units as a very responsive and flexible fleet. A look at the historical deployment of energy storage in utilities indicates a migratory pattern from large central storage units to broadly distributed smaller systems. For decades, electric utilities have been storing...

Former Formula One McLaren designer Gordon Murray has unveiled a new all-electric car.The car model, which is known as the T.27, is due to be developed over the course of the next 16 months with four prototypes. The process that will be used during the course of the manufacturing of the vehicle is called iStream. The technology iStream had been invented by Gordon Murray in 1999 and means that all the parts are designed using a computer. The project has approximately received US$14,919,000 in investment. The electric car is designed for urban purposes, such as in cities or towns. The...

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with Westinghouse Electric Co. next week to discuss the safety of its proposed AP1000 nuclear-reactor design. Toshiba Corp.'s Westinghouse unit will address the commission's concern about the structural integrity of the silo-shaped shield building that would contain the reactor and trap radioactivity in an accident, NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko said. Containment buildings at existing reactors were poured at the site as a solid piece of steel-reinforced concrete, Jaczko said. Westinghouse wants to piece the building together from sections, he said. "When you're dealing with the kinds of accident scenarios that we look at, or...

On a unanimous vote, the California Energy Commission on Wednesday required all new televisions up to 58 inches to be more energy efficient beginning in 2011. The requirement will be tougher in 2013, and only a quarter of all TVs on the market currently meet that standard..... Industry representatives have said the standards would force manufacturers to make televisions that have poorer picture quality and fewer features than those sold elsewhere in the U.S..... Some manufacturers say implementing a power standard will cripple innovation, limit consumer choice and harm California retailers because consumers could simply buy TVs out of state...

KISSIMMEE — Stealing power from utilities has become the recession's crime of choice for penny-pinching suspects large and small across Central Florida. A supermarket CEO, cash-strapped homeowners and even pot growers have landed in jail in recent months, all charged with meter tampering for allegedly stealing electricity — a crime costing local utility companies millions each year. Industry spokesmen say power thefts have spiked as unemployment and housing foreclosures have increased during the past two years.

WASHINGTON, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Two U.S. Senators on Monday unveiled bipartisan legislation aimed at doubling nuclear power in 20 years and increasing funding for research into low carbon sources of energy. Sponsored by Tennessee Republican Lamar Alexander and Virginia Democrat Jim Webb, the bill would provide $100 billion in loan guarantees for carbon-free electricity projects, adding to the existing $47 billion loan guarantee program. Although the additional loan guarantees would not be limited to nuclear power, the nuclear industry would likely be the major recipient of the extra money because it is one of the most established low carbon...

The Energy Department plans to announce on Tuesday a significant step toward building a new kind of nuclear reactor that could be used to replace the fossil fuels normally needed to complete high-temperature processing at chemical plants, fertilizer factories and oil refineries. Such facilities typically burn oil or natural gas — both of which contribute to global warming — to generate high-temperature steam needed for proper processing. Nuclear reactors, meanwhile, normally don’t run beyond 600 degrees, which is not hot enough for this purpose.

Here comes that law of unintended consequences again. Global Warming Moonbats believe that electric cars are one of the major solutions to the problem of man made CO2 emissions causing the snow caps to melt, animals to die and blockbuster video to run out of your favorite videos. New research show electric cars are not the answer. The Environmental Transport Association in the UK, believes that electric cars could increase the rate of climate change, depending on how the electricity is created. In many countries when people plug in their electric car they would be plugging into a lump of...

[Venezuela] may be an energy colossus, with the largest conventional oil reserves outside the Middle East and one of the world’s mightiest hydroelectric systems, but that has not prevented it from enduring serious electricity and water shortages that seem only to be getting worse. ... The country has huge reserves of oil and natural gas and sizable coal deposits. Its Guri dam complex, built with postwar oil riches in the 1960s, ranks as one of the world’s largest hydroelectric projects. Guri provides Venezuela with as much as three-quarters of its electricity and, just as crucial, allows Venezuela to export about...

RIO DE JANEIRO — A massive power failure blacked out Brazil's two largest cities and other parts of Latin America's biggest nation for more than two hours late Tuesday, leaving millions of people in the dark after a huge hydroelectric dam suddenly went offline. Paraguay was also affected when the Itaipu dam straddling the two nations' border stopped producing 17,000 megawatts of power, resulting in outages in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and at least several other big Brazilian cities, Brazilian Mines and Energy Minister Edison Lobao said. The cause of the failure had not been determined, but Lobao said...

Representatives from the electrical industry sharply criticized on Tuesday a proposal in the House to extend federal regulation to include local power plants in major cities to protect them and the national power grid from cyberattacks. Under the 1935 Federal Power Act, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission enforces security standards for most of the nation's power plants, including facilities and control networks -- known as bulk power systems -- that connect power systems. But the commission does not have regulatory jurisdiction over electrical systems outside the continental United States and to local distribution facilities, which include some in large cities...

Minnesota Power is seeking an almost 20 percent increase in rates for its residential customers to cover investments made in cleaner, greener energy. For the average residential customer, that amounts to $13 per month. “We know this is unwelcome news at an unwelcome time,” said Pat Mullen, the company’s vice president of marketing and public affairs. “These are improvements that need to be made. It is creating an environment that we all value.”

If, like me, you happen to live anywhere in the northeastern portion of the United States, you may well remember what you were doing on the afternoon of August 14, 2003. It was one of those particularly hot, sticky days when it seemed far easier to focus on indoor activities and leave the air conditioning running. Then, around four in the afternoon, the air conditioner stopped. This was accompanied by the lights going off, the stereo falling silent, and the overhead fan slowing winding to a halt. Initially we assumed that a fuse had blown, given that the house we...

A 28-year-old man died early this morning in Pueblo while trying to steal electrical wiring from a high voltage electrical box... The man, Brian Repinski of Pueblo, was brought unconscious to Parkview Hospital suffering from high voltage burns. Duran said interviews were conducted with associates of Repinski. They said the electrocution occurred on Greenhorn Drive while Repinski and an accomplice were attempting to steal the wiring. Detectives are continuing their investigation to determine whether Repinski and his associates were involved in other recent thefts and burglaries.

Their partnership will see, from today, the first fully-fledged smart meter in people's homes and marks a significant step towards Google's goal of collecting as much information about the world as possible. The software allows customers to see exactly how much energy they are using and whether it is above or below average. People can click on a graph to examine their usage on an hourly, daily, weekly or monthly basis. From next month they will be able to monitor how many pounds and pence they are spending on an hourly basis. They will be able to find out this...

Would you sign up for a discount with your power company in exchange for surrendering control of your thermostat? What if it means that, one day, your auto insurance company will know that you regularly arrive home on weekends at 2:15 a.m., just after the bars close? Welcome to the complex world of the Smart Grid, which may very well pit environmental concerns against thorny privacy issues. If you think such debates are purely philosophical, you’re behind the times.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Tuesday will announce $3.4 billion in government grants to help build a "smart" electric grid that will save consumers money on their utility bills, reduce blackouts and carry power supplies generated by solar and wind energy, the White House said. It marks the largest award made in a single day from the $787 billion stimulus package approved by Congress, and will create tens of thousands of jobs while upgrading the U.S. electric grid, according to administration officials. The grants, which range from $400,000 to $200 million, will go to 100 companies, utilities, manufacturers,...

President Barack Obama will announce a $3.4 billion investment of stimulus funds to modernize the electric grid at an event in Arcadia, Fla., Tuesday, administration officials said. One-hundred private companies, utilities, manufacturers, cities and others will receive grants of between $400,000 and $200 million to help build a nationwide "smart energy grid" that will cut costs for consumers and make the nation's electrical system more reliable. The grants are expected to create tens of thousands of jobs - the administration did not say exactly how many - and also lay down the infrastructure to create a new renewable energy industry,...

I'm not in the position for making any huge investments, and this might be in the category of just plain ignorant, but I figure this proposal might at least prompt some interesting discussion, and if its plausible, someone should do it: The Tesla gets about 220 miles per charge. Great... if you're going somewhere less than four hours away. But if the S-class (a $50,000 "family car") is going to be someone's main car, they're certainly going to want to take longer trips with it. The problem is the car takes 8 hours to charge with 110 volts. By doubling...

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is giving a jolt to the futuristic "smart" electric grid, hoping to more quickly bring America's power transmission system into the digital age. President Barack Obama, during a visit to a solar energy facility in Arcadia, Fla., is announcing Tuesday that he is making available $3.4 billion in government support for 100 projects aimed at modernizing the power grid. The projects include installing "smart" electric meters in homes, automating utility substations, and installing thousands of new digital transformers and grid sensors.

The developers behind a proposed Elmore County nuclear plant have now applied for another site in western Idaho. Alternate Energy Holdings Inc., which shifted its proposed plant from Owyhee County to a site near Hammett in early 2008, has asked for a comprehensive-plan amendment for a remote, 5,100-acre site in northern Payette County. Company officials said in August that delays in the Elmore County process led them to consider other options, though spokesman Martin Johncox said Tuesday that AEHI is not leaving Elmore County. "If we indeed want to build a nuclear power plant, we have to press forward, and...

Politics: Move over, John McCain and Olympia Snowe. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is fast becoming the Democrats' favorite Republican as he partners with John Kerry to push cap-and-trade through the Senate. Earlier this year, eight Republican congressmen made it possible for Waxman-Markey, the 1,400-page job- and economy-killing cap-and-trade legislation, to barely pass the House of Representatives. At the time it seemed dead on arrival in the Senate if it was brought up there this year. Once again, as with their medical plan, the Democrats seek to better the odds by putting a GOP hood ornament on a Democratic clunker....

PARIS — From the time the world’s first commercial nuclear power plants were switched on in the late 1950s, installed generating capacity rose rapidly over two decades. It leveled off in the 1980s as new building programs were scrapped in the wake of the accident at Three Mile Island, among other factors. Contractors generally designed plants to last for 40 years — a standard enshrined in the United States in the adoption by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or N.R.C., of a 40-year licensing regime. A large part of the world’s installed nuclear power capacity is now coming to the end...

Reporting from Sacramento - The influential lobby group Consumer Electronics Assn. is fighting what appears to be a losing battle to dissuade California regulators from passing the nation's first ban on energy-hungry big-screen televisions.

The U.S. may soon get its first nuclear reactor in more than 30 years. UniStar Nuclear Energy — a joint venture between Baltimore-based Constellation Energy and the EDF Group — has proposed a new reactor for southern Maryland capable of generating 1,600 megawatts and powering 1.3 million homes twenty-four hours a day. To put this in context, the largest wind power installation in the world, the Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center in Texas, generates 735 megawatts — but only when it’s windy. Nuclear, by comparison, is massive. Having cleared the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the New York Public Service...

WASHINGTON — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Thursday that it had rejected a design by Westinghouse for a new reactor because a key component might not withstand events like earthquakes and tornadoes. The rejection raises the possibility of delays in building 14 planned reactors in the United States, including two twin-reactor projects in Georgia and South Carolina that are leading the pack. ~~~SNIP~~~ In a conference call on Thursday with reporters, David Matthews, director of the division of new reactor licensing in the commission’s Office of New Reactors, said staff members were not convinced that a crucial part of the...

Reporting from Sacramento - The influential lobby group Consumer Electronics Assn. is fighting what appears to be a losing battle to dissuade California regulators from passing the nation's first ban on energy-hungry big-screen televisions. On Tuesday, executives and consultants for the Arlington, Va., trade group asked members of the California Energy Commission to instead let consumers use their wallets to decide whether they want to buy the most energy-saving new models of liquid-crystal display and plasma high-definition TVs.

Clovis, New Mexico, might just be the cornerstone of a clean-energy revolution. It might also be the epicenter of a political battle over how America embraces green energy. Clovis is the site chosen for the Tres Amigas electricity-transmission project, as our colleague Rebecca Smith reports today in The Wall Street Journal. The idea is to build a powerful substation in New Mexico using advanced supercondctors that could physically connect the three otherwise isolated power grids—the Eastern, the Western, and Texas grids. The project, which could take five years to finish, seeks to remedy one of the problems with renewable energy:...

"It may not give you 'The Drive of Your Life', as its makers Peugeot may try to claim, but the latest micro electric car is creating huge excitement in the automotive industry. The Peugeot BB1, a cross between a scooter and a car, is powered by two electric motors which are mounted in the rear wheels. A silver prototype BB1had residents and tourists stopping to take a closer peak when a prototype version rolled into Paris today. Inspired by Peugeot’s electric VLV from the 1940s, the new all-electric BB1 represents the car firm’s view for the future of electrical-based urban...

It may not give you 'The Drive of Your Life', as its makers Peugeot may try to claim, but the latest micro electric car is creating huge excitement in the automotive industry. The Peugeot BB1, a cross between a scooter and a car, is powered by two electric motors which are mounted in the rear wheels. Inspired by Peugeot’s electric VLV from the 1940s, the new all-electric BB1 represents the car firm’s view for the future of electrical-based urban mobility. The Peugeot BB1, a cross between a scooter and a car, is powered by two electric motors which are mounted...

Researchers have figured out a way to plug into the power generated by trees. Scientists have known for some time that plants can conduct electricity. In fact, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that plants can pack up to 200 millivolts of electrical power. A millivolt is one-thousandth of a volt. And although the popular potato or lemon battery experiments have shown that an electrical current can be generated by creating a reaction between the food and two different metals, power is harvested from trees through a different mechanism. "We specifically didn't want to confuse this effect with...

Here's a seemingly simple solar power fact*: the sun bathes Earth with enough energy in one hour (4.3 x 1020 joules) to more than fill all of humanity's present energy use in a year (4.1 x 1020 joules). So how to convert it? In the world of solar energy harvesting, there's a constant battle between cost and efficiency. On the one hand, complex and expensive triple-junction photovoltaic cells can turn more than 40 percent of the (specially concentrated) sunlight that falls on them into electricity. On the other, cheap, plastic solar cells under development convert less than 5 percent. In...

US scientists are a step closer to producing a new generation of energy conversion devices, thanks to an advance in liquid crystal (LC) technology.Antal Jákli, at Kent State University, and colleagues have made use of a property called flexoelectricity, where materials, such as LCs, convert mechanical energy into electrical energy when they are flexed. The LCE's volume swells by around a factor of two when it absorbs the bent-core LCs Bent-core nematics (BCNs) - LCs made from banana-shaped molecules - are particularly flexoelectric but because of their fluidity, they are not robust or flexible enough to use in energy conversion...

Consumers and businesses may finally be seeing some relief from rising utility bills, thanks to the biggest decline in U.S. electricity demand in decades.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first time the word “transistor” appeared in print was in The New York Times on July 1, 1948, in a Page 46 roundup headed “The News of Radio.” The unsigned article opened with a report of two new radio shows, one called “Mr. Tutt,” and the other titled “Our Miss Brooks,” “with Eve Arden playing the role of a school teacher who encounters a variety of adventures.” The column’s last item began, “A device called a transistor, which has several applications in radio where a vacuum tube ordinarily is employed, was demonstrated for...

FALLUJAH — A 132-kilovolt substation, projected for completion in October, will result in more consistent and stable electricity for residents here. The $14.8 million project is being managed by the Gulf Region Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Iraq, and funded by the Iraqi Relief and Reconstruction Fund. The substation was damaged in a fire caused by circuit breaker failure in January 2005, and was identified by the Division’s Gulf Region District as a significant capacity-building project for the city. Maj. Joseph Geary, the officer in charge of the District’s Fallujah resident office, praised the team for working steadfastly...

Conservation: The Chevy Volt is said to be able to get 230 miles per gallon. That's if it's continually plugged into a fragile and overburdened power grid. Where will you be when the lights go out? Since most U.S. electricity generation is not carbon-free, the Congressional Research Service agrees. The "widespread adoption of plug-in hybrid vehicles through 2030 may have only a small effect on, and might actually increase, carbon emissions," it observes. "If you are using coal-fired power plants and half the country's electricity comes from coal powered plants, are you just trading one greenhouse gas emitter for another?"...

Infrastructure: The stimulus plan to turn America's electrical infrastructure into a so-called "smart grid" is a potential target for unfriendly hackers. It's also the fulfillment of a campaign promise rooted in socialism.There is $4.5 billion in the stimulus package to modernize the nation's electricity system. The whole idea is to monitor where and when electricity is used and to direct it to where and when it is needed. It is thought this will help utilities to adjust their rates to immediate supply and demand for power. It would supposedly allow consumers to adjust their consumption to the times when they...

Cap-And-Trade: The administration likes to defend bad policies with analogies to the post office. New studies from a business group and the administration itself confirm that cap-and-trade belongs in the dead-letter bin.Along with Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Rep. Ed Markey likens the cost of the Waxman-Markey cap-and trade bill to "about a postage stamp a day," based on estimates made by the Congressional Budget Office and the EPA. But as we and others have shown, they arrive at this magical number in part by ignoring the hit on gross domestic product and employment that will occur. As Garret Vaughan, economist...

<p>SORRY, the new Chevrolet Volt does not promise a "green" revolution -- indeed, the car could trigger a whole new wave of blackouts.</p> <p>Chevrolet notes that the key to high-mileage performance to the tune of 230 miles per gallon "is for a Volt driver to plug into the electric grid at least once each day" to get "40 miles of electric-only, petroleum-free driving."</p>

One can measure the dedication of the climate-change crowd in how they approach the zero-emissions technology of nuclear power. Some have realized that the only practical way to replace coal as a source for electricity is to invest heavily in nuclear power. Others, such as Harry Reid and his allies in the Senate, have done their best to shut the door on that path away from coal, which calls into question their motives in forcing cap-and-trade schemes onto the US. Investors Business Daily rips Reid and the administration for blocking the use of Yucca Mountain for safe fuel reprocessing, which...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- The Sierra Club has joined other environmental groups in intervening in Virginia proceedings to try to block a high-voltage multistate transmission line. The Sierra Club, represented by Earthjustice, said it filed papers Monday with Virginia's State Corporation Commission. SCC spokesman Ken Schrad says Monday was the deadline for intervening in the $1.9 billion line proposed by Pennsylvania's Allegheny Energy Co. and Ohio's American Electric Power Co. The Piedmont Environmental Council and the National Wildlife Federation also have filed notices of participation. The 765-kilovolt Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline, or PATH, would run across parts of northern Virginia and...

Updated: 4:01 pm EDT July 24, 2009 HIALEAH, Fla. -- A man died Thursday afternoon after touching a downed power line, according to the Hialeah Police Department. A major storm cell passed through Hialeah, Fla., at about 1:30 p.m., Miami station WPLG reported. Police said there was a downed power line in the road. The victim, who officers said was trying to be a Good Samaritan, attempted to move the live cable with his bare hands. He was electrocuted, police said. Dunia Malimi heard a clash of thunder and ran outside the gas station where she works. She saw a...

Energy Policy: Obama announces his energy team without mentioning a green source of renewable energy that could create jobs, reduce carbon emissions and reinvigorate a vital manufacturing sector — nuclear power.The domestic auto industry isn't the only uncompetitive industry that seems to require life-sustaining transfusions of government cash to stay in business. Alternative energy sources have relied on such subsidies, called "investments," for years. Yet in President-elect Obama's announcement of his energy team, we were told "the foundations of our energy independence" lie in "the power of wind and solar." Except that for these alternative sources there's been a severe...

Alternative Energy: A government report says reliance on electric cars will do little to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and may merely shift our dependence on foreign sources from one set of dictators to another..."If you are using coal-fired power plants, and half the country's electricity comes from coal-powered plants, are you just trading one greenhouse gas emitter for another?" asks Mark Gaffigan, co-author of the GAO report. The report itself notes: "Reductions in CO2 emissions depend on generating electricity used to charge the vehicles from lower-emission sources of energy."

Here's a story to melt the mind. Residents in Missouri will get a new fee added to their electric bill for using less energy. Why are they being charged more for using less? The money is spent on promotions by the utilities to get people using less energy. If electricity consumption grows then the utilities need to build new power plants, which is expensive. The cost of new power plant is greater than the cost of promoting conservation of electricity. The EPA estimates that conservation plans like this will add 3% to electricity rates, but customers participating in the conservation...

California officials are beginning to worry that the state's focus on transitioning to renewable-energy sources could lead to power shortages in the near term. The state has been so keen to develop renewables that relatively few conventional power generators, such as gas-fired plants, have been built lately. That risks a possible energy shortfall in certain places if the economy rebounds any time soon. California's utilities are barreling ahead to try to meet a state mandate to garner 33% of their power from renewable sources by 2020, and some officials are concerned the effort might push up electricity prices and crimp...