"(CNN) Bold claims for new battery technology have been around since the invention of the lead-acid battery more than 150 years ago. But researchers at Manchester University in the UK say their latest discovery involving the new wonder material graphene could be the most revolutionary advance in battery technology yet. According to a study published in the journal Nature, graphene membranes could be used to sieve hydrogen gas from the atmosphere -- a development that could pave the way for electric generators powered by air..." http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/23/tech/innovation/tomorrow-transformed-graphene-battery/index.html
These are very exciting times. The other singularity is near. Get off the Grid Matrix. All I offer is the truth. True Freedom:
Have you seen 'Unplugged Nation"? It's like house hunters but for people who want to live off grid. Check it out.
The poor keep praying to God, as they have for TWO THOUSAND YEARS WITH NO RESULT. Here is the only thing that will eventually lift them out of poverty without sending the world spiraling into Venus. Strongly recommended that you spend the time to view it.
I don't know what to think of LENR. The whole thing seems like smoke and mirrors to me, let alone that it violates the current laws of physics as we understand them. And yet, people seem to get more excited by it every year. This investor is chasing a new kind of fusion "A prominent North Carolina investor is backing a new kind of fusion that operates at much lower temperatures than thought possible, which would make it easier to commercialize. So far the early results show promise. Tom Darden, the founder and CEO of the $2.2 billion private equity fund Cherokee Investment Partners, made his mark by acquiring and cleaning up hundreds of environmentally contaminated sites. Today he is also an early stage investor in clean technology, having put his own money into dozens of companies in areas ranging from smart grid to renewable energy, and prefab green buildings. More recently he’s backed a new approach to fusion, a potentially abundant and carbon-free form of energy that would operate at a much lower temperatures than big government projects around the world, which require temperatures of 100 million degrees centigrade and more. This new technology, called Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR) is related but very different from the cold fusion technology that in 1989 researchers Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann claimed to have licked when they revealed to the world a simple tabletop machine designed to achieve a fusion reaction at room temperature. Their experiment was eventually debunked and since then the term cold fusion has become almost synonymous with scientific chicanery. What does Darden, a no-nonsense, investor with a sharp eye on the bottom line and a successful track record, see in this new, risky technology? Fortune’s Brian Dumaine spoke to him to find out...." http://fortune.com/2015/09/27/ceo-cherokee-investment-partners-low-energy-nuclear-reaction/
US top court upholds Obama administration electricity markets rule "The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday upheld a major Obama administration electricity markets regulation aimed at encouraging efficiency in the market by having grid operators pay large users to reduce consumption at peak times. The court ruled 6-2, with Justice Samuel Alito not taking part in the case, to reverse a May 2014 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to strike down the 2011 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regulation. The regulation concerns what FERC calls "demand response," which is when, in an attempt to manage demand for electricity, regional electrical grid operators agree to pay big electricity users like factories, businesses, schools and hospitals to cut consumption at peak times. It is aimed at improving grid reliability, lowering costs and encouraging clean energy. "Demand response" can reduce costs for consumers and lower the possibility of system failures and power blackouts...." http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/25/us-t...-administration-electricity-markets-rule.html
Bill and Melinda Gates: What superpower do you wish you had? "...Imagine life without energy. No energy to power a light bulb, mobile phone, or fridge. In fact, about 1.3 billion people -- 18% of the world's population -- don't need to imagine. That's what life is like for them every day. If we had to sum up history in one sentence it would be: "Life gets better -- not for everyone all the time, but for most people most of the time." And one of the biggest reasons is energy. For thousands of years, people burned wood for fuel. Their lives were, by and large, short and hard. But when people started using coal in the 1800s, life started getting better a lot faster. Pretty soon we had lights, skyscrapers, elevators, air conditioning, cars, planes, and all the other things that make up modern life. Without access to energy, the poor are stuck in the dark, denied all of the economic, social and health benefits that come with power. So if we really want to help the world's poorest families, we need to find a way to get them access to energy they can afford. And we need to do it in a way that doesn't make climate change worse, because the poor are more vulnerable to extreme weather and other climate impacts than anyone else. To produce much more cheap, clean energy, we must make better use of existing technologies, such as solar and wind. Even more important, we're going to need a massive amount of research into thousands of new ideas..." http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/22/opinions/bill-gates-melinda-gates-superpower-wish/index.html
Desk-Size Turbine Could Power a Town GE sees its new turbine as a strong rival to batteries for storing power from the grid. by David Talbot April 11, 2016 GE Global Research is testing a desk-size turbine that could power a small town of about 10,000 homes. The unit is driven by “supercritical carbon dioxide,” which is in a state that at very high pressure and up to 700 °C exists as neither a liquid nor a gas. After the carbon dioxide passes through the turbine, it's cooled and then repressurized before returning for another pass. The unit’s compact size and ability to turn on and off rapidly could make it useful in grid storage. It’s about one-tenth the size of a steam turbine of comparable output, and has the potential to be 50 percent efficient at turning heat into electricity. Steam-based systems are typically in the mid-40 percent range; the improvement is achieved because of the better heat-transfer properties and reduced need for compression in a system that uses supercritical carbon dioxide compared to one that uses steam. The GE prototype is 10 megawatts, but the company hopes to scale it to 33 megawatts. https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601218/desk-size-turbine-could-power-a-town/