Archive for the ‘evironment’ Category
Breaking: Strong quake reported in Chile
March 11th, 2010 | 
Author: 
A USGS map shows the area where a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit in Chile Thursday.
[Updated 10:07 a.m.] The 7.2 magnitude earthquake shook the ground near the region of Libertador General Bernardo O’Higgins, near the Chilean coast. It struck just as Chile prepared to inaugurate a new president, Sebastian Pinera.
The epicenter was about 71 miles away from Valparasio, Chile, where Pinera was to be inaugurated. Television footage showed the inauguration proceeding without a hitch.
The quake was almost 22 miles deep and centered 95 miles southwest of Santiago, according to USGS.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in a statement that “a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami is not expected” and there is no tsunami threat to Hawaii.
Are you there? Send your photos, videos and descriptions to CNN iReport
[Posted at 9:54 a.m.] An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.2 has struck south of Santiago, Chile, the United States Geological Survey reports.
This story is currently developing. We’ll bring you the latest information from Chile as soon as we get it.
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/11/breaking-strong-quake-reported-in-chile/
Posted in CNN, diaster, earthquake, evironment, News, World News | 
Tags: Chile, CNN, disaster, earthquake | 
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Porsche revs up 911 hybrid
Artist’s rendering of the Porsche GT3 R Hybrid.
(Credit: Porsche)
It’ll be fast, and it’ll be green.
High-performance automaker Porsche plans to unveil a hybrid version of its 911 GT3 R race car at the Geneva Motor Show in March–and then enter it in the 24 Hours of Nurburgring race this May.
Curious about how Porsche plans to get Porsche-like performance out of a green machine? To pique your interest, the company on Thursday issued a press release explaining roughly how the gas-electric hybrid system will work, and showing off some artist’s renderings of the car.
In addition to a 480-bhp 4-liter engine powering the rear axle, the race car will have two electric motors for the front axle, each one capable of delivering 60kW to the two front wheels. But instead of powering the electric motors with heavy batteries that might weigh down or upset the balance of a race car, the 911 GT3 R Hybrid will have an electric flywheel power generator.
When the driver applies the brakes, the two electric front axle motors act as generators, and the flywheel generator stores energy from braking. The driver can then use the power from the flywheel generator for a burst of power lasting 6 to 8 seconds, presumably to overtake another car or to accelerate out of a bend.
Even with the entry in the Nurburgring event, Porsche is under no pretense that the hybrid sports car will actually be competitive.
“The focus is not on the 911 GT3 R Hybrid winning the race, but rather serving as a spearhead in technology and a ‘racing laboratory’ providing know-how on the subsequent use of hybrid technology in road-going sports cars,” Porsche said in a statement.
The Porsche news follows Ferrari’s announcement in January that it will be unveiling a hybrid version of the Ferrari 599 GTB at the Geneva auto show.
The 911 GT3 R that Porsche unveiled in January 2010 will be the basis for its hybrid race car.
(Credit: Porsche)
This artist’s rendering shows the placement of the electrical flywheel battery.
Tesla Motors finalizes DOE loan for Model S
Tesla Motors will receive a long-sought $465 million loan to build a factory to build its planned Model S electric sedan, the U.S. Department of Energy said on Thursday.
With the loan, Tesla will be able to start making the Model S in volume during 2012 and ramp up to 20,000 units by the end of 2013. The location of the facility is expected to be in Southern California.
The Model S is one of a few highly anticipated electric cars coming out in the next few years. It’s designed to go over 300 miles on batteries, be large enough to carry five adults and two children, and still have lots of cargo space. The base price for the car will be almost $49,900.
For Tesla, the loan allows it to move ahead with its production plans in a difficult environment for raising the large amounts of capital needed to build a factory.
A number of other automakers invested in electrification will also receive Energy Department loans to encourage domestic auto manufacturing. Ford Motor received a $5.9 billion loan and the Energy Department has made conditional commitments to Tesla competitor Fisker Automotive and Nissan North America, which plans to introduce the all-electric Leaf later this year.
In a statement, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the loan program is an effort to “lay the foundation” for the electric-vehicle industry.
Source :
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10439050-54.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Posted in cars, evironment, Green |
Tags: electric car, environment, Green, Tesla, Tesla Motors |
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MIT spin-off stores sun’s energy to power the world
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–MIT professor Daniel Nocera is a “huge centralized energy person” but when he looks at the world’s energy challenges, he thinks the key is to make energy generation cheap and distributed.
MIT last year announced that a technology developed by Nocera’s lab— a catalyst that can split water–could be used store solar energy. Earlier this year, Nocera formed a company called Sun Catalytix, backed by venture capital firm Polaris Ventures, to commercialize that discovery.
Engineers are now working on a prototype design for the system, Nocera said at the EmTech conference on emerging technology last Thursday. He added that the company has also hired Art Goldstein, the retired CEO of water desalination company Ionics which was purchased by General Electric, to be chairman.
Full story :
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10362614-54.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Posted in evironment, Green, Tech |
Tags: Green, MIT, power, solar power, Sun's Energy |
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New hybrids proclaim their German engineering
I’m a big fan of “German engineering”–that combined focus on power and precision that distinguishes the better automobiles designed or manufactured in Germany.
At Frankfurt’s International Motor Show, BMW will be showing off two new hybrid cars intended to deliver the full promise of German engineering. This is no small thing because most hybrid cars to date have been lightly built and somewhat underpowered in order to improve fuel economy.
The two new BMWs are more like previous offerings from that company: big, solid cars with lots of power to maintain performance in spite of the weight. They’re also real cars, not just prototypes.
Fortunately, I don’t need to describe these new cars here; there’s a great article by Antuan Goodwin over on CNET’s Car Tech blog that does a fine job of that (see “BMW unveiling two big hybrid models at Frankfurt“). What I would like to do instead is to drill down into their respective powertrains, which represent two different solutions to high-performance hybrid design, using images provided by BMW.
The ActiveHybrid X6, due to go on sale in the U.S. later this year, represents one end of the spectrum: higher-power electric motors and a larger battery pack. As the first image shows, the new X6 model has a twin-turbo V8 gas engine with 400 horsepower. Though this is a reasonably efficient engine for its size, it certainly wasn’t chosen primarily for its fuel economy.
BMW’s ActiveHybrid X6 uses a large NiMH battery pack and a new transmission with two integrated electric motors to augment its 400-horsepower gasoline engine.
