Smappee is an energy management solution that comprises a box and a mobile application to monitor all the appliances and heat system in the home. According to Stefan Grosjean, CEO and founder, Samppee can help homeowners save up to 12% on their energy bills. He explained that his solution is efficient for saving energy due to the user centric approach and the real-time feedback provided by the mobile app. Smappee […]

For years, lithium-ion batteries have been used in electric vehicles and some communications grid applications. Now, a battery technology startup, Fluidic Energy has developed rechargeable metal-air batteries that can potentially replace that. These batteries can store more energy than lithium-ion and are cheaper.

[CeBIT 2013] I met with Yunasko‘s co-founders Natalia Stryzhakova (Ph.D.) and Andrii Buvailo at CeBIT in Hannover. Yunasko develops ultracapacitors, which are energy storage devices with extremely high power capacities and fast charge / discharge profiles. For example, high power is required when you start an electrical vehicle (not when you drive it) or when the power in your computer suddenly shuts down and you need an immediate burst of […]

Dennis Siegel is a German student from the University of Arts Bremen, and he is working on a device that can gather energy from various radiation sources, including hi-tech radio signals like WiFi, GSM etc, but this should work with any type of electro-magnetic radiation, including natural sources (if you’re near a magnetar, this could be very handy). The thing is: it’s not so easy to find a natural source […]

Obama Administration has been diligently working on making the auto-industry more fuel-efficient. President Obama has been pursuing the very policy since 2009 and a new set of fuel efficiency standards was due to arrive sometime this year. Now, it is here. The new fuel efficiency standards seek to enhance the mileage of cars and light-duty trucks to upto 54.5 miles per gallon by the year 2025. While that may sound […]

A group of scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed a way to generate power using harmless viruses that convert mechanical energy into electricity. Basically, it works by tapping a finger on a postage stamp-sized electrode coated with a virus. The virus converts the force of the tap into an electric charge. They did it by creating a generator that produces enough current to […]

24 year old Anthony Mutua of Kenya has developed an ultra-thin chip that, when placed into the soles of a shoe, can charge mobile phones . Basically, the technology can generate electricity when put under pressure, which would be a variant of the Electro-Kinetic technology, where the gravity-induced pressure from cars can create electricity. Anthony’s technology was among the innovations on show at the Science and Innovation Week taking place at […]

An air-breathing battery that can power cars for more than 500 miles on a single charge. Quite unreal isn’t it? But that’s exactly what IBM is trying to achieve. In 2009, IBM embarked on a quest dubbed as the “Battery 500 Project”. Essentially, the project’s main objective is to develop a new kind of battery that will be enough to operate a car for half a thousand miles. And the […]

Three companies, Kyocera Corporation, IHI Corporation and Mizuho Corporate Bank have unveiled their plans to install a 70 megawatt (MW) photovoltaic plant in Kagoshima City located in Southern Japan. Kyocera will supply the 290,000 multicrystalline photovoltaic modules and will also be responsible for construction and maintenance. IHI will lease the land for the project which will span across 314 acres and finally, Mizuho Bank will provide the investment that comes […]

Ever heard of Energy before? No? Neither have I, but then better late than never, don’t you think so? Energy is actually part of the Klipsch Group, so from the get go you can more or less be sure that at least some bit of quality is thrown into the mix. The Energy Power EM-2.1 is the brand’s first-ever multimedia speaker system, just in case you were curious. Boasting an […]

A team of scientists in Kentucky has claimed that they’ve managed to “tweak” an inexpensive semiconductor to generate hydrogen from water using sunlight. Using an alloy that is formed by replacing 2% of the antimony in gallium nitride, it is said to have the right electrical properties that enables solar light energy to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen through a process known as photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. Since […]

Heat energy is one of the most wasted forms of energy sources around, and for many years researchers have been trying to solve this problem. While the technology to convert heat energy into useful energy is there (thermoelectric energy), it is highly inefficient at the moment; with only a fraction of the heat energy being converted into something useful.

In an effort to make solar energy more affordable for the whole country, Google has teamed up with a company called SolarCity that helps to finance solar installations across the country. Google announced that they’ve invested $280 million dollars into the company to further the SolarCity’s goal. This contribution also brings up Google’s investment in the clean energy sector to more than $680 million. In case you didn’t know, SolarCity […]

Engineers have been working on a way to convert the waste heat in your car’s exhaust into energy for some time now but so far attempts haven’t been very successful. The exhaust gases can reach up to 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit, and it’s difficult to design generators that can withstand that much heat. Well the folks over at General Motors have reported that rare earth metals and super-strong alloys could be […]