Panasonic, Tesla to build giant battery plant in US
Tokyo (AFP) July 31, 2014 -
Japanese electronics giant Panasonic and US electric vehicle maker Tesla Motors said Thursday they will jointly build and operate a huge lithium ion battery plant known as the Gigafactory.
Under the deal, Tesla will run the operations at the proposed US-based plant, while its Japanese partner will make battery cells destined for the plant and invest in equipment and machinery, according to a ...
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Low-carbon pool growing in British economy
London (UPI) Jul 31, 2013 -
Renewable energy is gaining a foothold in the British economy following a banner year for green investments, the government said Thursday.
British Energy Secretary Ed Davey said more than $13.5 billion was invested in 2013 across a wide range of sectors in the renewable energy industry and it's starting to pay off.
"Renewable electricity has more than doubled in just four years - ...
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Ex-TEPCO execs should be charged over Fukushima: panel
Tokyo (AFP) July 31, 2014 -
An independent legal panel on Thursday called for criminal charges to be brought against three former executives of the Fukushima nuclear plant operator for their role in the 2011 atomic disaster.
The ruling - issued by a judicial review panel composed of ordinary citizens - could ultimately pave the way for an indictment, after prosecutors announced last year that they would not pursue a ...
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Profits shrink at Japan's 'megabanks'
Tokyo (AFP) July 31, 2014 -
Japan's top three banks on Thursday posted lower quarterly profits as the impact of last year's stock market surge faded.
Mitsubishi UFJ, the country's biggest lender, saw its net profit slip about six percent to 240.5 billion yen ($2.4 billion) as revenue weakened in the three months through June.
Rivals Mizuho Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group saw bigger drops with th ...
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SPCG and KYOCERA Complete 35 Utility-Scale Solar Farms in Thailand
Kyoto, Japan (SPX) Aug 01, 2014 -
SPCG Public and Kyocera have announced the full operational launch of one of Southeast Asia's largest solar power projects. Since 2010, 35 "solar farms" totaling approximately 257 megawatts (MW) have been constructed under the project, and connected to the utility grid in Northeastern Thailand.
A ceremony held earlier this month in Surin Province commemorated the launch of the installation ...
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KYOCERA Solar Modules Tapped by Sierra Nevada to Power New Brewery in Mills River
Scottsdale AZ (SPX) Aug 01, 2014 -
Nearly everyone enjoys a good beer now and again. A delicious beer sustainably brewed with renewable energy that pours down from the sun might make that happy hour indulgence even more enjoyable.
Kyocera Solar has announced that Sundance Power Systems Inc. has installed 650 kilowatts (DC) of high-quality Kyocera solar modules on Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.'s new Mills River, North Carolina b ...
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Heavy Metals and Hydroelectricity
Boulder CO (SPX) Aug 01, 2014 -
Hydraulic engineering is increasingly relied on for hydroelectricity generation. However, redirecting stream flow can yield unintended consequences. In the August 2014 issue of GSA Today, Donald Rodbell of Union College-Schenectady and coauthors from the U.S. and Peru document the wholesale contamination of the Lake Junin National Reserve by acid mine drainage from the Cerro de Pasco mining dist ...
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Flyer Hopes To Make Solar Flying Popular
Midland Park NJ (SPX) Aug 01, 2014 -
Solar-powered aircraft could offer a low-cost way to train future pilots, if the partners developing the Sun Flyer succeed in their ambitious plans. A technology demonstrator-a PC-Aero Elektra One-for the Sun Flyer solar-powered airplane made its first flight earlier this month in Munich, Germany..
While the Elektra One technology demonstrator didn't fly with solar panels, the panels will ...
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From tsunami lifeline to listing, Line sends message to chat rivals
Tokyo (AFP) Aug 03, 2014 -
A messaging app launched in the aftermath of Japan's 2011 earthquake and tsunami, Line is moving towards a possible dual listing in Tokyo and New York as it jostles for space in an increasingly crowded and imaginative market.
Combining instant messaging with shopping, gaming and other features such as letting users send each other cute cartoon "stickers", Line is hugely popular in Japan, par ...
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Areva shares fall on first-half loss, lowered outlook
Paris (AFP) Aug 01, 2014 -
Shares in French nuclear power group Areva fell heavily on Friday after the group reported a first-half loss and lowered its outlook.
Areva shares were showing a fall of 12.21 percent to 13.66 euros in morning trading, in an overall French market which was down 0.91 percent.
Areva reported a net loss of 694 million euros ($929 million) for the first half compared with a balanced result s ...
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China house price fall accelerates in July: survey
Beijing (AFP) Aug 01, 2014 -
China's decline in property prices accelerated in July, an independent survey showed, adding to concerns over the sector, a key component of the world's second-largest economy.
The average price of a new home in 100 major cities was 10,835 yuan ($1,757) per square metre last month, down 0.81 percent from June, the China Index Academy (CIA) said.
It was the third consecutive monthly decli ...
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Kenya launches giant port construction with $480m deal
Nairobi (AFP) Aug 01, 2014 -
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta launched Friday a construction deal for the first berths in a proposed multi-billion dollar port, the day after ordering vast tracts of "stolen" land be repossessed.
The planned $24 billion (18 billion euro) Lamu port project, due to be finished by 2030, is intended to serve much of east Africa, with oil pipelines to South Sudan and railways to Ethiopia and Ug ...
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Hitchhiking robot thumbs its way across Canada
Ottawa (AFP) Aug 01, 2014 -
A talking robot assembled from household odds and ends is hitchhiking thousands of kilometers across Canada this summer as part of a social experiment to see if those of its kind can trust humans.
Society is "usually concerned with whether we can trust robots," Frauke Zeller, co-creator of the "hitchBot," told AFP.
Hollywood movies like "The Terminator" and "The Matrix" often depict mach ...
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Microsoft sues Samsung in US, alleging contract breach
New York (AFP) Aug 02, 2014 -
Microsoft on Friday fired a legal salvo at longtime partner Samsung, accusing the South Korean giant of breaching a contract over licensing of technology used in the competitive smartphone market.
"After becoming the leading player in the worldwide smartphone market, Samsung decided late last year to stop complying with its agreement with Microsoft," the US technology firm's deputy counsel s ...
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Tesla loss widens as it ramps up expansion plan
Los Angeles (AFP) July 31, 2014 -
US electric automaker Tesla Motors reported Thursday a widening loss in the past quarter amid record revenues as it ramped up plans for a giant battery plant for future vehicles.
The loss in the quarter ending June 30 was $61.9 million, compared with $30.5 million in the same period a year ago, while revenues jumped more than 90 percent to $769 million.
Tesla, which earlier in the day un ...
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Finding quantum lines of desire
St. Louis MO (SPX) Aug 01, 2014 -
Groundskeepers and landscapers hate them, but there is no fighting them. Called desire paths, social trails or goat tracks, they are the unofficial shortcuts people create between two locations when the purpose-built path doesn't take them where they want to go.
There's a similar concept in classical physics called the "path of least action." If you throw a softball to a friend, the ball t ...
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Watching Schrodinger's cat die (or come to life)
Berkeley CA (SPX) Aug 01, 2014 -
One of the famous examples of the weirdness of quantum mechanics is the paradox of Schrodinger's cat. If you put a cat inside an opaque box and make his life dependent on a random event, when does the cat die? When the random event occurs, or when you open the box?
Though common sense suggests the former, quantum mechanics - or at least the most common "Copenhagen" interpretation enunciate ...
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Spin-based electronics: New material successfully tested
Lausanne, Switzerland (SPX) Aug 01, 2014 -
Spintronics is an emerging field of electronics, where devices work by manipulating the spin of electrons rather than the current generated by their motion. This field can offer significant advantages to computer technology. Controlling electron spin can be achieved with materials called 'topological insulators', which conduct electrons only across their surface but not through their interior. ...
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Research proves there is power in numbers to reduce electricity bills
Currie, UK (SPX) Aug 03, 2014 -
Consumers can save money on their electricity bills and negotiate better deals by joining forces with similar groups of customers to switch energy suppliers according to new research.
Collective switching or group buying schemes, where thousands of consumers join forces to negotiate cheaper electricity tariffs, are becoming more popular in the UK as bills continue to rise putting increasin ...
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All-in-one system offers green power for off-grid homes and farms
London, UK (SPX) Aug 01, 2014 -
An innovative 'trigeneration' system fuelled entirely by raw plant oils could have great potential for isolated homes and businesses operating outside grid systems both in the UK and abroad.
Developed by a consortium led by Newcastle University and funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), through the RCUK Energy Programme, the small-scale combined cooling, ...
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Our galaxy is way smaller than previous estimates
Edinburgh, UK (SPX) Jul 31, 2014 -
The Milky Way is smaller than astronomers previously thought, according to new research. For the first time, scientists have been able to precisely measure the mass of the galaxy that contains our solar system.
Researchers have found that the Milky Way is approximately half the weight of a neighbouring galaxy - known as Andromeda - which has a similar structure to our own. The Milky Way an ...
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US aerospace firm outlines New Zealand-based space program
Wellington, New Zealand (XNA) Jul 31, 2014 -
A United States aerospace company is aiming to make New Zealand one of the exclusive group of countries with a space program by promising a revolutionary new satellite-carrying rocket for a fraction of the current satellite launch costs.
Rocket Lab announced Tuesday that it had developed a light- weight, carbon-composite rocket, named Electron, at its Auckland plant and hoped to offer smal ...
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Discovery is key to metal wear in sliding parts
West Lafayette IN (SPX) Jul 30, 2014 -
Researchers have discovered a previously unknown mechanism for wear in metals: a swirling, fluid-like microscopic behavior in a solid piece of metal sliding over another. The findings could be used to improve the durability of metal parts in numerous applications.
"Wear is a major cause of failure in engineering applications," said Srinivasan Chandrasekar, a Purdue University professor of ...
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New Approach to Form Non-Equilibrium Structures
Evanston IL (SPX) Jul 30, 2014 -
Although most natural and synthetic processes prefer to settle into equilibrium-a state of unchanging balance without potential or energy-it is within the realm of non-equilibrium conditions where new possibilities lie.
Non-equilibrium systems experience constant changes in energy and phases, such as temperature fluctuations, freezing and melting, or movement. These conditions allow humans ...
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New characteristics of complex oxide surfaces revealed
Oak Ridge TN (SPX) Jul 30, 2014 -
A novel combination of microscopy and data processing has given researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory an unprecedented look at the surface of a material known for its unusual physical and electrochemical properties.
The research team led by ORNL's Zheng Gai examined how oxygen affects the surface of a perovskite manganite, a complex material that exhibits ...
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