Author Archive: Mike Payne - Page 2

Just days after the U.S. government ok’d a deal for its first offshore wind power facility, Siemens has released a new series of direct-drive wind turbines to meet the coming offshore turbine market demand.  The new direct drive wind turbines will be smaller, will contain fewer parts and will produce [...]

United States Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has officially approved the first offshore wind farm in the United States.  130 wind turbines will be built off the Massachusetts coast in the Nantucket Sound for roughly $1 billion USD.

Japan is planning to launch a new satellite with an innovative propulsion technology.  The Ikaros Space Yacht will use solar sail technology to harness the energy of the sun’s radiation, the “solar winds” that flow throughout our solar system.

This week at the Beijing Motor Show 2010, Geely Motors revealed a new fleet of hybrid and electric vehicles including this bug-inspired solar hybrid.  The Geely IG Solar Hybrid Car is powered by a hybrid powertrain and features a solar panel skin to help run its components and power system.

The Indonesian government is planning to develop a geothermal power network sourced by the archipelago’s many volcanoes.  This endless source of heat would provide up to 4,000 megawatts of electricity by 2014, enough to power 4,000,000 Indonesian homes.

The Sony Dash is available now in stores, three months after its initial revealing at CES 2010.  The Sony Dash is a 7-inch “personal internet viewer” tablet that features apps, social media integration, video playback from Netflix and more.

Microsoft has officially released the Windows 7 Touch Pack to users with Windows 7 machines that feature touch screens.  The Windows 7 Touch Pack adds new functionality and apps that extend the touch experience into entertainment, productivity and new basic controls of the Windows environment.

A duo of developers from University of California and Stanford have teamed up to develop an app that uses a computer’s built-in accelerometer to detect and track seismic activity.  The Quake Catcher program can detect anomalies greater than 4.0 on the Richter scale and use its network of crowd-sourced computers [...]

Panasonic has revealed a new tv-mounted webcam designed for home or office large-format video conferencing via Skype.  The Panasonic TY-CC10W Webcam will mount on top of your television to record your chat session from the comfort of your living room.

The renewable energy strategy of the UK government may lead to Biogas production facilities that create clean fuel from human waste.  While this may sound like mad science or an April Fool’s joke to some, the economic and environmental benefits of such a system cannot be denied.