ELEKTRO

In June, Tesla’s Supercharger network passed a charging milestone, delivering more than 1 GWh of energy to Model S vehicles in a single month. That energy accounts for a collective 3.7 million miles driven, 168,000 gallons of gas saved, and 4.2 million pounds of carbon dioxide offset. That’s like driving to the moon and back seven and a half times, and nixing a day’s worth of CO2 from 73,684 Americans. Tesla’s Supercharger network is now the largest fast-charging network on the planet. It’s…

LG Display, the world’s leading innovator of display technologies, announced today that it has developed a 18-inch flexible OLED panel that is rollable as well as a 18-inch transparent OLED panel. With these new panels, LG Display shows that it has already acquired fundamental technologies to lead the large-sized flexible and transparent display market. The flexible OLED panel has a high-definition class resolution of 1200 X 810 with almost 1 million mega-pixels. The panel’s curvature radius…

At Computex 2014, Intel has indicated that its next-gen Skylake platform — the new microarchitecture tock after Broadwell — will enable new PC designs that are completely cable-free. Intel will use WiGig for wireless “docking” to peripherals and streaming media, and Rezence for wirelesss power transfer. Eventually, we might move towards a future where your PC’s only cables are inside the case. Obviously this is slightly different from the previous dream of using a single, awesome ultra-high…

The Raspberry Pi foundation has announced an upgraded version of its Model B, called Model B+, which is described as the "final evolution" of the first-generation Raspberry Pi. The hardware now offers two more USB 2.0 ports, a microSD card reader and 14 more GPIO pins, making a total of 40 on the board. In order to achieve this, however, some sacrifices had to be made, including a new layout which promises to be both "neater," but may not fit your current cases. The outfit has also merged the…

In honor of Tesla Day - Nikola's birthday - atlasobscura.com has assembled a catalogue of places to visit and pay your respects to the multi-national brilliant engineer, the original mad scientist, and New York City pigeon lover. So you can virtually visit and learn about Tesla's birthplace museum in Croatia, Tesla's Wardeclyffe laboratory in Shoreham, New York, US, Griffith Park's Tesla coil in California, Nikola Telsa Plaque on the Radio Wave Building in NYC, Niagara Tesla Monument in…

The telecommunications masters at Bell Labs have managed to deliver a world record connection speed of 10Gbps (10,000Mbps) over copper wires. Dubbed XG.fast, the new technology could be used to massively extend the life of existing copper wireline networks, offering telecom companies an alternative to laying costly fiber-optic networks to billions of homes that already have a telephone line — but more importantly, it might mean you finally get a serious upgrade from your ~10Mbps ADSL or ~50Mbps…

Scientists at USC have developed a water-based organic battery that is long lasting, built from cheap, eco-friendly components. The new battery – which uses no metals or toxic materials – is intended for use in power plants, where it can make the energy grid more resilient and effic ient by creating a large-scale means to store energy for use as needed. “The batteries last for about 5,000 recharge cycles, giving them an estimated 15-year lifespan,” said Sri Narayan, professor of chemistry…

A new free piston engine linear generator (FPEG) from Toyota Central in Maine appeared on YouTube. The piston is called “free” because there is no crankshaft. On its power stroke, the piston dumps its kinetic energy into the fixed windings which surround it, generating a shot of three-phase AC electricity. It can be run sparkless through a diesel cycle or run on standard gasoline. What has folks excited is the claimed thermal efficiency for the device — at 42% it blows away the engines used…

Two Russian physicists are fundraising to realize their project for wireless energy transmission once proposed by brilliant 20th-century scientist Nikola Tesla. Solar panels and an upgraded Tesla Tower could solve global energy hunger, they say. Leonid and Sergey Plekhanov, graduates of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, claim they have spent years scrutinizing the Nikola Tesla’s patents and diaries and they believe that with his most ambitious project – transcontinental wireless…

Elon Musk has said time and again that Tesla is building a BMW 3-series rival with 200 miles of range priced around $35,000. To keep costs down, the car formerly known Tesla Model E will be made mostly from steel, and priced realistically compared to established rivals, it was revealed in a recent interview with AutoCar. Speaking to the British car magazine about the Model E, former Aston Martin executive and current Tesla VP of engineering Chris Porritt said that: “I expect there will be…

The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) recently completed its LED lighting overhaul to the East Span of the iconic San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge. After three years of testing and designing custom fixtures, Musco Lighting provided an energy-efficient LED lighting solution featuring Cree® (Nasdaq: CREE) XLamp® XM-L LEDs to illuminate the picturesque suspension tower and bridge deck. In total, the bridge now employs nearly 1,600 custom-built LED light fixtures, leveraging more…

Alcoa and clean technology company Phinergy debuted a zero-emissions electric demo car powered by a revolutionary aluminum-air battery at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Montreal. Alcoa and Phinergy are collaborating on new materials, processes and components to commercialize the aluminum-air battery, which can extend the distance an electric car travels by approximately 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) ... read more

Move through busy city streets in no time and spare your energy with the help of Smart Wheel, a pedal assist that encases an ultra-thin electric motor and intelligent electronics within a robust housing, neatly fitted onto the spokes of a bicycle rim. It fits practically any bicycle frame and helps you use your bike more efficiently and comfortably, when and where you need it ... read more

Google kicked off its own developer conference Wednesday, titled Google I/O, with a keynote address. Much like Apple's recent keynotes, the presenting was distributed among several people, all discussing different announcements for the Android operating system and where it's headed (aside from smartphones and tablets) ... read more

In 2013, approximately 6.5 million people were already employed in the renewable energy industry worldwide, a new study by the International Renewable Energy Agency reveals. ‘Renewable Energy and Jobs – Annual Review 2014’ underlines the important role that renewables continue to play in employment creation and growth in the global economy ... read more