I just finished watching an excellent documentary on the History Channel: Modern Marvels – Renewable Energy. It is on again at 1am, and I think I’m going to stay up to watch it once more. If I had TiVo, I would be recording this episode for future reference. This particular Modern Marvels episode does not seem to be playing again in the next two weeks, but given the recurring nature of History Channel programming, I’m sure Modern Marvels – Renewable Energy will be on again.
Covering the green power gambit in 60 minutes, this documentary hits on all the major technologies of interest to renewable energy enthusiasts: solar, wind, ocean currents, tidal, hydroelectric, geothermal, deep-ground thermal, bio-fuels, plug-in hybrid vehicles, mine sequestration, and algae sequestration.
What Modern Marvels – Renewable Energy does expertly is highlight how easily the US could generate an energy surplus with realistic implementation of off-the-shelf technologies. This position is well juxtaposed against example countries like Iceland (which utilizes geothermal resources to be nearly energy-independent) and Brazil (which correctly tackled the ethanol problem by deriving the fuel from sugar instead of corn).
Usually, I am pessimistic about alternative energy opportunities in light of how invested the world is in non-renewable power sources. Nonetheless, I came away from Modern Marvels – Renewable Energy with a real sense of hope that we have at our fingertips the ability to transition from fossil fuels to green energies with minimum adverse impact to our economy and quality of life.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
New disc magnet motors fit into the design trend of stepping up to closed loop performance while maintaining the cost advantage of stepper motor technology.
At the Design News webinar on June 27, learn all about aluminum extrusion: designing the right shape so it costs the least, is simplest to manufacture, and best fits the application's structural requirements.
A new battery design, which replaces lithium with abundant and low-cost elemental sulfur, is still in its nascent stages but shows real promise for giving batteries more energy potential.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
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For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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