- Ran across this article on Ultra-Capacitors over at IEEE Spectrum the other day. I hadn’t realized how big of a market there already is for the ultra-caps: “Hundreds of thousands of ultracapacitors are manufactured each year, for applications that require rapid recharging, high power output, and repetitive cycling. In 2005, the ultracapacitor market was between US $272 million and $400 million..”
- Winner of the space-age-design award for EVs (or prototype EVs) has got to go to the Aptera. Who knows if this will ever be found cruising your local streets but it is an interesting design: looks like an airplane someone plucked the wings off of. More on their website.
- Putting some LEDs into your EV? Here’s a handy LED Calculator to help you get the right series resistor. There’s even a series/parallel version.
- A friend passed along this CNN article, Gas Guzzlers get new lives featuring Neil Young having his Lincoln Continental turned into a hybrid (bio-diesel no less). Intrigued I searched the web for the guy doing the work and found this Fast Company article along with another article trying to follow up on his claims.
Great website. I love what you are doing with this website.
I love to see ultracapacitors becoming more prevalent in electric vehicles as well as daily electronics. Its a beautiful thing.
Greg
A TURBINE?!? Having worked for a few years on Mazda’s rotary, I can tell you that a turbine has a few more draw backs than benefits.
First off, oiling is typically “Total loss”, which means you pour oil in at the top and it’s designed to lose oil out the bottom. Fuel economy is not a strong suit for a turbine. You might see some advantages by injecting Hydrogen or Methane, but running diesel or gasoline you burn through it in a hurry.
I’d like to see this tested in a lab environment rather than the anecdotal evidence we’re getting. Especially if this guy’s an 8th grade drop out. This guy is either a mechanical prodigy the likes of which hasn’t been seen in 100 years or there’s a con involved.
Or he’s talking jet turbine…
He flings numbers around with great ease but there’s no scientific verification of the claims or his creations. Having some big names interested in purchasing from him doesn’t validate anything.