Electronic gadgets in U.S. homes are estimated to have used 12 percent less energy in 2013 than they did 2010, even though there were nearly a billion more devices. The decline is due in large part to a significant decrease in electricity used by televisions and computers, according to a new report, which analyzed 46 types of consumer devices commonly used in homes.
Tesla rocked the automotive world last month with news that it plans to build a 5 GW lithium ion battery plant in the United States. That’s huge: 5 GW is equivalent to all of the world’s current battery production, so, Tesla will basically double global battery manufacturing.
This alone is not staggering; companies and industries scale rapidly all the time. What makes Tesla’s announcement so important is that it comes just a few years after battery companies such as A123 and Valence Technology filed for bankruptcy; big corporates such as Bosch and Dow Chemical left the industry, and electric car manufacturers Fisker and Bright Automotive closed their doors.
All electric vehicles currently in production use some form of lithium-ion chemistry in their battery packs.
Finding ways of improving that chemistry is therefore very important — the aim being to make future electric car batteries cheaper, more stable and more energy-dense for longer range.
Researchers from the School of Engineering at the University of Tokyo have found a way to develop a lithium-based battery with seven times the energy density of current lithium-ion batteries, according to Nikkei Technology.
The organic farming sector has grown rapidly over the past ten years, to about 500,000 new hectares every year, according to EU statistics.
Both the number of organic farm holdings and area grew by more than half between 2003 and 2010.
In 2011, the European Union had 9.6 million hectares of organic farming land. The year before, there were more than 186,000 of such farms registered across the then 27-country bloc.
Organic farming is defined as food production which has a minimal impact on the environment by operating as naturally as possible.
The consumer wearable tech ecosystem which is seeing companies doing everything from baby monitors to fitness trackers to hearing amplifiers saw an explosion of investor interest in 2013 – to the tune of $458M across 49 deals.
Although some suggest wearables are an overhyped fad, it’s clear more and more investors are taking an interest in the market. In 2013, 69 different venture capital firms or corporate investors participated in a wearables company financing. This is 8x greater than the number that did a deal in the space in 2010 and 4x the levels of 2011. [insert comment about lemmings here]
La compañía FPK Lightweight Technologies, parte del Grupo Mondragon, acaba de desembolsar 6,5 millones en su planta de Zamudio (Bizkaia) para crear dos nuevas líneas de producción y continuar con su crecimiento.
La compañía desarrolla y produce componentes estructurales y aerodinámicos en base a tecnologías avanzadas de transformación de composites orientados al sector de la automoción y para todo tipo de vehículos.
FPK es un referente en el uso de materiales avanzados que aportan ligereza y reciclabilidad a un coste competitivo, las principales variables de crecimiento en el sector de componentes de automoción.
Inversores del País Vasco han aportado 1,5 millones, el 22% de los 7 captados, por un proyecto industrial surgido en Pamplona sobre tecnología óptica.
Euskadi, con un 14,6% del total de inversores, y Navarra, con un 51,7%, encabezan la inversión en el mayor proyecto industrial de financiación colectiva de Europa. Proyecto Visión, que busca ofrecer tecnología de vanguardia para la salud visual, ha recaudado ya más de siete millones de euros a través del crowdfunding (financiación colectiva) y cuenta con un total de 1.500 inversores en todo el mundo, la mayoría en España. De ellos, 204 son del País Vasco, y han invertido ya 1,5 millones de euros, lo que representa el 22% del capital captado.
Leartiker zentro teknologikoak 3Dn inprimatzeko ingeniaritzako material sorta berri bat garatu du. Horren erakusgarri izan da Leartikerrek Bilbon azken Maker Faire azokan izan duen presentzia.
Bilbon eginiko jardunaldian Markina-Xemeingo zentro teknologikoak MyMat izeneko “spin-off”-eko proiektua aurkeztu zuen, aplikazio berezietarako termoplastikozko harizpiak fabrikatzeko eta merkaturatzeko asmoarekin.
