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Green, Renewable Microgrids Protect Our Tech From EMPs, Boogeymen
Posted by Jack Loftus at 3:00 AM on October 13, 2008
Their press release reads like a speech from the 2004 GOP presidential convention, but Instant Access Networks still has some pretty cool tech up their sleeves when it comes to protecting our technology from electromagnetic pulses (EMPs). Citing one megaton nuclear bombs over Kansas and rogue terrorist states, IAN says its renewable energy-powered, EMP-protected "microgrids" are just what today's society needs to protect itself from tomorrow's unseen threats.
I threw away two batteries yesterday. I know, I know—it's almost the same as chopping down like five old-growth oak trees or something, but it was just so damn easy. And what else are you gonna do with dead batteries? That's exactly why I am jazzed about this Energy Seed concept by Sungwoo Park. You collect all the batteries that no longer power your digital cameras, baby toys and TV remotes, and you deposit them in the base of this lamp. The lamp then glows, because even a mostly spent battery will be able to power an ultra-efficient light source.
The Army is following the 
Japanese engineers who were tired of 
Solyndra, a California-based solar start up, says it's figured out a way to make solar panels cheaper to install and better at producing energy--rolling them up. The company's solar panels are comprised of rows of cylindrical solar cells deposited on glass tubes, a new type of shape that purportedly lets them absorb more light during the day.
Looks like Samsung keeps pushing for green computing. These computers are Korea-only for now, but the MV100 Tower and MZ100 Slim Tower, running on the Intel G43 chipset, consume only sixty watts in "power saving mode" and one watt in stand-by mode. I only have one question for you: Do you really care about how much energy your computer really consumes or you are now just thinking that the Samsung ninjas really need to eat a few pizzas? [
As we move towards battery and hydrogen cell breakthroughs that could wean us off our addiction to oil, here's at least one engine design from yesteryear that ought to be examined a bit more. The free-piston engine, first invented in 1920, are cheap to build and roughly twice as efficient as current gas engines.
Google, who in aggregate, effectively knows everything, unsurprisingly has a solution for our energy problems. The plan, called Clean Energy 2030 will cost $US4.4 trillion over its 22-year span, if we start on it right now. Google says it'll give us back a net of $US1 trillion, like half of which will be savings on Google's massive power bill 
Responding to criticism for its secrecy over its data centres, Google has lifted the veil a little on how much energy its information hotbeds use. The world's largest search engine insisted that Google-designed data centres used nearly five times less energy than conventional facilities, and 
