Batteries and energy storage

Universal chargers for portable electronics will someday seem quaint when wireless charging technology becomes ubiquitous, and that may happen soonest in your car.

General Motors has partnered with Powermat to incorporate its wireless charging mats into car interiors, both companies announced from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas today.

Starting with the Chevy Volt, drivers and passengers will be able to lay things like phones and MP3 players on the center console and have them wirelessly charge while they're sitting there.

GM said consumers will be able to get the tech for the 2011 Chevy Volt, and that … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Idapt's new i1 Eco universal charger can juice up a range of devices and in a way that's friendly to the environment.

Announced today at the Consumer Electronics Show, the i1 Eco includes both a USB port and a tip port with interchangeable tips. That helps the charger handle more than 4,000 devices, according to Idapt, including the iPhone and iPad, BlackBerry, Xbox controllers, Sony's PSP game console, and various GPS and Bluetooth gadgets.

But it's the i1 Eco's greener features that Idapt is touting.

The company says that the charger is made … Read more

Maxwell Technologies has won a $1.7 million contract from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop an ultracapacity energy-storage device for powering portable electronics for the military, the company announced today.

Under the DARPA contract, Maxwell will work with researchers from the University of Massachusetts and the U.S. Navy to create a hybrid ultracap, a device that can act as a "capacity module, advanced battery pack and power management electronics" tool yet be light and small enough to be easily transported by soldiers in the field.

The device also must be extremely long-lasting, … Read more

Active Power is offering an updated version of its flywheel generator specifically designed for backing up microprocessor-based equipment, the company announced today.

Its CleanSource UPS (uninterruptible power supply) system is available in 480-volt (300 kVA and 600 kVA) and 400-volt (250 kVA and 500 kVA) configurations.

"Designed based on customer feedback, the G-Series is an enhancement to our current generation of UPS technology and is a cost and feature optimized solution for the 300 to 600 kVA power range," Active Power CTO Uwe Schrader-Hausmann said in a statement.

A flywheel generator uses electricity from the electric grid to … Read more

The Department of Energy announced yesterday that it's interested in funding more fuel cell research and development projects, as well as cost analysis studies for fuel cell manufacturing and use.

To that end the federal agency is offering a total of $74 million in funding, with $65 million going toward research and development, and $9 million going toward cost analysis studies. The funds are available to either academic or corporate laboratories with applications for the research and development funding due by March 3, 2011, and those for fuel cell cost analysis studies due by February 18, 2011.

It's … Read more

General Motors has turned to YouTube to explain the EPA's new ratings system for alternative fuel cars, particularly for its new Volt.

Earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency revamped its car rating system to offer MPGe (miles per gallon equivalent) ratings.

It's a tool for comparing alternative fuel vehicles and hybrids to cars with gas-only combustion engines. So while a car may use electricity alone--as with the Nissan Think--the EPA still calculates an energy-equivalent consumption comparable to a gas-engine car.

The hybrid electric Chevy Volt, which was released in the U.S. last week, presents a particularly … Read more

It took awhile, but Panasonic has announced that it will finally make Sanyo a wholly owned subsidiary.

The company said it plans to acquire the remaining 20 percent of Sanyo stock that it doesn't own through a "share exchange" with the company. As of March 28, Sanyo shares will be officially delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange, paving the way for Panasonic to acquire the remaining shares on April 1.

Panasonic first made its intentions to buy Sanyo known in December 2008. At that time, the company agreed to acquire Sanyo for $8.9 billion. However, it … Read more

U.S. rare earth metal supplier Molycorp today said that it is planning a joint venture with Hitachi Metals to produce rare earth metals in the U.S.

No definitive agreement has been signed but the talks envision production of neodymium-iron-boron alloys and magnets, according to Molycorp. If conditions are met, the companies could start producing rare earth magnets in the latter half of 2011.

Molycorp is in the process or reopening a mine in Mountain Pass, California to extract and process rare earth metals, which would be the only mine in the U.S.

The supply of rare earth … Read more

Solar Reserve said today it has the federal permitting approvals it needs to begin construction of a concentrated solar power plant with enough storage to operate after the sun goes down.

The Santa Monica, Calif.-based company said the U.S. Department of the Interior approved the "record of decision" for a 110-megawatt solar thermal power plant in Nye County, near Tonopah, Nev. With the authorization, Solar Reserve expects it can start construction by mid-2011.

This Crescent Dunes project will use a field of sun-tracking mirrors, called heliostats, to reflect light onto a tower that holds molten salt. … Read more