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Monday
08Feb2010

Deep Cycle Batteries - Going Green to Save Green 

By Stephen A Daniels

Deep cycle batteries are a great way to add to your green agenda. While probably best known for their use in storing energy generated by solar panels, these power sources require less maintenance, last longer and are cleaner than regular batteries. Highly versatile, they are being utilized in more and more applications, allowing people to reduce their carbon footprint and their dependence on fossil fuels. A look at how batteries work will help you understand how these durable, cost effective power sources are playing an important role in alternative energy and green technology.

Batteries do not create energy; they store it. The real difference between a deep cycle and a starter battery is its purpose. A starter battery provides a huge surge of energy to start a car engine. These batteries are then recharged using the automobile's alternator. They work well for cars, but not for equipment that requires a constant power supply for longer periods of time. A deep cycle battery is designed to give a long-term charge. It also releases power consistently to prevent it from being drained too quickly. It is designed to use up to 80% of its stored energy, providing a longer period of usage. This gives the deep cycle battery much greater versatility for environmentally safe applications.

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Friday
05Feb2010

Mining and Nigeria's 2020 Goals

By Peter O Osalor

Revitalising the mining sector is part of extended government efforts to rectify massive imbalances in the economy, and the solid mineral sector is seen as crucial to overcoming the historic dependence on oil and gas. Mining activities suffered heavily because of official neglect during more than three decades of political turmoil and civil war that shattered the Nigerian economy. The richly endowed nation boasts vast reserves of iron ore and coal, besides significant gold, uranium, gypsum, barite and tantalum deposits. Over many years, a sharp decline in the production of coal, tin and columbite weakened the mining sector and dragged its GDP contribution down to 0.5%. Together with a determined fall in global oil prices and decline in crude production due to surging violence in the Niger Delta region, it brought home catastrophe to Nigeria's foreign exchange reserves.

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Tuesday
02Feb2010

Commercial aviation is as safe as ever, but could we be on the verge of catastrophe? 

Flying is generally considered to be the safest form of travel, and North Americans enjoy the highest standards of safety and the lowest incidence of fatal accidents in the world, at 1.9 fatal accidents per 10 million flights, according to the European Aviation Safety Agency's report on aviation safety for 2008. European member countries of EASA had 3.6 accidents per 10 million. By contrast, non-EASA Europe had 25.6, and Africa (the entire continent) scored a rather frightening 48.1 per 10 million flights.    

Commercial aviation is highly regulated at every level, from aircraft manufacture to flight crew training. Here is what the European Aviation Safety Agency says about its role in keeping flyers safe:

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Monday
01Feb2010

The Nuclear Resurgence

A British Perspective

By Joe Baylis

On 9th November 2009, 10 new nuclear power station sites, of the 11 proposed, were approved by the (UK) government.

This agenda is part of the effort to fill the ever approaching energy gap that is predicted by 2015 as present nuclear stations are decommissioned and we look to reduce the prominence of fossil fuels. If given the final planning go-ahead, these proposed sites could be producing energy by 2018 and are projected to be producing 40% of the UK's electricity needs by 2025.

The proposed sites include Bradwell in Essex; Braystones, Kirksanton and Sellafield in Cumbria; Hartlepool and Heysham in Lancashire; Hinkley Point in Somerset; Oldbury in Gloucestershire; Sizewell in Suffolk; and Wylfa in North Wales.

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Friday
29Jan2010

Return to the Moon not on as Obama changes direction for NASA

The Obama administration will not continue to fund the so-called Constellation space exploration program announced by George W. Bush. The program, announced in 2003 after the space shuttle Discovery disaster, aimed to return astronauts to the moon by 2020 and expand manned exploration to Mars. President Obama is to reveal his space plans on February 1 in his 2011 budget request, but it is widely reported that Constellation as now conceived will not survive.

At the heart of the program is the development of new Ares I and Ares V rockets and Orion crew capsules to replace the shuttles. The shuttle program is to end this year. The Constellation program is behind schedule and over budget, and there are serious doubts as to whether it will be in operation in time to serve the International Space Station before 2015 when it is scheduled to be scrapped.

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Thursday
28Jan2010

Oil refining capacity down in NA, world production up: Can this go on? 

 

At the time of Hurricane Katrina, consumers in North America saw gas prices rise sharply—even before the Hurricane actually swept through the Gulf of Mexico and destroyed New Orleans—on the possibility that oil refineries in the Gulf might be damaged by the hurricane and thus cut supply. It seemed at the time that there must be an acute shortage of refining capacity in North America if the loss of two or three refineries was enough to seriously disrupt supply for the entire continent. There was a lot of talk of building more refineries to protect consumers from wild price swings caused by disruptions to supply. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

 

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Thursday
28Jan2010

Ford reports $2.7 billion profit for 2009

The Ford Motor Company reported a profit of $2.7 billion for 2009, a year Ford's CEO Alan Mulally calls "pivotal" for the company. The last full-year profit for Ford was in 2005. Mulally predicts that 2010 will also be a profitable year. Fourth quarter profit was $868 million (25 cents per share) on revenue of $35.4 billion, making it the best quarter of the year, with a 33% jump in December sales. It has to be noted that December sales across the board benefitted from extraordinary offers from dealers (up to 50% off for some GM products) and a flood of bargain-hunting shoppers. Ford's revenue for the year was $118.3 billion. In 2008, the company lost $14.8 billion.

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Wednesday
27Jan2010

Huge Toyota recall linked to part made in Canada

Toyota 2010 Camry, one of eight models recalled

Toyota, it seems, has become a victim of its own success. The Japanese giant auto maker is recalling about 4.3 million cars in North America and Europe because of a faulty gas pedal. This amounts to more than half of all cars Toyota sold worldwide in 2009 (7.81 million). Preliminary reports indicate that the faulty part was made by US auto parts maker CTS Corporation's Canadian subsidiary in Mississauga, Ontario.

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Tuesday
26Jan2010

Saab will live on: GM makes deal with Spyker Cars

Spyker C8 Aileron 2009

Saab will not die after all. General Motors has reached an agreement to sell the unprofitable Saab brand to Dutch luxury car maker Spyker Cars NV. Spyker will pay GM US$74 million in cash and $326 million in preferred stock in the new Saab. The Swedish government will guarantee Spyker a loan of €400 million (US$563 million). Spyker, which moved its production to England last year, has sold only a few hundred cars worldwide, each costing upwards of US$200,000, since its founding in 2000. When the deal closes, the company will be known as Saab Spyker Cars.

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Monday
25Jan2010

NASA introduces the Puffin, your personal-use, all-electric airplane

Everybody is talking about electric cars. But electric airplanes? For personal use?

As a matter of fact, yes.

NASA has just made public an experimental, electrically propelled one-man aircraft called the Puffin. The craft is designed for vertical take-off, landing, and hovering, and it can cruise at up to 240 kilometers per hour and put on bursts of speed up to twice that fast. The carbon-fiber craft is just 3.7 meters long, with a wingspan of 4.1 meters and a weight of 180 kilograms, including a 45 kilogram rechargeable lithium phosphate battery. Its range is about 80 kilometers in cruise mode, but designers say they can triple or quadruple that range by 2017 by improving battery energy densities. With no air intake needed for propulsion, the craft could theoretically climb to more than 9,000 meters as designed.

 

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