Hasta La Gadget!

Transmission lines carry electricity from a thermal power plant in Ube, Japan. Photo: Isado/Flickr

A strange legacy of the Japanese power system’s infancy in the late 1800s is complicating efforts to keep Tokyo supplied with electricity.

The problem, as explained by IDG News Service’s Martyn Williams, is that half of the country uses power whose current alternates at 60 Hz, while the other half gets its power at 50 Hz.

The discrepancy has to do with the founding of electric power in the country. Tokyo Electric Light Co. used German generators, which operated at 50 Hz, while in the west part of Japan, Osaka Electric Lamp Co. used generators from General Electric, an American company, operating at the same 60 Hz standard that is used in the United States to this day.

Unlike the U.S. grid, the Japanese power grid was never unified on a single standard. While it’s possible to connect the two grids, the frequency-changing stations required can only handle up to 1 gigawatt.

When the quake hit, it shut down 11 reactors including three that were in operation at the Fukushima Daiichi plant that is now at the center of Japan’s nuclear problems. With the 11 reactors offline, 9.7 GW was gone from eastern Japan’s electricity production capacity.

And that’s the root of Tokyo’s current electricity problems: Utility companies in west Japan are unable to make up for all of the lost power.

Residents of Japan have faced a crisis of unimaginable proportions, with earthquakes followed by a tsunami followed by a nuclear disaster. The rolling blackouts in Tokyo are, in comparison, a relatively minor problem.

Still, it’s interesting to see how historical decisions from more than a century ago can have unexpected consequences today — all because of a frequency mismatch. Chalk it up to path dependency.

A legacy from the 1800s leaves Tokyo facing blackouts [IT World]

Some might think a ten-hour Macbook battery mighty fine, but we’re happy to say that Cupertino’s not quite satisfied. AppleInsider spotted a pair of Apple patent applications detailing a improved way of juicing up those lithium-polymer cells, which should greatly increase the number of recharge cycles they can endure — or, optionally, allow Apple to use denser batteries that last longer on a charge. We’ll break it down for you: the graph in the upper-left shows how Li-ion batteries currently charge, first very rapidly (constant current, increasing voltage) and then more slowly (constant voltage, decreasing current) to top the cells off.

What Apple’s proposing is the multi-step method depicted on the right, where current and voltage trade off, to charge the battery while being far less harsh on the physical chemistry of the electrodes inside. As you can see in the bottom graph, the multi-step CC-CV cells lose much less of their potential after 300 recharge cycles, but that’s not all Apple’s cooking up — the company figures that it can increase the thickness of the electrodes to improve battery life (by as much as 28Wh/L, according to one chart) without negative effect thanks to the softer charge. Sure, we’d rather have plant-eating graphene supercapcitors, but this sounds like a plan for now.

Apple patent application points to denser batteries, improved charging technique originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 20 Feb 2011 15:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If Google and Microsoft can get in on the home energy management wave then hey, why not Intel? Chipzilla is teaming up with Capgemini SA to create a “tablet-style computer” that lets humans control the power consumed by their appliances. Later, presumably when there are enough of these smart devices on the grid, it could allow utilities to more intelligently manage its electricity allocation. According to Intel’s Joe Jensen, general manager for low-power embedded processors, “energy is a big part of our project to extend the fringe of computing out to the next thing.” Indeed, under Paul Otellini’s lead, Intel is targeting fuel pumps at the corner gas station, advertising signs, and even exercise equipment as it seeks opportunities beyond traditional computing devices — a market Intel believes to be worth about $10 billion. The goal of the Intel / Capgemini initiative is to offer a full-service smart-grid solution, according to Steven Harris, head of smart home services at Capgemini. Mind you, Intel’s involvement shouldn’t come as a total surprise here, seeing as how it was showing off wall panels for real-time utility management in the — groan — “digital crib” way back at CES in 2010. That’s one such device, pictured above.

Update: Corrected spelling from “Cap Gemini” (as Businessweek presented it) to “Capgemini” — this isn’t 2004 anymore. We also managed to unearth the official press release announcing Intel’s Home Energy Dashboard reference design built around the Atom processor. You’ll find that after the break.

Continue reading Intel and Capgemini to develop tablet for home energy management

Intel and Capgemini to develop tablet for home energy management originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Feb 2011 06:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s rare that hot booze does anything more than get you drunk, and possibly make you sick, but according to Dr. Yoshihiko Takano, the drink you’re sucking on could facilitate the levitation of a train. After a party for a colleague, the Japanese scientist found that FeTe0.8S0.2 (composed of iron, tellurium, and tellurium sulfide), when soaked in warm booze overnight, shows signs of increased superconductivity — another in a long line of liquor-enhanced discoveries that could have far reaching effects on everything from consumer electronics to public transportation. Dr. Takano decided to test the material (known to become a superconductor after soaking in water) in the leftover alcohol from the party: beer, red wine, white wine, sake, shochu, and whiskey. As it turns out, red wine has the highest superconducting volume fraction at 62.4 percent — nearly four times higher than the ethanol-water control samples. Dr. Takano and his colleagues speculate that the ease with which wine and beer oxidize could be play a key role in the increase in superconductivity. We speculate that even a superconductor gets a little hopped up after soaking in a bottle of wine.

Japanese doctor turns hot toddy into superconductor catalyst originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 08:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re hesitant to file this one in the folder marked “Awesome Things That’ll Never Happen,” but it’s definitely on the watch list. A new prototype solar device has been concocted to convert sunlight into fuel, much in the same way a plant does. Eco-minded folks will probably understand that conventional photovoltaic panels “must use the electricity they generate in situ,” and thus, cannot deliver energy at night; this here device takes a rather unorthodox approach, using the sun’s rays along with ceria (a magical, marvelous metal oxide) to “break down carbon dioxide or water into fuels which can be stored and transported.” In theory, at least, the device could be used to create hydrogen and / or carbon monoxide, with the former being obviously useful for fueling up hydrogen-based cars of the future. Sadly, the existing prototype is horribly inefficient — only around 0.7 percent of the solar energy can be converted into fuel — but researchers are adamant that they can boost that to nearly 20 percent in time. We’ll check back in a decade or so to see how things are progressing.

New solar machine could generate hydrogen fuel, food for your future vehicle originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Dec 2010 02:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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