Processing time on the top supercomputers
Researchers working on lithium-ion batteries to power cars have been given time on supercomputers at Oak Ridge and Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois.
According to the statement from officials at Oak Ridge , the goal is to develop materials for batteries with the potential to power a car for 500 miles on a single charge.
Used in today's emerging plug-in hybrid electric vehicles,lithium-ion batteries currently have a range of approximately 40 to 100 miles.Lithium-ion batteries that are currently found mostly in cell phones and laptops.
The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded about 24 million hours of processing time on the top supercomputers for research projects through the Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment program.
Battery of the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e is horrible
The Lenovo ThinkPad X100e stands apart from other notebooks in the thin and light crowd in a couple of ways. First, it has an AMD Neo MV-40 processor and ATI Radeon 3200 HD graphics that you don’t find in a lot of 11.6 inch laptops. Second, it has a distinctive keyboard design. Third, it's got Lenovo's signature TrackPoint system which lets you use either the touchpad or a pointing stick in the middle of the keyboard to move the cursor.
But there's another thing that apparently sets the ThinkPad X100e apart from other thin and lights such as the Asus UL20A, Acer Aspire 1810, and even the Lenovo IdeaPad U150. The X100e gets horrible battery life.
A few weeks ago Peter at Netbooked reviewde the laptop an found that even with a six cell battery, he was only getting 3 to 4 hours of run time. Now SlashGear’s Ewdison Then has posted another review, and he says the laptop typically ran for just about 3 hours on a charge.Lenovo admits that the the X100e isn’t designed to get the 10+ hours of battery life we’ve come to expect of netbooks and ultraportables with Intel Atom or CULV processors. The company says with a 3 cell battery the X100e should run for about 2 hours, and it should be good for up to 5 hours with a 6 cell battery. But it sounds like the laptop is having a hard time coming anywhere close to that 5 hour promise. Perhaps you need to turn off the WiFi, dim the screen, and let the CPU idle.
There is no doubt that some users would probably be willing to put up with crappy battery life if it came with a significant performance boost. But SlashGear says the laptop doesn’t feel any faster than a machine with an Intel Atom CPU. But as Netbooked points out, the ATI Radeon 3200 graphics does at least give the machine a bit of an advantage in some tasks. For instance, it can handle 1080p HD video playback, something that no Atom-powered system can do without help from NVIDIA ION graphics or a Broadcom HD video accelerator.
Energy has closed a $1.4 billion loan agreement with Nissan
The U.S. Department of Energy has closed a $1.4 billion loan agreement with Nissan North America,Inc.which means the automaker will be creating up to 1,300 jobs in Tennessee to make the all-electric Leaf and lithium-ion battery packs to power them.
Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said the previously announced loan transaction was issued as part of the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program.Congress authorized that $25 billion program as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.Scott Becker,Nissan NA senior vice president,said in the agency's Thursday statement that the loan will bring production of the Leaf to Tennessee.
Modification of the Smyrna plant will begin later this year,which includes a new battery plant and changes to accommodate electric-vehicle assembly.
Investigation of Windows 7 Battery Drain Problem
Microsoft officials confirmed Friday that they are looking into reports of radically shortened battery life on some laptops after installing Windows 7.
A few users reported similar problems during Windows 7's beta test cycle last summer, particularly with some netbooks, wide availability of Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) new OS following its October,but consumer release seems to have triggered significantly more cases.
"I upgraded my laptop from XP to Win 7 and my battery life went from about 2 hours to 30 minutes. The system shuts down (hibernates) without any warning. The powercfg-energy report shows the battery stored less than 40% of the Designed Capacity the last time the battery was fully charged," one frustrated user, going by the screen name "dabruton," said in a post on Microsoft's TechNet user forums on Jan. 1.
"The battery life dropped to almost nothing after doing a clean install of windows 7 (it was fine before that, about 1.5-2 hours)," echoed another poster with the screen name "jw98029."
Heritage Lifecycle Mailback
Heritage Environmental Services launched its new online store that allows businesses and consumers to recycle and "mail-back" used lightbulbs and batteries.The recycling program,Heritage Lifecycle Mailback,provides customers with an economical and reliable alternative to landfilling used lightbulbs and batteries.Currently available on the store are containers for battery and fluorescent lamp recycling.
Indianapolis,IN January 27, 2010 --Heritage has developed a variety of customized programs over time to help customers manage small amounts of waste generated from multiple locations over a wide geographic area.These programs have greatly improved customers'environmental compliance and reduced their current and future liabilities.The Lifecycle Mailback Program is no different.Speaking about the new program,Holly Gamage,Vice President said, "Heritage is excited to extend its product offerings onto the Internet making our services easier to use and increasing accessibility.This new offering will allow customers to lower the total cost of their universal waste disposal programs."
Universal wastes are commonly used items that,when disposed,are not classified as hazardous waste,but they do contain materials that should not be released into the environment.Lightbulbs and batteries are two of the most common types of universal waste.
The Lifecycle Mailback Store provides simple on-line ordering and payment for containers that may be used for your battery recycling and fluorescent lamp recycling or other mercury-containing lamp recycling needs.Pricing is all-inclusive of the containers,shipping, instructions,and recycling of the batteries and lightbulbs.For larger quantities of lamps or ballasts,Heritage offers competitive pricing, containers, documentation,and nationwide service coverage for bulk pick-ups.
"Being able to provide not only our customers but the general population with a responsible and safe outlet for their universal waste is a huge accomplishment. Recycling in my home is a family effort;our recycle bins now outnumber our trash bins and that is a great feeling.Having a simple way to recycle household batteries and lightbulbs without the hassle and huge expense just makes it that much easier to do the right thing," said Darci Ackerman.
The Lifecycle Mailback Store will periodically offer additional items such as the current RCRA TCLP Testing Special for the characterization of wastes.Future plans for the Lifecycle Mailback Store will include the ability to purchase containers for recycling e-scrap and mercury containing devices,in addition to offering Conditionally Exempt Small Quantity Generators a secure way to dispose of consumer packaged pharmaceutical waste.