Kompulsa

Science And Technology News

Kompulsa provides on-site reporting, interviews, photo-essays, as well as energy, technology, and science stories, all together in one place. This will empower your understanding of our increasingly complex and interconnected technology-driven world.

From electric vehicles (EV) to hybrid renewable energy technology, science and technology play an important role in our daily lives.

Here You’ll See Signs Of Hope For Energy Dependent Nations

Did you know that the world’s biggest polluter is China, and in 2013 wind power generation surpassed nuclear power generation there? Wind power is growing so fast in China that it is difficult to get official numbers on a timely basis.

Globally, about 100,000MW worth of wind power has been added to the world’s electric grids, about every three years, since year 2000. If anything, this astonishing installation rate may increase even further.

Climate change scientists have recently coined a new term, Thermal Runaway. Climate change has many potential implications, but the scariest possibility ‘Thermal Runaway’ could intensify them all and could do so in a catastrophic way. Image obtained with thanks from Andy Tinkham on Flickr.

“China took off at a full gallop, beginning 2013 with 7.5GW of installed wind power and adding another 16.1GW of wind power by Jan 1, 2014 – amounting to almost half all new wind power installations worldwide! China’s installed wind capacity now totals 91,424MW (9.1GW) according to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).”

On the solar power front (solar PV), it appears that China may have installed as much as 14 GigaWatts (GW) during 2013, but had originally forecast 10GW for 2013. They are still counting. For the record, prior to China’s aggressive solar installation programme, Germany had held the world record since 2011, for yearly solar power installations at 7.6GW.

Electric Vehicles And Hybrid Vehicles

Electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles continue to show popularity as over 205,000 units were sold during 2013 alone. The Nissan Leaf electric vehicle alone was sold over 47,000 times worldwide in 2013, while Chevy Volt total mileage across the fleet (all Volt ‘Electric only’ miles added together) crossed a whopping 400 million miles!

The hugely successful and thrilling to drive Tesla Model S was just named Best Overall Car by Consumer Reports magazine — out of all cars sold in the world. That works, Tesla! On top of that, the Tesla Model S electric vehicle was reported by the U.S. National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration (NHTSA) to have a perfect safety rating, accumulating five stars in each category.

Tesla Motors shares jumped to a record $196. per share, even as EV subsidies were lowered in some countries at the end of February, 2014. (Update March 3, 2014; Tesla shares now trading at $250.00)

IHS Automotive predicts that global electric vehicle production will increase by 67% in 2014, while global production for vehicles overall is forecast to increase by only 3.6%.

Yes, exciting times indeed, for the electric vehicle (EV) and hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) world. There are many good news stories here, so take a deeper look inside Kompulsa.

Learn How A Variety Of Things Work

Across the top of the Kompulsa, you will find handy links describing how many different energy sources work — allowing you to expand your knowledge of how wind power works, how solar power works, how nuclear power works, how the electric vehicle works, and how the electricity grid works.

If you’re not currently interested in learning how electronics work, you may be interested in learning more about what makes the world tick, such as the relationship between temperature and pressure, which has a major impact on everything, from whether or not it rains, to the pot of food you have on the stove!

That’s not all, if you’re interested in cars, there’s content here for you too. Nissan invented a 400 HP, 3-cylinder engine that weights only 88 pounds!

TOPIC CATEGORIES:

Under the Science Library heading, for easy-to-understand information complete with photographs — see the visually stunning Volcano Tutorial, for just one example.

Under the Energy Library heading, such topics as Public Transportation, Natural Gas, Vertical Wind Turbine Technology compared to Conventional Wind Turbine Technology, and other energy related topics are organized to provide you, the reader, with easy-to-understand and up-to-date information.

There’s even an electric vehicle database and a Superconductor heading for exceptionally inquiring minds.

In the How It Works section, you can learn how various kinds of technology work, including inverters and air conditioners. You can find consumer technology (as well as other technology articles) in the technology section, and technology news in the technology category.

General topics of interest can be found by using the website search functionality as science and technology topics are frequently discussed on Kompulsa. All comments and questions are warmly welcomed.

So, dig in. Find out the answers to those technology and science questions that you’ve been looking for. It’s all right here for you, at Kompulsa!