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Thanks to the modern electric grid, you have access to electricity whenever you want. But the grid only works when electricity is generated in the same amounts as it is consumed. That said, it’s impossible to get the balance right all the time. So operators make grids more flexible by adding ways to store excess electricity for when production drops or consumption rises.
About 96% of the world’s energy-storage capacity comes in the form of one technology: pumped hydro. Whenever generation exceeds demand, the excess electricity is used to pump water up a dam. When demand exceeds generation, that water is allowed to fall—thanks to gravity—and the potential energy turns turbines to produce electricity.
But pumped-hydro storage requires particular geographies, with access to water and to reservoirs at different altitudes. It’s the reason that about three-quarters of all pumped hydro storage has been built in only 10 countries. The trouble is the world needs to add a lot more energy storage, if we are to continue to add the intermittent solar and wind power necessary to cut our dependence on fossil fuels.
A startup called Energy Vault thinks it has a viable alternative to pumped-hydro: Instead of using water and dams, the startup uses concrete blocks and cranes. It has been operating in stealth mode until today (Aug. 18), when its existence will be announced at Kent Presents, an ideas festival in Connecticut.
On a hot July morning, I traveled to Biasca, Switzerland, about two hours north of Milan, Italy, where Energy Vault has built a demonstration plant, about a tenth the size of a full-scale operation. The whole thing—from idea to a functional unit—took about nine months and less than $2 million to accomplish. If this sort of low-tech, low-cost innovation could help solve even just a few parts of the huge energy-storage problem, maybe the energy transition the world needs won’t be so hard after all.
Streamroot harnesses the latest web technologies (HTML5 and WebRTC) and powerful proprietary algorithms to offer state-of-the-art P2P streaming.
Streamroot improves on traditional unicast video delivery by decentralizing exchanges and providing content via multiple sources.
With Streamroot, viewers begin loading video content directly from your server. At the same time, they connect to the Streamroot tracker, retrieve an intelligently selected list of peers, and establish a direct connection with them to exchange video segments.
Segments come from the source that provides them most quickly, improving exchanges, heightening reliability and better managing traffic.
Governor Cuomo’s groundbreaking initiative, is creating tax-free zones across the state for new and expanding businesses. Now businesses can operate 100% tax-free for 10 years. No business, corporate, state or local taxes, sales and property taxes, or franchise fees.
(This talk was written for an audience of investors.) Y Combinator has now funded 564 startups including the current batch, which has 53. The total valuation of the 287 that have valuations (either by raising an equity round, getting acquired, or dying) is about $11.7 billion, and the 511 prior to the current batch have collectively raised about $1.7 billion.
Bertrand Serlet is widely considered to be the brains behind Apple's Mac operating system. He was even mentioned as a possible successor to Steve Jobs at one point. So it came as a shock to some when Serlet decided to step down in March, 2011 after 22 years with the company. At the time, Serlet offered a vague explanation for his decision, noting that he wanted to "focus less on products and more on science." He didn't mention any specific plans at the time and has effectively dropped off the radar, until now. Business Insider has learned that Serlet has spent much of the time since his departure from Apple working with at least two other former Apple employees to launch a cloud computing startup in downtown Palo Alto called Upthere. The startup is still in stealth mode, so information about it is scarce, but we've uncovered a few details about the company through job postings, trademark requests, domain name registrations and tweets from employees.
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It’s hard not to get excited when people start talking about flying cars — after all, who doesn’t want a flying Jetsons car? When 2016 Hello Tomorrow Challenge grand prize winner, Lilium Jet, got on stage to present the world’s first vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) personal aircraft, the audience was captivated. Before us was an image of a futuristic egg-shaped personal jet, majestically soaring above the glistening ocean.
Incubated under the auspices of the European Space Agency’s business incubation center in Bavaria, the young team of German engineers and doctoral students from the Technical University of Munich has a lofty ambition: to disrupt the future of everyday commute.
With Lilium Jet, people can move to rural areas while working in big cities, because long distances can be covered in a fraction of the traditional time.
Instead of queueing at an airport to go from Munich to Milan, you stroll into your garden, hop onto your Lilium, and take off; we’re talking about a garden of at least 15 x 15 meter. With electric engines, the Lilium is both quieter and more environmentally-friendly than helicopters. Classified as a light sport aircraft for two occupants, the Lilium can fly up to 300 km per hour, and requires only 20–30 hours of training as opposed to the costly, time-intensive training required to fly helicopters. Same as getting a driver’s license.
Imagine there was a device that could help make your car run quicker, cheaper and help you save the environment? Well that’s what OOCar is offering with its latest service. The company has a small dongle that you attach to your car’s diagnostics port – every vehicle made after 2001 has one. Once there, it then tracks your car’s performance and sends it to the OOCar app where it can give you tips and advice on how to save cash. The startup claims it can save you as much as 30 percent on fuel costs and 40 percent on insurance premiums. Not bad. When the dreaded engine warning light comes on, it can give you a breakdown of the damage and also a rough cost of repairs, so you can tell if a mechanic is trying to pull a fast one. The app is only available in France right now, but the team hopes to start expanding across Europe soon.
Every year, The Next Web holds hundreds of interviews with young startups in order to shortlist the cream of the crop and invite them to Boost, our early-stage growth program at The Next Web Conference. With the eleventh edition of our flagship Amsterdam conference coming up in May .../... This week, we’ve selected six Internet of Things startups that are sure to make your stuff smarter. Whether it’s keeping up to date with your home’s power usage and security, or saving money by changing your driving habits, there’s bound to be something here for your wish list. Check out the six companies that have been invited to participate here
TechOnMap, propulsé par la Fonderie, propose des modes de navigation et de visualisation étonnants, et surtout une base de donnees très à jour et déjà segmentée. Votre Startup n'y figure pas encore? Ajoutez la en 2 coups de cuiller a pot !
Ce tour de table doit permettre d'alimenter l'impressionnante croissance du groupe. Créée en 2005, la start-up a généré un chiffre d'affaires de 9 millions de dollars en 2009, puis de 60 millions en 2010, et de 200 millions l'année dernière. Et le rythme devrait se poursuivre cette année, avec en plus un plan de recrutement de 250 salariés, qui permettra d'étoffer une structure aujourd'hui composée de 700 salariés. La raison de ce succès : une solution de « publicité display à la performance ». La société propose ainsi aux annonceurs des espaces publicitaires personnalisés en fonction des habitudes de navigation de l'internaute qu'elle recueille de façon anonyme et qu'elle exploite via un algorithme développé spécialement. Une solution qui lui permet de revendiquer un taux de clic dix fois supérieur au marché, aux alentours de 0,6 %. De quoi lui permettre d'envisager l'avenir avec sérénité, et notamment une introduction en Bourse. « On se met en ordre de bataille», commente sobrement Jean-Baptiste Rudelle.
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Energy is concrete, and vice-versa