I'll Take it!

Woot! I have no idea what this would do, but I'm sure it would be rad.

I'm gonna build a gadget walled fortress!

You failed to read more. The "kite" is not your traditional kite that just pulls you as the wind blows it. The foil is a combo-kite -- part normal kite, that pulls, and part plane, that descends. The kite causes a, likely erratic, sine wave of sorts, constantly pulling, then relenting, line. The back-and-forth motion is generated into electricity. Maybe the motion runs a flywheel, or when the kite pulls, it simply rotates an electric motor (and when it is descending, doing nothing).

Think of it like a rower in a row boat. They put the oars in the water, and pull real hard. This moves him forward. Then he lifts the oars out of the water, and pushes them with little effort back to position for another pull.

The same is true with this. The wind blows, and pulls real hard, and rotates a flywheel or an electric motor to generate electricity. The kite changes angles, and moves back toward earth a bit, and the unit on the ground reels in the slack, using little effort, getting ready for the kite to catch the wind again.

I got a brand new Dell inspiron 15" widescreen laptop with 2gb of memory and a decent core 2 duo proc for $649 a while back. Sure, it had a discount attached, but clearly here you're getting less than you can get if you shop around. The 13" laptop doesn't seem to have any huge benefits over the 15" you can get right now elsewhere. Look at buy.com, ecost.com, or just go to dealnews.com and search in the laptop section. I've almost always been able to find a deal when i need a new laptop.

I grew up in Holland, MI. The west side of Holland near the power plant would be as good as any place to build it. It's right on Lake Macatawa, which has easy access to Lake Michigan, so distribution, if successful, would be easy to Wisconsin and Illinois, as well as elsewhere around Michigan.

I'm still curious to find out if algae will be potent enough for everything that goes into it to make it biodiesel. If they've got it figured out, great! But I do wonder if it is there.

Plus, it's not carbon neutral, or even carbon sequestering, as you take the CO2 from power production, feed it to algae, then squeeze it out of them and burn it in your car, which again releases the CO2 into the atmosphere. What's the point here again?

Rock on, @meme. I love well informed people.

My question -- $0.99 per watt -- is that per watt of solar panel? I.E. will I be able to buy a 2KW solar panel for $2,000 or so?

Right now I can buy (without price checking or shopping around) a 60 watt solar panel for $600, or about $10 per watt. http://www.boatersworld.com/product/319870010.htm?utm_medium=productsearch&utm_source=google

I know that most people quote solar at about $3 per watt. Being able to get 2KW for $2k and have them last 10-20 years, that, my friends, is rockin.

Huzzah for a company who is planning the car as a pure electric, but offers an Auxiliary Power Trailer (APT) which offers the ability to stick a gas engine on the back to increase range. It's the perfect car. 100 mile range on batteries, infinite with gasoline. Hopefully the engine will be efficient enough to get 100mpg, but at least I can get my range.

Electricity: 2c/mile
Gasoline: 18-22c/mile (22-18mpg @ $4/gal)
Bicycle: 26c/mile (1000cph @ 15mph @ $4/1k cal)

Geez, wouldn't it be more green to friggin' drive an electric vehicle powered from clean sources? Food takes delivery, probably from diesel, which isn't that clean. And possibly was shipped across the ocean in a diesel powered ship. Even if you can eat 1000 non-empty good-for-your-body calories for $2, you're still looking at 13c/mile, more than 6 times more costly than an EV. Plus all the CO2 emissions from making and moving the food!

Save the world -- stop biking and start driving EVs!

@steven -- I read the blogs because I don't have time to commit to keeping up with the industry. Blogs save me time by reading all the stuff that's out there, and writing up comprehensive, well written summaries that boil down the gist of what's going on, plus a little personal perspective and opinion. I've come to value that at ABG.

This post was disappointing, as it had nothing to say, other than some other rag might have some information about carbon fiber maybe becoming cheaper. Not ABG quality I've come to appreciate.

I'm OK with not knowing things about the industry the second they come out. But if they are being blogged about here, I hope to see the news summarized and have some nice juicy details where appropriate.

Honestly, in your comments you did a better job summarizing the article in AN than Sam did -- the news is the new auto dev center, and the two technologies you highlight. Your single 2nd-to-last paragraph is what I'm looking for, and matches the headline in the original post. Thanks!