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Lightning-fast, efficient data transmission developed at Stanford. Jan Petykiewicz / School of Engineering This carrier holds a single chip containing hundreds of the Stanford low-power LEDs integrated together.

Lightning-fast, efficient data transmission developed at Stanford

A team at Stanford's School of Engineering has demonstrated an ultrafast nanoscale light-emitting diode (LED) that is orders of magnitude lower in power consumption than today's laser-based systems and is able to transmit data at the very rapid rate of 10 billion bits per second. The researchers say it is a major step forward in providing a practical ultrafast, low-power light source for on-chip data transmission. Stanford's Jelena Vuckovic, an associate professor of electrical engineering, and Gary Shambat, a doctoral candidate in electrical engineering, announced their device in a research paper set to be published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.

"Low-power, electrically controlled light sources are vital for next-generation optical systems to meet the growing energy demands of the computer industry," said Vuckovic. World-Leading Smart Grid Demo on Maui Island, Hawaii. Clean Power Published on November 16th, 2011 | by Zachary Shahan Hawaii is a clean energy leader, and it is now looking to more efficiently use that clean energy with the development of a world-leading smart grid demonstration project on Maui Island, Hawaii.

World-Leading Smart Grid Demo on Maui Island, Hawaii

The project, a project of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), is based on the Japan-U.S. Clean Energy Technologies Action Plan. Obama Announces Job-Creating Grid Modernization Projects. Clean Power Published on October 5th, 2011 | by Zachary Shahan The Obama administration announced a few hours ago that it will “accelerate the permitting and construction of seven proposed electric transmission lines” to help create jobs and support the growth of renewable energy around the U.S.

Obama Announces Job-Creating Grid Modernization Projects

Of course, even beyond renewables, a more modern grid will help the U.S. by increasing the safety and security of our electricity network. Market for Smart City Technology to Reach $16B a Year by 2020. [Editor's Note: Updated on September 30, 2011, to include further comments from report co-author Eric Woods.]

Market for Smart City Technology to Reach $16B a Year by 2020

There are many visions for cities of the future, as GreenBiz colleague John Davies noted in a blog earlier this week. But idea of a smart, connected urban environment is central to those views. GreenBiz Group's term for that highly connected world is VERGE, and a forecast just out from Pike Research says the market for technology to support such a world is expected to grow to $16 billion in spending annually by 2020. From 2010 to 2020, total investment in smart city infrastructure is expected to reach $108 billion. "No single technology defines the smart city, except perhaps ubiquitous broadband communications," the report from Pike says.

They include the solutions that make smarter buildings, utilities, transportation and government (think public works, safety and emergency services) possible. Update: Woods, who is based in the U.K., provided this response by email the next day: GM Upgrades OnStar to Power First Real-World, Smart Grid EV Pilot. Hard to believe that OnStar -- GM's in-car mobile data service -- celebrates its Sweet 16 this year.

GM Upgrades OnStar to Power First Real-World, Smart Grid EV Pilot

Back in 1995, when the service was launched for GM's luxury line, pundits griped it was just a superfluous add-on. This was back in the cell phone Stone Age when they were still a luxury, analog and kinda huge. Few predicted then that telematics would mushroom in importance over the next decade. On Electric Vehicle Usage and the Smart Grid. Future Computers Could Use 1 Million Times Less Energy, Researchers Say. Emerging computer technology that would use magnetic microprocessors instead of silicon-based chips has the potential to consume 1 million times less energy per operation than existing computers, according to an analysis by University of California, Berkeley researchers.

Future Computers Could Use 1 Million Times Less Energy, Researchers Say

Unlike existing microprocessor technology, which relies on electric currents that generate enormous amounts of wasted heat, the new technology, currently under development, would instead use closely packed magnetic chips to store and process information that would not require any moving electrons, the researchers say. According to their paper, published in the journal Physical Review Letters, such microprocessor chips have the potential to dissipate only 18 millielectron volts of energy per operation at room temperature — or the minimum allowed by the second law of thermodynamics, known as the Landauer limit. Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.

Josh Harris Takes His Wired City To Kickstarter. For the past year, Josh Harris has been trying to get funding for his Wired City concept.

Josh Harris Takes His Wired City To Kickstarter

It’s a crowdsourced Internet TV station where all the viewers are also the broadcasters, multicasting to each other and the World Wide Web. If this sounds a little like the documentary movie We Live In Public that is because Harris was its subject. He also founded Jupiter Communications and Pseudo a decade ago, but he’s a little bit eccentric. His ultimate vision for Wired City is wild (check out my interview with him from last year below).

Harris once told me that all he needed was $50 million to build it. IBM Tops List of World's Most Energy Efficient Supercomputers. IBM supercomputers lead the Green500's latest list of the world's most energy efficient high-performance computers.

IBM Tops List of World's Most Energy Efficient Supercomputers