Quoted: “NBC’s Today Show Features Air Vehicle

Our compressed air vehicle grabbed some prime time exposure this week on NBC’s Thursday, March 20, Today Show. Today Show’s Meredith Vieira and Phil LeBeau introduced the economy/utility vehicle that ZPM and MDI unveiled at the New York Auto Show and are entering into the Automotive X PRIZE’s Alternative Class competition. We are also entering the larger family-size vehicle we are manufacturing for the U.S. market in the Mainstream Class competition.

The MIT Clean Energy Entrepreneurship Prize is awarde through MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition -- Energy Track. MIT student teams, other student teams, and professional start-up teams are eligible to participate in the Energy Track only. The process will include networking and team building events, professional mentoring and skills development, along with a unified judging process.

By focusing on a smaller area and device, Covalent Solar will be able to improve power conversion efficiency by 30% over the industry average. This reduces the installed cost per watt by 20% in 2014, and reduces the amortized cost of electricity to $0.12/kWh, hastening the onset of unsubsidized solar electricity competitive with the grid. Since the Organic Solar Concentrators come in sheets of transparent material, they can easily be fitted over current solar panels to increase extraction and efficiency of those devices. This breaks down an barrier to entry while enabling those with older technology to easily upgrade and improve return on investment.

Quoted: Hybrids, plug-ins, and extended-range electric cars are hitting the market. Use this interactive primer to learn how they work.

Quoted: Jamming the right two pieces of plastic together creates a thin but strongly conducting channel along the junction that acts like a metal, say Dutch researchers. The discovery could lead to a whole new way of making electronics from non-metallic materials, and even new superconductors.

Quoted: With a click and a hum, the sleek Porsche 914 pulled away from the curb while onlookers watched anxiously and the passenger gazed down at a laptop plugged into the dashboard. Why the drama? The 1976 Porsche was operating on 18 high-tech batteries.

Quoted: Technology-development studies at Cornell University and Jefferson Laboratory are showing how to use the brightest X-ray light ever generated for the scientific examination of everything from human proteins to forged art.

Sony revealed a few cool home theater displays and components Thursday, revealing pricing and specs on some LCD displays, free content from YouTube and other online content direct to the TV set and a home-theater-in-a-box (HTiB) setup that features tiny but powerful speakers. All in all, a good day for tech watchers and home theater aficionados.

The seven new Bravia LCD TVs introduced are all HD models and feature Triluminos LED backlight and local dimming, which matches LED color backlighting to the LCD color display. The dimming feature helps reproduce better black levels, something the plasma TV makers have always claimed they're a bit better at reproducing with their technology.

The innovative R8 supercar from Audi is now available for the first time with full LED headlamps. In addition to the standard Audi-signature 24-LED running lamps it's always had, this extremely expensive option (£3,590 converts to $7,100 USD) adds LED high and low beam headlamps and LED turn signals to the front fascia of the mid-engine sports car.