Chattanooga Electrical Engineering News Blog
Topics Related to Electronics and Electrical Engineering
From FoxNews – Smart thermostats have increased over the last decade as a residential internet of things (IoT) device with Wi-Fi enabled connectivity to home networks. Many home IoT devices have been exposed to cyber threats and vulnerabilities where the Bosch thermostats are the latest to be affected. This issue affected the Bosch thermostats “could allow hackers to access and manipulate the thermostat’s settings or even install malicious software.”
From NPR News – Due to the arctic blast and frigid temperatures well below zero degrees, many electric vehicles (EV’s) were sadly affected. Since the frigid temperatures in the northern part of the U.S. reached levels below the EV’s normal operating temperature ranges for their batteries, the vehicles could not be re-charged or maintain a constant charge. This presented major obstacles for many Tesla owners in Chicago along with longer than expected lines for Supercharger stations.
A recent NPR article warns that much of the nation’s power grid is vulnerable to the winter threat approaching with major winter storms that could cause power outages and power shortages potentially affecting over 60% of US and Canada.
“North America’s power grid is vulnerable…People living in Southwestern states are at particular risk.”
As coal power and other fossil fuels continue to decline as the nation’s leading power generation source, more power utilities are increasing renewable energy sources such as solar power.
Pennsylvania is replacing their planned fossil fuel generation retirements with clean solar power. The state is helping promote more jobs and job transitions for the green switch from traditional carbon emission type power generation into renewable energy resources.
By PowerMag:
“Two Chinese companies announced production of the largest offshore wind turbine built to date, a 16-MW unit developed by China Three Gorges (CTG) and Goldwind.
The groups on Nov. 24 showed off the turbine at a factory in Fujian province. The turbine has a 252-meter rotor diameter, with a 50,000-meter sweep area. The hub height is 146 meters.
Lei Mingshan, chairman of CTG, in a statement said, ‘the successful rollout of the 16-MW unit marks that my country’s wind power equipment industry has achieved a historic leap from ‘following’ to ‘running alongside’ and then to ‘leading’, creating the latest benchmark for the development of global offshore wind power equipment.’ ”