NewNergy

NewNergy discusses the latest inventions, innovations and breakthroughs in the energy & environmental sciences.

Wind Power Breakthrough: 10 MW Floating Wind Turbine Prototype

Posted on Monday, March 8, 2010 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:06 PM

Norwegian-based company Sway is a renewable energy company, with world leading technology and competence on floating wind turbines located in deep water.

State company Enova has allocated 17 million euros for the construction of the largest floating wind turbine designed for offshore wind farms. This prototype, developed by Sway, has a capacity of 10 MW and is equipped with a rotor having a diameter of 145 metres. The wind turbine will have to be tested onshore for two years before being installed in the North Sea.

Unlike most wind farms which are based directly on the seabed (up to a maximum depth of 60-70 meters) the Sway turbine floats and can therefore be installed offshore at depths of several hundred meters.This implies a substantial difference in terms of generated energy, since in Norway, for example, winds blowing about 50 km off the coast (where depths typically range from 100 up to 300 meters) are approximately 25% stronger and more constant than in areas up to 15 km off the coast, where the largest power plants were built up to now.

The buoyancy of the new wind turbine is based on the large internally hollow supporting tower, which extends below the water surface and is filled with ballast, thus having sufficient stability to resist wind loads. The structure is anchored to the seabed also by means of lateral suction anchors, allowing the tower to tilt a few degrees and to turn around, so as to harness more energy from winds, while reducing excessive structural tensions.

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Sopogy Inaugurates World’s First MicroCSP Solar Plant

Posted on Monday, January 4, 2010 posted by posted by Mak @ 3:28 AM

Sopogy Inc has inaugurated the world’s first MicroCSP solar thermal plant at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii. The 2MW thermal energy project spans 3.8 acres in the hot Kona desert and makes use of 1000 Sopogy MicroCSP solar panels.

The panels are equipped with mirrors and optics and an integrated sun tracking system, which betters the efficiency of the plant. The system also uses a unique thermal energy storage buffer that allows energy to be produced during cloudy periods and to shift energy produced from the day to evening periods.

Labels: efficiency, electricity, energy, solar

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LED Light Bulbs with Remote Controls to Save More Energy

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 3:09 AM

The new LED EcoBulb by Seokjae Rhee raises the green bar with innovative features to save more energy.

For one, the bulb allows the user to only light the needed area with a small portion of the bulb’s surface aiming in the right direction (the bulb’s surface is divided into 6 parts). The brightness can also be adjusted, so you don’t have to have it on full blast all the time. The bulb also comes with a remote control, so when people are too lazy to get up to turn the light off (can’t imagine you’ve ever been in that situation) they can just grab the remote.

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Southwest Solar Technologies Finds a Unique Energy Storage Solution

Posted on Wednesday, December 30, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 3:40 AM

Solar Southwest Technology, a Phoenix based company is out with an interesting and innovative idea to store energy. Under the plan whenever excess energy is available from any source, it is utilized to pump air into a subterranean cavern. Nearly 350 pounds of air is pumped in a square inch.

Whenever electricity is required, the air in the cavern is used to spin a turbine that is capable of converting the energy of a passing gas into rotary energy. The turbine in turn spins a generator and puts power on the grid on demand, rather than at the whim of sun or breeze. In order to obtain better results, the air must be heated so that it expands and drives the turbine blades even more efficiently. A mirror dish is used to heat the air. This dish helps in focusing the sun’s energy on a receptacle filled with a fluid, which captures the heat at up to 1,700 degrees and carries it to where it is required.

The project is currently in its initial stages and the company has installed a prototype solar dish and turbine. An electrically driven compressor provides compressed air for the prototype solar dish system.

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LED Lamp Powered by Solar Energy

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 3:23 AM

Od-Do Arhiteckti has come up with a sustainable lamp that harvests clean energy during the day for sustainable lighting after dark.The lamp is incorporated with photovoltaic cells that can harvest solar energy during the daytime and stores it in an onboard battery. After dark the energy stored is used to power a set of energy-efficient LED light bulbs for sustainable illumination.

Labels: efficiency, electricity, energy, lighting, solar

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New Glitter-Sized Photovoltaic Cells Use Less Silicon, Generate More Electricity

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 1:00 AM

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have come up with a new photovoltaic cell no bigger than a flake of glitter, but it packs a big punch. The new cell uses 100 times less silicon to generate the same amount of electricity as conventional solar cells. While still in the development stage, the new solar particles could lend themselves relatively easily to commercialization because they are made of crystalline silicon and use the same micro-manufacturing processes typical of modern electronics.

The Sandia team also cites the potential for applying the tiny photovoltaic cells directly to roofing materials, which would practically eliminate the often cumbersome permitting process that is currently needed to install a conventional rooftop solar array (Dow has taken a similar approach with its new solar shingles). Compared to six-by-six inch conventional solar cells, the new solar particles are only up to 20 micrometers thick, less than one third the thickness of a human hair, and they could be imprinted with circuits that would control the collection and disbursement of solar energy within the building and to a grid connection, without the need for expensive and time-consuming electrical design work. Roof maintenance, repair, and shading issues may also be mitigated due to the small size of the micro-cells.

The new cells can be made from available silicon wafers of any size, without some of the quality control problems involved in conventional solar cell manufacturing. The Sandia researchers also expect them to be less expensive, more durable and more efficient that conventional solar collectors, and they could open up an exciting new range of applications.

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Power Paper and GE Collaborate to Develop Self-Powered OLED Lighting

Posted on Monday, December 14, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:21 PM

Power Paper, an Infinity Group portfolio company, and GE Global Research, the technology development arm for the General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), announced that the companies have signed an agreement to jointly develop self-powered OLED lighting devices. Using low-cost, high volume manufacturing processes, these devices could be deployed in a wide variety of environments from military ships to night-time jogging vests. The collaboration is supported by an Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD Foundation) program.

Under the terms of the agreement, the collaboration will combine Power Paper’s novel thin film batteries and GE’s industry leading Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) technology. The goal of the GE-Power Paper- BIRD project is to develop a first generation of self-powered OLED lighting products and identify next generation technologies with enhanced capabilities. The length of the program is 12 months. The general illumination market is estimated at $2.5 billion.

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New Bioplastic Material Absorbs Carbon Dioxide

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 7:34 PM

Myriant Technologies LLC has just won U.S. Department of Energy funding of up to $50 million to construct a new plant that will produce Succinic Acid from sorghum, using a biobased process that is more energy efficient than conventional methods, and also absorbs more carbon dioxide than it produces.

Until now, petroleum has been the feedstock of choice to manufacture Succinic Acid. If commercially successful, a more sustainable biobased process like Myriant’s could have a significant impact on global greenhouse gas emissions, because Succinic Acid is used in a fantastic variety of materials from non-toxic diesel fuel additives, pharmaceuticals and food to plastic car parts, computer casings, and shoe soles.

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Neptune Renewable Energy Launches Proteus Tidal Power Generator

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 2:36 AM

Neptune Renewable Energy has announced the development of a breakthrough tidal power generator, which will undergo sea trial at Hull early next year. The generator dubs the action of Proteus,which consists of a 6m x 6m vertical axis, crossflow turbine mounted within a patented, symmetrical Venturi diffuser duct and beneath a very simple steel deck and buoyancy chambers. Similar to Proteus,the £1 million, 150-ton generator is being claimed to be 30% more efficient than conventional hydro dam designs and can provide a continuous supply ofrenewable energy.

The state-of-the-art generator features a steel hull, turbine and buoyancy chambers, which allows it to work equally well in ebb and flow tides. The system consists of a vertical axis cross-flow turbine mounted within symmetrical venture diffusers that efficiently convert tidal energy into electricity.

NREL has selected the Humber Estuary for the first deployment of Proteus, as given its depth and tidal flow, is considered one of the best locations in the British Isles for tidal stream power. Once deployed, the advanced Neptune Proteus NP1000 should generate at least 1000MWh of electricity each year.

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Solarmer Energy Attained 7.9% Efficiency with Plastic Solar Cells

Posted on Sunday, December 6, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 10:08 PM

California based Solarmer Energy has achieved nearly 8 percent efficiency of its plastic solar panels, certified by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory.Reaching the 7.9 percent mark makes it the highest conversion efficiency for a plastic organic photovoltaic (OPV) cell to date.

The aperture-area test results also mean the company has beat its own 7.6 percent cell efficiencies, certified by the Newport Technology & Applications Center’s Photovoltaic Lab in October.

The company said it uses low-cost plastic as the active materials to convert solar energy into electricity. The active plastics layer is very thin, also offering low costs. The company said it also uses low-cost printing techniques and a fabrication process that has low temperatures and is eco-friendly.

Solarmer is currently completing its pilot manufacturing line and has said its plastic solar panels are expected to be available in 2010.

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Nanowires to Boost Solar Energy Efficiency

Posted on Tuesday, November 3, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:15 PM

A team of Danish nanophysicists has developed a new method for manufacturing nanowires and believes the discovery will have great potential for the development of nanoelectronics and highly efficient solar cells.PhD student Peter Krogstrup, from the Nano-Science Center at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, developed the method during his dissertation.

Different materials capture energy from the sun in different and quite specific absorption areas.They have produced nanowires that contain two different semiconductors – GaInAs and InAs,which each have their own absorption area, they can collectively capture energy from a much wider area. We can therefore use more solar energy if we produce nanowires from the two superconductors and use them for solar cells.

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Researchers Claim Lithium-ion Battery Breakthrough

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 6:36 PM

Researchers at the Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) in Austria,have developed a silicon gel that could make batteries used in phones and laptops 10 times more efficient.

According to Stefan Koller, a researcher at TU Graz, the gel was designed for use with lithium-ion batteries and with the silicon gel it's possible to store 10 times more [power] per weight than graphite.

Koller said that to produce the gel his team had taken a hydrated silicon compound, irradiated it with ultraviolet light, and heated it to form an amorphous silicon gel. However, the problem with using silicon gel as a substrate is that it expands and contracts by up to 300 percent during uptake and transfer of lithium ions. Koller said his team had overcome this by using graphite as a buffer material.

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New Energy Efficient Composting Technology

Posted on Monday, November 2, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:21 AM

NatureMill, Inc. today unveiled its new XE Series of automatic home composters. The new models offer the simplicity and durability required for every day composting, with the convenience of indoor or outdoor use, while reducing overall energy consumption. Now ordinary home users, including apartment dwellers, can nearly eliminate landfill waste and related greenhouse gasses by composting their food waste.

Starting at $299, the all-new XE Series can compost over 100 lbs (45 kg) of food waste per month. New features include a stronger motor to grind and compost the toughest food scraps without jamming, a more powerful filter to eliminate trash odors, and a new heavy duty mode for occasional heavy use. Energy consumption is just 5 kwh per month, costing roughly $0.50 per month depending on local utility rates. A diesel trash truck consumes more energy hauling the same trash to a landfill. A new "Energy Save" mode further reduces energy consumption by 75%. The machine's small size allows it to be used inside a standard kitchen cabinet, which is ideal for people living in apartments with small kitchens.

Labels: efficiency, energy, greenhouse-gases

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Solar Energy Breakthrough: 35.8% Efficiency Achieved

Posted on Wednesday, October 28, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 12:18 AM

Sharp Corporation has achieved the world’s highest solar cell conversion efficiency of 35.8% using a triple-junction compound solar cell.

Unlike silicon-based solar cells, the most common type of solar cell in use today, the compound solar cell utilizes photo-absorption layers made from compounds consisting of two or more elements such as indium and gallium. Due to their high conversion efficiency, compound solar cells are used mainly on space satellites.

To boost the efficiency of triple-junction compound solar cells, it is important to improve the crystallinity (the regularity of the atomic arrangement) in each photo-absorption layer (the top, middle, and bottom layer). It is also crucial that the solar cell be composed of materials that can maximize the effective use of solar energy.

Conventionally, Ge (germanium) is used as the bottom layer due to its ease of manufacturing. However, in terms of performance, although Ge generates a large amount of current, the majority of the current is wasted, without being used effectively for electrical energy. The key to solving this problem was to form the bottom layer from InGaAs (indium gallium arsenide), a material with high light utilization efficiency. However, the process to make high-quality InGaAs with high crystallinity was difficult.

Sharp has now succeeded in forming an InGaAs layer with high crystallinity by using its proprietary technology for forming layers. As a result, the amount of wasted current has been minimized, and the conversion efficiency, which had been 31.5% in Sharp’s previous cells, has been successfully increased to 35.8%.

Sharp achieved this breakthrough as part of a research and development initiative promoted by Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO)*3 on the theme of “R&D on Innovative Solar Cells”.

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Hydraulic Gearless Transmissions for Large Wind Turbines

Posted on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 11:54 PM

Edinburgh based Artemis Intelligent Power has been awarded £1million under Phase1 of the Low Carbon Energy Demonstration capital grants scheme to develop its Digital Displacement technology to replace the mechanical transmissions of wind turbines.

The technology will be initially demonstrated for a 1.5MW transmission but the Digital Displacement components developed will be directly transferable for multi-megawatt offshore deployment. Digital Displacement Hydraulic Transmission are gearless, making them lighter and lower cost than mechanical transmissions.

Digital Displacement uses different principles to off load unused capacity, in a manner which results in very low parasitic loss and because of the speed this is done, it can be controlled with a high bandwidth with good linearity and low hysteresis.

Waverley Cameron, chairman of Artemis Intelligent Power, said: "The Artemis Digital Displacement technology will provide cost effective solutions to some of the most challenging engineering problems facing the large scale deployment of offshore wind, wave and tidal power generation."

Its Digital Displacement technology has been able to overcome many of the efficiency problems traditionally associated with hydraulics and was originally developed for use on cars as a hybrid system, storing braking energy as hydraulic pressure in an accumulator, which can then be used for acceleration. The system improved fuel efficiency by 40%.

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Labels: efficiency, energy, tidal, wave, wind

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Harnessing the Power of Plasma for Hydrogen Storage

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 11:38 PM

Plasma is like a gas, but many of its atoms have been stripped of an electron or two. These positively charged atoms swim about in a crackling-hot sea of negatively charged loose electrons, making plasmas great electrical conductors.

Kong, technical lead for plasma processing at INL, has built a career of putting plasma to work. He's using it to mass-produce nanoparticles, a project that in August received $1 million in federal stimulus funding. He's also employing plasma to find ways to store hydrogen efficiently, and he'll soon start a project using plasma to convert natural gas, coal and heavy oil to gasoline and diesel.

Kong is also working with a large multinational chemical company to find better ways to store hydrogen.

Simply putting hydrogen in a tank to power a car or appliance is difficult, because the element is a gas at all but extremely low temperatures (its boiling point is -253 degrees Celsius). Tanks holding enough low-density hydrogen gas to power anything would have to be very large, in many cases prohibitively so. Hydrogen could be liquefied — either by compression or cooling — to bring tank size down, but this would require a great deal of energy and raise safety concerns, as elemental hydrogen is very reactive. Chemical storage — in which hydrogen is locked into more complex molecules, then released later after exposure to heat and/or catalysts — strikes many scientists as more practical. But current technologies for making such chemical hydrides are complicated and energy-intensive. Kong is using plasma in an attempt to revolutionize the production process.

The current method of making these complex chemical hydrides is a 13-step process.What they are working on is potentially a one- to two-step process.Eliminating so many steps involves tricky, difficult and unstable reactions, and Kong and his team are still working out the details.

To know about the technology click here

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Solar Beam Concentrator : A New Solar Energy Invention Moves on in Provincial Competition

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 10:22 PM

The solar beam concentrator, designed by Edward Herniak of SolarTron Energy Systems Inc., Massachusetts, USA, has been named one of 25 inventions to make it to the second round of the InNOVAcorp I-3 Technology Start-Up Competition.

Using a celestial guiding system, the solar beam concentrator tracks the sun on a daily basis and isn't affected by the earth's tilt. Much like a wind turbine turns off when it's too windy, the solar beam concentrator goes to sleep when the sun isn't shining.Using a global positioning system, the concentrator rotates to follow the sun, absorbing more of that energy.

The typical unit is 3.8 metres in diameter and produces up to 10 kilowatts of heat, or 34,000 btu per hour. That means if you have a 2,400 square foot house, you can heat your house for a period of 24 hours within three hours,adding some of the energy is stored in hot water tanks.

Herniak said, the concentrator is self-driven so no maintenance is required, and could even be used to de-ice a driveway in the winter with heat pipes built into the driveway. In the warmer months, the energy can be put through an absorption chiller, which would give it a refrigeration effect and be used as air conditioning.

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New Energy Efficient Flow Control Systems for Hydro Power Plants

Posted on Wednesday, October 21, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 4:10 AM

Chinese engineering firm, NF Energy Saving Corporation announced that the company has obtained two new patents for its inlet valves for use in the hydro power plants. NF Energy was awarded an invention patent for the ‘butterfly valve body dynamic seal ring pointing device’ and a new application patent for its ‘butterfly valve with butterfly plate adjusting device’.

The dynamic seal ring pointing device was awarded an invention patent, it is used in the inlet valve of hydro power plant. NF Energy’s propriety valve pointing devise has distinct advantages, it provides warning signals, which can be timely sent out with clear instructions. Long term stability of seal ring is achieved through the reduced number of parts. Additionally, the valve pointing device provides greater efficiency, according to NF Energy it saves hydro power due to its easier operation in maintenance, adjustment and replacement of equipment. The valve’s smaller resistance is achieved by optimizing structure.

The butterfly plate adjusting device, is used in the large dimension vertical butterfly valve, the propriety device was awarded a new application patent. It is effective in the reduction of friction and the subsequent wear and tear of bottom valve shaft. The adjusting device is also effective in the prevention of internal leakage. As a result the product achieves energy savings and an extension to the valve's operational life.

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Kite Power Harnesses Unspooling Motion For Energy

Posted on Monday, October 19, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:50 PM

Kite Gen is pioneering a revolution on how to produce clean energy from wind, with the aim not only to compete within the current wind industry but, as still too rarely happens with renewable sources, to move the battlefield into the territory of fossil fuels.

Instead of harnessing wind power to turn blades tethered to a pole, the KiteGen simply harnesses that rapid unspooling motion of kites reeling out as they release upwards. So instead of a heavy static structure this is simply a light and flexible kite.

The KiteGen would hover at 2,600 feet to produce power each time the kite’s tether unspools, spinning an alternator that generates the power. When the cables are completely unwound the production phase ends, the cables are reeled in to start another production phase. The cycle repeats; like in a yo-yo in reverse.

So the KiteGen splits the components of wind power. In the air; nothing but high efficiency air foils. On the ground, all the heavy machinery for power generation. Connecting the two; high resistance lines transmitting the traction of the kite.

The company holds more than 20 international patents and plans a demo by the end of 2010. These guys are thinking out of the box. They point out that there is about a GW of wind potential in the unusable no-fly air space around nuclear power plants. They suggest that’s the perfect spot for their 2,600 foot kite.

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Precision Nanoparticles to Make Solar Cell More Efficient

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 8:26 PM

Chemists at Idaho National Laboratory and Idaho State University have invented a way to manufacture highly precise, uniform nanoparticles to order. The technology, Precision Nanoparticles, has the potential to vastly improve the solar cell and further spur the growing nanotech revolution.The chemists have manufactured nanoparticles of the semiconductor copper indium sulfide (identified here as “quantum dots”), a key component of advanced solar cells. Precision Nanoparticles could enable photovoltaic cells to harness a much bigger chunk of the sun’s radiation spectrum.

Engineers have been working hard to harness more of the solar spectrum, to design cells that put low-energy photons to work and use high-energy photons more efficiently. One of the many properties that changes with a nanoparticle's size is its band gap. Because INL chemists learned how to control nanoparticle dimensions so precisely, it may soon be possible to manufacture — from a single material — semiconductor building blocks tuned to specific wavelengths of light. A photovoltaic cell made of such building blocks could capture huge swathes of the solar energy spectrum. And since the cells would contain only a single semiconducting material, they would be much cheaper, more efficient and easier to construct than current multi-layer designs.

Provided by Idaho National Laboratory, This feature story is available here. It was written by Mike Wall.

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High Efficient Industrial Carbon Capture Technology

Posted on Wednesday, October 14, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 2:34 AM

Industrial Research Ltd (IRL) has made a breakthrough that enables the world’s most efficient carbon dioxide capture technology to become commercially viable. IRL Research Scientist Robert Holt is leading the multi-disciplinary team that is investigating the development of a cost-effective enhancement to an existing technique that uses limestone for the capture of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel power combustors. IRL has been awarded $350,000 over three years by the Foundation for Research Science and Technology to further develop its technology.

The process is designed to capture carbon dioxide from coal fired power stations and other industries that emit significant amounts of the greenhouse gas.

The lime cycling process uses limestone, a relatively abundant and inexpensive material. It is heated to around 900 degrees centigrade to become lime, which is a very effective material for absorbing carbon dioxide.

When post-combustion flue gas is passed through the lime in a fluidised bed, the CO2 is captured. The process is then reversed to transform the lime back into limestone, which is then used again to capture more CO2.

The 95 per cent pure CO2 that is produced can be compressed to about 3% of its original volume and can then be stored efficiently or used in another industrial process. This process has been known for many years but until now it has not been efficient enough to be considered commercially applicable.The IRL team confirmed that exposing the lime to steam reopens its pore structure and enables it to absorb CO2 efficiently again.

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MIT Roof Tiles Save Energy in All Climates

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 12:34 AM

A team of students at MIT has just developed a temperature sensitive roof tile that turns black and absorbs heat in cold weather, and turns white, reflecting heat away when it’s hot.

In cold weather, the polymer stays dissolved and the black backing shows through, but exposed to heat, tiny droplets form and scatter the light back to produce a white appearance. The tiles reflected 80% of the sunlight falling on them when white, and only 30% when black.

The cooling needs would then be reduced 20%.

Dark-roofed houses absorb more heat, requiring more air conditioning use in the summer for cooling, which in turn means using more energy for running air conditioners, which emits more greenhouse gases. Steven Chu at the DOE famously recommends “cool” white roofing for the sunny states - mentioning California, Florida and Georgia. Cool roofs reduce energy costs associated with air conditioning.

There are already special energy efficient elastomeric roof paints, rated by the independent cool roof council through coolroofs.org for how well each one reflects heat. California Energy Commissioner Athur Rosenfeld probably originated the idea to use “white roofs” for sunny climates, where air conditioning costs outpace heating costs for energy use.

In summer, the white roofed house is reflecting heat away. lowering energy costs. But for climates that get both extremes of heat and cold winters, there has not been a solution till now. Their carbon emitting energy use goes up summer and winter.

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Energy-Efficient Silicon Device Compresses Light to Make Ultrafast Signals

Posted on Thursday, October 8, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 1:57 AM

Researchers at Cornell University have developed a simple silicon device for speeding up optical data. The device incorporates a silicon chip called a "time lens," lengths of optical fiber, and a laser. It splits up a data stream encoded at 10 gigabits per second, puts it back together, and outputs the same data at 270 gigabits per second. Speeding up optical data transmission usually requires a lot of energy and bulky, expensive optics. The new system is energy efficient and is integrated on a compact silicon chip. It could be used to move vast quantities of data at fast speeds over the Internet or on optical chips inside computers.

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Nanomaterials to Boost the Efficiency of Geothermal Energy Production

Posted on Thursday, October 1, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 4:19 AM

New nanomaterials could provide the boost in efficiency needed to make heat beneath the earth's surface a practical source to generate nearly pollution-free electricity if research at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory proves out.Peter McGrail, a fellow at the Richland lab, thinks the nanomaterials may help make geothermal a more practical resource by allowing efficient energy production at lower temperatures.

In conventional geothermal use for power production, hot rock beneath the earth's surface needs to heat water driven into it to 300 degrees Fahrenheit, or more typically hotter, to make electricity production efficient. That hot rock might be found 5,000 feet beneath the ground's surface in a few places, but typically it's much, much deeper.

Heat from the ground is typically extracted by forcing water into the ground and then pumping it up after it's flowed through rock and picked up heat. It then goes through a heat exchanger to heat liquid to produce vapor to drive a turbine. If it's water that's being used as a liquid, it has to be 212 degrees at sea level to produce steam.The traditional geothermal energy production methods are inherently inefficient in the way they remove the heat.

The nanomaterials called "metal organic heat carriers"with particles one-thousandth the width of a human hair can hold onto gas molecules at a much higher temperature, preventing the fluid from flashing to gas in the heat exchanger until it gets to a higher temperature and pressure. If successful, enhanced geothermal systems like this could become an important energy source.

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Most Efficient Solar Module from DSM

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 3:40 AM

Royal DSM N.V., the global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company headquartered in the Netherlands, announced that its KhepriCoat anti-reflective coating system has contributed to achieving the highest energy conversion ever of a full-size solar module. The world record of 16.4%, achieved by the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN), was verified by global certification and testing organization TÜV. The previous record of 15.5% from 1998 was broken with an impressive 0.9% efficiency improvement, of which a significant part can be attributed to DSM's coating.

The new record efficiency to 16.4% means a substantial step in the ongoing quest to bring solar energy closer to "grid parity", the point at which solar energy is equal to or cheaper than traditional electricity. This would make it broadly accessible to both industrial and residential users without state and/or government subsidies.

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Silicon Nanotubes for High Efficient Lithium-ion Batteries

Posted on Thursday, September 24, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 12:33 AM

Researchers from Stanford University and Hanyang University in Ansan, Korea, in collaboration with LG Chem (makers of the Chevy Volt battery), have made a breakthrough that could change the future of electric cars. They have shown that by replacing the conventional graphite electrodes in lithium-ion batteries with silicon nanotube electrodes (silicon nanotubes, not the more common carbon nanotubes), 10 times more charge could be stored. This could not only greatly extend the range of electric cars, but it would also make gasoline-electric hybrids more efficient by allowing them to run in electric mode for longer periods.

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'Silicon ink' for More Efficient Solar Cells

Posted on Wednesday, September 23, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 2:52 AM

JA Solar, one of the big players in the solar industry, is working with Innovalight to commercialize the latter's method for making silicon-ink-based, high-efficiency solar cells. Innovalight first got noticed in 2007 for perfecting a process in which it could essentially ink-jet-manufacture solar cells using a proprietary silicon ink it had developed. The solar cells are created by pouring an ink solution incorporated with silicon nanoparticles and then decanting the excess liquid to leave behind a crystalline silicon structure.

Innovalight announced that an independent study of its method by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Germany confirmed that its silicon ink-based cells "demonstrated a record 18 percent conversion of efficiency."Shanghai, China-based JA Solar said the process will lower its production cost for this type of solar cell.

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Nanotechnology for High Efficient Solar Cells

Posted on Friday, September 18, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 5:51 AM

Chemical engineers at Oregon State University have invented a new technology to deposit “nanostructure films” on various surfaces, which may first find use as coatings for eyeglasses that cost less and work better. Ultimately, the technique may provide a way to make solar cells more efficiently produce energy.

The key to the process is use of a chemical bath, controlled by a microreactor, to place thin-film deposits on various substrates such as glass, plastic, silicon or aluminum. In this case, the technology will create a type of nanostructure that resembles millions of tiny pyramids in a small space, which function to reduce the reflectance of any light that strikes the material.

The films reduce the reflectance of light, and in the case of eyeglasses would capture more light, reduce glare and also reduce exposure to ultraviolet light. Some coatings with these features are already available, but the new technology should perform better at a lower cost, and be able to be applied on-site in a dispenser’s office.

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Affordable Wind Turbines for Commercial and Residential Uses

Posted on Monday, August 17, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 11:03 PM

WindTamer Corporation has developed what the company claims to be a new paradigm of wind power – more power from a small but efficient wind turbine. The company’s latest turbine comes enclosed in a “Wind Flower” housing that makes it harness wind speeds up to 70mph without dominating the view or its surroundings.

The system can be mounted on a 30ft pole, and being noise and vibration-free, the turbine can easily be mounted on a flat roof. The system doesn’t have a gearbox, which eliminates the risk of an overheating gearbox causing a fire.

The turbine is mounted on the same shaft as the blades are, which makes the incoming breeze cool the turbine automatically. The highly efficient system can work in wind speeds as low as 2mph to generate power. The turbine is available in different variants which generate power ranging from 1.5KW to 30KW.

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Researchers Find New Way to Increase Solarcell Efficiency

Posted on Thursday, July 30, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 10:00 PM

Scientists at the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina are using the concept of biomimicry to increase the efficiency of solar cells, peering into how a moth’s eye absorbs light.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy lab are working with the University of Florida’s Peng Jiang to study how special coatings that mimic structures found in nature can make solar cells more productive for commercial applications, homes and even space satellites.

A moth’s eye is so good at absorbing light because it consists of tiny, hexagonal bumps that are smaller than the wavelength of visible light.The engineered coatings that mimic the way a moth’s eye absorbs light can reduce unwanted reflection from silicon solar cells from 30 percent to less than 2 percent.

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New Invention to Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Posted on Monday, July 20, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 3:08 AM

A revolutionary invention, which could slash greenhouse gas emissions from computer centres, has won £750,000-worth of backing for its creator, Sheffield Technology Parks-based Iceotope. The company, founded by green PC pioneer Peter Hopton, is targeting data centres – giant warehouses packed with racks of computer servers which form the backbone of the internet as well as providing secure data storage for major companies.

Details of the invention are being kept under wraps until an official launch later this year.However, Dan Chester, a former semiconductor industry entrepreneur who was brought in to spearhead Iceotope's development, did reveal that it involves using liquid to cool the server racks.The data centre servers are currently cooled by using large scale air conditioning plants to chill the hot air they generate – further increasing the data centre's carbon footprint.Liquid cooling would not only be more energy efficient, it would also keep the servers cooler, extending their life span.

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Using nanoparticles to increase the effiiciency of thin film solar cells

Posted on Friday, June 12, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:27 PM

Here is an interesting article @ physorg.com on "Using nanoparticles to increase the effiiciency of thin film solar cells"

Read the article here

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Laser Treatment Could Make Plain Light Bulb Much More Efficient

Posted on Tuesday, June 2, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:54 PM

A team of Researchers at the University of Rochester developed a process that makes a 100-watt incandescent bulb use less electricity than a 60-watt bulb. The process, they say, would keep the cost of a traditional light bulb well under that of its fluorescent counterpart while maintaining the more pleasant light an incandescent bulb gives off.

The team developed a laser process that treats the tungsten filament in a traditional bulb. The process creates nano- and micro- level structures on the filament that dramatically improve its efficiency. The process involves an incredibly short femtosecond laser pulse, which lasts only a few quadrillionths of a second.

It’s not immediately clear how long it would take to commercialize the discovery. But it could be relatively simple to implement in a manufacturing environment once refined.Other technologies are also crowding the field. The U.S. Navy is promoting LED and HID lighting in its ships. Cambridge Researchers say they’ve developed a LED bulb that costs $3 and last 60 years. A technology called ESL is headed to market as well. It will be interesting to see if the Rochester process finds a place on store shelves.

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Heliotropic Biomimicry: Solar Panels That Follow The Sun

Posted on Monday, June 1, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:24 PM

A team of engineering students at MIT, inspired by heliotropic plants that move in the direction of the sun all day (like a sunflower), have developed a new method of motivation for the photovoltaic cells to move. Their invention won first place in MIT's Making and Designing Materials Engineering Contest (MADMEC).

Solar cells that track the sun can be 38 percent more efficient in generating power than fixed solar cells.Instead of using an electronic tracking system, the team decided to use the difference in temperature between shaded and sunny areas to change the properties of the material supporting solor photovoltaic cells.The system, once built, is completely passive, requiring no power source or electronics to control the movement.

After experimenting with different materials and configurations, they came up with a system whereby solar panels would be placed on top of a curved arch made of a pair of metals, such as aluminum and steel.The concept was demonstrated by shining a spotlight on one side of a bridge containing a solar panel. The heat from the light causes the bridge to arch, tilting the panel towards the light.

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Multi-Junction Solar Cells with High Efficiency

Posted on Thursday, May 21, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 10:34 PM

Cyrium Technologies Inc.,Ottawa,announced that multi-junction solar cells produced by the company now exceed the performance of all commercially manufactured solar cells.

Cyrium's first generation solar cells offer efficiencies of 40 per cent or higher together with a nearly constant conversion efficiency for solar concentrations from 200 to greater than 1000 suns. This performance sets a new standard for the solar cells' intended use in the Concentrator PhotoVoltaic (CPV) industry.Cyrium's solar cells not only have record efficiencies, but they exhibit nearly constant efficiency over solar intensities varying from 200 to 1000 suns.Other multi-junction solar cell technologies typically peak at some sun concentration value and decline quickly (efficiency roll off) with increasing concentration.Another benefit of the very low roll-off feature of Cyrium's cells is that CPV systems often have a variable intensity profile when the sun is focussed on an array of cells so that cells need to perform even when the peak concentration is two to three times higher than the nominal concentration.

The most outstanding feature of Cyrium's approach is an optimized design for multi-junction cells that does not add complexity or cost.Cyrium anticipates its second generation product will reach 43 per cent efficiency within one year and third generation products are targeted to be at 45 per cent within two years.

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PARALEX : Parallel Operating System for Thin Film PV Systems

Posted on Thursday, May 14, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 10:53 PM

Sustainable Energy Technologies Ltd (SET) launched its "PARALEXTM" massively parallel operating system for Spanish thin film PV systems at the Genera '09, Trade Show in Madrid, Spain.

The main advantage of SET's low voltage inverter technology is the array architecture used in PARALEXTM systems offers 5 - 15% improved energy yield per kW installed, through the elimination of panel mismatch losses and reduction of partial shading losses. Other advantages of PARALEX systems include the simplicity, flexibility and consistent high energy yield .

PARALEXTM systems use thin film modules which produce more power per kW installed compared to crystalline technologies. The improved light sensitivity of thin film modules means that optimum alignment to the sun is not necessary. Modules can be installed flush with rooftops to reduce the cost of racking, make optimum use of space, and improve aesthetics.With the PARALEXTM operating system, 100% of the PV modules are wired in parallel. The parallel array architecture is enabled by Sustainable Energy's proprietary low voltage inverter technology which is optimized for thin film panels. The elimination of high DC array voltages also provides an important safety benefit to installation and maintenance crews.

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Microwave Technology : A Process of Making Energy from Waste

Posted on Friday, May 8, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 4:55 AM

A demonstration of microwave technology converting industrial waste and difficult-to-process natural resources into diesel, methane, carbon ash and other reusable hydrocarbons was run this week (4th May) by Global Resource Corp. The commercial prototype of the company's system, Patriot-1, is microwave technology that has an automated engineering process to provide a highly energy efficient, emission free way to convert a wide range of materials into energy.

The demonstration, conducted at the companys's research facility, transformed large amounts of scrap tires into diesel fuel, methane, pentane, butane, propane as well as combustible gases, and carbon ash. Patriot-1's technology can process other materials for the purpose of unlocking energy including; shale rock, tar sands, bituminous coal, heavy oil as well as the environmental hazards associated with municipal waste, tanker sludge, waste oil and dredged materials.

To address the economic viability for waste treatment, the technology will maintain an energy efficiency of 1:50, a ratio at which a wide range of materials become commercially viable to convert to energy regardless of commodity costs.

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Nitride-Based Thin-Film Solar Cells for High Efficiency

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 3:55 AM

BluGlass Ltd,Australia,intends to expand the market potential of its remote plasma chemical vapor deposition (RPCVD) manufacturing technology to thin-film solar cells incorporating group III-nitride materials. The firm currently develops and commercializes RPCVD for depositing thin films such as gallium nitride (GaN) and indium gallium nitride (InGaN) in the production of LEDs.

Group III nitride semiconductors have many advantages over current materials, such as,

The alloy indium gallium nitride (InGaN) having a direct energy bandgap with wide tunability, giving the potential to convert almost the full spectrum of sunlight (infrared, visible and ultraviolet radiation) to electrical current.Such properties hence allow more energy from the solar spectrum to be captured efficiently by a solar cell and converted to electrical power.Research has established that InGaN solar cells could produce efficiencies of more than 50% [Jani et al. Applied Physics Letters 91, 132117-3 (2007)].
Being a low-temperature process, it is suited to the growth of InGaN: during the growth process, the alloy's fragile bonds crack at high temperature, leading to poor-quality material. A low-temperature process would hence allow indium-rich InGaN layers to be grown.
InGaN also has superior resistance to energy radiation and high-temperature tolerance. Hence nitride solar cells could maintain high performance under extreme conditions, including space applications such as powering satellites and space probes.

If successful, InGaN solar cells promise to be long lasting, relatively inexpensive and highly efficient.Following recent research on InGaN, BluGlass aims to develop a prototype high-efficiency solar cell for industrial testing.

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Zero Liquid Discharge : Ethanol Plant Finds New Way To Save Water

Posted on Wednesday, May 6, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 10:38 PM

POET Biorefining in Bingham Lake, Minnesota, has developed a way to be more efficient in the ways they produce ethanol. After two years of research, they started working on a process that we're now calling zero liquid discharge. And they've implemented this new process in January of this year. Bingham Lake is the first plant in the POET system to start up the patent pending "zero liquid discharge" system. The goal is to reduce water usage from 3.2 gallons of water per gallon of ethanol, to 2.6 gallons of water, a 23 percent decrease.

They've gathered all of the different locations throughout the plant that previously discharge water to the treatment system. They've recollected and filtered several streams. So now they are internally using all their effluent.Even though operating costs will increase,the water bills have already started to drop in Bingham Lake.

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New Wind Turbine Blades to Improve Electricity Production

Posted on Tuesday, May 5, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 11:50 PM

Researchers at the Purdue University and the Sandia National Laboratories have created a new method of supervising the wind turbine blades, which employs sensors and computational software to establish the best orientation for the generators.Shifting wind and varying intensities in the way air hits the blades are just two of the main reasons why wind farms lose a great deal of efficiency and produce current at fluctuating levels. This new development in turbine blade technology could lead to an increased efficiency, and could finally make the wind a resource able to compete with established fossil fuels.

The ultimate goal is to feed information from sensors into an active control system that precisely adjusts components to optimize efficiency. The upgrades could help turbines become less likely to lose precious time and energy-producing potential while spinning for nothing when the wind shifts. The sensors will be able to pick up minute variations in wind intensity, and to accordingly adjust the entire structure. It could also provide the controlling software with all the information it needs to move the blades in a manner that will ensure an almost uninterrupted energy production. The system will also be able to prevent the blades from getting damaged by high winds, by alerting them of incoming bursts of air at high speeds.

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New Solar Energy Collector with High Efficiency

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 4:31 AM

An Israeli company, Zenith Solar, has announced the invention of a new type of solar energy collector that is said to be much more efficient than current photovoltaic ones.The new collection device, is a series of rotating dishes made up of mirror which are said to be able to collect as much as 75% of the sun’s energy or five times those of ordinary solar collectors. The use of mirrors will reduce the need for so many photovoltaic cells as are required in other types of solar collectors, making the new system much more affordable, and even comparable to generating electricity with fossil fuels.

Ron Segev, founder and CEO of Zenith Solor was quoted as saying that the new solar collection device will be able to collect and produce thermal as well as electrical energy at the same time.The new collecting dish device will be able get at least 50% more energy from it in the form of hot water, which is derived from water used to cool the device.Once the device is in operation, it will only require maintenance costs since no fuel is needed. It will also work in places where less sunlight is normally available.

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Wind Energizer: New Design to Increase the Efficiency of Wind Turbine

Posted on Thursday, April 30, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 3:01 AM

Passive structure design of “Wind Energizer” by Leviathan Energy reportedly increases wind turbine efficiency 30% in field tests. Technological advancements in wind energy efficiency have generally come incrementally and usually made via a process of increasingly large wind turbine blades. Put simply, the model has been: longer blades = more output per turbine. The principle theory at work is that by placing passive objects around a wind farm it will change the circulation around a large wind turbine. The advancement is not in the turbine itself, but rather in the area around it, as such, units can be adapted to any wind turbine from any manufacturer.

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Scientists Develop Highly Efficient Plastic-Based Solar Cell

Posted on Sunday, April 26, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:25 PM

South Korean scientists said Monday that they have created a highly efficient plastic-based power cell that can speed up commercial use of solar energy.The team led by Lee Kwang-hee at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), said the solar cells are designed to mimic the photovoltaic activities of plants, and reached an unprecedented energy efficiency rate of 6.2 percent.

If fully developed the solar cells, which can easily bend, could be attached to coats, bags, various electronic appliances and building windows.They used a new material that have "open circuit voltage" properties and titanium oxide to bring about high efficiency.

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Energy Detective Tool for Home Energy Efficiency

Posted on Thursday, April 23, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 11:28 PM

In a public bid for transparency and awareness in home electrical consumption, a Maine family of four is broadcasting their electricity use live via the web and a Twitter feed.

Peter Troast found that by simply measuring the family’s energy use, they created an awareness of it which resulted in an almost immediate 15% reduction in use, and he believes it can work for anyone.Troast has connected an electricity usage monitoring device called The Energy Detective (TED) to the junction box in his basement and rigged it to transmit the data to the internet. Viewers can watch the Troast family’s electrical use at any time via their website at Energy Circle TED display.

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Nanotechnology Catalysts for Commercially Viable Hydrogen Fuel Cells?

Posted on Wednesday, April 15, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 12:28 AM

Canadian research team has now demonstrated that it is possible to significantly increase the catalytic site density of iron-based non-precious metal catalysts (NPMCs) to levels that were not thought possible before. The problem that this work resolves is that of the low activity of NPMCs compared to platinum-based catalysts. The best of these new NPMCs is more than 30 times more active compared to the previous best reported activity for NPMCs, and about 100 times more active than the majority of other NPMCs. Furthermore, their activity has reached about 1/10th the volumetric activity of state-of-the-art platinum-based catalysts (about 50 wt % platinum on carbon), which is the 2010 NPMC activity target set by the U.S. Department of Energy.

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Energy-Efficient Engine Converts Waste Heat Into Energy

Posted on Wednesday, April 8, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 12:34 AM

The energy-efficient car engine being developed by Martin Lydell and his Team Adiabatic may be up for a $5 million XPRIZE, but the real reason he is building it is to help Mother Earth.

The engine internally transfers thermal energy that is usually lost to a car's radiator into engine power output.Lydell said only about 25 percent of gas put in a tank goes to propelling a car, with the rest wasted. Heand his team have worked to capture the heat lost from the radiator to power the engine. It gets 77 miles per gallon in the engine he calls the Pulse Power.

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New Dye Design For Solar Cell Efficiency

Posted on Monday, April 6, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:46 PM

A new type of dye could improve the lifespan of dye-sensitised solar cells - low-cost photovoltaic cells that can convert sunlight into electricity and thought to be some of the most promising for widespread use. Designed by Swiss and Japanese researchers, the dye has a light to electric conversion efficiency of 10.1 per cent, making it competitive with the best available. Dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSCs) use dyes to capture energy from sunlight and convert it into electric current.

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Suntech's Pluto System Reaches 19% Efficiency

Posted on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:08 PM

Suntech Power Holdings, the world's largest manufacturer of solar panels, has announced further details of its Pluto technology that has seen substantial improvements in solar cell conversion efficiencies.Suntech's Pluto technology has seen conversion efficiencies of approximately 19% on monocrystalline solar panels and 17% on polycrystalline solar panels outside of the lab and in large scale production.

The patent-pending Pluto technology is based on PERL technology, developed locally at the University of NSW in Australia. Lower reflectivity has been achieved through unique texturing technology that allows increased sunlight to be absorbed even without direct solar radiation. Thinner metal lines on the top surface reduces shading loss. Suntech's Pluto technology can be applied to a variety of grades of silicon to suit differing applications and product types.

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3-D Surface to Boost Solar Cell Efficiency

Posted on Wednesday, March 25, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 10:40 PM

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a new treatment for silicon photovoltaic solar cells that creates bumps and peaks on the surface that increase cell efficiency in two ways.The surface structures prevent water and dust from coming into contact with the cells. When water hits the surface, it beads together and runs off, collecting any dirt or dust along with it. This self-cleaning mechanism will help keep the solar cells working at maximum light absorption at all times.Additionally, the three-dimensional structures manage to capture more light and reflect less.

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Viper (TM): New Thin Film Affordable Solar Cell

Posted on Tuesday, March 24, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 1:44 AM

A new piece of thin film manufacturing equipment with the unlikely name of Viper (TM) could help bring solar energy to the masses. Viper (TM) was developed by Sencera, a North Carolina company that got its start supplying thin film hardware for manufacturing transistors and integrated circuits.Thin film has been replacing conventional silicon wafers as a low-cost way to manufacture solar cells. Thin film solar cells don’t need a silicon wafer, so they involve less cost for materials.

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Lithium Breakthrough Could Charge Batteries in 10 Seconds

Posted on Sunday, March 15, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:30 PM

A new version of lithium battery technology can either provide a higher storage density than current batteries, or can charge and discharge as fast as a supercapacitor, emptying its entire charge in under 10 seconds.The new battery technology, which is based on the power-centric LiFePO4 chemistry, makes for rapid charge and discharge times, but does not improve energy storage density.

The new work involves well-understood technology, relying on lithium ions as charge carriers within the battery. But the lithium resides in a material that was designed specifically to allow it to move through the battery quickly, which means charges can be shifted in and out of storage much more rapidly than in traditional formulations of lithium batteries. The net result is a battery that, given the proper electrodes, can perform a complete discharge in under 10 seconds—the sort of performance previously confined to the realm of supercapacitors.

Full article here

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Nanotechnology for More Efficient Thin Film Solar Cells

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 8:46 PM

A new European Union funded research project called “ROD-SOL” ('All-inorganic nano-rod based thin-film solar cells on glass') aims to improve the efficiency of thin-film solar cells using nanotechnology. The three year project has a budget of EUR 4 million and may yield a breakthrough for solar power.The ROD-SOL project aims to up the efficiency of these thin film solar cells by developing and optimising the synthesis of silicon nanorods on cheaper substrates such as glass or metal foils. The silicon nanorods are effectively tiny silicon columns whose diameter is measured in nanometres. Researchers propose that the tiny structures are perfect for trapping light energy in a way that it can be transformed into electricity.

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Quantum Dots Could Boost Solar Cell Efficiency ?

Posted on Friday, March 13, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 2:12 AM

A recent discovery shatters the notion that one photon can only excite one electron. Researchers from the joint SLAC-Stanford Pulse Institute for Ultrafast Energy Science are on the move to boost solar cell efficiencies by confirming that a single photon can indeed excite more than one electrons in a quantum dot.

The recent PULSE experiments use ‘quantum dots’, tiny spheres composed of a few thousand atoms, to boost electron interactions by concentrating the electrons into a extremely small area. Researchers found that with quantum dots, 1 photon can excite up to 3 electrons depending on the sunlight’s color. These results mean that solar cell processes could be as much as one third more efficient if constructed with quantum dots. Although there are some difficult scientific and engineering feats to be conquered in the production of a solar cell with quantum dots, such a technology could one day revolutionize solar power.

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Quantum Dots Could Boost Solar Cell Efficiency ?

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 2:12 AM

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A New Metallization Paste For Flexible Thin-film Photovoltaic Solar Cells

Posted on Monday, March 9, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:37 PM

Although silicon photovoltaic solar cells account for over 95% of the solar cells produced today, copper-indium-gallium di-selenide (CIGS), amorphous silicon, and cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film cells hold much promise for rapid growth.These thin-film photovoltics can be deposited, not only on glass, plastic, or metal substrates, but also on flexible substrates. This offers the advantage of roll-to-roll processing, thus significantly reducing manufacturing costs.

Now, a flexible high-performance silver metallization paste has been developed for use in flexible thin-film photovoltaic solar cells. The binder of the paste is a soft epoxy-based resin system. Compared with a more conventional thermoplastic paste system, this exhibits superior adhesion and is flexible. The new material, designated LTTF-6363, also displays excellent print characteristics and non-slump performance – extremely important for maximizing the effective open areas on solar cells.

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Titanium Nanostructure For Efficient Solar Energy Capture

Posted on Tuesday, March 3, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:57 PM

Overcoming a critical conductivity challenge to clean energy technologies, Boston College researchers have developed a titanium nanostructure that provides an expanded surface area and demonstrates significantly greater efficiency in the transport of electrons.Wang said the efficiency gains within the novel material can serve so-called water-splitting, where semiconductor catalysts have been shown to separate and store hydrogen and oxygen gases.

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LPG Optimum Burning System: An Indian Invention for Home Energy Efficiency

Posted on Monday, March 2, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:05 PM

A device called electronic ‘LPG optimum burning system' invented by Tarak Nath Choudhury, a civil engineer with Eastern Railway, promises to help you save Rs 110 per cylinder. If a LPG cylinder lasts 30 days now, Choudhury's device will make it last another 14 days and reduce harmful emission. He has already won the Earth Care Award 2008 for his invention

The existing cooking gas burner (IS 4246) has 64 % thermal efficiency. So everytime you cook, you waste 36% energy. One can achieve up to 92% thermal efficiency using this machine. The normal consumption of LPG through big burners is 189 gm per hour. This device can bring down the consumption to 131 gm per hour without changing the quantum of thermal energy or heat. So it increases thermal efficiency.

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“Omnivore”: A Car That Can Run on Almost Any Fuel

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 7:27 PM

Lotus reveals flex-fuel engine concept to maximise fuel efficiency when running on renewable fuels or gasoline.Lotus Engineering, the world-renowned automotive consultancy division of Lotus Cars Limited, unveils its latest research into engine efficiency at the 79th International Geneva Motor Show. The Omnivore engine concept has the potential to significantly increase fuel efficiency for sustainable alcohol based fuels, which increases the prospect of a greater amount of vehicle miles travelled using renewable fuels.

The Omnivore concept features an innovative variable compression ratio system and uses a two-stroke operating cycle with direct fuel injection. It is ideally suited to flex-fuel operation with a higher degree of optimisation than is possible with existing four stroke engines.

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Turbocharger is Back With High Fuel-Efficiency

Posted on Friday, February 27, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:18 PM

Turbochargers are making a comeback. With new technologies and a need for fuel-efficient power, the auto industry is seeing a significant rise in turbos—with promises of more to come.Ford is particularly aggressive with the technology and plans to replace many of its V8 engines with twin-turbo V6s and use turbo four-cylinder engines to supplant V6s. The company has even coined a friendly name for its turbo engines—Ecoboost . Ford, however, is not alone. "We're going to see a lot more turbo engines," says Chris Meagher, GM's chief engineer for its Ecotec engines. Industry estimates peg global gasoline-turbocharger production to grow to around 3 million units by 2013. That's a sixfold increase in less than a decade.

Turbos have always been effective at increasing an engine's specific power, otherwise known as the output per displacement. A 2.0-liter turbo four-cylinder engine can easily match the power of naturally aspirated 3.0-liter V6, for example.

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Floating Wind Generators With High Rated Capacity

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 1:02 AM

Wind power is notoriously flighty, particularly at ground level. Most turbine-on-a-post wind powered generators operate at around 20-40% of their rated generation capacity, simply because wind is intermittent and changes direction. But a generator situated 500-1000 feet above ground level would enjoy much more consistent strong wind - which is why the Magenn MARS system makes so much sense. It's a helium-filled rotating airship that spins in the wind on the end of a variable-length tether that also acts as a power transmitter, and it's expected to operate at more like 50% of its rated capacity. Each MARS system will be cheap and portable, which will make them extremely useful in rural, camping and emergency situations. A prototype has successfully been flown in North Carolina.

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New Solar-panel Technology Could Increase Efficiency?

Posted on Thursday, February 26, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:54 PM

Researchers at the National Institute for Nanotechnology at the University of Alberta have developed a method that increases the efficiency in plastic photovoltaic cells by 30 per cent, a breakthrough they say may someday help make cheap, clean solar power available to the masses.They have developed a compound to spread between two layers of the plastic cell. Just one billionth of a metre thick, the compound helps energy jump from one level to another on its way to becoming usable electricity.

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Wave Treader With High Efficiency

Posted on Sunday, February 22, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:58 PM

Green Ocean Energy has developed the Wave Treader, based on its existing Ocean Treader design. Each device is comprised of a pair of floats connected to sliding hydraulic arms on the turbine's leg--as a wave passes, first one float then the other bobs up and compresses a hydraulic cylinder. A hydraulic smoother evens out the pressure in the hydraulic fluid, and then passes it on to a hydraulic generator which spits out electrical power. The whole assembly can freely rotate around the turbine leg of course, so that it faces into the oncoming waves for greater efficiency.

The power is sent down the very same supply lines the wind turbine uses, which further saves on infrastructure costs. Each device can generate 500KW of power, and Green Ocean expects to test a prototype this year and go commercial in 2011.

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WindWing - A New Wind Power Device

Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:45 PM

Gene Kelley of California has invented a wind power device which could revolutionize the alternative energy business.The invention, called the WindWing, is significantly more efficient than propeller-style wind power generators.The wings, when in a breeze in excess of 6 mph, pivot up and down at about 15 oscillations per minute. This reciprocating force can be converted into rotary power that, in turn, can perform useful work such as generating electricity and pumping water, Kelley said.Kelley's company, W2 Energy, is working with a start-up company, the Wings of Endeavor LLC, of Shelton, to promote the idea.

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New Coal Additives for Energy Efficiency & Emission Reduction

Posted on Tuesday, February 17, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:18 PM

The Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has recently announced the co-invention of two new coal additives which can improve coal efficiency by 7-12%, and also reduce emissions by nearly 30%.The two new coal additives, CHARNA C and CHARNA CO2, co-developed by the Shanghai Institute and Beijing Charna Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals, have been selected by the National Development and Reform Commission as key national promotion products for energy saving and emission reduction.

Twenty tons of such liquid additives have been used to conduct fuel-burning performance tests at more than ten factories and institutes such as Chongqing Titanium Industry and Beijing Research Institute of Coal Chemistry.Test results show that the new additives improve coal efficiency by 7-12%, reduce sulphur dioxide emissions by 24-33%, and nitrogen oxide emissions by 17%.

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Reverse Bias Electroluminescence - A New Light on Solar Cells

Posted on Monday, February 16, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:28 PM

Dominik Lausch from the Department of Semiconductor Physics at the Institute of Experimental Physics II investigates solar cells to which he attached current flowing in the opposite direction,called reverse bias. Here too, the solar cells show characteristic luminescence effects, yet they are exclusively on the defects, in particular on the grain boundaries contained in the multicrystalline material of his investigation.

A very sharp image of the luminescence emerges, an optical radiation through the transition of electrons to a low-energy ground level state.This makes it possible to locate and identify defects with a spatial resolution previously not known or achieved. The method established by the researchers is called ReBEL which stands for "Reverse Bias Electroluminescence". The research findings underscore that photovoltaics are a sustainable and environmentally friendly technology.

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Fuel-cell Waste-to-Energy Plant Could Raise Energy Efficiency?

Posted on Friday, February 13, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 10:17 PM

Two UK companies announced plans to use fuel cells to increase the efficiency of energy conversion at waste-to-energy plants by as much as 60 percent.In a typical waste-to-energy plant, waste is converted to hydrogen syngas using plasma gasification, a process using extremely high temperatures and controlled oxygen. Syngas is then converted to electricity using internal combustion engine incinerator.

Waste2Tricity plans to improve the efficiency of energy conversion by using an alkaline fuel cell to convert syngas into electricity. Although the proposed plant initially is expected to use an internal combustion engine incinerator, Waste2Tricity plans to incorporate fuel cell technology within four to five years.

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Hybrid Nanocables To Boost Lithium-Ion Battery Technology

Posted on Monday, February 9, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:15 PM

A team of researchers at Rice University have discovered a hybrid carbon-nanotube/metal-oxide arrays as electrode material that may improve the performance of lithium-ion batteries. Rice’s nanotubes are grown to look and act like coaxial conducting lines used in cables.Each tube is made up of a manganese oxide shell and a highly conductive carbon nanotube. The two materials combined can hold lots of power and transmit it efficiently.Electrochemical capacitors and fuel cells would also benefit, the researchers said.

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High Efficient Spray-on Solar Panels

Posted on Thursday, February 5, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:12 PM

Australia and Braggone Oy on a three-year project to develop spray-on solar panels that are cheap and highly efficient.Traditionally, solar cells are made of silicon coated with a thin layer of anti-reflective silicon nitrate. The cells are expensive to produce because they are made in a vacuum. With the spray-on method, cells travel along a conveyor belt and are sprayed with hydrogen film and anti-reflective film as they go, thus removing the need for a vacuum.Scientists working on the project also hope to increase cell efficiency beyond the normal range of 5 to 24 percent.

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Can Magnet-Driven Motor Replace the Gas & Diesel ?

Posted on Thursday, January 29, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:56 PM

Herman Wilt, Vidalia inventor thinks he may have the motor to revolutionize the world.He now has two patents on his Magnet Assist motor. A carousel of magnets push and pull against two beams and turns these gears. Herman said the motor can run off a fraction of the energy traditional motors that gas or electric use now.

He says the difference in this motor and others is it actually uses less energy the harder it runs. He and wife Katherine now have 2 patents on the motor, but they're waiting on more independent testing before he takes it to American-based manufacturers. "We'd be able to increase our fuel mileage on gas motors and diesel motors. We could also eliminate the gas or diesel motors and go strictly electric," he contended.

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New Super-Efficient LED Light

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 8:30 PM

LED light bulbs are already more efficient than our average bulb, but researchers at the Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new kind of LED that exhibits both improved energy efficiency and lighting performance. The researchers‘ polarization-matching LED shows an 18 percent increase in light output and a 22 percent increase in wall plug efficiency (the amount of electricity that the LED converts into light).Renssalaer’s LED is more powerful thanks to a reduction in “efficiency droop”, which makes LEDs most efficient when receiving low-density electrical currents and least efficient when higher density electrical currents are received.

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Caviar Green - Energy-Efficient 2TB Hard Drive

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 7:58 PM

Western Digital releases energy-efficient 2TB Hard Drive,which drive features IntelliSeek technology to find the drive’s optimal speed at any given point in time. That means the Caviar Green only uses as much energy as it needs, resulting in energy savings of up to 40 percent compared to standard desktop drives.The Caviar Green also utilizes Western Digital’s GreenPower technology to ensure low temperatures for increased reliability and quiet operation. And of course, the hard drive has impressive stats: 32 MB of cache, 500 GB per platter, and 26 to 29 dBA of noise from idle to seek mode.

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Painting Photovoltaic (PV) Cells For Efficient Solar-Cell System

Posted on Friday, January 23, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:36 PM

A simple solar-cell method being developed in the UK could provide as much electricity as that produced by 50 wind turbine farms.UK Trade & Investment publication Trade with Britain says that scientists are developing this new ecofriendly technology, after having investigated ways of painting photovoltaic (PV) cells onto the flexible steel sheeting and surfaces commonly used for cladding homes, offices or buildings.

Unlike conventional solar cells, the materials being developed at Swansea University, in Wales, are more efficient at capturing low-light radiation. Paint is applied to ordinary steel cladding when it is passed through rollers during the manufacturing process.The researchers believe that the same approach could be used to build layers of the solar-cell system, with the aim of producing cells that can be painted onto a flexible steel surface at a rate of 30m2 to 40m2 a minute.

They have been collaborating with the steel industry for decades but have tended to focus their attention on improving the long-term durability and corrosion resistance of the steel.Worsley maintains that the potential for the product is immense. Corus Colors (manufacturers of pre-finished steels), produces around 100-million square metres of steel building cladding a year. If this was treated with the PV material, and assuming a conservative 5% energy conversion rate, then we could be looking at generating 4 500 GW of electricity through the solar cells annually, which is the equivalent output of roughly 50 wind farms.

According to UK journal New Scientist, the new PV paint will be based on dye-sensitised solar cells. The report notes that instead of absorbing sunlight using silicon like conventional solar panels, these use dye molecules, attached to particles of the titanium dioxide pigment used in paints.

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Zero-energy Computers from Fujitsu Siemens

Posted on Wednesday, January 21, 2009 posted by posted by Ecacofonix @ 5:08 PM

Fujitsu Siemens has announced a new desktop PC dubbed the Esprimo Green or “Zero-Watt PC,” which the company will showcase during the CeBIT electronics show to be held in March. The system is being touted as the first in its class that will not consume even a single watt-hour of electricity in sleep mode and will still be able to keep all its electronics powered up.

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Hubless Windmill – A New Wind Energy Invention

Posted on Friday, January 16, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 3:00 AM

Wind power is a useful source of clean energy, but it suffers from several shortcomings – not least the fact that the best wind-farm sites tend to be far from the areas that consume the most power.Setting up conventional windmill-style wind turbines in cities is impractical because they need to orientate themselves towards the wind and so require a relatively large amount of space in which to pivot.

Now Sridhar Condoor at Saint Louis University in Missouri has designed a hollow, cylindrical wind turbine that has no central hub. Its tube-like form means the device could be placed around a pre-existing feature such as a chimney stack, cellphone mast or even a tree trunk.The outside of the turbine is a cylinder that is incised with inlets to catch the wind from any direction and toothed on the inside to drive a gear that powers a generator.

A cylindrical frame within allows the main cylinder to rotate freely and can be mounted around another object - either vertically or horizontally. That makes it possible to install without needing clear space, and could even provide a way to hide ugly features, the patent says.

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Alubond Solar Collector Panel-A New Efficient Solar Trough system

Posted on Wednesday, January 14, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 10:32 PM

American Building Technologies Inc based in Rockford Illinois, a subsidiary of the UAE based multi national group Mulk Holdings, has successfully tested an innovative solar collector panel named the 'Alubond Solar Collector Panel'.

The U.S. Patented Solar collector Panel is an important technology breakthrough that improves efficiency and lowers production costs of solar energy globally. Coventional Solar Troughs used in Solar generation are either in glass mirrors weighing over 12.5 kgs per m2 or single skin aluminium with a high reflective laminated film requiring heavy support structures and numerous riveting reducing the efficiency of the troughs. Alubond SCP is a 3 mm composite weighing approx 4 kgs per m2 with a 92% reflectivity and offering a 20 years exterior performance warranty.

The products ability to retain a parabolic shape to precise coordinates and its light weight features and its innovative rivetless joining process substantially reduces the substructure costs. The Solar Trough system is expected to lower current costs of solar generation (using Photo Voltaic technology) by more than 50%.

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A Nanomaterial To Make Flexible Electronic Devices & Solar cells

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 10:17 PM

South Korean scientists on Thursday unveiled a manufacturing process for large-scale, nanomaterial films that can herald the production of flexible electronic devices.The Sungkyunkwan University-Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) team, said graphene film with a diameter of 10 cm has been created by adopting a conventional chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique.

Graphene is a one-atom-thick, honeycomb-like nano material structure that can handle 100 times more electric current than copper and transfer electrons 100 times faster than monocrystalline silicon, used in conventional semiconductors.

The wafer-scale graphene is expected to be used in flexible displays, wearable computers and advanced transistors and electrodes. It can also replace indium tin oxide, used extensively in the production of touch-screen panels and solar cells. The CVD technique calls for heating a mixture of methane, hydrogen and argon gases to 1,000 C and using it to attach carbon atoms to a 300 nanometer-thick, flat nickel catalyst

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“Thin-film” Solar Cells- A New Solar Energy Innovation

Posted on Monday, January 12, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 10:36 PM

IBM recently released its third annual “Next Five in Five” list of innovations that have the potential to change the way people work, live, and play over the next five years. One of the innovations to make the November 2008 list was “energy saving solar technology will be built into asphalt, paint and windows”.

Ever wonder how much energy could be created by having solar technology embedded in our sidewalks, driveways, siding, paint, rooftops, and windows? Until now, the materials and the process of producing solar cells to convert into solar energy have been too costly for widespread adoption. But now this is changing with the creation of “thin-film” solar cells, a new type of cost-efficient solar cell that can be 100 times thinner than silicon-wafer cells and produced at a lower cost. These new thin-film solar cells can be “printed” and arranged on a flexible backing, suitable for not only the tops, but also the sides of buildings, tinted windows, cell phones, notebook computers, cars, and even clothing.

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Nano particles to Improve the Efficiency of photo-cells

Posted on Sunday, January 11, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:52 PM

Nano particles may improve the working of photo-cells.An important reason for the conversion efficiency being low is that all the light that strikes the photo cell does not get used and also that the cell cannot convert all the colours of light that are there in sunlight.

Kylie R Catchpole and Albert Polemen, working in the Institute for Atomic and Molecular physics at Amsterdam, have reported in their paper that the nano-particle method they have developed seeks to remedy these two shortcomings of solar cells.

In the normal course, a photon striking a metal would be absorbed, allowed to pass through or reflected. When the metal is in the form of a nano-particle, of the dimensions of the wavelength of light and atomic particles, however, different processes kick in - there is formed on the surface of the nano-particle a wave of electron motion, called a 'surface plasmon', which can be very intense if the properties of the particle and the light wave should match - resonance, in fact.

The Amsterdam researchers covered a solar cell with a thin coating of nanoscopic (a millionth of a millimeter) metal particles. First of all, the barrier scattered the incoming light and made sure that more of it remained within the solar cell.And then, with careful control of the size of the nano-particles, the capture of different colours of light could be tuned and the performance of poor colours also improved.

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HP Printer Research Breakthrough Might Enlighten... Solar Industry?

Posted on Thursday, June 19, 2008 posted by posted by Ecacofonix @ 11:24 AM

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) has built its reputation on printers, PCs and other tech gear. Now it's lending a hand to a much different industry: solar.

HP had a recent announcement that it will license technology it co-developed with Oregon State University to solar startup Xtreme Energetics, which hopes to launch its first products in two years. The HP technology will help grab the sun's rays for solar panels in a way that could generate electricity at twice the efficiency and half the cost of traditional solar panels, the companies say.

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More Power from Motors by Injecting Ethanol, Methanol or E85

Posted on posted by posted by Ecacofonix @ 11:06 AM

One of the most promising new ideas in energy efficiency comes from researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The proposition: get more power and efficiency out of turbocharged motors by injecting ethanol, methanol or E85 (85 percent methanol, 15 percent gasoline) into the engine at times of higher demands for power.

The MIT crowd claims this technology can boost gas mileage by as much as 30 percent, and that it allows a high-compression engine and high-boost turbocharger to operate on regular gasoline. Daniel Cohn, senior research scientist at the MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment, and other MIT professors, have formed a company, Ethanol Boosting Systems, and are testing their concept with Ford Motor.

On another front, Daimler and General Motors are experimenting with motors that run on gasoline but combine features of traditional gasoline engines (fuel ignited by a spark) and diesel technology (fuel ignited by compression of fuel and air).

More from here -Automakers explore gas-saving technology

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Solar Panels Energy Efficiency Increased by 6% - Bram Hoex, Eindhoven University

Posted on posted by posted by Ecacofonix @ 1:42 AM

Physicist Bram Hoex and colleagues at Eindhoven University of Technology, together with the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany, have developed a process that improves the energy produced by solar panels by six per cent (in relative terms), a new world record in solar cell efficiency.

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Highly Efficient Miniature Crystals for Cost-effective Solar Power

Posted on posted by posted by Ecacofonix @ 1:29 AM

Researchers in Australia have produced highly efficient miniature crystals -- a breakthrough which they claim can soon revolutionise the way people harvest and use solar energy.

Lead researcher Professor Max Lu from the University of Queensland said they were one step closer to the holy grail of cost-effective solar energy with their discovery.

"The beauty of our technique is that it is very simple and cheap to make such materials at mild conditions. Now that the research has elucidated the conditions required, the method is like cooking in an oven and the crystals can be applied like paints," the 'Nature' quoted Lu as saying.

IBM Uses Magnifying Glass to Boost Solar Output

Posted on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 posted by posted by Ecacofonix @ 11:28 AM

As a child, you might have used magnifying lenses to focus sun's rays onto anything you wanted to burn. Even if you haven't, you'd be well aware that it's possible to do so. IBM takes it to a whole new level and used a magnifying glass to significantly improve solar energy output.

According to test results, IBM was able to capture 230 watts of energy on just one centime of solar cell which would then be converted to 70 watts of usable electricity. That is FIVE times the usual output of typical PVs. So, if just a small surface area could generate electricity which could power whole structures, for example, this means there'd be a decrease in the needed quantity of photovoltaics, thereby lessening installation costs.

Solar Panels - Solar Cells Efficiency World Record Breakthrough

Posted on posted by posted by Ecacofonix @ 11:26 AM

By using an ultra-thin aluminium oxide layer at the front of the solar cell, Hoex was able to improve the cell’s conversion of sunlight into energy from 21.9 per cent to 23.2 per cent. The record breaking technology was showcased in the USA at a major solar power convention.An improvement of more than 1 per cent (in absolute terms) may at first glance appear modest, but it can enable solar cell manufacturers to greatly increase the performance of their products.

The ultra-thin (about 30 nanometers) aluminium oxide film contains unprecedented high levels of built-in negative charges, preventing the significant energy losses that usually escape from the surface of solar cell arrays during the day.

Full report from here

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