MIT Unveils Solar Power System That Doesn't Need Sunlight. A solar energy system that doesn’t require sunlight is almost as bizarre as a tidal power system that doesn’t use water – however that’s exactly what researchers at MIT have cooked up.
The team just unveiled a new photovoltaic energy conversion system that can be powered by heat, the sun’s rays, a hydrocarbon fuel, or a decaying radioisotope. The button-sized power generator that can also run three times longer than a lithium-ion battery of the same weight. The science behind the device is not necessarily groundbreaking, as engineers have long used the surface of a material to convert heat into precisely tuned wavelengths of light.
New Car Engine Sends Shock Waves Through Auto Industry. Despite shifting into higher gear within the consumer's green conscience, hybrid vehicles are still tethered to the gas pump via a fuel-thirsty 100-year-old invention: the internal combustion engine.
However, researchers at Michigan State University have built a prototype gasoline engine that requires no transmission, crankshaft, pistons, valves, fuel compression, cooling systems or fluids. Their so-called Wave Disk Generator could greatly improve the efficiency of gas-electric hybrid automobiles and potentially decrease auto emissions up to 90 percent when compared with conventional combustion engines. The engine has a rotor that's equipped with wave-like channels that trap and mix oxygen and fuel as the rotor spins. These central inlets are blocked off, building pressure within the chamber, causing a shock wave that ignites the compressed air and fuel to transmit energy. New Energy to Unveil World’s First-Of-Its-Kind See Thru Glass SolarWindow™ Capable of Generating Electricity. University of South Florida Research Foundation grants New Energy exclusive, worldwide license for technologies to enable commercial development of SolarWindow™.
Dr. Xiaomei Jiang Lead Researcher - SolarWindow Dept. of Physics, USF Photographer: Steven Watts, Florida Photography Center Burtonsville, MD – July 20, 2010 – New Energy Technologies, Inc. (OTCBB: NENE) is pleased to announce that researchers developing its proprietary SolarWindow™ technology have achieved major scientific and technical breakthroughs, allowing the Company to unveil a working prototype of the world’s first-ever glass window capable of generating electricity in the upcoming weeks. Until now, solar panels have remained opaque, with the prospect of creating a see-thru glass window capable of generating electricity limited by the use of metals and various expensive processes which block visibility and prevent light from passing through glass surfaces.
Eddy - Urban Green Energy Vertical Axis Wind Turbines.