http://www.ted.com/talks/saul_griffith_on_kites_as_the_future_of_renewable_energy.html
One Per Cent: Green Machine: solar street lamp feeds energy to the grid Helen Knight, technology reporter (Image: Adam Mørk/SunMast) The humble street light is joining the ranks of wind turbines and solar power plants in supplying renewable energy to the electricity grid. A street lamp covered in photovoltaic cells, which can generate more energy from sunlight than it consumes to light the street, is being tested in the UK.
Cheaper, Spray-On Solar Panels Could Appear in Three Years AUSTIN, TX — Researchers at the University of Texas have developed a method to create photovoltaic panels at one-tenth the cost of existing technologies using nanoparticle "inks" to generate electricity from the sun. The group, lead by Brian Korgel in the University's chemical engineering department, predicts that the technology, which would allow solar panels to be painted on rooftops or the sides of buildings, could be market-ready in three to five years. "The sun provides a nearly unlimited energy resource," Korgel said in a statement, "but existing solar energy harvesting technologies are prohibitively expensive and cannot compete with fossil fuels."
Men: Pee And Wash In The Same Fixture! Lenny Bruce would have had such fun with this, but this just makes so much sense, a sink built on top of a urinal! And designer Yeongwoo Kim has made it look good, too. The theoretical sequence is that you use the urinal, then wash your hands and the washwater rinses the urinal, saving water. Since of course, everybody washes their hands after peeing, right? It makes even more sense in multiple units in mens rooms, saving both space and water. Arcosanti Coordinates: Arcosanti is an experimental town and molten bronze bell casting community that has been developed by the Italian-American architect, Paolo Soleri, who began construction in 1970 in central Arizona, 70 mi (110 km) north of Phoenix, at an elevation of 3,732 feet (1,130 meters). Using a concept he called arcology, he started the town to demonstrate how urban conditions could be improved while minimizing the destructive impact on the earth. He taught and influenced generations of architects and urban designers who studied and worked with him there to build the town. Overview[edit]
Pond-Powered Biofuels: Turning Algae into America's New Energy Just three years ago, Colorado-based inventor Jim Sears shuttered himself in his garage and began tinkering with a design to mass-produce biofuel. His reactor (plastic bags) and his feedstock (algae) may have struck soybean farmers as a laughable gamble. But the experiment worked, and today, Sears' company, Solix Biofuels in Fort Collins, is among several startups betting their futures on the photosynthetic powers of unicellular green goo. The science is simple: Algae need water, sunlight and carbon dioxide to grow.
DIY Skylights From Used Water Bottles Replace 50-Watt Bulbs Image via YouTube video An ingenious invention by an engineer in Brazil has made an enormous difference in his town. Simply placing a bottle of water in a hole in the ceiling can light up a room with the same brightness as a 50-watt light bulb! Residents have better lighting and are using less electricity. Check out how it works in the video. Scientists Develop Affordable Solar Panels That Work In The Dark It's about damn time, don't you think? Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory announced Wednesday that they have been able to confirm a new high-efficiency solar cell design that utilizes nearly the entire solar spectrum. Translation: They figured out a way to make solar panels generate electricity in the dark. CleanTechnica says , In earlier trials, the researchers used different alloys that achieved full spectrum responses but involved very high production costs.
Turn Steel Into Solar Panels With Photovoltaic Spray Paint No, it's not a joke or a crazy awesome futuristic concept . It's real. Tata Steel Europe (formerly Corus) and Swansea University in Wales, UK are collaborating to develop a spray-on technology that would transform steel sheets into solar panels. Some Earthy Figures and Facts About Solar Energy You Have to Know - Phoebe-Elle's blog Want more facts about solar energy? The best thing about it is that there are no rising and annoying importation costs of gas, oil or coal, which are by the way, increasing almost half the time. For more earthy figures and facts about solar energy, here they are: * In 2004, the solar cells' global production magnified by 60%.
Hot solar cells are the cool way to water and power - tech - 14 April 2011 PUMPING water through micro-channels on the surface of a solar panel not only makes it more efficient but can also make seawater drinkable. Concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) cells use lenses to focus large areas of solar energy onto a relatively small section of photovoltaic material, so it is not surprising that they can reach temperatures of 120 °C. These high temperatures make the cells less efficient, reducing the amount of electricity they can produce. That is why keeping them cool is so important, says Bruno Michel, head of advanced thermal packaging at IBM's Zurich Research Laboratory in Switzerland. So with this in mind IBM has developed the "ultra-high concentrated PV", a hybrid solar panel that incorporates technology originally developed to help cool computer chips.
Solar goes Hyper in the U.S. As the U.S. government continues to heap billions in subsidies to the world's wealthiest coal and oil companies, the solar industry has been struggling to make it in the United States. This is sad for many reasons, not the least of which is that we're missing out on one of the biggest growth industries in the world. Currently there are 16 gigawatts of installed solar power globally. That number will grow to about 1,800 gigawatts in the next 20 years, making it one of the best job creators. U.S. engineers invented the solar panel, and the U.S. should be dominating that market. Completely Off The Grid Mike Strizki says he’s figured out how to store solar energy in a way that could provide the world with an infinite source of year-round, emissions-free power, but also says no one is listening to him. For more news and information on the rapidly evolving energy industry, please sign up for the Breaking Energy newsletter. For the quickest updates, follow us on Twitter @AOLEnergy. At his house in the woods of western New Jersey, the civil engineer turned green energy evangelist uses fuel cells to convert the power generated by about 150 solar panels so that it can be stored in 11 hydrogen tanks about 100 yards from the house.
Think Big! Arizona Solar Tower 2X Taller Than the Empire State Building Will Produce 200 Megawatts Image: Enviromission 2625 Feet Tall! Solar towers, which are kind of big funnels that generate electricity by using the fact that hot air rises, are too often forgotten when we discuss solar energy. Solar PV and CSP get all the press, but solar towers have attractive power-generating characteristics and I wish more companies were working on perfecting them. EnviroMission is an Australian company working on that very thing, and they've announced that they want to build a gigantic 2625 feet/800 meters solar tower in the Arizona desert that would produce about 200 MW, enough to power 150,000 US homes. Read on for a video, more photos, and more details.
Japanese breakthrough will make wind power cheaper than nuclear NOTE: Some major wind projects like the proposed TWE Carbon Valley project in Wyoming are already pricing in significantly lower than coal power -- $80 per MWh for wind versus $90 per MWh for coal -- and that is without government subsidies using today's wind turbine technology. The International Clean Energy Analysis (ICEA) gateway estimates that the U.S. possesses 2.2 million km2 of high wind potential (Class 3-7 winds) — about 850,000 square miles of land that could yield high levels of wind energy. This makes the U.S. something of a Saudi Arabia for wind energy, ranked third in the world for total wind energy potential. The United States uses about 26.6 billion MWh's, so at the above rate we could satisfy a full one-third of our total annual energy needs. Now what if a breakthrough came along that potentially tripled the energy output of those turbines?