wildcat2030:

Printable A3-sized solar cells hit a new milestone in green energy

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Imagine a future where solar panels speed off the presses, like newspaper. Australian scientists have brought us one step closer to that reality.

Researchers from the Victorian Organic Solar Cell Consortium (VICOSC) have developed a printer that can print 10 meters of flexible solar cells a minute. Unlike traditional silicon solar cells, printed solar cells are made using organic semi-conducting polymers, which can be dissolved in a solvent and used like an ink, allowing solar cells to be printed.

Not only can the VICOSC machine print flexible A3 solar cells, the machine can print directly on to steel, opening up the possibility for solar cells to be embedded directly into building materials.

“Eventually we see these being laminated to windows that line skyscrapers,” said David Jones, a researcher at University of Melbourne who is involved with the work. “By printing directly to materials like steel, we’ll also be able to embed cells onto roofing materials.”

Printing 10 meters of solar cells in a minute means good things for solar.

(via Printable A3-sized solar cells hit a new milestone in green energy | Ars Technica)

science-junkie:

A storage power plant on the seabed

Norwegian research scientists will contribute to realising the concept of storing electricity at the bottom of the sea. The energy will be stored with the help of high water pressure.

The idea of an underwater pumped hydroelectric power plant may sound like Jules Verne fiction, but then it was hatched by a German engineer who has spent much of his professional life working in aerospace technology.

“Imagine opening a hatch in a submarine under water. The water will flow into the submarine with enormous force. It is precisely this energy potential we want to utilize,” explains Rainer Schramm, inventor and founder of the company Subhydro AS to Gemini.no. “Many people have launched the idea of storing energy by exploiting the pressure at the seabed, but we are the first in the world to apply a specific patent-pending technology to make this possible,” he adds.

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cnce:

muaj:bulbJ

climateadaptation:

ROCKVILLE, Maryland (Reuters) - U.S. regulators on Thursday approved plans to build the first new nuclear power plant in more than 30 years, despite objections of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman, despite objections of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) chairman, who cited safety concerns stemming from Japan’s 2011 Fukushima disaster. 

The NRC voted 4-1 to allow Atlanta-based Southern Co to build and operate two new nuclear power reactors at its existing Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia. The units will cost Southern and partners about $14 billion and enter service as soon as 2016 and 2017.

No nuclear power plants have been licensed in the United States since the partial meltdown of the reactor core of the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania in 1979. After the accident, the NRC adopted more stringent safety standards, which caused construction costs for nuclear plants to skyrocket and stopped dozens of planned plants in their tracks.

*This post is for anon, who earlier this evening asked me to update a previous post on new plants in the US. No update is needed. There have been no new nuclear power plants allowed to be built in the US since 1978. Anon may have been referring to applications for new plants or perhaps rehabs of old power plants.

futurist-foresight:

A more detailed look at IBMs solar power system. (See more in this previous post).

smartercities:

This High Concentration Photovoltaic Thermal System (HCPVT) can harness the energy of 2,000 suns and provide fresh water and air conditioning in remote locations. The prototype HCPVT system under development uses a large parabolic dish, made from a multitude of mirror facets, which is attached to a tracking system that determines the best angle based on the position of the sun. Once aligned, the sun’s rays reflect off the mirror onto several microchannel-liquid cooled receivers with triple junction photovoltaic chips — each 1x1 centimeter chip can convert 200-250 watts, on average, over a typical eight hour day in a sunny region.

Read more: http://huff.to/11vTQGE

kqedscience:

Moffett Field, CA

Bertrand Piccard gave a big thumbs up to the press as he got ready to take off in the Solar Impulse with his fellow pilot Andre Borschberg this morning. 10 years of planning has finally led to this moment.

Borschberg and Piccard — who established his daredevil cred as the first man to fly a hot air balloon around the world — are the drivers behind this $150 million project to fly a solar plane across the country in preparation for an around-the-world flight in 2015. Flying at 45 miles an hour, they’ll arrive at Phoenix, their first stop on the tour, around 1AM. 

Said Bertrand, “Our priority is not speed, it’s duration. We’re looking for a new milestone in this new history of aviation to show that renewable energy and energy efficiency is something we can achieve.”

You can follow their progress in real-time here.

Newly-discovered lithium reserve could satisfy US demand for hundreds of years | The Verge

Researchers at the University of Wyoming have discovered a new lithium reserve that could radically alter where the US sources a key component of the li-ion batteries used in consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and other technology. Currently the United States imports a vast majority of its lithium, but the newly-unearthed reserve — located at Rock Springs, Wyoming — could transform the US from “a significant lithium importer to an independent lithium producer” according to experts at the university’s Carbon Management Institute.

futurist-foresight:

IBMs solar collector advances solar power by harnessing the equivalent of 2,000 suns.

smarterplanet:

IBM Solar Collector Harnesses the Power of 2,000 Suns | Inhabitat - Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building

A team of IBM researchers is working on a solar concentrating dish that will be able to collect 80% of incoming sunlight and convert it to useful energy. The High Concentration Photovoltaic Thermal system will be able to concentrate the power of 2,000 suns while delivering fresh water and cool air wherever it is built. As an added bonus, IBM states that the system would be just one third the cost third of current comparable technologies.

 Based on information by Greenpeace International and the European Electricity Association, IBM claims that it would require only two percent of the Sahara’s total area to supply the world’s energy needs. The HCPVT system is designed around a huge parabolic dish covered in mirror facets. The dish is supported and controlled by a tracking system that moves along with the sun. Sun rays reflect off of the mirror into receivers containing triple junction photovoltaic chips, each able to convert 200-250 watts over eight hours. Combined hundred of the chips provide 25 kilowatts of electricity.

The entire dish is cooled with liquids that are 10 times more effective than passive air methods, keeping the HCPVT safe to operate at a concentration of 2,000 times on average, and up to 5,000 times the power of the sun. The direct cooling technique is inspired by the branched blood supply system of the human body and has already been used to cool high performance computers like the Aquasar. The system will also be able to create fresh water by passing 90 degree Celsius liquid through a distillation system that vaporizes and desalinates up to 40 liters each day while still generating electricity. It will also be able to amazingly offer air conditioning by a thermal drive absorption chiller that converts heat through silica gel.

Replacing expensive steel and glass with concrete and pressurized foils, the HCPVT is less costly than many other similar installations. Its high tech coolers and molds can be manufactured in Switzerland, and construction provided by individual companies on-site. Through their design, IBM believes they can maintain a cost of less than 10cents per kilowatt hour.

 

 

climateadaptation:

thelandofmaps:

Planned charging stations for Tesla’s 300-mile range Model S

So tempted to sell the ol’ benz and buy a Tesla.

thelandofmaps:

Planned charging stations for Tesla’s 300-mile range Model S [1066x600]
CLICK HERE FOR MORE MAPS!
thelandofmaps.tumblr.com

Solar cell coating could break efficiency barrier, researchers claim

A new technique to produce solar cells might one day yield devices that boast significantly greater efficiency — long a holy grail in the development of commercial solar panels.

Researchers at MIT say they’ve successfully harnessed an obscure technique, called “singlet exciton fission,” that would reduce the amount of sunlight wasted as heat instead of being converted to electricity. In a typical solar cell, each photon of sunlight hitting the cell knocks loose one electron, to kickstart the process of energy conversion. In this new research, however, each photon knocks two electrons loose — making the process of solar energy generation more efficient.

The process behind the research is relatively simple: researchers successfully coated solar cells with pentacene, an organic compound capable of generating two electrons from one photon.

The Verge

ralphewig:

Solar Impulse - This is the name of an amazing aircraft, powered entirely by solar power. While there have been other uncrewed aircraft which achieved solar powered flight, Solar Impulse is the first to carry a human pilot. If it wasn’t for the pilots need to rest, eat, drink, etc., this aircraft could fly indefinitely. The aircraft, which was constructed in Switzerland, recently was transported to the US for a demonstration flight across the North American continent.

Weather conditions are critical to the flight’s success in large part because of the HB-SIA’s fragility. Despite its enormous size, it weighs a mere 1,600 kilograms (~3,500 pounds), just a bit more than another all-electric vehicle, the Nissan Leaf.

And when we say “enormous size”, we’re referring to its wingspan of 63.4 meters (208 feet). A Boeing 747-100, in comparison, has a wingspan of 59.6 meters (196 feet) and a 747-400 a wingspan of 64.5 meters (211.4 feet). The smaller of those two jumbos, by the way, has a maximum takeoff weight of 333,400 kilograms (735,000 pounds) – that’d be equal to over 200 HB-SIAs.

That is not wild-eyed hippie talk. It is the assessment of the utilities themselves.

Back in January, the Edison Electric Institute — the (typically stodgy and backward-looking) trade group of U.S. investor-owned utilities — released a report [PDF] that, as far as I can tell, went almost entirely without notice in the press. That’s a shame. It is one of the most prescient and brutally frank things I’ve ever read about the power sector. It is a rare thing to hear an industry tell the tale of its own incipient obsolescence.

science-junkie:

‘Artificial leaf’ gains the ability to self-heal damage and produce energy from dirty water

Another innovative feature has been added to the world’s first practical “artificial leaf,” making the device even more suitable for providing people in developing countries and remote areas with electricity, scientists reported here today. It gives the leaf the ability to self-heal damage that occurs during production of energy. Daniel G. Nocera, Ph.D., described the advance during the “Kavli Foundation Innovations in Chemistry Lecture” at the 245th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society…

Nocera, leader of the research team, explained that the “leaf” mimics the ability of real leaves to produce energy from sunlight and water. The device, however, actually is a simple catalyst-coated wafer of silicon, rather than a complicated reproduction of the photosynthesis mechanism in real leaves. Dropped into a jar of water and exposed to sunlight, catalysts in the device break water down into its components, hydrogen and oxygen. Those gases bubble up and can be collected and used as fuel to produce electricity in fuel cells.

Read more
Images: [x]

emergentfutures:

Will Vertical Turbines Make More of the Wind?

A Caltech researcher thinks arrays of tiny wind turbines could produce cheaper power than big ones.

Full Story: MIT

treehugger:

Pay as you go solar power systems turn lives on in Guatemala

oliveventures:

Electric Buses Test Wireless Charging in Germany

Passengers on the 63 bus route in Mannheim, Germany may notice their ride got a little quieter. That’s thanks to a trial of two electric buses in the city, but it’s the use of inductive charging to stay on schedule without hanging wires or long recharge times that’s far more interesting.

The project, part of Bombardier’s trial of their PRIMOVE inductive charging technology, is designed to demonstrate that an electric bus can operate a demanding passenger route without stopping to recharge. The secret is inductive charging, which uses a charging pad buried under the road’s surface to send energy to the bus batteries when the two are magnetically “tuned.” In the case of the PRIMOVE system in use in Mannheim, the charging pads are only switched on when a vehicle passes above.

Because the bus is on a fixed route, induction charging makes quite a bit of sense. Since charging pads will be installed at stops along the route that the 63 bus in Mannheim takes, it will be able to run without interruption and charge while it’s picking up passengers.

It’s a concept called “opportunity charging” – topping off the battery whenever there’s a chance to do so, rather than parking in a depot for an overnight charge or swapping out batteries, which might lead to delays or schedule adjustments. In the case of PRIMOVE, it also means that batteries can be smaller, since they won’t have to hold enough charge for an entire trip. And that also maximizes passenger space.

laughingsquid:

Solar-Powered Phone Charger For Developing World Lets Customers Pay with a Text Message

sciencesoup:

Artificial Dust Devils

The word ‘tornado’ is usually associated with death and destruction, but mechanical engineers Mark Simpson and Ari Glezer at the Georgia Institute of Technology have figured out a way to harness them for renewable energy. They’re not out braving huge natural tornadoes, but rather they’re artificially creating small, controlled vortexes and using them to produce cheap, renewable energy. After seeing dust devils in Arizona sparked the idea, Glezer and Simpson built a metre-wide prototype that looks a bit like the inside of an aircraft engine rotor. Called the Solar Vortex, it relies on the temperature difference between hot air near the ground and cooler air just a metre above it. When the hot air rises and the cool air descends, convection currents form between the layers (convection currents are basically the continual cycle of heat transfer up and down). Well-positioned vanes force the airflow to spontaneously form into a vortex, which sucks in more warm air to maintain itself and turns a turbine at the centre of the device, generating energy—and no power is needed to kick-start it. The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency have agreed to fund large-scale trials, and they hope to build a 10 kilowatt model within two years and a 50 kilowatt model in the future. Glezer estimates that a square kilometre array of the turbines would produce 16 megawatts of energy—much more than the 3 to 5 megawatts of conventional wind turbines. It would be 20% cheaper than traditional wind power generation and 65% cheaper than solar panels, and the Solar Vortex doesn’t even need to be elevated to catch the wind, so it could be installed on building and factory rooftops where sufficient waste heat escapes.

(Image Credit: 1, 2)