Bloom vs. Solar: Which One is Best? : Greentech Media

Bloom vs. Solar: Which One is Best? : Greentech Media: "Corporate buyers and households will be asked to pick between fuel cells and solar. Here’s how they stack up.

Bloom Energy today formally unveiled its energy server, an industrial solid oxide fuel cell that can convert natural gas or other hydrocarbons into electricity pretty much on demand."

Silicon wire forest makes wearable solar cells - tech - 21 February 2010 - New Scientist

Silicon wire forest makes wearable solar cells - tech - 21 February 2010 - New Scientist: "SOLAR cells built into clothing sound like a great way to charge gadgets while on the move, but for the idea to work the cells will have to be both flexible and cheap.

With that in mind, Harry Atwater and his team at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena have developed a bendy solar cell made from an array of microwires encased in a clear flexible polymer. It uses just 1 per cent of the expensive silicon needed by a regular solar cell with the same output, and is just 5 per cent of the size (Nature Materials, DOI: 10.1038/nmat2635)."

Siemens AG - Siemens lights up the world’s biggest revolving Christmas star

Siemens AG - Siemens lights up the world’s biggest revolving Christmas star: "Lighting installation by multimedia artist Michael Pendry shines over Munich since the first Advent

The lighting installation can be seen until Epiphany on January 6, 2010, at the northern gateway to Munich – every day before dawn and beginning at dusk. “The Siemens Superstar is a pioneering technological project and an important symbol for the Global Climate Conference in Copenhagen. Green innovations are lighting our way to a better future,” said Siemens President and CEO Peter Löscher. “Munich has a new landmark for the Christmas season. It stands for renewable energies and energy efficiency – and these are also important issues for Munich. By 2025, we want Munich to be the world’s first city to meet all its energy requirements from renewable sources,” noted Munich’s Mayor Christian Ude enthusiastically. “I like to take art outside the narrow confines of museums,” explained lighting artist Michael Pendry."

The Secret Ingredients Inside IBM’s New Solar Cell

Greentech Media: "In the solar business, it's a code word for 'headache.' One of the major hurdles facing manufacturers of copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) and copper indium selenide (CIS) solar cells lay in orchestrating those active ingredients to form uniform, consistent crystals in an evenly spaced manner so mass manufacturing becomes economical.

The techniques for applying selenide vary: some create copper, indium and gallium selenides and then apply these substances to substrates, while others introduce selenide with a jet of hydrogen gas in a high temperature chamber.

'It becomes a complicated process to control all of these elements,' said David Mitzi, who leads a team at IBM Research that last week unveiled an unusual solar cell made from copper, tin, zinc, selenium and sulfur (CTZSS). 'Cadmium telluride (the basis for First Solar's solar cells) is pretty simple. You can evaporate bulk cad tel and get it to land as bulk cad tel.'"

Electric cars are going places

Electric cars are going places: "Electric cars have many merits: They are quieter and require less maintenance than cars with internal combustion engines. A network of smartly located charging stations covering the entire Harz region in Germany is bound to make electric cars a regional feature."

IBM's New Solar Cell: It's a CTZSS! : Greentech Media

IBM's New Solar Cell: It's a CTZSS! : Greentech Media: "CTZSS. It doesn't really roll off the tongue as easily as CIGS, but IBM says that its new solar cell could potentially lower the price of solar power in the future.

The solar cell is made from copper, tin, zinc, sulfur and selenium, all of which are somewhat earth-abundant, according to IBM. The test cell achieves a 9.6 percent efficiency, or around 40 percent higher than the 6.7 percent ceiling achieved by other, earlier cells made from the same materials. (That's a cross-section of IBM's Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 compound and not a dental X-ray.)"

Green Energy "Oasis" to Bloom in the Desert?

Green Energy "Oasis" to Bloom in the Desert?: "A renewable-energy 'oasis' slated to be built in 2010 may serve as a proving ground for new technologies designed to bring green living to the desert.

The planned research center is part of the Sahara Forest Project—but that doesn't mean it'll be built in Africa. Sahara means 'desert' in Arabic, and the center is meant to be a small-scale version of massive green complexes that project managers hope to build in deserts around the globe."

Converting waste heat into electricity? Mismatched alloys are a good match for thermoelectrics

Converting waste heat into electricity? Mismatched alloys are a good match for thermoelectrics: "ScienceDaily (Feb. 1, 2010) — Employing some of the world's most powerful supercomputers, scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have shown that mismatched alloys are a good match for the future development of high performance thermoelectric devices. Thermoelectrics hold enormous potential for green energy production because of their ability to convert heat into electricity."

Super material will make lighting cheaper and fully recyclable

Super material will make lighting cheaper and fully recyclable: "ScienceDaily (Feb. 6, 2010) — With the use of the new super material graphene, Swedish and American researchers have succeeded in producing a new type of lighting component. It is inexpensive to produce and can be fully recycled."

Sunny Record: Breakthrough for Hybrid Solar Cells

Sunny Record: Breakthrough for Hybrid Solar Cells: "Scientists at the Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK) and the Freiburg Materials Research Center (FMF) have succeeded in developing a method for treating the surface of nanoparticles which greatly improves the efficiency of organic solar cells. The researchers were able to attain an efficiency of 2 percent by using so-called quantum dots composed of cadmium selenide."

Shining a Light on Plants' Quantum Secret to Boost Photosynthesis: Scientific American

Shining a Light on Plants' Quantum Secret to Boost Photosynthesis: Scientific American: "In less than one billionth of a second, plants from algae to redwoods transform 95 percent of the sunlight that falls on them—1017 joules per second bathe the planet—into energy stored chemically as carbohydrates. The quantum key to doing that lies in a phenomenon known to physicists as quantum coherence, according to new research published in Nature on February 4. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.)"

The Prospects of Amorphous Silicon PV: Down, But Hardly Out : Greentech Media

The Prospects of Amorphous Silicon PV: Down, But Hardly Out : Greentech Media

Nature's hot green quantum computers revealed - life - 03 February 2010 - New Scientist

Nature's hot green quantum computers revealed - life - 03 February 2010 - New Scientist: "WHILE physicists struggle to get quantum computers to function at cryogenic temperatures, other researchers are saying that humble algae and bacteria may have been performing quantum calculations at life-friendly temperatures for billions of years."

Zayed Future Energy Prize, Amitabha Sadangi, Business Wire India, Press Releases

Zayed Future Energy Prize, Amitabha Sadangi, Business Wire India, Press Releases: "The Zayed Future Energy Prize, a global annual award established to recognise achievements in the renewable energy industry, selected Amitabha Sadangi, CEO of International Development Enterprises India (IDEI), as a finalist for the successful deployment of low-cost irrigation technology to farmers in India. This technology, which has reached over one million farmers, has resulted in diesel savings of 533 million litres and a reduction in carbon emissions of 1.8 million tonnes."

weSRCH.com - A Wave of Energy Solutions - Paper Details

weSRCH.com - A Wave of Energy Solutions - Paper Details: "Wave energy is an emerging technology and a suite of diverse systems have been designed and are being tested. Most of these technologies aim to generate electricity in-water, and then transmit this ashore. Waves represent the optimum energy source for significant sustainable local power generation. Bermuda is an ideal location to demonstrate the commercial technological viability and profitability of cutting-edge, wave-energy generating technology."

Nanotube dye makes wearable batteries - tech - 31 January 2010 - New Scientist

Nanotube dye makes wearable batteries - tech - 31 January 2010 - New Scientist: "FED up with your MP3 player running out of juice? Maybe your shirt could help. A newly developed carbon-nanotube-based ink that can soak into fabrics could turn clothing into wearable batteries.

Yi Cui and colleagues at Stanford University in California created the ink, made with single-walled carbon nanotubes. The team dyed porous fabrics with the ink to create a conductive textile with very low resistance. The fabric maintained performance after repeated washes, suggesting that the ink is durable (Nano Letters, DOI: 10.1021/nl903949m).

Cui says it's possible to treat the dyed material with an electrolyte to create a fabric capacitor capable of storing and releasing electrical charge. That, he says, means the technique could be harnessed to power wearable devices."

Sweet success for sustainable biofuel research

Sweet success for sustainable biofuel research: "Scientists have found a way to increase fermentable sugar stores in plants which could lead to plant biomass being easier to convert into eco-friendly sustainable biofuels."