#Developing high-efficiency lasers to manufacture solar panels As the world continues its efforts to combat climate change
but also delivering environmental benefits through the development of improved methods for harnessing solar energy. urope is a global powerhouse
Solar panels are able to function because they have intricate patterns of tiny channels engraved into their surface,
high-tech materials now being developed for solar panels. In place of conventional solar panels measuring up to 5 millimetres in thickness,
the modern PV industry is looking to use new types of lightweight and flexible materials to construct solar panels measured in micrometres (thousandths of a millimetre).
With such materials, the scribing process must be controlled with a high degree of accuracy since it is vital that it penetrates only one layer of the thin solar cell film at a time.
PCF lasers provide this accuracy. Moreover, since PCF lasers operate with ultra-short pulse rates,
the flexibility means that solar panels can be wrapped onto any suitable structure, flat or curved. The results of the ALPINE team work, demonstrating the capability of PCF lasers to transform existing scribing technology and opening the way to rapid growth in the high-volume production of flexible,
thin-film solar cells, are hard to overestimate. In the words of Professor Selleri: echanical scribing will disappear very quickly from the PV industry,
and enhance the efficient use of resources like water electricity and raw materials. Gearing up for the future Through a number of case studies the team addressed specific problems affecting the milling grinding and drilling of different metals.
had no sensory abilities, needed heavy batteries, and were difficult to keep clean. As a result, many amputees chose not to use them. hat we have developed could truly help people overcome these difficulties,
In addition to cutting energy consumption and increasing indoor comfort, the team also aimed to mitigate the appearance of urban heat islands.
How much energy can they help save? That depends on a lot of factors. Demo park data indicate that savings ranging from 4 to 7. 5%could be achieved by re-roofing,
He is enthusiastic about their potential to increase energy efficiency simply and affordably just by applying a layer of innovation to the building outer shell.
#Save energy: commercial cooler chills beverage in just 50 seconds! Commercial fridges and freezers keep food fresh and beverages cool.
and means small quantities can be chilled on demand, saving huge amounts of energy. Supermarkets, convenience stores, service stations, restaurants, hotels wherever you find people with money to spend,
Combined, commercial refrigerator/freezers like these are estimated to consume 85 TWH (terawatt hours) of electricity every year.
That is roughly equivalent to the total yearly output of eight or nine late-generation nuclear power plants. This places a huge burden on power grids and the environment
The technology developed delivers considerable energy savings while, at the same time, keeps up with growing consumer demand. Game-changing green technology like this could have a direct impact on the EU 2020 commitment to reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions while improving overall energy security,
the team suggests. EU Member States are preparing a combination of voluntary and mandatory initiatives to force a step change in energy consumption and the use of commercial refrigerated equipment.
Probably the most prominent of these is the Energy Using Products (EUP) Directive which is expected to enter into force in 2014.
Up to 90%energy saving Rapidcool developed an autonomous, modular-cooling apparatus for cooling drink cans and bottles from room temperature to around 4°C in some 50 seconds.
The project trademarked V-Tex technology recorded energy savings of 80-90%compared with open-front commercial refrigerators.
Their modular system is easy to clean (and thus to meet hygiene standards), simple to use,
With V-Tex, notes the team, you get a cold drink every time with considerable reductions in energy use,
such as delivering higher energy efficiency (i e. more power with less battery consumption) over a wider spectrum of rotating speeds, decreasing resource dependency,
they are at the core of the electric generators used in all wind generators. The project coordinated by The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge, UK has 7 participants from 4 countries i
#New smart robots to improve inspection of nuclear plants Nuclear power accounts for one sixth of the European union (EU)' s energy consumption,
and there are power plants in 14 of the 27 member states. Safety is a priority and there are regular maintenance checks on every aspect of the plants.
impacting health, energy agriculture, production, transportation and tourism. In 2011, an EU-funded project began an in depth analysis of these challenges with an eye toward developing long-term solutions.
A new generation is becoming aware about issues such as energy and recycling. And as a country, we are trying to do as much as possible."
powered by a solar cell located on the flat top of the container. A fibre-optic grid monitors any deformations in the bag (signs of tearing
energy costs and the elimination of specialist production tooling. The SMD approach can also help reduce the cost of inventory by 90
but ew partners are always welcome These partnerships could see Light-Rolls being involved in a myriad of sectors including automotive and building lighting applications, flexible solar cells and batteries and even consumer products and games.
The company initiated its own R&d programme focused on biomass conversion. In particular using sugar and starch based products to replace the petrochemical feedstock generated from oil.
Sometimes they store energy. And they carry vital information by which cells ommunicate Human immune systems often recognise pathogens by the sugar structures on their surface.
The only effective way of ensuring a more environmentally friendly energy supply is by using renewable energy.
we will also be able to diversify our energy sources and reduce the dependence on gas, coal and oil."
'We also derive electricity from solar energy but who ever heard of getting cold from sun?
This machine cools a water-glycol mixture up to negative temperatures of about-10°C."By using heat instead of electricity,
Rural areas in the country where there are simply not enough energy resources available to run cooling equipment have also been affected by the high temperatures.
and tested by MEDISCO could really help the Mediterranean and indeed other areas with no conventional means of refrigeration due to a lack of water and nonexistent or unreliable energy sources y
"For instance, there is the problem of lithium batteries, which can catch fire easily if they are transported not properly,
and pre-engineering of large demonstration power plants in Europe using modern and clean oxy fuel CO2 capture technology in the near future.
"says Project Representative Göran Lindgren, Managing director of Carbon Capture and Storage R&d in Vattenfall AB, Sweden."
CFD model developers and users (Vattenfall Research and development AB, IVD Stuttgart, and the National Technical University of Athens);
a leading manufacturer of power boilers (Doosan Babcock Energy Limited; and a commercial code developer and manufacturer (Ansys UK Limited.
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy technology UMSICHT in Oberhausen have succeeded now in optimising the recycling of rubber waste materials.
and resource-efficient than producing new rubber products an important aspect in view of the rising costs of energy and raw materials.'
and requires greater amounts of energy in the production process. The upshot of this is that a lower proportion of plastic waste is recycled compared with other materials:
However, it should be pointed out that Europe also uses plastic waste as an energy source, and so, together, energy recovery and recycling use up more than half of the Union's plastic waste.
Going with the flow The variability in the quality of inputs also leads to major fluctuations in the viscosity,
and applies ultrasonic energy to the melt as and when required.""The ultrasonic technology is used to control the flow of the plastic through the production line
an ultra-strong alloy with deformation properties can be manufactured with improved energy efficiency, offering a huge industrial potential.
There are other areas where these ultra-strong steels could be used, like high temperature energy production, where they resist oxidation
which means less energy and carbon dioxide use than traditional technologies: the low casting thickness 8 to 15 mm compared to 200 to 250 mm for conventional continuous casting-means it is possible to save up to 75%during casting, heating and rolling.
#SMARTFIRE#Reducing energy consumption in steel mills SMARTFIRE Reducing energy consumption in steel mills The reheating process in steel mills prepares metal stock, such as steel plates for hot rolling by heating them to a target temperature.
However, reheating is an energy-intensive process where the costly energy consumption of furnaces is of increasing concern as it also impacts on the environment and indeed, the profitability of steel mills.
air-to-fuel ratio, furnace zone temperatures and energy distribution. Qualitative evaluations of the SMARTFIRE results have been carried out
The consortium has reported net energy savings of between 1 and 3, %scale reduction of some 4%as well as yield and quality improvement due to better temperature regulation.
According to Andrews, the benefits of SMARTFIRE can contribute to Europe's competitiveness due to associated energy savings, increased quality and productivity."
"Any fuel energy and cost savings will be accompanied by reductions in emissions such as carbon dioxide. These savings also increase profitability
Within 42 months thisambitious initiative intends to build a plantcapable of producing electricity heat coolingand desalinated water by using solar energyintegrated with other energy sources whichare available locally.
The last phase will be devoted toexperimental demonstration in the plantwhich is expected to produce each year morethan 3. 000 MWH of electricity and about8. 900 MWH of thermal energy.
The Concentrating Solar power (CSP) technologydue to be used in the plant has beendeveloped by ENEA the Italian national agencyfor new technologies energy and sustainableeconomic development.
and industrial residues. he thermal energy produced in this plantwill be the energy source in a desalinationunit as well as for the heating
and coolingof the surrounding areasays MATS Projectco-ordinator Fabrizio Fabrizi. he plant willproduce energy n demanddue to theintegration with a backup system containingvarious alternative fuels.
Energy; and Environment (includingclimate change. Established in 2010 and due to continue until2014 the project is focused on developing ahighly integrated multipurpose refinery.
They include biomass producers advancedbiomass pre-treatment specialists catalyticand enzymatic reactions developers and finalchemical and biochemical producers and endusers.
These will include a 30%improvement in costefficiencya 30%reduction in energy use andzero waste production.
Theproject will provide an efficient bridge betweenthe agriculture and chemical industries byintegrating the entire biomass chain in asingle concept adaptable for use in a rangeof locations.
#Promising technologies to reduce power plant emissions Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology has the potential to help the European union (EU) significantly cut its greenhouse gas emissions.
However, efficient and reliable pre-combustion capture technologies that can reduce carbon dioxide (CO2 EMISSIONS from fossil fuel power plants at low cost are still missing.
The research team behind the EU-funded project DECARBIT developed new pre-combustion technologies that could lead to significant CO2 reductions from fossil-fuelled power plants by 2020
Post-combustion CO2 capture technology typically uses chemicals that extract CO2 from the exhaust gases in power plant (flue gases.
hese post-combustion processes are very energy intensive, mainly due to the energy required for regenerating the chemicals used in the capture operation,
explains project coordinator Marie Bysveen, Executive vice-president of SINTEF Energy Research in Norway. ew pre-combustion technologies,
on the other hand, remove the carbon from fuel before combustion and produce hydrogen, which is much more energy efficient,
%The new solutions developed by the DECARBIT team could also see the use of CCS technologies in other energy-intensive industries.
The external component consists of the microphones, sound processor and batteries, while the implant has the electronics that send the stimulation pulses.
To meet this aim researchers are working on a battery that can be implanted safely in a human.
Luigi Chiesabio-mass processing is highly innovative resulting in the production of energy and oxygenated chemicals.
The new processing route uses European biomass as feedstock which will help to secure and increase the internal EU energy supply.
It will also enhance the competitiveness of European industry by providing business opportunities. Jobs will be created for the whole value chain from the initial biomass feedstock producers to the final end users.
The project will develop renewable energy sources and promote in particular the use of lignin a by-product of wood pulp production.
BIOCOUP will also help to make a significant contribution to the reduction of CO2 EMISSIONS in the transportation sector through the efficient utilisation of biomass material.
and food from existing industries and the processing of upgraded biomass-derived liquids in existing mineral oil refineries.
This will encourage the acceptance of biomass and further the technological development of biomass production routes.
using concentrated light as a high-temperature energy source. The project is still at the experimental stage,
and water to synthesis gas (syngas) in a high-temperature solar reactor containing metal-oxide based materials developed at ETH Zürich.
In the next phase of the project, the partners plan to optimise the solar reactor and assess
sustainable sources of energy will remain a priority under Horizon 2020, the seven-year EU research and innovation programme launched on Jan 1, 2014.
In the call Competitive Low-Carbon Energy published on December 11 last year, the Commission proposed investing#732 million over two years in this area.
Applications for this kind of materials mix can be found in diverse domains such as the pharmaceutical industry, the food and processing industry, energy production or systems biology.
These results enable the operation to be estimated for a particular reactor and allow access to details that could not have been gained through measurements alone.
A detailed analysis of results enables engineers to improve reactor design for higher energy efficiency. Such reactors not only improve operating conditions
but also allow for a more sustainable use of resources. These outstanding results were possible thanks to a partnership between Prof.
Strategic partners from the academic and industrial sectors, namely FLSMIDTH (Germany), the Lithuanian Energy Institute (Lithuania) and Paul Wurth (Luxembourg), also made significant contributions thanks to their expertise
The comment period on the proposed carbon standard for electric power plants closed Monday. In a letter coordinated by the nonprofit sustainability advocacy organization, Ceres, 223 companies including industry giants such as Ikea,
Many of the signatory companies have set their own renewable energy and energy efficiency goals. Ikea, for example, has set a goal to use 100 percent renewable energy for its global facilities by 2020
and recently announced the purchase of a 165-megawatt Texas wind farm that will boost the home furnishing company total wind production capacity to nearly 1, 000 gigawatts of electricity per year.
has helped its commercial real estate clients reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 12 million metric tons while saving them $2. 5 billion in energy costs over the past seven years.
and Coca-cola Enterprises signed a letter to support a#robust#2030 energy and climate policy for European union states a
with currently approximately three quarters of the city greenhouse gas output stemming from energy expended to heat,
including schools and public housing, with any significant energy use which amounts to approximately 3, 000 buildings.
and stimulate demand for jobs in the construction and energy services sectors. ne City: Built to Lasttherewith explicitly links building efficiency improvements to other key city goals of reducing social inequality
and accelerate the City efforts to implement energy efficiency and renewable energy across its own municipal building portfolio.
Nonetheless, a thriving, self-sustaining private sector market for energy efficiency upgrades and renewable energy generation will be essential if New york city is to achieve its goals.
Overall, New york city recently released ne City, Built to Lastten-year plan sets a new standard for major cities aiming to pursue energy efficiency.
and accelerate building energy efficiency projects. Although the plan doesn spell out yet how exactly New york city will push the private sector to act in case voluntary action doesn result in the intended uptake
with some groups wary of leaving too much of the plan to market forces, this effort is a clear example of the concerted and decisive action needed from cities as the world key consumers of energy.
and the internet of things and combine test beds projects and activities from different sectors including smart manufacturing healthcare smart energy intelligent transportation and disaster response.
Cities consume two-thirds of the world s energy according to the UN. To address the escalating demands of existing and future residents cities are looking for ways to introduce more technology to become smarter about the use of limited resources The Smart cities USA pilot project will give San jos residents real-time local data that can
Such measurement data will produce meaningful insights that will lead to improvements in air quality noise transportation efficiency environmental sustainability health and energy efficiency.
##The RRS device works by measuring changes in energy levels of electrons in molecules after the laser has excited them.
Because biochar can be produced from various waste biomass including agricultural residues this new technology provides an alternative
We realized that no one had kept ever proper track of the neuronal energy being used and all of the ions the charged atoms going into and out of brain cells.
Potassium and sodium contribute the ions that control electricity in the brain. Researchers added fundamental physics principles of conservation of energy charge
and mass to an older theory of this electricity. They kept track of the energy required to run a nerve cell and kept count of the ions passing into and out of the cells.
The brain needs a constant supply of oxygen to keep everything running because it has to keep pumping the ions back across cell membranes after each electrical spike.
The energy supply is linked directly to oxygen concentrations around the cell and the energy required to restore the ions to their proper places is much greater after seizures
or migraines We know that some people get both seizures and migraines says Schiff. Certainly the same brain cells produce these different events
One way that Staphylococcus aureus and other pathogens can become resistant to antibiotics is to change the way they generate energy
But providing electric power to implants without wires or batteries has been a big obstacle. Now engineers are developing a way to send power safely
and wirelessly to smart chips programmed to perform medical tasks and report back the results.
convert the incoming sound waves into electricity process and execute medical commands and report the completed activity via a tiny built-in radio antenna."
The implant chip is powered by piezoelectricity which is caused electricity by pressure. In a piezoelectric material pressure compresses its molecular structure much like a child jumping on a bed compresses the mattress.
When the pressure abates the piezoelectric material's molecular structure like the mattress springs back into shape.
Every time a piezoelectric structure is compressed and decompressed a small electrical charge is created. Researchers created pressure by aiming ultrasound waves at a tiny piece of piezoelectric material mounted on the device."
"The implant is like an electrical spring that compresses and decompresses a million times a second providing electrical charge to the chip"says Marcus Weber who worked on the team with fellow graduate students Jayant Charthad and Ting Chia Chang.
The piezoelectric effect is the power delivery mechanism. In the future the team plans to extend the capabilities of the implant chip to perform medical tasks such as running sensors
or delivering therapeutic jolts of electricity right where a patient feels pain. Finally the"smart chip"contains a radio antenna to beam back sensor readings or signal the completion of its therapeutic task.
The current prototype is the size of the head of a ballpoint pen. Researchers hope to design a next-generation implant one-tenth that size.
Mitochondria are structures within cells that produce energy and that contain their own DNA. any mitochondrial diseases affect more than one system in the human body,
professor of biology at Penn State and one of the study primary investigators. hey affect organs that require a lot of energy,
Mitochondria are the microscopic energy source for each cell in the body and ordinarilyâ##like a well-tuned car engineâ##they burn fuels including fats
Another advantage of the CARS-2 as well as subtests of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children selected for cognitive assessment is that the behavioral observations
and requires no electrical power. A companion smartphone application can automatically correlate the visual results to specific blood hemoglobin levels.
Because of its simplicity and ability to deliver results without electricity the device could also be used in resource-poor nations.
because this is a visual-based test that doesn't require an additional electrical device to analyze the results adds Lam who is senior author of a paper published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
which we look at the interaction between the dipoles associated with these molecules and the nanosensor at high frequencies,
The electric charge on the substance surface causes it to form a long string from the syringe,
she says. hese proteins could accomplish that same task enzymatically, without the need for reactors and formation of dangerous byproducts.
but current design is the first to include piezoelectric materials. These materials turn mechanical pressure into electric signals,
andriux-uk/Flickr) ecause hearing aids rely on batteries, minimizing power consumption is a critical consideration in moving hearing-aid device technology forward,
Hall says. This technology may be a boon for people who are hearing impaired in the future. Currently, only two percent of Americans wear hearing aids,
and integrated the piezoelectric materials. The use of piezoelectric materials allowed them to simultaneously measure the flexing and the rotation of the beam,
which in turn allowed them to replicate the fly hearing. Hall credits the pioneering work of Ronald Miles at Binghamton University and Ronald Hoy at Cornell University,
such as those that may be relevant to energy applications and the production of probiotics. The technique, says Ismagilov,
A thin, circular antenna spans the perimeter of the deviceoughly tracing a person irisnd harnesses enough energy from the surrounding field to power a small pressure sensor chip.
Because terahertz waves are much smaller in energy than visible light finding materials that absorb and turn them into useful electronic signals has been a challenge Kono says.
STARVING KILLS DAMAGED CELLS hen you starve, the system tries to save energy, and one of the things it can do to save energy is to recycle a lot of the immune cells that are needed not,
especially those that may be damaged, Longo says. hat we started noticing in both our human work
The magnetic fields in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) often disrupt either the function or safety of implanted electrical devices.
But it has the potential to eliminate bulky batteries and clumsy recharging systems and lead to a type of medicine where physicians treat disease
Near-field waves can be used safely in wireless power systems. Some current medical devices like hearing implants use near-field technology.
But it is possible to build tiny batteries into microimplants, and then recharge these batteries wirelessly using the midfield system.
This is not possible with today technologies. ith this method we can safely transmit power to tiny implants in organs like the heart or brain,
Rogers says. ut chip-scale devices, batteries, capacitors, and other components must be reformulated for these platforms.
The National security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellowship of Energy the Korean Foundation for International Cooperation of Science and Technology,
A National Energy technology Laboratory grant supported the research
#Silly Putty component helps build carpet for stem cells The sponginess of the environment where human embryonic stem cells are growing affects the type of specialized cells they eventually become, a new study shows.
by measuring changes in energy levels of electrons in molecules after the laser has excited them.
#dgy films are perfect catalysts for fuel cells Chemists have found an easy and inexpensive way to create flexible films from molybdenum disulfide a versatile chemical compound with edges that are highly efficient catalysts.
and as catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) a process used in fuel cells to pull hydrogen from water.
which store energy quickly as static charge and release it in a burst. Though they don t store as much energy as an electrochemical battery they have long lifespans
and are in wide use because they can deliver far more power than a battery. The researchers built supercapacitors with the films;
in tests they retained 90 percent of their capacity after 10000 charge-discharge cycles and 83 percent after 20000 cycles. e see anodization as a route to materials for multiple platforms in the next generation of alternative energy devicestour says. hese could be fuel cells supercapacitors and batteries.
And we ve demonstrated two of those three are possible with this new material. he research appears in the journal Advanced Materials
or electrical parts it uses no electricity and requires no batteries. That feature allows Tang to make devices that are smaller and cheaper than current sensors.
Now she plans to make her prototype smaller and extend the range of reactions it can record to open up new uses such as studying geothermal
and has been shown to cause cancer. ecause biochar can be produced from various waste biomass including agricultural residues this new technology provides an alternative and cost-effective way for arsenic removalsays Bin Gao associate professor of agricultural
Work at the Molecular Foundry received support from the Office of Science Office of Basic energy Sciences of the US Department of energy.
This result the researchers observe reflects enthalpic attraction#the adhesive energy generated by the higher temperatures and stimulating bonding between the particles.
#How energy loss can make lasers more intense Washington University in St louis rightoriginal Studyposted by Tony Fitzpatrick-WUSTL on October 20 2014energy loss in optical systems such as lasers is a chief hindrance
or light packets to achieve optical gain. his turns the conventional textbook understanding of lasers upside down. ut now scientists have demonstrated a more effective#yet counterintuitive#way to reap energy gains:
In other words they ve invented a way to win by losing. oo much of something can be really detrimentalsays Sahin Kaya Ozdemir a research scientist at Washington University in St louis. f you pump in more energy to get more laser intensity
and systems engineering. nstead of the standard method of adding more energy into the system we re offering a more energy-efficient method. ang says that
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