#A Promising Step Toward Round-the-clock Solar power If solar power is to become a primary source of electricity around the world,
and solar power in recent years is launching more than 20 demonstration projects that involve storing energy by splitting water into hydrogen gas and oxygen.
whether electrolysis as the technology is known could address one of the biggest looming challenges for renewable energy its intermittency.
The electrolyzer projects under construction in Germany typically consist of a few buildings each the size of a shipping container that consume excess renewable energy on sunny and windy days by turning it into an electric current that powers the water-splitting reaction.
and the large-scale use of renewable energy is creating new needs for storage making electrolysis a practical option in a growing number of places.
because excess wind and solar power creates a glut of power on the grid. Because power needs to be used as soon as it s generated to keep the grid stable prices are dropped sometimes to zero
But it can compete with storage options such as batteries says Kevin Harrison a senior engineer at the National Renewable energy Laboratory in Golden Colorado.
but also stacks several different combinations resulting in a solar panel that can capture more energy from sunlight. Semprius has demonstrated cells made of three semiconductor materials stacked on top of a fourth solar cell that would not have been compatible otherwise.
Sarah Kurtz a principal scientist at the National Renewable energy Laboratory says costs won t come down until production happens at a large scale.
With economies of scale however such cells could improve the economics of solar power. At a scale of 80 to 100 megawatts a year of manufacturing capacity a cell with 50 percent efficiency would make it possible to reach costs of less than five cents per kilowatt-hour Burroughs says.
#Adaptive Material Could Cut the Cost of Solar in Half A material with optical properties that change to help it capture more incoming sunlight could cut the cost of solar power in half, according to Glint Photonics,
a startup recently funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E). Glint adaptive material greatly reduces the cost of a tracking system used in some types of solar power.
and reducing the need to keep the apparatus pointed directly at the sun. Glint CEO Peter Kozodoy says solar power from its devices could cost four cents per kilowatt-hour,
Likewise on wind turbines, where ice can cause them to stall and stop generating electricity. Ice can take whole wind farms offline
If it can be commercialized it would double the amount of power a solar cell can generate offering a way to make solar power far more economical.
a strategy he claims will make solar power ay cheaperthan power from fossil fuels. Solar City is one of the country largest and fastest-growing solar installers,
and Sunpower makes ones that are significantly more so (see ecord-Breaking Solar cell Points the Way the Cheaper Solar power.
because theye increasingly concerned about the intermittency of solar power and the stress this can put on the power grid.
and are important for the generators found in wind turbines and many electric car motors. While Infinium approach can be used to produce other metals,
The methods developed to create the designer genomic structure could help synthetic biologists better use the single-celled fungi as biological factories for chemicals like biofuels and drugs.
creating living factories for medicines, biofuels, and more (see icrobes Can Mass-produce Malaria Drugand iofuel Plant Opens in Brazil.
That fountain of variability could be key to finding ways to push our fermenting friends to more efficiently create biofuels and other chemicals f
Others, like China, also bleed companies of intellectual secrets about jet fighters and wind turbines. So pervasive and successful has digital espionage become that in 2012, Keith Alexander,
#These revolutionary bladeless wind turbines shake to generate electricity WASHINGTON: These bladeless wind turbines can revolutionize the way wind energy is produced.
A startup out of Spain called Vortex Bladeless, whose turbines look like stalks of asparagus poking out of the ground,
Vortex claims that energy produced by its turbines will cost around 40 percent less than energy made from today's wind turbines
These bladeless wind turbines can revolutionize the way wind energy is produced. A startup out of Spain called Vortex Bladeless,
Vortex claims that energy produced by its turbines will cost around 40 percent less than energy made from today's wind turbines
The balloon collects solar energy and transports it to the ground via a cable, while the batteries store surplus energy and take over the power supply at night,
The electrolyser uses nine litres of water plus the solar energy collected, coupled with the batteries inside the housing, to produce the gas needed to inflate Zephyr in half a day.
The balloon collects solar energy and transports it to the ground via a cable, while the batteries store surplus energy and take over the power supply at night,
The electrolyser uses nine litres of water plus the solar energy collected, coupled with the batteries inside the housing, to produce the gas needed to inflate Zephyr in half a day.
#Design Lab Workshop merges 3d printing with solar energy for glowing architecture As more architects look into ways of using additive manufacturing as a way of constructing their buildings,
new smart technologies (light sensors and photovoltaics) and are powered by renewable energy sources (solar energy). Constructed out of 94 digitally designed
If a portion of the day provides less solar power due to cloud cover, the result would be reflected in the glow duration later that night.
We may be able to design materials that mimic nature's machinery to harvest solar energy, or manipulate light for telecommunications applications,
"Mitra's distillation process runs on energy-efficient fuels such as waste heat, an industrial by-product, and solar energy.
which find application in cancer treatment, pollution reduction, renewable energy collection. Scientists from Harvard, Boston, and Princeton universities have played also a role in the development of this innovative technique, called D Structure Identification of Nanoparticles by Graphene Liquid Cell EM (SINGLE),
which you can temporarily store your solar energy. In short, for a solar fuels future we cannot ignore gallium phosphide any longer. y
Jeffrey Gordon of the Alexandre Yersin Department of Solar energy and Environmental Physics at the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research and Prof.
#Sweet source for aviation biofuel Researchers have identified a new way to produce aviation fuel from sugarcane biomass that could deliver substantial cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
Biofuel sweetspot"We've identified a new route of chemistry with its source from sugars in sugarcane plus some of the so-called waste material called bagasse"
The development of a reliable biofuel that can be scaled up to a level that be used by the world's commercial airlines has proved somewhat elusive.
The search for aviation biofuels broke on to the public stage in the late 2000s
when there were a number of test flights using a blend of conventional fuel and biofuel. In February 2008, the first commercial flight partly powered by biofuel (derived from a mixture of babassu nuts
and coconuts) took off from London's Heathrow airport. After a lengthy review by aircraft makers, engine manufacturers and fuel producers, biofuels were approved for commercial use in 2011.
Prof Bell said the team were hopeful that their findings would ultimately be adopted by commercial fuel producers."
"Food v fuel In recent years, political support for biofuels has waned as concern grew that global demand for biofuels would result in a switch away from food production to biofuel production, exacerbating food security worries.
"Prof Bell said that the process to make the aviation biofuel outlined in his team's paper would use waste biomass to generate the energy required operate the refinery,
"The technology could also be applied to other products made of carbon composite materials-including bicycle frames and wind turbines,
"Composite materials are used increasingly in modern airlines, military aircraft and wind turbines. They are very stiff and strong but very light."
who studies phyto-engineering for biofuel synthesis. e hope to help democratize the field of synthetic biology for students and researchers all over the world with this model,
#Biodiesel production from Sugarcane A multi-institutional team led by plant biology professor Stephen P. Long from the University of Illinois reports that it can increase sugarcane's geographic range boost its photosynthetic rate by 30 percent
and turn it into an oil-producing crop for biodiesel production. These are the first steps in a bigger initiative that will turn sugarcane
#Flight Flies on 100 Percent Biofuels This week saw the first-ever completely biofuel-powered flight take place.
drop in biofuel on its Falcon 20 jet, according to oilprice. com, marking a huge milestone for the aviation and renewable energy industries.
Previously, flights on biofuels had been limited to a 50 percent blend with petroleum making this a major breakthrough.
Production and use of advanced biofuel could displace at least 15 billion gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel the equivalent of 475 million barrels of oil each year by 2022, reducing oil imports by $70 billion
Last week, the U s. Navy signed an agreement with biotech company Biodico to collaborate on developing advanced biofuels and bioenergy refineries throughout the globe for the U s. military.
California that will produce biofuels and bioenergy at prices competitive with unsubsidized conventional fuel and power.
Progress in biofuel-powered flights and the Navy continued pursuit of alternative energy are great steps to help the United states build a biobased economy
A domestic biofuel industry means we grow fuels at home instead of importing them from abroad o
#What Will It Take for the U s. to Maintain Leadership in the Biopharma Industry? The biopharmaceutical industry is an important contributor to U s. economic growth and sustainability,
#India's Largest Bank Commits $12. 5 Billion For Renewable energy Funding Private sector project developers in India rapidly growing renewable energy would be happy to have the backing of the country largest bank
The State bank of india (SBI) has committed to provide $12. 5 billion in debt funding to renewable energy projects over the next few years.
The announcement was made at the RE-INVEST summit organised by the Ministry of New and Renewable energy.
The bank hopes to provide debt financing to 15 GW of renewable energy projects most of which are likely to be based on wind and solar energy.
Financing has been a major issue for the renewable energy sector in India. Increased competition in auctions for solar power projects has cut the tariffs by nearly 70%since 2010.
Indian banks are known to question the financial viability of projects secured at seemingly low tariffs. Solar power projects have received especially unfavourable response from the Indian banks as solar photovoltaic power tariffs have been falling
while wind energy tariffs have risen slowly but steadily over the last few years. The lending rates in India are also significantly higher than other countries.
SBI and other national banks usually provide debt at interest rates as high as 11%to 12%.
%Compared to this, development banks like Kfw and US Export-Import Bank and multilateral banks like Asian Development bank and the International finance corporation provide funding at rates as low as 4%.Over the last few years some private banks in India have signed deals with development banks to provide loans
The Indian Renewable energy Development Agency (IREDA) is expected also to provide loans at low rates following its recent agreements with the European Investment bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency,
The renewable energy sector in India has faced collateral damage for years due to the poor financial health of the power sector as a whole.
Unfortunately, renewable energy is considered a sub-sector to the power sector for lending purposes in the Indian banking regime.
As a result, the Indian banks are unable to disburse any fresh funds to renewable energy projects.
This announcement by the country largest bank and the recent funding agreement worth $4 billion with the US is expected to boost the growth of the Indian renewable energy sector r
and noted wind energy fan Warren Buffett reportedly just ditched his interest in Exxonmobil to the tune of 41 million shares,
Wee guessing that Suncor wind energy and biofuel operations attracted some of the interest, but the company is also a longtime oil sands developer in Canada, sobaby steps r
The joint project at Las Positas College will add renewable energy sources, reduce peak power, and allow the district to be more energy independent.
The auction will be a part of the National Solar Mission, India#s landmark policy initiative to boost solar power capacity.
President Obama announced up to $4 billion in low-cost debt financing for Indian renewable energy projects that use US-made equipment.
and share rewards in the renewable energy boom. n investor or financial group would purchase a 1/3 ownership interest in an early stage ISS solar farm project for as little as $250,
On the upside, all that agricultural waste creates a solid biofuels pipeline. Forget the food-versus-fuel debate:
Biofuels, clean energy, renewable energy, biofuels, biogas, cow manure, waste diversion, Pixley, Calgren, Regensis, Tulare County, DVO, California Energy Commission, dairy industry, San joaquin valley
will churn cow manure into bioethanol which can then be blended with conventional gasoline. The core of Calgren plant is an anaerobic digester built by DVO,
biogas will also be produced in order to power the facility, nixing any need to be connected to the local grid.
Furthermore, Steve Dvorak, President of DVO, reminded the audience that one cow alone creates about 100 to 130 cubic feet of biogas a day,
#India Plans Association Of Top 50 Solar power Nations Soon after taking oath as India#s 15th Prime minister, Narendra Modi made his renewable energy policy very clear.
His government set an ambitious target to add 100 GW renewable energy capacity by 2022. That is 3 times the current renewable energy installed capacity.
To achieve this target the government organised an investor summit called RE-INVEST. Modi has organised successfully such summits
At this summit the Indian government announced that it will form an association of 50 countries rich in solar energy resource.
India aims to encourage research and development to further reduce costs related to solar power generation. The real motive behind such an association of nations could be entirely different though.
the government plans to quantify the emission reduction achieved through renewable energy projects and present it as a just contribution towards fighting climate change.
and adaptable wind energy ecosystemintended to boost a wind farm energy production by 20%.%According to GE, the Digital Wind farm makes use of the industrial internet o address a longstanding need for greater flexbility in renewable power. very business including our own at GE
That what will separate industry leaders from those left behind. he Digital Wind farm is based around GE new generation of Brilliant wind turbines
the Solar energy Industries Association (SEIA) said it will provide a big boost to the US economy,
Solar energy Industries Association (SEIA) CEO and President Rhone Resch pointed out in a recent statement, he solar Investment Tax credit (ITC) is paying huge dividends for America.
By 2016, we will be generating enough clean solar energy nationwide to power 8 million homes offsetting 45 million metric tons of damaging carbon emissions the equivalent of removing 10 million cars off our roads
32%of all new electric generating capacity came from solar energy in 2014. SEIA CEO Rhone Resch noted, oday, solar is the fastest-growing source of renewable energy in America.
He continued, ongressman Thompson legislation will help to level the playing field with established energy sources, promote competition in the marketplace
#Weirdest Biofuel Ever Powers Strangest Car Ever The folks at Columbia University have come up with a loating enginethat runs on evaporating water
Wee covered microbe-assisted biofuel plenty of times, but this spore business hadn crossed our radar before.
Weirdest Biofuel Ever, For anything Columbia press materials sum up the strange new car in one pithy sentence:
or from huge rotating machines akin to wind turbines that sit above water The team is already predicting that a scaled-up version,
More & Better Biofuel Just the other day, we were talking about what a big week this has been for biofuel news,
and that was before we even got wind of the Columbia spore-enabled engine. On Monday, BMW teased out word of its plans for a fuel cell electric vehicle launch in 2020.
Wee thinking that could have something to do with the biofuel landfill gas, to be precise source for hydrogen that the company has been messing around with (visit our sister site Gas2. org for more coverage).
The company Joule updated us on new patents for its cyanobacteria-to-biofuel process powered by sunlight and carbon dioxide, researchers at Tohoku University hit upon a new method for converting algae to biofuel precursors,
The biowave project is supported partly by the Australian Renewable energy Agency (ARENA) and the government of Victoria.
which absorb solar energy in the form of heat and light, since the surface is highly efficient at absorbing, rather than reflecting, both.
The world largest private bank, UBS, is also urging investors to join the clean, renewable energy movement.
00:15 GMT, 19 may 2015 Today wind turbines have colossal blades that spin at speeds of more than 200mph (320 km h).
Without the need for blades, the design could reduce manufacturing costs by 53 per cent compared to conventional multi-blade wind turbines, according to the company.
This is 30 per cent less than normal wind turbines. ver the last four years, we developed a technology, from an idea to a proof of concept in the wind tunnel,
and from the wind tunnel tests to multiple wind field tests, Suriol told Renewable energy Magazine. urrently we have a Vortex with all the technical milestones developed:
Solar energy provides the electricity to power the microwaves, which means that no propellant is needed. The implications for this could be huge.
and the opportunities to invest in low-carbon and renewable energy. Investors will need also to set targets to measure progress
When most people think of solar power, theye usually thinking of warmer climates with lots of sun . Despite all the huge advances solar has made in recent years,
#New material combines photons for big solar energy gains An innovative new approach to solar energy from University of California Riverside could dramatically increase the amount of light available to contemporary solar panel designs.
the efficiency of solar power could be improved greatly, for an affordable price. Infrared light currently passes straight through most silicon solar cell technologies
The overall costs of solar power lie much more in installation, maintenance, and land use costs than in the panels themselves;
but could still improve the affordability of solar power. Infrared radiation accounts for an enormous amount of the energy in direct sunlight,
In general, this sort of research into the manipulation of light could allow a wider rollout of solar power around the world.
but none is so direct as solar power. Energy will be one of the defining issues of the next few decades,
Wind turbines, especially offshore, could also benefit: the advantages of self healing materials far out to sea is clear. asically, any industry
and calculate the best sailing route based on available wind energy. Terje Lade manager of Lade AS told Foxnews. com that the Vindskip concept is being tested using wind tunnels and computational fluid dynamics.
#New energy cell can store up solar energy for release at night A photoelectrochemical cell (PEC) is a special type of solar cell that gathers the Sun's energy
"We have demonstrated simultaneously reversible storage of both solar energy and electrons in the cell,"says lead author of the paper Dong Liu."
"Release of the stored electrons under dark conditions continues solar energy storage, thus allowing for continuous storage around the clock."
renewable energy supply and storing energy for later use. Electricity is imported also from the grid when required and exported to the grid
which solar energy still depends. In addition, Asian rivals have made inroads into SMA's markets, putting pressure on equipment prices and profit margins.
Researchers Tout Solar panels Made With erovskitemineral A new generation of solar panels made from a mineral called perovskite has the potential to convert solar energy into household electricity more cheaply than ever before, according to a study from Britain Exeter University.
California needs more energy storage to match the duck curve Experiencing this net load years ahead of the CAISO forecast has placed not the California grid in crisis. The state's grid has sufficient flexibility today to accommodate the rapid rise of solar power,
Governor Jerry brown used his 2015 inauguration speech to call for a 50 percent renewable energy future in California.
Beyond air quality and climate change mitigation benefits, California abundant renewable energy resources provide energy with zero marginal cost and zero fuel price volatility to our citizens,
The CPUC can pull out the playbook that bestowed California with an abundance of solar energy and use it again with energy storage.
As solar energy production drops off, CAISO forecasts a 14,000-megawatt resource ramp in 2020 on that date.
we need to absorb gigawatt-hours'worth of midday solar energy for reuse later in the day or the week.
In the last week, the U k. Renewable energy Association has launched a new trade body dedicated to commercializing energy storage.
said Frank Gordon of the newly launched energy storage section of the U k. Renewable energy Association.""The U k. is home to one of the only electric vehicle battery plants in the world, the Nissan plant in Tyneside.
However, the Aloha state managed to rank seventh in the United states in terms of cumulative solar energy installations, according to the first quarter report by the Solar energy Industries Association and GTM Research.
Hawaii, which ranked ninth overall in the first quarter of 2014, dropped two spots to 11th in the first quarter of this year.
said Biden. ur energy future is in cleaner, cheaper renewable energy. A new organization, PRIME Coalition, is committed to helping foundations manage the complex pipeline process of vetting candidates and helping to lower transaction costs for foundations,
most current forecasting techniques rely on individual weather models that offer a more narrow view of the variables that affect the availability of renewable energy.
IBM approach provides a general platform for renewable energy forecasting, including wind and hydro. It advances the state-of-the-art by using deep machine learning techniques to blend domain data,
That can increase the use of renewable energy sources as a more accepted energy generation option, said Dr. Bri-Mathias Hodge,
who oversees the Transmission and Grid Integration Group at the National Renewable energy Laboratory (NREL), a collaborator in the project.
exceeded only by natural gas 1. A USA Sunshot Vision Study suggests that solar power could provide as much as 14%of U s. electricity demand by 2030 and 27%by 2050 2. Currently,
there are two main customers for renewable energy forecasting technologies: utility companies and independent system operators (ISOS.
With solar power installations rapidly growing, future solar penetration levels will soon require increased attention to the value of more accurate solar forecasting.
The U s. Department of energy Sunshot Initiative is a collaborative national effort that aggressively drives innovation to make solar energy fully cost-competitive with traditional energy sources before the end of the decade.
in agriculture, more effective harvesting of solar energy and its conversion into heat via greenhouses could enable year-round production as well as access to crops not currently available in certain climates.
#Wind turbines Without Blades It no longer surprising to encounter 100-foot pinwheels spinning in the breeze as you drive down the highway.
A Spanish company called Vortex Bladeless is proposing a radical new way to generate wind energy that will once again upend
#Chemists devise technology that could transform solar energy storage The materials in most of today's residential rooftop solar panels can store energy from the sun for only a few microseconds at a time.
A new technology developed by chemists at UCLA is capable of storing solar energy for up to several weeks-an advance that could change the way scientists think about designing solar cells.
The new design is inspired by the way that plants generate energy through photosynthesis. iology does a very good job of creating energy from sunlight
To capture energy from sunlight, conventional rooftop solar cells use silicon, a fairly expensive material. There is currently a big push to make lower-cost solar cells using plastics
though, the UCLA research has proven that inexpensive photovoltaic materials can be organized in a way that greatly improves their ability to retain energy from sunlight
#Chemists devise technology that could transform solar energy storage The materials in most of today's residential rooftop solar panels can store energy from the sun for only a few microseconds at a time.
A new technology developed by chemists at UCLA is capable of storing solar energy for up to several weeks-an advance that could change the way scientists think about designing solar cells.
The new design is inspired by the way that plants generate energy through photosynthesis. iology does a very good job of creating energy from sunlight
To capture energy from sunlight, conventional rooftop solar cells use silicon, a fairly expensive material. There is currently a big push to make lower-cost solar cells using plastics
though, the UCLA research has proven that inexpensive photovoltaic materials can be organized in a way that greatly improves their ability to retain energy from sunlight
and storing solar energy into hydrogen. Storing solar energy as hydrogen is a promising way for developing comprehensive renewable energy systems.
To accomplish this, traditional solar panels can be used to generate an electrical current that splits water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen,
However, harvesting usable amounts of solar energy requires large areas of solar panels, and it is notoriously difficult and expensive to fabricate thin films of 2-D materials at such a scale
called ungsten diselenide Past studies have shown that this material has a great efficiency for converting solar energy directly into hydrogen fuel
Solar energy could be made cheaper if less land had to be purchased to accommodate solar panels, best achieved if each solar cell could be coaxed to generate more power.
Riverside that has found an ingenious way to make solar energy conversion more efficient. The researchers report in Nano Letters that by combining inorganic semiconductor nanocrystals with organic molecules, they have succeeded in pconvertingphotons in the visible and near-infrared regions of the solar spectrum. he infrared region of the solar
the organics get light out. esides solar energy, the ability to upconvert two low energy photons into one high energy photon has potential applications in biological imaging, data storage and organic light-emitting diodes.
Bardeen emphasized that the research could have wide-ranging implications. he ability to move light energy from one wavelength to another, more useful region, for example,
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