Other promising devices include very inexpensive solar cells for low-cost and low-carbon electricity generation and ultra-efficient building lighting which could substantially lower electricity consumption.
Yajun Gao and Professor Paul H. M. van Loosdrecht from the University of Cologne have made now substantial progress in this field in collaboration with researchers from Jilin University (China) and the University of Nottingham (UK).
so researchers around the world are racing to create novel approaches to"harvest"clean energy from the sun or transfer that energy to other sources.
This week in the journal Applied Physics Letters("Metamaterial electromagnetic energy harvester with near unity efficiency"),researchers from the University of Waterloo in Canada report a novel design for electromagnetic energy harvesting based on
"The growing demand for electrical energy around the globe is the main factor driving our research,
In our group, we're trying to help solve the energy crisis by improving the efficiency of electromagnetic energy-harvesting systems."
and harvesting electromagnetic energy, classical dipole patch antennas have been used.""Now, our technology introduces'metasurfaces'that are much better energy collectors than classical antennas,
The key significance of the researchers'work is that it demonstrates for the first time that it's possible to collect essentially all of the electromagnetic energy that falls onto a surface."
"Conventional antennas can channel electromagnetic energy to a load --but at much lower energy absorption efficiency levels,"said Ramahi."
It converts solar rays into microwaves--using conventional photovoltaic solar panels--and then beams the microwave's energy to microwave collector farms at designated locations On earth.
--whether it's wind, hydro, solar or electromagnetic energy.""Other key applications include"wireless power transfer--directly adaptable to power remote devices such as RFID devices and tags or even remote devices in general,"Ramahi noted.
#Graphene pushes the speed limit of light-to-electricity conversion (Nanowerk News) The efficient conversion of light into electricity plays a crucial role in many technologies,
ranging from cameras to solar cells. It also forms an essential step in data communication applications, since it allows for information carried by light to be converted into electrical information that can be processed in electrical circuits.
"The new device that the researchers developed is capable of converting light into electricity in less than 50 femtoseconds (a twentieth of a millionth of a millionth of a second.
ability to conduct electricity and heat and many interesting optical, magnetic and chemical properties. However, early studies of the behavior of electrons in graphene were hampered by defects in the material.
graphene flat sheet conducts electricity quickly, and the atomic structure in the nanotubes halts electric currents.
or stopping electricity, the resulting switching ratio is high. In other words, how fast the materials can turn on
At the present time, some 10 percent of the electricity in Germany is consumed by information and communication technologies, such as computers and smart phones of users,
or the development of silicon computing chips that process data communicated by photons of light instead of electricity.
"However the characteristics of metals that make them good at conducting electricity also lead to the undesirable heating effect,
They also conduct electricity well, so can also pass electronic information back to the equipment."
which can conduct electricity but their electrons absorb fewer passing photons.""While this extremely localised
and optimization of electronic and optoelectronic devices like solar panels and telecommunication lasers. black phosphorus To truly understand the significance of the team's findings,
All these properties combined make it a tremendous conductor of heat and electricity. A defect-free layer is also impermeable to all atoms and molecules.
was the first two-dimensional material to be touted for its potential energy storage capabilities. But, as it was made up of only one element, carbon,
"We see possible applications in thermoelectrics, batteries, catalysis, solar cells, electronic devices, structural composites and many other fields, enabling a new level of engineering on the atomic scale
#A new material for transparent electronics he performance of solar cells, flat panel displays, and other electronics are limited by today's materials.
The new perovskite film, with the formula Srxla1-xcro3,(x up to 0. 25), conducts electricity more effectively than the unmodified oxide and yet retains much of the transparency to visible light exhibited by the pure material.
and optically transparent are needed for more efficient solar cells, light detectors, and several kinds of electronic devices that are by nature transparent to visible light.
Of particular importance are new materials that conduct electricity by using missing electrons, otherwise known as"holes."
The development of high-performance transparent conducting oxides (TCOS) is critical to many technologies ranging from flat panel displays to solar cells.
which blocks electricity from flowing through all of its bulk but whose surface is, by contrast, a very good electrical conductor.
Superconductors conduct electricity with zero resistance, and hence they could potentially revolutionize electric motors, generators and utility grids.
#Quantum dot solar cell exhibits 30-fold concentration We've achieved a luminescent concentration ratio greater than 30 with an optical efficiency of 82-percent for blue photons,
The solar energy industry in the United states is soaring with the number of photovoltaic installations having grown from generating 1. 2 gigawatts of electricity in 2008 to generating 20-plus gigawatts today, according to the U s. Department of energy (DOE). Still,
nearly 70-percent of the electricity generated in this country continues to come from fossil fuels. Low-cost alternatives to todays photovoltaic solar panels are needed for the immense advantages of solar power to be realized fully.
One promising alternative has been luminescent solar concentrators (LSCS. Unlike conventional solar cells that directly absorb sunlight and convert it into electricity,
an LSC absorbs the light on a plate embedded with highly efficient light-emitters called lumophores that then re-emit the absorbed light at longer wavelengths, a process known as the Stokes shift.
This re-emitted light is directed to a micro-solar cell for conversion to electricity. Because the plate is much larger than the micro-solar cell,
the solar energy hitting the cell is concentrated highly. With a sufficient concentration factor, only small amounts of expensive III-V photovoltaic materials are needed to collect light from an inexpensive luminescent waveguide.
At the recent Clean energy Summit held in Las vegas President Obama and Energy secretary Ernest Moniz announced this partnership will receive a $3 million grant for the development of a micro-optical tandem LCS under MOSAIC,
and improves the conversion process of solar cells. It also opens up new avenues in: noninvasive 3d biomedical imaging photonic chips aerospace photonics micromachines laser tweezing the process of using lasers to trap tiny particles.
Exciting quantum dot applications are also emerging in the fields of green energy, optical sensing, and bio-imaging.
and electricity at a low cost from fuel found in water. Both heating generators and generators for electricity could be developed within a few years,
according to research that has primarily been conducted at the University of Gothenburg. Nuclear fusion is a process
Because of the low binding energy of the tiny atomic nuclei, energy can be released by combining two small nuclei with a heavier one.
No radiation The new fusion process can take place in relatively small laser-fired fusion reactors fuelled by heavy hydrogen (deuterium.
The dangerous handling of radioactive heavy hydrogen (tritium) which would most likely be needed for operating large-scale fusion reactors with a magnetic enclosure in the future is therefore unnecessary."
and can therefore produce electrical energy instantly. The energy in the neutrons which accumulate in large quantities in other types of nuclear fusion is difficult to handle
or stop and require reactor enclosures that are several metres thick. Muons-fast, heavy electrons-decay very quickly into ordinary electrons and similar particles.
Research shows that far smaller and simpler fusion reactors can be built. The next step is to create a generator that produces instant electrical energy y
#A new single-molecule tool to observe enzymes at work A team of scientists at the University of Washington
using high efficiency solar cells to power water electrolysis("A 24.4%solar to hydrogen energy conversion efficiency by combining concentrator photovoltaic modules and electrochemical cells").
which includes a photovoltaic cell using a high-quality semiconductor crystal similar to the ones for lasers
The solar-to-electricity conversion efficiency of this CPV module is as high as 31%.
but if operated in countries with high solar irradiance it would be possible to generate solar electricity at low cost owing to the high energy conversion efficiency.
"Electrical energy storage in batteries is essential not only for consumer products such as cell phones and computers,
and is known for its excellent conductive properties of heat and electricity. The graphene sheets stuck very well to the nanoglueo much
and potentially creates a sustainable energy source. In The Journal of Physical chemistry("Birnessite: A Layered Manganese Oxide To Capture Sunlight for Water-Splitting Catalysis"),Assistant professor of Chemical engineering Jose L. Mendoza-Cortes details how this new material efficiently captures sunlight and then,
silicon solar cells are stacked typically and thus hundreds of micrometers thick. If they were any thinner, light would simply pass through them.
But storing electric power for days when the air is still or when the sun goes down remains a challenge, largely due to cost.
For instance, at a certain frequency, the signal may be detectable first at a strength of 20 microamps of electricity.
This zero-index metamaterial offers a solution for the confinement of electromagnetic energy in different waveguide configurations
It was designed with all the latest equipments like GPS, video and audio, solar panels 3g facilities and foam arms to hug
The group came up with a method that uses solar panels to charge a bank of batteries.
Next, the signal from the sensor triggers a laser (or a blast of electricity or microwave energy) that heats up a section of air or water
But each GENESI node and sensor includes a miniature wind turbine that harvests energy from passing trains.
In some experiments, patients have been able to move prosthetic limbs just by thinking about it--a chip implanted in the brain translates the electricity in the brain motor cortex into instructions for the prosthetic to move.
which generate 80 percent of the country electricity. The World Resources Institute, a U s.-based think tank, estimates that China cumulative emissions since 1990 will reach 161 billion tons by 2016, exceeding projections for the U s. at 147 billion,
green way to generate electricity. Typically, that means installing large, expensive solar panels, which is not practical for those who cannot afford it
or who don have the space. But a new device called the Sunport lets you use solar energy, anywhere,
The colorful little widget monitors the amount of electricity that comes through it, then reports that use to your phone.
the energy grid consists of electricity from every available source: coal, hydro, nuclear, wind, what have you.
Of course, there no way to know exactly what generated your electricity, unless you ask specifically for solar with S-RECS. Sunport inventor Paul Droege stresses that this is a lifestyle choice, not a money-saver.
Using electricity, it will block pain receptors so it can draw blood painlessly. Using capillary action,
alongside hydro and wind, will help provide nearly half of Morocco electricity from renewables by 2020 with,
Rabat, and generate 580mw of electricity, enough to power a million homes. Noor 1 itself has a generating capacity of 160mw.
el-Haite said. think it is the most important solar plant in the world. ach parabolic mirror is 12 metres high
In fuel cells, electricity could be generated using hydrogen (and oxygen. Hydrogen which is used currently in the industry to manufacture many important chemicals could also be made available in a more sustainable fashion.
#Shortening Organic solar cell Production One of the building blocks of the solar panel, solar cells are responsible for converting solar energy into electricity.
Most commercial solar cells are made from the inorganic crystalline silicon. Now, the U s. Dept of energy (DOE) Oak ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has developed a method to save steps in the organic solar cell manufacturing process by introducing solvents into solar cell film production.
Usually, the thin filmssed by organic bulk heterojunction solar cellsre created by mixing conjugated polymers and fullerenes,
According to the DOE, organic photovoltaic solar cells have low efficiencies due to their small excition diffusion lengths
However, the information obtained from the neutron reflectometry will help scientists boost organic solar cell performance, according to ORNL. ptimization of photovoltaic properties provides information to manufacture solar cells with fully controlled morphology
and device performance, said Nuradhika Herath, the lead of the study. hese findings will aid in developing dealphotovoltaics,
the amount of electricity it needs to begin separating water into hydrogen and oxygen. The new catalyst is mixed as a solution
A faster means of changing the VO2 phase--perhaps using electricity instead of a laser--could make the system much faster still.
and to produce electricity. It has yet to be adopted widely in the transportation sector, however, because of the expensive and large onboard compressed fuel tanks.
"Csáthy's team used unique equipment and techniques to take electricity to a temperature of 0. 012 K,
Most commonly this might be done over a 24-hr period, with variable levels of solar-powered electricity available at any time of day
when the electricity is needed most. Alternatively, some energy could be used immediately and the rest stored for later use.
Storage of this type helps to solve one of the key factors limiting the wider use of solar energyy eliminating the need to use the electricity immediately.
Many alternative energy systems are constrained by this lack of dependability and consistent energy flow. Solar thermal electricity has been of considerable interest because of its potential to lower costs.
In contrast to conventional solar photovoltaic cells that produce electricity directly from sunlight, solar thermal generation of energy is developed as a large power plant in
which acres of mirrors precisely reflect sunlight onto a solar receiver. That energy has been used to heat a fluid that in turn drives a turbine to produce electricity.
Such technology is appealing because it safe long-lasting, friendly to the environment and produces no greenhouse gas emissions.
and an expert in novel applications and use of sustainable energy. n these types of systems, energy efficiency is closely related to use of the highest temperatures possible,
the transfer is based on heat, not electricity. The system hinges on the reversible decomposition of strontium carbonate into strontium oxide and carbon dioxide,
which would drive a turbine to produce electricity, and then residual heat could be used to make steam to drive yet another turbine.
The research, supported by DOE's Bioenergy Technologies Office, has implications for the energy efficiency and cost of catalytic upgrading technologies proposed for use in biorefineries.
#New tidal energy system could help POWER UK, say developers A British company, in conjunction with Oxford university researchers, believes it has devised a way to overcome this obstacle by creating a new type of horizontal axis turbine that can be used underwater at depths of up to 30 meters, at an economical cost.
Guy Houlsby, professor of civil engineering at Oxford university, says their design is an improvement on the vertical Darrieus wind turbine used in some turbine systems."
and generates electricity at an economical cost.""A one kilometer (0. 6 mile) long tidal energy fence, capable of creating 30 megawatts at peak performance,
has been proposed for installation in the Bristol Channel, a major inlet and river estuary between England and Wales.
or six hundred megawatts and just to visualize that that's like one small nuclear reactor's worth of electricity being generated from the tides in the Bristol Channel,
with each rotor having a 25 year design life and the columns and electricity connectors 100 years.
He says that THAWT's electrical output would be equal to that of a nuclear power station, without any of the risk,
and enables them to conduct electricity. This allowed the plastic sensor to mimic human skin,
which transmits pressure information as short pulses of electricity, similar to Morse code, to the brain.
allowing more electricity to flow through the sensor, and those varied impulses are sent as short pulses to the sensing mechanism.
a flexible electronic circuit that could carry pulses of electricity to nerve cells. Bao's team has been developing flexible electronics that can bend without breaking.
#New solar battery outperforms conventional lithium-iodine batteries By combining a solar cell and a battery into a single device,
which is harvested by a flat solar panel on top of the battery. Below, the researchers have installed a new type of electrolyte that replaces the lithium-cobalt oxide or lithium iron phosphate of regular battery electrolytes with water."
by making the solar panel a solid sheet rather than a mesh, because it no longer needs air flow to function,
"The solar cell is also super-efficient, known as a dye-sensitised solar cell. The team used a red dye called ruthenium to tune the wavelength of light it captures
they charged and discharged them 25 times to see how much electricity they would discharge each round.
while the solar panel made up the other 20 percent. The team now wants to work on increasing this percentage,
#New zealand will shut down its last large coal fired power generators in 2018 New zealand electricity company Genesis Energy has announced that it will shut down its last two coal fired power generators by December 2018-a bold step towards the country
the country will no longer be burning coal to generate electricity, and will stop pumping around 1,
*but the move is still a significant step towards a world where burning coal is no longer the cheapest and most reliable way to generate electricity."
"Historically, coal has played an important role in ensuring the security of New zealand electricity supply, particularly in dry years where our hydro-lake levels are said low
Over the past year and a half, New zealand has increased significantly the amount of electricity it produces from renewable energy,
with nearly 80 percent of its electricity coming from renewable sources in 2014 thanks to huge expansion in geothermal.
In comparison, the average OECD country only gets 22 percent of its electricity from renewables."
and for the first time in 40 years, geothermal electricity generation contributed more electricity than natural gas during 2014, "Bridges announced to the press."
"New zealand share of renewable electricity generation is already the fourth largest in the world and the shift from coal will help us to achieve our ambitious goal of having 90 percent of New zealand electricity supply generated by renewables by 2025."
"Obviously the country's significant geothermal activity and small population gives it a unique advantage
#Whoa, researchers have levitated liquid droplets on glowing plasma French researchers have found a new way to levitate liquid droplets by using a stream of electricity to create a tiny cushion of plasma.
But researchers from The french Alternative energies and Atomic energy commission have devised now a new method managing to float liquid droplets using plasma.
But after further research, they found that by using electricity to make the vapour cushion instead of heat,
and now a record-breaking solar device made by Australian scientists could mean a whole new category of clean energy production is just around the corner.
with hydrogen suitable for powering all kinds of technologies. ydrogen can be used to generate electricity directly in fuel cells,
Hydrogen could even be used as an inexpensive energy storage technology at the household level to store energy from rooftop solar cells.
as it would require us to create huge amounts of gravitational energy-something we don't yet know how to do.
and manipulating electromagnetic energy, and so the team from the Autonomous University of Barcelona decided to see
The researchers call their new method agnetic field human body communication The technique uses the body as a vehicle to deliver magnetic energy between wearable electronic gadgets.
whether sending magnetic energy through your body is a good idea, the researchers say you have nothing to worry about.
#This transparent lithium-ion battery charges itself with sunlight Researchers in Japan have invented a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that can charge itself using sunlight-no solar cell required.
and the team behind it hopes to see the technology integrated into a mart windowthat can act as both a large rechargeable battery and a photovoltaic cell all at once.
and the vaporisation part of the process doesn't require any electricity. This means the new method is both inexpensive and suitable for areas without a regular power supply-both factors that are very important for developing countries.
running them on light instead of electricity, and this new light-based computer chip brings us one step closer to that goal.
when they brake before feeding it back into the power mains as electricity.""In hybrid and electric cars, such recovery systems can help improve range,
Another benefit of the inverter system is that by collecting up the energy and turning it into electricity
In addition to Tu's malaria drug, Artemisinin, China has pioneered also development of solar and wind technology, and is working on trains that will reach 500 km h.
direct air capture works just like these new solar cells that split water into a hydrogen fuel-the CO2 recycling plant extracts CO2 from the air using a giant complex of fans,
A major limitation of solar and wind technologies, on the other hand, is that they require specific technologies to capture
where there are areas without electricity and the system could adapt well to preserve their foods
meaning the electricity going in was only slightly less than the heat coming out. Since the 1960's there have been incremental advancements in alloy technology used in Peltier devices.
it is becoming increasingly necessary to have more efficient systems for localized electrical power generation and effective cooling mechanisms.
which has traditionally been used for applications including transistors and solar cells. With the use of lithium ions as dopant, researchers found it offered significant electronic conductivity
organic polymers could potentially be synthesized from biomass.""Organic-conjugated polymers are emerging as a materials class for energy-related applications,
enabling a path to a more sustainable energy landscape without the need of energy-intensive, expensive and sometimes toxic metal-based compounds,
"This means we have demonstrated the most important step toward a hydrogen economy--producing distributed and affordable green hydrogen from local biomass resources,
and how it plays into the future of alternative energy production.""Joe Rollin, a former doctoral student of Zhang's at Virginia Tech and cofounder with Zhang of the start-up company Cell-free Bioinnovations, is the lead author on the paper.
the Virginia Tech team used dirty biomass--the husks and stalks of corn plants--to create their fuel.
or better than more expensive metal-based catalysts used in alkaline and acidic fuel cells and in dye-sensitized solar cells."
The new SEG can be applied to a wide-variety of wearable energy harvesters to transduce biomechanical-stretching energy from the body (or machines) to electrical energy.
When connected to an electrical power source, and wrapped over a multilayer polymer composite, the heated film stimulates the polymer to solidify.
or cross-link, the polymer and carbon fiber layers, finding that the CNT film used one-hundredth the electricity required for traditional oven-based methods to cure the composite.
#Graphene pushes the speed limit of light-to-electricity conversion ICFO researchers Klaas-Jan Tielrooij, Lukasz Piatkowski,
The new device that the researchers developed is capable of converting light into electricity in less than 50 femtoseconds (a twentieth of a millionth of a millionth of a second.
and combined with water for the synthesis of molecular products that form biomass, "says Chris Chang, an expert in catalysts for carbon-neutral energy conversions."
We observed that the residual water in the container was pumped to reactor tank, where it received a dosing of the dissociating elements in predetermined amounts.
and a sludge settles at the bottom of the reactor. The latter is removed and examined to determine
#Efficient method of producing metallic nanoparticles VTT's aerosol technology reactor for nanoparticle production can generate a variety of pure metal particles, particles of various alloys and carbon-coated particles.
The reactor can efficiently produce hundreds of grammes or even kilogrammes of nanoparticles per day."
When developing the reactor, the aim was to achieve a production figure of 200-3, 000 grammes per day.
In the design of the reactor developed by VTT, the scalability and cost-effectiveness of the synthesis process were key criteria.
VTT has demonstrated the practical functionality of its reactor by testing the production of various nanometals, metallic compounds and carbon-coated materials.
in the production of biofuels--have been produced in the reactor. Following synthesis, magnets used as catalysts can be gathered efficiently in
Nanoparticles have also been tested in the manufacture of magnetic inks and inks that conduct electricity in printed electronics.
VTT's researchers believe that the reactor has many applications in addition to those already mentioned. The silicon nanoparticles it produces may even enable lithium battery capacity to be boosted by a factor of 10.
and help to improve processes such as preparation of inorganic ceramics and thin-film solar cells. The experiments were performed with the help of Yu-chen Karen Chen-Wiegart, Feng Wang, Jun Wang and their co-workers at Beamline X8c
the naturally occurring minerals with unique magnetic properties that are used in electric vehicle (EV) motors, and wind generators.
#Electrical power converter allows grid to easily accept power from renewable energy Doctoral student Joseph Carr developed the system with his adviser, Juan Balda, University Professor and head of the department of electrical engineering.
it produces stable electricity ready to be supplied to the electrical grid system. Carr received his doctorate from the university in 2011.
His main research interests are power electronics, electric power distribution systems, motor drives and electric power quality.
As associate director of the National Center for Reliable Electric power Transmission, a 7, 000-square-foot, $5-million power electronic test facility at the University of Arkansas
Balda is at the center of a critical corps of U of A researchers investigating solid-state solutions for the nation's electric power grid d
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