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When it comes to fuel, going green isn't just a trend, but a necessity for curbing a dependence on the limited (and dirty) resource of oil. Hydrogen fuel is a great alternative, but creating it is a complex and expensive process. However, a team of scientists at the University of Colorado-Boulder, have developed an easier and more cost-efficient way of getting hydrogen.
The CU-Boulder research team created a new system that uses sunlight, mirrors, and a tower that measures a few hundred feet tall. The mirrors, which sit at the top of the tower, collect the sunlight, which is converted into heat inside the tower. The heat (approximately 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit) gets transferred to a reactor that contains metal oxides (iron, cobalt, aluminum, and oxygen). As those metal oxides get warmer, oxygen atoms are released. When steam is added to the system, the metal oxides suck up all the oxygen, leaving hydrogen behind. That hydrogen can then be collected as a gas and stored.
JA Solar has reported that it has achieved a record 18.3% efficiency for a standard 156×156 mm2 multicrystalline solar cell. This was verified by Yangzhou Opto-Electrical Products Testing Institute. This is twice as efficient as my solar panel
Solar cell and solar panel efficiency isn’t as big an issue as some have made it out to be. However, efficiency improvements open new windows of opportunity, such as the ability to extend the battery life of portable electronics such as cellphones, tablet PCs, and laptops.
There is also the issue of cars and planes. Highly efficient solar panels could make solar-powered planes and solar-powered long-range electric cars much more feasible.
At the recent Google “Solve for X” conference on February 7, Lockheed Martin's long-term R&D department (“Skunk Works”announced they are working on a compact fusion reactor. With what seems a 4th generation prototype called "T4", the aerospace giant says to have developed a high beta configuration, which allows a compact reactor design and faster development timeline.
Public reactions describe the announcement of their activities on nuclear fusion remarkable, because Lockheed Martin doesn't usually make public announcements about Skunkwork projects unless they have a high degree of confidence in their chances of success. The developement timeline indicates plans to have a prototype 100-megawatt nuclear fusion machine of Lockheed Martin tested in 2017, and that a fully operational machine should be grid-ready ten years from now.
Organic solar cells, a new class of solar cell that mimics the natural process of plant photosynthesis, could revolutionise renewable energy -- but currently lack the efficiency to compete with the more costly commercial silicon cells. At the moment, organic solar cells can achieve as much as 12 per cent efficiency in turning light into electricity, compared with 20 to 25 per cent for silicon-based cells.
Now, researchers have discovered that manipulating the 'spin' of electrons in these solar cells dramatically improves their performance, providing a vital breakthrough in the pursuit of cheap, high performing solar power technologies.
Solar power is much more expensive than fossil fuels, especially when you factor in its intermittency.
A new type of solar cell, made from a material that is dramatically cheaper to obtain and use than silicon, could generate as much power as today’s commodity solar cells.
Although the potential of the material is just starting to be understood, it has caught the attention of the world’s leading solar researchers, and several companies are already working to commercialize it.
Researchers developing the technology say that it could lead to solar panels that cost just 10 to 20 cents per watt. Solar panels now typically cost about 75 cents a watt, and the U.S. Department of Energy says 50 cents per watt will allow solar power to compete with fossil fuel.
In the past, solar researchers have been divided into two camps in their pursuit of cheaper solar power. Some have sought solar cells that can be made very cheaply but that have the downside of being relatively inefficient. Lately, more researchers have focused on developing very high efficiency cells, even if they require more expensive manufacturing techniques.
The new material may make it possible to get the best of both worlds—solar cells that are highly efficient but also cheap to make.
A Material That Could Make Solar Power “Dirt Cheap”
Researchers discover that a material known for a hundred years could lower the cost of solar power.
By Kevin Bullis on August 8, 2013
Why It Matters
Solar power is much more expensive than fossil fuels, especially when you factor in its intermittency.
A new type of solar cell, made from a material that is dramatically cheaper to obtain and use than silicon, could generate as much power as today’s commodity solar cells.
Although the potential of the material is just starting to be understood, it has caught the attention of the world’s leading solar researchers, and several companies are already working to commercialize it.
Researchers developing the technology say that it could lead to solar panels that cost just 10 to 20 cents per watt. Solar panels now typically cost about 75 cents a watt, and the U.S. Department of Energy says 50 cents per watt will allow solar power to compete with fossil fuel.
In the past, solar researchers have been divided into two camps in their pursuit of cheaper solar power. Some have sought solar cells that can be made very cheaply but that have the downside of being relatively inefficient. Lately, more researchers have focused on developing very high efficiency cells, even if they require more expensive manufacturing techniques.
The new material may make it possible to get the best of both worlds—solar cells that are highly efficient but also cheap to make.
A Material That Could Make Solar Power ?Dirt Cheap? | MIT Technology Review
(Phys.org) —In the world of organic solar cells, polymer-based devices may currently be at the top, but other organic materials such as "small molecules" also prove to be promising. Although small-molecule organic solar cells currently have lower efficiencies than polymer solar cells, they are generally easier to fabricate and their efficiencies are improving.
In a new study, researchers have shown that they can increase the efficiency of one type of small-molecule organic solar cell from 6.02% to 8.94% simply by tuning the thickness of the active layer and inserting an optical spacer between the active layer and an electrode. The efficiency improvement demonstrates that small-molecule solar cells have the potential to compete with their polymer counterparts, which have efficiencies approaching 10%.
The researchers, led by Alan J. Heeger at the University of California at Santa Barbara, have published their paper on the efficiency improvement in small-molecule solar cells in a recent issue of Nano Letters.
Self-healing solar cells — possessing “vascular” networks similar to those in plant leaves — have now been created by researchers from North Carolina State University. The new solar cells are able to effectively and inexpensively restore themselves to optimal functioning thanks to their possession of a “network of channels” which mimics the organic vascular systems found in most plants.
North Carolina State University explains:
In their new paper, the researchers show that creating solar cell devices with channels that mimic organic vascular systems can effectively reinvigorate solar cells whose performance deteriorates due to degradation by the sun’s ultraviolet rays. Solar cells that are based on organic systems hold the potential to be less expensive and more environmentally friendly than silicon-based solar cells, the current industry standard.
What a difference 34 years can make. When the Carter Administration installed solar panels at the White House back in 1979, photovoltaic cells were space age technology that most households could not afford, aside from the rare DIY-er. Now the price of solar power has been sinking like a stone, thanks partly to the introduction of low cost materials and inexpensive thin film fabrication methods. Switzerland’s Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, has just come out with a low cost thin film solar cell breakthrough that demonstrates both in the form of a new high efficiency copper-doped cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cell.
Low Cost Materials For High Efficiency Solar Cells
The new Empa solar cell boasts an efficiency of 11.5 percent, which might not sound like a big deal compared to last year’s announcement of a 44 percent efficiency mark by the company Solar Junction, but we’re talking about two distinctive technologies. The key takeaway is that today there are multiple paths to affordable solar cells. One of them is finding the most efficient way to collect and convert solar energy, another is finding the cheapest way to do it, and a third way is to find a balance between the two.
A Material That Could Make Solar Power Dirt Cheap
Researchers discover that a material known for a hundred years could lower the cost of solar power.
By Kevin Bullis on August 8, 2013
Why It Matters
Solar power is much more expensive than fossil fuels, especially when you factor in its intermittency.
A new type of solar cell, made from a material that is dramatically cheaper to obtain and use than silicon, could generate as much power as todays commodity solar cells.
Although the potential of the material is just starting to be understood, it has caught the attention of the worlds leading solar researchers, and several companies are already working to commercialize it.
Researchers developing the technology say that it could lead to solar panels that cost just 10 to 20 cents per watt. Solar panels now typically cost about 75 cents a watt, and the U.S. Department of Energy says 50 cents per watt will allow solar power to compete with fossil fuel.
In the past, solar researchers have been divided into two camps in their pursuit of cheaper solar power. Some have sought solar cells that can be made very cheaply but that have the downside of being relatively inefficient. Lately, more researchers have focused on developing very high efficiency cells, even if they require more expensive manufacturing techniques.
The new material may make it possible to get the best of both worldssolar cells that are highly efficient but also cheap to make.
A Material That Could Make Solar Power ?Dirt Cheap? | MIT Technology Review
I just had to peek at this one to find out what the "secret dirt material" was...
It's a perfect place to test the new USMB "spoiler" feature..
I'm still giggling. Sounds wonderful.. Really it is... But the Euros are gonna have a cow about this Pieroski material.. ((makes me hungry just thinking about it))
It contains small amounts of lead
Do you know how much effort they've exerted to make their continent a "lead-free" paradise over the past 15 yrs?? They've turned the electronics completely inside out to get rid of the last gram of lead..
This ought to be comical if these guys succeed in making product.. What are the Euros gonna do???
A new enhanced heavy oil recovery (EHOR) process called Cyclic Production with Continuous Solvent Injection (CPCSI) has been developed at the University of Regina in Canada.
In this process, a vapourized solvent near its dew point is continuously injected into the reservoir to maintain reservoir pressure and also supply extra gas drive to flush the diluted oil out through an injector that is located on the top of the reservoir; while a producer, which is located at the bottom of the reservoir, is operated in a shut-in/open cyclic way. A series of experiments have been conducted to evaluate the CPCSI performance. The recovery factors (RFs) are up to 85% of original oil in place (OOIP) in 1-D tests, and the RF is improved by 11% by using the 2-D lateral CPCSI, compared with the traditional 2-D lateral VAPEX. Well configurations and the producer shut-in/open scenarios are key optimization factors that affect the CPCSI performance. Experimental results show that the foamy oil flow and solvent trap are the two major EHOR mechanisms for enhancing the oil production rate during the production period. In comparison with continuous injection process, such as vapour extraction (VAPEX), and cyclic injection process, such as cyclic solvent injection (CSI), CPCSI offers free gas driving, and the reservoir pressure is maintained during the producer opening period so that the diluted oil viscosity is kept low. This work shows that CPCSI could be an alternative optimization production scenario for applying solvent based in situ EHOR techniques for heavy oil reservoirs in Western Canada.
MIT researchers have engineered a new rechargeable flow battery that doesn’t rely on expensive membranes to generate and store electricity. The palm-sized prototype generates three times as much power per square centimeter as other membraneless systems — a power density that is an order of magnitude higher than that of many lithium-ion batteries and other commercial and experimental energy-storage systems.
The device stores and releases energy in a device that relies on a phenomenon called laminar flow: Two liquids are pumped through a channel, undergoing electrochemical reactions between two electrodes to store or release energy. Under the right conditions, the solutions stream through in parallel, with very little mixing. The flow naturally separates the liquids, without requiring a costly membrane.
The reactants in the battery consist of a liquid bromine solution and hydrogen fuel. The group chose to work with bromine because the chemical is relatively inexpensive and available in large quantities, with more than 243,000 tons produced each year in the United States.
In addition to bromine’s low cost and abundance, the chemical reaction between hydrogen and bromine holds great potential for energy storage. But fuel-cell designs based on hydrogen and bromine have largely had mixed results: Hydrobromic acid tends to eat away at a battery’s membrane, effectively slowing the energy-storing reaction and reducing the battery’s lifetime.
(Phys.org) —When it comes to improving the performance of lithium-ion batteries, no part should be overlooked – not even the glue that binds materials together in the cathode, researchers at SLAC and Stanford have found.
The experimental battery using the new binder, known by the initials PVP, retained 94 percent of its original energy-storage capacity after 100 charge/discharge cycles, compared with 72 percent for cells using a conventionally-used binder, known as PVDF. After 500 cycles, the PVP battery still had 69 percent of its initial capacity.
Cui said the improvement was due to PVP's much stronger affinity for lithium sulfide; together they formed a fine-grained lithium sulfide/carbon composite that made it easier for lithium ions to penetrate and reach all of the active material within the cathode. In contrast, the previous binder, PVDF, caused the composite to grow into large clumps, which hindered the lithium ions' penetration and ruined the battery within 100 cycles
Even the best batteries lose some energy-storage capacity with each charge/discharge cycle. Researchers aim to reduce such losses as much as possible. Further enhancements to the PVP/lithium sulfide cathode combination will be needed to extend its lifetime to more than 1,000 cycles, but Cui said he finds it encouraging that improving the usually overlooked binder material produced such dramatic benefits.
Jessica Mathew, a 25-year-old Nigerian, from Edo State, yesterday presented an electricity generating football and skipping rope she invented to President Goodluck Jonathan at the State House in Abuja.
The presentation earned Jessica an appointment as a soccer ambassador. The soccer ball, as demonstrated by Jessica, could generate three hours of electricity after 30 minutes of play and could store power for three days.
She said, the electricity generated by the ball could be used as electricity source to power lighting points and household equipments, adding that the airless football when not in use, could last for one-and-half years before replacement.
Jessica, a graduate of Psychology and Economics from Havard University, United States, said she taught herself Electrical and Mechanical Engineering because she was keenly interested in it.
A RMIT Univ. research collaboration with top scientists in Australia and Japan is advancing next-generation solar cells.
The development of cheaper and less toxic solar cells using nanotechnology is the focus of a collaborative research project conducted by RMIT, CSIRO and the Japan Science and Technology Agency.
The team is investigating the synthesis of semiconductor inorganic nanocrystals using low-cost and abundant elements for printable solar cell applications.
The research was recently published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
LIVERMORE, Calif. -- In the early morning hours of Aug.13, Lawrence Livermore's National Ignition Facility (NIF) focused all 192 of its ultra-powerful laser beams on a tiny deuterium-tritium filled capsule. In the nanoseconds that followed, the capsule imploded and released a neutron yield of nearly 3x1015, or approximately 8,000 joules of neutron energy -- approximately three times NIF's previous neutron yield record for cryogenic implosions.
This newest accomplishment provides an important benchmark for the program's computer simulation tools, and represents a step along the "path forward" for ignition delivered by the NNSA to Congress in December 2012.
Early calculations show that fusion reactions in the hot plasma started to self-heat the burning core and enhanced the yield by nearly 50 percent, pushing close to the margins of alpha burn, where the fusion reactions dominate the process.
"The yield was significantly greater than the energy deposited in the hot spot by the implosion," said Ed Moses, principle associate director for NIF and Photon Science. "This represents an important advance in establishing a self-sustaining burning target, the next critical step on the path to fusion ignition on NIF."
While we’ve been busy touting graphene as the “miracle material of the new millennium,” there’s another advanced materials kid on the block called carbon nanotubes and they haven’t exactly been on the snooze either. A team of researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) has just announced that they’ve cracked the code for cooking up single-walled carbon nanotubes with precise atomic structures. If the process can be scaled up, carbon nanotubes could substitute for silicon to usher in a new era of smaller, faster, more energy efficient computers and other electronic devices.
Growing Carbon Nanotubes From Seeds
For those of you new to the topic, carbon nanotubes are cylinders of carbon atoms no more than one nanometer (one billionth of a meter) thick. As low cost, highly efficient semiconductors they have endless potential applications.
Read more at Solar Cell Energy Efficiency And Lifespan Improved With Ion-Conducting Polymer | CleanTechnicaDye-sensitized solar cells will soon receive a big boost to their energy efficiency and durability/lifespan thanks to new research from Stockholm’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The improvements are thanks to the discovery of a previously unknown quasi-liquid, polymer-based electrolyte — one that works to notably increase a dye-sensitized solar cell’s voltage and current, while at the same time lowering the resistance between its electrodes.
The new findings emphasize the advantages/possibilities of speeding up the movement of oxidized electrolytes in a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) — leaving open the possibility for further improvements through similar means.
“We now have clear evidence that by adding the ion-conducting polymer to the solar cell’s cobalt redox electrolyte, the transport of oxidized electrolytes is greatly enhanced,” states James Gardner, Assistant Professor of Photoelectrochemistry at KTH. “The fast transport increases solar cell efficiency by 20 percent.”
WASHINGTON—U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) research scientists and engineers in the Electronics Science and Technology Division have demonstrated the highest recorded open-circuit voltages for quantum dot solar cells to date. Using colloidal lead sulfide (PbS) nanocrystal quantum dot (QD) substances, researchers achieved an open-circuit voltage (VOC) of 692 millivolts (mV) using the QD bandgap of a 1.4 electron volt (eV) in QD solar cell under one-sun illumination.
(Phys.org) —Researchers have demonstrated a new class of high-energy battery, called a "molten-air battery," that has one of the highest storage capacities of any battery type to date. Unlike some other high-energy batteries, the molten-air battery has the advantage of being rechargeable. Although the molten electrolyte currently requires high-temperature operation, the battery is so new that the researchers hope that experimenting with different molten compositions and other characteristics will make molten-air batteries strong competitors in electric vehicles and for storing energy for the electric grid.
