Solar Plane Completes Second Leg of Trip
A solar-powered plane has landed in Texas, completing the second leg of a trip across the U.S.
The Solar Impulse is making the first attempt by a solar airplane capable of flying day and night without fuel to fly across the U.S.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/solar-plane-completes-second-leg-trip
U.S Can Grow Copious Amounts of Pond Scum for Fuel
A new analysis shows that the nation’s land and water resources could likely support the growth of enough algae to produce up to 25 billion gallons of algae-based fuel a year, one-twelfth of the country’s yearly needs.
The findings come from an in-depth look at the water resources that would be needed to grow significant amounts of algae in large, specially built shallow ponds. The results were published in Environmental Science and Technology.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/us-can-grow-copious-amounts-pond-scum-fuel
Compressed Air Stores Green Energy
Enough Northwest wind energy to power about 85,000 homes each month could be stored in porous rocks deep underground for later use, according to a new, comprehensive study. Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Bonneville Power Administration identified two unique methods for this energy storage approach and two eastern Washington locations to put them into practice.
Compressed air energy storage plants could help save the region’s abundant wind power — which is often produced at night when winds are strong and energy demand is low — for later, when demand is high and power supplies are more strained. These plants can also switch between energy storage and power generation within minutes, providing flexibility to balance the region’s highly variable wind energy generation throughout the day.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/compressed-air-stores-green-energy
Chaos Superior to Order for Light Storage
An international team of physicists, including researchers from the Universities of York and St. Andrews, has demonstrated that chaos can beat order – at least as far as light storage is concerned.
In a collaboration led by the King Abdullah Univ. of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia, the researchers deformed mirrors in order to disrupt the regular light path in an optical cavity and, surprisingly, the resulting chaotic light paths allowed more light to be stored than with ordered paths.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/chaos-superior-order-light-storage
Solar engineers from the Univ. of New South Wales have developed an innovative method to dramatically improve the quality of low-grade silicon, promising to significantly improve electrical efficiency and reduce the cost of solar panels.
The UNSW team has discovered a mechanism to control hydrogen atoms so they can better correct deficiencies in silicon – by far the most expensive component used in the making of solar cells.
“This process will allow lower-quality silicon to outperform solar cells made from better-quality materials,” says Scientia Professor Stuart Wenham from the School of Photovoltaics and Renewable Energy Engineering at UNSW.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/low-grade-silicon-improves-solar-energy
New Technology Aids Old Energy
Technology created an energy revolution over the past decade – just not the one we expected. By now, cars were supposed to be running on fuel made from plant waste or algae – or powered by hydrogen or cheap batteries that burned nothing at all. Electricity would be generated with solar panels and wind turbines. When the sun didn’t shine or the wind didn’t blow, power would flow out of batteries the size of tractor-trailers.
Fossil fuels? They were going to be expensive and scarce, relics of an earlier, dirtier age. But in the race to conquer energy technology, Old Energy is winning. Oil companies big and small have used technology to find a bounty of oil and natural gas so large that worries about running out have melted away.
Universal Modern Energy is Possible
Universal access to modern energy could be achieved with an investment of between 65 and 86 billion U.S. dollars a year up until 2030, new research has shown.
The proposed investments are higher than previous estimates but equate to just three to four percent of current investments in the global energy system.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/universal-modern-energy-possible
Investors Shift Focus to Cleaner Drilling
A decade ago, large investors in so-called clean technology had a straightforward goal: finance companies that would help eliminate the world’s dependence on oil, natural gas and coal.
But as profits from wind, solar, biofuels and other alternatives consistently fell short of expectations – and as the fossil fuel business boomed– things got complicated. Venture capitalists and other investment funds started stretching the definition of clean technology almost beyond recognition in an effort to make money while clinging to their environmental ideals.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/investors-shift-focus-cleaner-drilling
Today in Lab History: May 1, 1909- Hydroelectricity
In 1909, the first of five generating units was started in the power plant at the Minidoka Dam on the Snake River in Idaho. This was the first hydroelectric power plant to be built by the U.S. government. The first unit could generate 1,400 kilowatts of electricity.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2012/09/today-lab-history
‘Superlattice’ Can Boost to Oxygen Reaction in Fuel Cells
New research at MIT could dramatically improve the efficiency of fuel cells, which are considered a promising alternative to batteries for powering everything from electronic devices to cars and homes.
Fuel cells make electricity by combining hydrogen, or hydrocarbon fuels, with oxygen. But the most efficient types, called solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC), have drawbacks that have limited their usefulness — including operating temperatures above 700 C (roughly 1,300 F). Now, MIT researchers have unraveled the properties of a promising alternative material structure for a key component of these devices.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/%E2%80%98superlattice%E2%80%99-can-boost-oxygen-reaction-fuel-cells
Fusion Reactor Experiments Reveal Details of Cooling Process
A longstanding joke holds that practical fusion power is about 20 years away — and always will be.
One simple phenomenon explains why practical, self-sustaining fusion reactions have proved difficult to achieve: turbulence in the superhot, electrically charged gas, called plasma, that circulates inside a fusion reactor can cause the plasma to lose much of its heat. This prevents the plasma from reaching the temperatures needed to overcome the electrical repulsion between atomic nuclei — which, in turn, prevents those nuclei from fusing together. But in order to tame that turbulence, scientists first must understand it.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/videos/2013/04/fusion-reactor-experiments-reveal-details-cooling-process
Inorganic Nanosheets Enhance Batteries
A graphene inspired electrode material that could help batteries hold more power has been developed by Chinese scientists. The large surface area of these cobalt oxide nanosheets is key to their electrochemical performance.
Batteries are a cornerstone of modern life with most smartphones and laptops using rechargeable lithium ion batteries. As technology advances, the search is on for batteries that can pack more energy into the same space.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/inorganic-nanosheets-enhance-batteries
Storage System Lets Wind Farms Deliver Power on Windless Days
Offshore wind could provide abundant electricity — but as with solar energy, this power supply can be intermittent and unpredictable. But a new approach from researchers at MIT could mitigate that problem, allowing the electricity generated by floating wind farms to be stored and then used, on demand, whenever it’s needed.
The key to this concept is the placement of huge concrete spheres on the seafloor under the wind turbines. These structures, weighing thousands of tons apiece, could serve both as anchors to moor the floating turbines and as a means of storing the energy they produce.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/storage-system-lets-wind-farms-deliver-power-windless-days
Researchers Take Next Step for Clean-Tech Cars
Ditching petrol for a clean-tech electric car sounds like an earth-saving move in theory. But if your charge is going to run out half way through your journey, it’s not very practical to make the switch.
Nanoengineer Prof. Zaiping Guo, from Univ. of Wollongong, is working on improving lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries for use in electric vehicles, as well as portable devices like cell phones, and her team has just had a breakthrough. They have developed a new germanium (Ge)-based material with five times more energy storage and the potential to go at least two times farther on a charge than current electric vehicles.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/researchers-take-next-step-clean-tech-cars
Researchers Aim to Concentrate 2,000 Suns’ Worth of Power
Scientists have announced a collaborative project to develop a cost-effective photovoltaic system capable of concentrating the incoming solar radiation to the power flux of 2,000 suns and convert it to useful energy, both electrical and thermal energy, with an efficiency of 80 percent.
Together with IBM Research, the Interstate Univ. of Applied Sciences Buchs and the supplier of solar power technology, Airlight Energy, scientists of ETH Zurich are developing a new photovoltaic system. The so-called “High Concentration Photovoltaic Thermal” (HCPVT) system will deliver electricity, fresh water and cool air in remote locations and shall be capable of concentrating, on average, to the power of 2,000 suns, with an efficiency that can collect 80 percent of the incoming radiation and convert it to useful energy.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/researchers-aim-concentrate-2000-suns-worth-power
