Researchers at Uppsala University in Sweden have designed a battery that exploits the unique cellulose structure of the Cladophora algae, which is characterized by a very large surface area.

By coating this structure with an extremely thin layer of conducting polymer, the team produced a battery that weighs very little and can be fully charged in as little as 11.3 seconds. The battery has been able to retain its charge after 1,000 charging cycles.

According to Professor  Maria Strømme, who led the research team, "We are talking about a battery that mainly consists of paper and salt water and that can theoretically be made in your own kitchen (if you have a strong mixer) without the major energy input needed to create today’s batteries".

The battery has a storage capacity of 25 watt-hours per kilogram which is relativley low compared to current lithium ion batteries which can store 100 to 160 watt-hours per kilogram.

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Wolkswagen has demonstrated the concept version of it’s E-Up! - a fully electric car which it says will be "the Beetle of the 21st century".

VW says that the car will have a maximum speed of 135 kilometres per hour and a range of 130 kilometres. Fully recharging from a standard 240 volt outlet will take five hours but quick charging to 80% capacity will only take one hour. Charging from the mains will be supplemented by solar panels in the roof and the sun-visors.

At 3.19 meters long. the E-Up! will be about 50centimetres shorter than the current Mini Cooper. It is designed to take three adults and one child. This is achieved by allowing the front passenger seat to slide forward of the driver’s seat, giving room for an adult behind the passenger but not behind the driver.

Volkswagen plans to keep equipment levels "frugal" - even ruling out electric wing-mirror controls - to reduce weight and cost.

The E-Up! is scheduled to go into mass production in 2013.

Source: Volkswagen press release

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Citroen, Renault and Peugeot have all displayed new electric concept cars at the Frankfurt Motor Show.

Citroen showed its ultra-chic plug-in REVOLTe hybrid concept inspired by its iconic 2CV. The REVOLTe measures just 3.68m long, 1.73m wide and 1.35m tall. The most interesting feature is its original and distinctive three-seater layout - the driver’s seat is to one side with the two passenger seats behind it. The rear seat is designed to resemble a lounge with the passenger on the opposite side to the driver being able to stretch out their legs fully into the space where the front passenger seat would have traditionally been. Alternatively, it is possible to fit a rear-facing child-seat in the space.

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Greenpeace and the European Renewable Energy Council have released a report into the impact of switching to renewable on employment.

According to the report, called Working for the Climate, switching to renewable forms of electricity and phasing out coal would create 2.7 million additional new jobs.

The report concludes that a total of 11.3 million people could be working in the electricity sector and related businesses by 2030 if fossils fuels were phased out in favour of renewable energy. Without those changes, 8.6 million people would be working in the electricity sector.

The report says that the coal industry, which currently employs about 4.7 million people globally, will contract by 1.4 million jobs even without proposed wsitch to renewables.

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A team of environmental scientists from Harvard and Tsinghua University have demonstrated the enormous potential for wind-generated electricity in China. Using extensive meteorological data, the researchers have estimated that wind alone has the potential to meet the country’s projected electricity demands for 2030.

While wind-generated energy currently accounts for only 0.4 percent of China’s total electricity supply, the country is rapidly becoming the world’s fastest growing market for wind power.

The researchers, led by Michael B. McElroy, Professor of Environmental Studies at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, used meteorological data from the Goddard Earth Observing Data Assimilation System at NASA. They assumed the wind energy would be produced from a set of land-based, 1.5-megawatt turbines operating over non-forested, ice-free, rural areas with a slope no more than 20 percent.

The analysis found that a network of wind turbines operating at just 20 percent of their rated capacity could provide as much as 24.7 petawatt-hours of electricity annually - more than seven times China’s current consumption. This would meet the country’s entire projected demand for electricity for 2030.

To do this would require an investment of about $900 billion over twenty years. This is not considered an unreasonable sum considering that it would replace China’s investment in fossil fuel plants. China is currenly adding about one gigawatt of fossil-fuel generating capacity every week.

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American solar photovoltaic panel manufacturer, First Solar, has signed a memorandum of understanding with China to partner on a 2,000-megawatt power plant in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia. This follows an agreement signed last month for Canadian Solar to develop a 500-megawatt solar power plant in Baotou, Inner Mongolia.

Before these announcements, the largest solar electricity projects were a 550 megawatt plant to be built by First Solar in California and a 500 megawatt solar thermal plant being developed for the US Army in the Mojave Desert.

In addition to the planned solar power plants, wind farms with a total capacity of about 6,000 megawatts are planned for Inner Mongolia.

The surge in Chinese power plant investment has come as a result of China’s $586 billion economic stimulus package which included an estimated $70 billion for improving the country’s electricity grid.

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According to the market research company, The Information Network, the wholesale price of solar panels has dropped from $US4.05 per watt a year ago to $US1.85 today. The company predicts that the price could drop below $US1 per watt next year and be as low as $US0.50 per watt in 2011.

The main reason for the falling price is increased manufacturing capacity in China combined with decreased demand during the global financial downturn.

Not only has Chinese competition directly forced lower pices but European countries have begun scaling back their subsidies because the funds were increasingly going towards imports from China rather than supporting local manufacturers.

The Informatioin Network predicts that as many as half of the more than 200 solar manufacturers in the United States will not be able to survive if prices remain below $US2 per watt.

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Milan Karki, an 18 year old student in Kathmandu, Nepal, believes that he has found the solution to the developing world’s energy needs in a solar panel in which the silicon is replaced by human hair.

Milan began his quest to create electricity when he was a boy living in Khotang, a remote district of Nepal which was not connected to the  electricity grid. He first tried to build a micro-hydro generator but it soon became too expensive.  He then read a description of how static electricity is produced when combing hair in a book by Stephen Hawking and realised that melanin, the pigment in hair, is light sensitive and a conductor of electricity.

Three years later, Milan, now at high school in Kathmandu, together with four classmates made a solar panel using hair as a class experiment and realised that the idea had wide applicability. Their solar panel produces 9 volts and 18 watts - enough to charge a mobile phone or a battery to keep a light on at night.

A demonstration of the solar panel (in Nepali) is here on YouTube.

Source: Daily Mail

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One of the main factors in the high cost of fuels cells is the use of platinum as a catalyst. Platinum is scarce and costs around $1,200 an ounce - and that price is likely to skyrocket if fuel cells with platinum catalysts become widely used.

A U.K. company, ACAL Energy, has developed a new fuel cell design that reduces the amount of platinum used by 80 percent.

In a conventional fuel cell, platinum is embedded in porous carbon electrodes. ACAL’s design replaces this with a solution containing molybdenum and vanadium as the catalyst. The company says that the resulting fuel cell works as well as a conventional one but should cost 40 percent less.

The company has already made a one-kilowatt system that it intends to sell in limited quantities next year. The new fuel cells should be widely available by 2011. ACAL plans to target the market for diesel generators first, then move on to larger volume applications such as home power generation and electric cars.

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The American utility company, Pacific Gas and Electric, is to build an underground compressed air storage facility that would deliver as much electricity as a medium-sized power plant.

The company intends to use wind turbines to pump air into natural underground caverns. The air will then be released as needed to power turbines and meet demand for electricity.

The planned installation will be able to deliver 500 megawatts of electricity for a period of ten hours.  In contrast, utility-scale batteries can store only one or two megawatts.

Smaller compressed air storage plants are already in operation in McIntosh, Alabama and Huntorf, Germany.

Michael Nakhamkin, who designed the compressed air-storage facility in Alabama for Energy Storage and Power has said that "We have learned a lot since building the McIntosh plant in Alabama, and I believe the time is right technically, environmentally and economically for a large-scale deployment of CAES (compressed air energy storage) technology."

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