Monthly Archives: February 2011
Transphorm, a startup company launched by the University of California at Santa Barbara, has got the backing of major investors, including Google and Kleiner Perkins, for technology that could substantially cut power consumption in computers, electric cars, motors and other appliances. Almost all of the appliances that we use run on DC power, but the power grid is AC. Currently, AC-to-DC and DC-to-AC power converter chips are made from silicon and are usually about 85 to 90% percent efficient, The rest of the energy gets converted into waste heat. Transphorm has developed a semiconductor platform, using gallium nitride, which utilizes … Continue Reading
A new report by the United Nations Environment Program and the World Meteorological Organization, proposes a climate-change stopgap: by controlling two noxious ground-level pollutants, black carbon (or soot) and ozone. Reducing levels of these substances would slow the rate of climate change in the first half of the 21st century while carbon dioxide levels are brought down over the longer term. Both black carbon and ozone contribute to climate change but both could be reduced relatively easily and inexpensively. Black carbon particles attract heat, warming the air around them if they remain suspended, and melting snow and ice if they … Continue Reading
Most electric and electric hybrid cars make use of the energy generated when the car brakes to power a generator that charges the batteries. However, according to Per Tunestål, a researcher in Combustion Engines at Lund University in Sweden, air hybrids could achieve the same fuel saving at a much lower manufacturing cost. The researchers calculate that 48% of the brake energy could be compressed and saved in a small air tank connected to the engine and could be reused later. This is about the same degree of reuse as in today’s electric hybrids. The method could be used with … Continue Reading
Hydrostor, a Canadian comany based in Ontario, is working with engineering researchers at the University of Windsor, on a concept to store energy from offshore wind turbines in the form of compressed air. Surplus wind energy generated at off-peak hours would be used to power compressors that would pump air into marine salvage bags moored to the bottom of the sea. Each bag would be like a tubular balloon, about the size of a bus, and would be capable of storing 50 cubic meters of compressed air. The compressed air would be released whenever needed to turn generators to make … Continue Reading
US Vice President Joe Biden has announced a "comprehensive plan" that dedicates $US53 billion over the next six years to achieving the goal of providing 80% of Americans with access to high speed rail within a generation. The plan, ehich aims to put rail "on equal footing with other surface transportation programs", envisages three kinds of rail corridors: Core Express: These corridors will form the backbone of the national high-speed rail system, with electrified trains traveling on dedicated tracks at speeds of 125-250 mph (200-400 kilometres per hour) or higher. Regional: Crucial regional corridors with train speeds of 90-125 mph … Continue Reading
A new spacing model developed at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium, suggests that placing the wind turbines 15 rotor diameters apart – more than twiceas far apart as the 7 rotor diameters standard used in current layouts – results in more cost-efficient power generation. Earlier computational models for large wind farm layouts were based on simply adding up what happens in the wakes of single wind turbines. The new spacing model takes into account interaction of arrays of turbines with the entire atmospheric wind flow. The researchers found that the energy generated in a large wind farm has less to … Continue Reading
New battery technologies currently being researched include lithium-air, batteries using nano-technology and batteries substituting other metals for lithium. IBM is researching lithium-air batteries, Lithium-air batteries are still in an early stage of development but they typically pair a lithium anode with an air cathode that supplies oxygen. The arrangement is thought to offer the highest level of energy density that can be safely achieved with a metal-based battery. Researchers claim that the new technology will be ten times more effective than existing lithium-ion batteries. IBM wants a "substantial demonstration" of the technology within three years Winfried Wilcke, senior manager for … Continue Reading
China has officially announced that it will launch a program to develop a thorium-fueled molten-salt nuclear reactor. If the reactor works as planned, China will lead the world in clean nuclear energy. Thorium has several advantages over uranium as a reactor fuel. Unlike a uranium reaction, a thorium fuel reaction does not produce weapons-usable plutonium. Thorium is much more abundant than uranium. The amount of thorium in the Earth’s crust is similar to the amount of lead – about four times as much as uranium. All of the mined thorium can be used as a nuclear fuel; whereas only about … Continue Reading
Videos
Renewables News- New Aussie Technology to Clean Polluted WaterScientists from Deakin University, together with French colleagues, say that they have manufactured a lightweight and reusable material that can absorb up to 33 times its weight in a wide range of spilt oils, chemical solvents and dyes, while repelling … Continue Reading → […]
- Aussie Researchers Make Efficient Solar Cells from Low-grade SiliconResearchers at the University of New South Wales have found a way to make very high efficiency solar cells out of cheap, low-grade silicon. It has been known for several decades that hydrogen atoms can be introduced into the atomic … Continue Reading → […]
- First Aussie “Hot Rocks” Power Plant Begins ProducingThe first power plant in Australia to produce electricity using an enhanced geothermal ("hot rocks") system has begun producing electricity in the far north-east of South Australia. The one-megawatt Habanero pilot plant near outback Innamincka is operated by Geodynamics. Geodynamics … Continue Reading → […]
- New Aussie Technology to Clean Polluted Water
