May 03, 2008
Nanobot Solar Cells
Molecular Nanobots are the world's smallest robots
In Japan photo-reactive nanocrystals are being developed for more efficient solar cell production. Rice University is developing methods that use the reactivity of nanoparticles to clean contaminants, especially biological contaminants from water. In agriculture, nano-sensors will be sprinkled on crops or soil to monitor temperature, water, salinity, nitrogen and disease. Robert Freitas is developing an artificial red blood cell able to deliver 236 times more oxygen to tissues than natural red blood cells. Freitas predicts his device will be used to treat anaemia and lung disorders, but also will enhance human performance in sport and warfare. Researchers at the Florida University have created a nanocapsule gel to deliver drugs into the eyes through soft contact lenses.
The importance of nanotechnology to the future of mankind cannot be overstated. Nanotech's promise is clean industries, cures for disease, nearly unlimited energy supplies, a continuance of Moore's Law, the end of hunger, and the elmination of aging. Welcome to Molecular Nanobots.
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April 28, 2008
Floating solar concentrator with stirling generator
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February 02, 2008
High Temperature Solar Furnace
High Temperature Solar Furnace
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January 27, 2008
Nanosolar Powersheet
Popular Science Innovation of the Year: Nanosolar Powersheet
Silicon Valley-based Nanosolar's Powersheet was named innovation of the year by Popular Science. The Powersheet is a solar cell made with printing-press style machines that set down a layer of nanoparticle ink onto metal sheets as thin as aluminum foil. The panels can be made for about a tenth of what current panels cost and at a rate of several hundred feet per minute.
Nanoparticle ink is a proprietary ink developed by Nanosolar that makes it possible to simply print the semiconductor of a high-performance solar cell on highly conductive yet low-cost foil.
Posted by Sun at 02:06 AM | Comments (0)
January 13, 2008
Sun Road Energy Systems
Asphalt Heats Up Solar Power : Sustainablog
A technology called the "Road Energy System" is actually a spin-off of a method to heat roads and reduce the need for maintenance due to cold weather. A grid of flexible, plastic pipes filled with water lay under the pavement and are heated by the sun. As the water is heated, it's pumped underground, where it stays about 68 degrees Fahrenheit. The water can then be brought up later to heat the road and keep the ice off.
In the Dutch city of Avenhorn where this technology was being used, the engineers found that they were storing more heat than what was actually needed. The solution? Heat the water up a bit more and send it to the floorboards of nearby buildings for warmth in the wintertime. Or, pump the 68 degree water as is to cool the buildings on hot days.
Using this method, a 70-unit apartment building is heated partly by the sun's energy collected from a 200-yard stretch of road and a small parking lot. Additionally a 160,000 square-foot industrial park nearby is kept warm with heat from 36,000 square feet of pavement.
The system doubles the cost of construction and does need some extra energy for the heat pump that to further warm up the water in the winter. However, commercial manager Lex Van Zaane says this still translates into a 50 percent cut in carbon emissions and a lower monthly heating bill for the buildings.
Posted by Sun at 05:45 PM | Comments (0)
Super Soaker Inventor Cuts Solar Power Costs
Johnson, a nuclear engineer who holds more than 100 patents, calls his invention the Johnson Thermoelectric Energy Conversion System, or JTEC for short. This is not PV technology, in which semiconducting silicon converts light into electricity. And unlike a Stirling engine, in which pistons are powered by the expansion and compression of a contained gas, there are no moving parts in the JTEC. It’s sort of like a fuel cell: JTEC circulates hydrogen between two membrane-electrode assemblies (MEA). Unlike a fuel cell, however, JTEC is a closed system. No external hydrogen source. No oxygen input. No wastewater output. Other than a jolt of electricity that acts like the ignition spark in an internal-combustion engine, the only input is heat.
Here's how it works: One MEA stack is coupled to a high- temperature heat source (such as solar heat concentrated by mirrors), and the other to a low-temperature heat sink (ambient air). The low-temperature stack acts as the compressor stage while the high-temperature stack functions as the power stage. Once the cycle is started by the electrical jolt, the resulting pressure differential produces voltage across each of the MEA stacks. The higher voltage at the high-temperature stack forces the low-temperature stack to pump hydrogen from low pressure to high pressure, maintaining the pressure differential. Meanwhile hydrogen passing through the high-temperature stack generates power.
Posted by Sun at 05:42 PM | Comments (0)
Solar Power at night
Idaho National Laboratory (INL) reports that research conducted in conjunction with partners at Microcontinuum Inc. (Cambridge, MA) and Patrick Pinhero of the University of Missouri is promising a method for developing cheap solar energy technology that could be imprinted on flexible materials and still draw energy after the sun has set.
The technology uses a special manufacturing process to stamp tiny square spirals, or "nanoantennas", of conduction metal onto a sheet of plastic. The nanoantennas absorb energy in the infrared part of the spectrum, just outside the range of what is visible to the eye. Since the sun radiates a lot of infrared energy, some of which is soaked up by the earth and later released as radiation for hours after sunset, nanoantennas can take in energy from both sunlight and the earth’s heat, with higher efficiency than conventional solar cells.
The team estimates individual nanoantennas can absorb close to 80 percent of the available energy in comparison to current commercial solar panels which usually transform less that 20 percent of the usable energy that strikes them into electricity; this is even more impressive than the 30% conversion rate offered by the recently discussed development of nano flakes by SunFlake.
Posted by Sun at 05:38 PM | Comments (0)
October 23, 2007
Metallization is the coating of a material with a fine mist of vaporized metal
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500x fresnal lens
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solarized gas turbine was based on a helicopter engine
The design power output was 250 kWe.
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October 20, 2007
Solar Decathlon
Department of Energy Solar Decathlon Home Page
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October 18, 2007
Invisible solar nano-cells
Invisible solar nano-cells promise clean energy: News - Hardware - ZDNet Australia
Scientists have developed solar cells 200 hundred times thinner than a human hair that could power the nanoscale gadgetry of tomorrow.
From consumer devices to bioterrorism monitors to in-body diagnostics, this ultra-microscopic technology is poised to take centre stage in less than a decade from now. But finding the sources to power these devices was an issues.
However, Charles Leiber and colleagues at Harvard University, have devised a 'silicon nanowire' that can convert light into electrical energy.
Virtually invisible to the naked eye, a single strand can crank out up to 200 picowatts.
Two hundred billionths of a watt may not seem much, but at nanoscale it is enough to provide a steady output of electricity to run ultralow power electronics, including some that could be worn on -- or even inside -- the body.
It is also clean, highly efficient and renewable.
Posted by Sun at 05:57 PM | Comments (0)
October 12, 2007
Pour yourself a silicon solar panel
Pour yourself a silicon solar panel | CNET News.com
Santa Clara, Calif.-based Innovalight says it has developed a somewhat contradictory-sounding process for creating crystalline silicon solar cells with liquid. If it works in mass production, it could slash the cost of making these solar cells by half or more, the company claims.
Innovalight essentially creates silicon nanoparticles, inserts them into a solvent, and pours the solvent on a substrate. The solvent is then extracted. What is left can sort of be analogized to a snowflake or a large sugar cube: a highly organized structure made up of tiny parts.
"We use this technique to make something that isn't much different from (traditional) crystalline silicon solar panels, except we get there cheaper," CEO Conrad Burke said. "They (the solar cells) end up in a pretty structured form."
The key is that the resulting solar cell has efficiencies--or the amount of sunlight the solar cell can turn into electricity--that are closer to crystalline silicon solar cells than thin-film alternatives such as amorphous silicon or copper indium gallium selenide or CIGS.
Crystalline solar cells have higher efficiencies than thin films. Commercial crystalline panels can convert up to 22 percent of sunlight into electricity, without concentrators. CIGS makers are initially shooting for the mid to low teens. The catch is that making crystalline solar cells is expensive. The patterning and other processes is similar to what is used in making LCD panels. Innovalight says it could conceivably cut the production price by around 50 percent or more. Many start-ups, however, had hit bumps in bringing new (albeit different) manufacturing techniques for solar cells to market.
Posted by Sun at 03:18 AM | Comments (0)
October 11, 2007
Solar Powered Donkey Cart
Neatorama � Blog Archive � Donkey and Solar Powered Mobile Cellphone Charging Station
How do you charge your cell phones in rural Africa, where access to electricity is spotty at best? Here’s the solution: a donkey and solar-powered mobile charging station!
Fitted with a solar panel that charges a 12 volt battery under the driver’s seat, the “HAPPY” becomes an independent, sustainable source of energy that powers cell phone connectivity, front and rear emergency lights and a small neon tube at night. Add a water filtration system, and the “HAPPY” doubles as a multi functional mobile business unit, that can empower an entrepreneurial owner, to generate income from it as a fresh water outlet, a mobile phone kiosk or a spaza shop – even after dark.
Posted by Sun at 06:39 PM | Comments (0)
September 28, 2007
Magnesium combustion engine
Technology Review: Solar-Powered Laser
A new kind of efficient, solar-powered laser has been developed by researchers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, in Japan. They hope to use the laser to help them realize their goal of developing a magnesium combustion engine. The researchers described the new laser in a recent issue of Applied Physics Letters.
The idea, says Takashi Yabe, a professor of mechanical engineering and science at the Tokyo Institute, is to make a powerful laser capable of combusting the magnesium content of seawater. In the process, large amounts of heat and hydrogen are given off.
Magnesium has great potential as an energy source because it has an energy storage density about 10 times higher than that of hydrogen, says Yabe. It is also highly abundant, with about 1.3 grams found in every liter of seawater, or about 1,800 trillion metric tons in our oceans, he says.
Moreover, the magnesium oxide resulting from the reaction can be converted back into magnesium, says Yabe. The catch? Recycling the magnesium oxide back into magnesium requires temperatures of 4,000 kelvins (3,726 �C)--hence the need for a laser to generate such temperatures on a small spot.
But for a magnesium combustion engine to function as a practical source of energy, the lasers need to be powered by a renewable energy source, such as solar power.
Posted by Sun at 04:06 AM | Comments (0)