Future Energy

Today a long-standing electronic dream has become a reality thanks to research done by a team of scientists from Bar-Ilan University, Israel, supported by U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Producing superconducting nano-scale wires to facilitate faster and more powerful electronic devices has been the long-time ambition which had eluded achievement until now. 1 Comment

Today cell-phones have become an integral part of our life and are the most used mode of communication. More prevalent the use of cell-phone, more imperative is the need to curtail eco-pollution that emanates from the huge number of still-in-use and out-of-use cell phones. Toxic products like lead, mercury, cadmium and other materials pose a real threat to our ecosystem. Handset manufactures, recognizing the need of the hour, are showing great interest and emphasis on manufacturing not only environmentally-friendly handsets but also eco-friendly chargers. 5 Comments

Mira EV has created a world record with completing 1000 km run on a single battery charge non-stop, powered by Sanyo's lithium-ion battery systems. This experiment took place on the world’s longest race course in Japan, in Shimotsuma. Organized by Japan Electric Vehicle Club, this long marathon driving was accomplished by a relay team of 17 auto-racers from a training school in Ibraki, Japan. 5 Comments

The chances of producing solar power as a more commercially viable source of alternative energy seem brighter now with the positive research results pioneered by University of Illinois professors. The Department of Energy and National Science Foundation-funded team led by Professors John Rogers, and Xiuling Li, has been exploring ways to find more optimal ways to reduce the cost of semiconductors other than silicon. 10 Comments

EU's 'Clean Sky' - the 1-6 billion euro research project - with 86 participating partners from 16 nations - has goals like developing unique application-specific technologies and evaluation and advancement of the entire aeronautic system. Aviation experts from ACARE (Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe) are expecting to achieve 50% reduction of noise and carbon dioxide emission and 80% reduction of nitrogen oxide output by 2020. Thanks to better drive concepts and better adapted logistical designs and innovative and newer manufacturing of structural concepts and aerodynamic profiles, European aviation history will be rewritten under ACARE's new guidelines. Air travel will soon get more environmental-friendly, quieter and cleaner. 1 Comment

In a market-friendly scenario, Nanosolar claims to be able to produce electricity at 5-6 cents/kilowatt hour almost as cheap as power from coal and at about one-third the cost of other solar power. Nanosolar claims: Nanosolar claims mass production of solar power will now become feasible with their differently manufactured solar panels. Conventional silicon-made solar panels have a stiff competitor from CIGS semiconductor printed solar panels - composed of copper, gallium, indium and selenium - which perform as good as conventional solar panels in lab conditions. An inexpensive printing process makes it ideal for mass production by an automated facility with robots and other hi-fi equipment. 10 Comments

Imagine a greenhouse that is producing solar power and food too. This excellent experiment is being done in Italy. The companies responsible for this project are Renewable energy company Solar ReFeel, CeRSAA and solar panel manufacturer Solyndra. The test site has been constructed at CeRSAA’s Albenga, Italy. The project intends to attain the production of both food and electricity. The research team also wants to validate the crop growth benefits of Solyndra's technology by taking help of independent testing by a leading agricultural research institution. 5 Comments

Hydrogen gas is today used primarily for manufacturing chemicals, but a bright future is predicted for it as a vehicle fuel in combination with fuel cells. In order to produce hydrogen gas in a way that is climate neutral, bacteria are added to forestry or household waste, using a method similar to biogas production. One problem with this production method is that hydrogen exchange is low, i.e. the raw materials generate little hydrogen gas. Now, for the first time, researchers have studied a newly discovered bacterium that produces twice as much hydrogen gas as the bacteria currently used. The results show how, when and why the bacterium can perform its excellent work and increase the possibilities of competitive biological production of hydrogen gas. 6 Comments

With the help of photosynthesis plants convert light energy to chemical energy. This chemical energy is stored in the bonds of sugars they use for food. Photosynthesis happens inside a chloroplast. Chloroplasts are considered as the cellular powerhouses that make sugars and impart leaves and algae a green hue. During photosynthesis water is split into oxygen, protons and electrons. When sunrays fall on the leaves and reach the chloroplast, electrons get excited and attain higher energy level. These excited electrons are caught by proteins. The electrons are passed through a series of proteins. These proteins utilize more of the electrons' energy to synthesize sugars until the entire electron's energy is exhausted. 4 Comments

Queen's University Applied Sustainability Research Group located in Kingston, Canada comes out with two studies that claim solar power in southeastern Ontario can be created in abundance. The natural question is how much abundance? The answer is mind-boggling. Southeastern Ontario has the potential to produce almost as much power as all the nuclear reactors in the United States! Queen's mechanical engineering professor Joshua Pearce is the first person to find out the astounding possibilities of the region's solar energy potential. He says, "The number is enormous. Solar can no longer be laughed off as something that can only power your cottage." 17 Comments

Mark Moore, an aerospace engineer, is the person who dreamed about the Puffin. Puffin is a single seated electric powered airplane. Moore conceptualized the idea of electric aircraft for his doctoral degree. Operating it from your house is as simple as taking out your car from the garage. You can launch this aircraft from your own home because of vertical take-off and landing. Mark Moore is trying to combine the best feature of a plane and a helicopter into a hybrid known as the Puffin. The Puffin is not some abstract reality that is not going to take a concrete shape. 15 Comments

A team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is working on lithium-air batteries that could help in generating more powerful, lightweight batteries than available currently. Yang Shao-Horn is an MIT associate professor of mechanical engineering. According to him many research groups are trying to improve on lithium-air batteries. But they have difference of opinions about the types of electrode materials to be used. It has to be noted that electrode materials are responsible for electrochemical reactions happening inside these batteries. 6 Comments

Conventional solid-state solar cells are suffering from the problem of the bandgap voltage limitation. Scientists are trying to capture more and more of sunlight and convert it into electricity. If scientists are able to increase the efficiency of the conversion rate that will put solar energy into fossil fuel league minus its undesirable effects. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researchers have found a mechanism to deal with the problem of bandgap voltage limitation. In the language of solid state physics, a bandgap is also known as an energy gap. It is the amount of energy needed to release an outer shell electron from its orbit to become a mobile charge holder. This electron can move freely within the solid material. In conductor materials, the two bands often overlap, so they may not exhibit a huge bandgap. 3 Comments

If a car is running smoothly on the road and its consuming carbon dioxide from air as fuel instead of petrol, what a dream world that would be. Researchers from the South West are working on a £1.4 million project to turn the above dream into a reality. This car of future will consume one of the root causes of greenhouse effect. What a greener world that would be. Scientists and engineers from many universities will combine their efforts to produce that dream car running on carbon dioxide. The University of Bath is leading the research. They are joined by the University of the West of England and members from the University of Bristol. 14 Comments

Morocco is a North African country with no oil reserves. But nature has endowed this country with another bounty i.e. over 3000 hours of sunshine per year. Now they are aiming to undertake an ambitious plan of producing 40% of their energy needs via solar energy. They will spend $9 billion to generate 2000MWs of energy by 2020. It will require 5 solar power stations to produce 2000MWs of energy. These power stations will be situated in the regions of Ouarzazate, Ain Bni Mathar, Foum Al Oued, Boujdour and Sebkhat Tah. The first station is expected to become operational by 2015. 8 Comments

Tiny generators developed at the University of Michigan could produce enough electricity from random, ambient vibrations to power a wristwatch, pacemaker or wireless sensor. The energy-harvesting devices, created at U-M's Engineering Research Center for Wireless Integrated Microsystems, are highly efficient at providing renewable electrical power from arbitrary, non-periodic vibrations. This type of vibration is a byproduct of traffic driving on bridges, machinery operating in factories and humans moving their limbs, for example. 6 Comments

Scientists are quite optimistic that hydrogen will emerge as the fuel of the future and the world would be driven by 'hydrogen economy'. The only byproduct of hydrogen fuel is water vapor. By using hydrogen fuel we can reduce the harmful effects of greenhouse gases. Currently many research labs are engaged in duplicating the phenomenon of photosynthesis to produce hydrogen fuel. What fascinates the scientists is the splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen by using solar energy. A vast majority of scientists all over the world believe that we can get rid of our dependence on fossil fuels by breaking water into its components. Even some automobile companies such as Toyota are promoting hydrogen fueled cars. But till now the use of hydrogen as fuel is not cost effective. That is why we are still waiting for the 'hydrogen economy' to arrive. 7 Comments

Now we can have a green charger for our computers and laptops. We can take our laptops to outdoors and keep on using them without bothering that the charge will run out. Muzatch offers a solar charger for our computers. It is known as the MZH-SP-6500 / SP-6000 renewable energy charger. If one is traveling long distance in a car, or going on a business trip or in the wilderness and needs emergency power for laptop, this solar charger will come handy. 7 Comments

SunEdison is a division of MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. They have bagged a project to develop and construct a photovoltaic solar power plant in Northeastern Italy, near the town of Rovigo. This solar power plant will have a capacity of 72 Megawatt (MW). This will be the largest solar power plant in Europe. SunEdison is a North American company. It finances, installs and operates distributed power plants using photovoltaic technologies. In 2009, SunEdison delivered more kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy than any other solar services provider in U.S.A. 3 Comments

Alternative energy can be a boon for third world countries. Normally governments have to invest vast sums of money in developing infrastructures for a long period of time in underdeveloped areas. If we consider the example of cell phones, they have bypassed the usual wires, poles, roads, telephone exchange infrastructures. People residing in remote villages can be connected via mobiles. Same thing can happen with ATMs (automated teller machines) too. Vortex Engineering is an India-based rural ATM manufacturer. State Bank of India (SBI) wants to deploy 545 ATMs across semi-urban and rural India. 4 Comments