Research journals are filled with clever ideas that never quite come to fruition in the form of a successful commercial venture. Technical glitches, a failure to scale, or some sort of unforeseen limitation keep some of the best research from ever having the impact that it might. That’s why it was a pleasant surprise to see that one of the more compelling ideas of the last few years is inching its way towards reality.
A modern day Lindbergh is attempting to show us the power of a new kind of fuel by flying the length of England using only garbage to power his flight.
It’s a question that’s puzzled electric car makers for decades—how do you effectively store enough electrical energy that will power them over long distances? Turns out, it might be as simple as making an omelet.
The least expensive way for the Western U.S. to reduce greenhouse gas emissions enough to help prevent the worst consequences of global warming is to replace coal with renewable and other sources of energy that may include nuclear power, according to a new study by University of California, Berkeley, researchers.
Researchers in Wales and the United States have collaborated to complete the first high-resolution, comprehensive genetic map of a promising energy crop called miscanthus. The results – published in the current edition of the peer-reviewed, online journal PLoS One – provide a significant breakthrough towards advancing the production of bioenergy.
The breakthrough results from the long-term collaboration between energy crop company Ceres, Inc., based in Thousand Oaks, California, USA, and the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) at Aberystwyth University in Wales. The IBERS team created the collection of genetically related plants and Ceres then sequenced and analyzed the DNA. In other crops, this type of comprehensive genetic mapping has significantly shortened product development timelines.
As published in the journal article, Ceres researchers mapped all 19 chromosomes of miscanthus, a towering cane-like grass that can be used as a feedstock for advanced biofuels, bio-products and biopower. The multi-year project involved generation and analysis of more than 400 million DNA sequences creating a blueprint of the genetic alphabet of the plant.
Microorganisms are multitalented. The same kinds of bacteria used in wastewater treatment plants can also generate small amounts of electricity. But these two abilities have rarely been combined so cleverly.
GE is launching more gadgets to help consumers monitor and manage their home energy consumption. On Tuesday, GE unveiled a whole-home sensor that can fit onto a electricity panel box, or energy-hungry 240-volt device like a pool pump, and can send energy consumption data back to GE’s energy manager gadget, the Nucleus, and over to a cell phone or computer.
Sandia National Laboratories has created an experimental smart outlet that independently measures, monitors and controls electrical loads without connecting to a centralized computer. The technology would make the power grid more distributed and help it evolve into a collection of microgrids.
The potential ramifications of climate change are quickly becoming apparent, energy costs are rising and alternative energy investments are stalling. What kind of future does this portend for our energy supply? The futurists over at the Institute for the Future have some ideas, which they have laid out in four scenarios for the year 2025 — some more optimistic than others.
Battery giants in Japan and Korea have long dominated the world’s battery technology, and still do when it comes to small format batteries for laptops and consumer electronics. But at the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E event this week, a dozen or so battery companies and research labs showed off their innovations for batteries for electric vehicles and the power grid, signalling how battery innovation, at least at the prototype level, is alive and well in the U.S. and could even lead the next-generation of transportation and grid tech.
A startup working on battery technology says it’s developed a key breakthrough that could one day lead to an electric car that has a 300-mile range and could cost around $25,000 to $30,000. Envia Systems, backed by venture capitalists, General Motors, and the Department of Energy, plans to announce on Monday at the ARPA-E conference that the company has created a lithium ion battery that has an energy density of 400 watt-hours per kilogram, which Envia CEO Atul Kapadia told me in an interview could be the tipping point for bringing electric cars to mainstream car owner.
Europe’s leading organic and large-area electronics (OLAE) organisations have joined forces in the Framework 7 project COLAE, which aims to speed up the commercialisation and adoption of organic and large area electronics by promoting collaboration between industry clusters throughout Europe.
That’s the message of a commentary in the journal Nature in which scientists say the economic pain of a flattening oil supply will trump the environment as a reason to curb the use of fossil fuels.
“Given our fossil-fuel dependent economies, this is more urgent and has a shorter time frame than global climate change,” says James W. Murray, professor of oceanography at the University of Washington.
The “tipping point” for oil supply appears to have occurred around 2005, says Murray, who compared world crude oil production with world prices going back to 1998.
A few months ago it was revealed that Apple planned to build a solar array for its massive data center in North Carolina. Now according to Apple’s latest environmental report (hat tip CNET), the company has disclosed that its solar project will actually be pretty sizable at 20 MW, and it will be built on 100 acres, and will supply the company with 42 million kWh of solar power per year.
An insect’s internal chemicals can be converted to electricity, potentially providing power for sensors, recording devices or to control the bug, a group of researchers at Case Western Reserve University report.
The finding is yet another in a growing list from universities that could bring the creation of insect cyborgs - touted as possible first responders to super spies - out of science fiction and into reality. In this case, the power supply, while small, doesn’t rely on movement, light or batteries, just normal feeding.
