Instead of waiting for the electric grid to slowly spread to every remote village, new standalone grids may be the best way to get electricity into every home—and to keep polluting and unhealthy kerosene fires away.
Posts tagged "power"
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Solar Microgrids Bring Power To People Who Have Been Off The Grid Forever →
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Delphi gasoline-injection engine technique rivals hybrid's edge →
Running a diesel like engine on gasoline is something Delphi is doing in notable fashion. They claim they are on to a promising way to enjoy an engine that gives the vehicle owner high efficiency and low emissions. Delphi, a major Michigan-based auto-parts supplier, is developing this technology which has shown impressive results in tests. Delphi tried out its combustion concept, which reaps the best of two worlds of low-emission gas and efficient diesel engines. Delphi claims its technology is an improvement upon the fuel economy of gas-powered cars, and can bring forth benefits of the hybrid at less the cost of a large battery and electric motor.
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East coast wind grid gets a go ahead →
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.
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U.S. Will Be Hard-Pressed to Meet Its Biofuel Mandates →
Under the 2007 Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency stipulates that gasoline and diesel refiners must blend a certain amount of “renewable fuel” into their products or face penalties.
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Turanor PlanetSolar Solar Boat Completes its Around the World Trip →
After an amazing 18-month journey, the Turanor PlanetSolar sun-powered boat completes its around-the-world trip today! The world’s largest solar-powered boat originally launched on its worldwide trip from Monaco in September 2010 and today the boat will officially finish the trip. The Swiss-designed solar boat is powered by 537 square meters of photovoltaic panels that enabled it to travel around the world and hit spots like Miami, Cancún, Brisbane, Singapore, Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi.
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Wind Farms Warming Texas →
New research finds that wind farms actually warm up the surface of the land underneath them during the night, a phenomena that could put a damper on efforts to expand wind energy as a green energy solution.
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Researchers Develop A Path To Liquid Solar Cells That Can Be Printed Onto Surfaces →
Scientists at USC have developed a potential pathway to cheap, stable solar cells made from nanocrystals so small they can exist as a liquid ink and be painted or printed onto clear surfaces. The solar nanocrystals are about four nanometers in size — meaning you could fit more than 250,000,000,000 on the head of a pin — and float them in a liquid solution, so “like you print a newspaper, you can print solar cells,” said Richard L. Brutchey, assistant professor of chemistry at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
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Power solution: India opens world's largest solar park →
The world’s largest solar power field has been switched on in India’s western state of Gujarat. Accounting for 214 megawatts of photovoltaic solar capacity, it becomes larger than China’s 200 MW Golmud Solar Park, which previously held the record.
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Nature's billion-year-old battery key to storing energy →
New research at Concordia University is bringing us one step closer to clean energy. It is possible to extend the length of time a battery-like enzyme can store energy from seconds to hours, a study published in the Journal of The American Chemical Society shows.
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Nanotube electrodes improve solar cells →
Forests of carbon nanotubes are an efficient alternative for platinum electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSC), according to new research by collaborators at Rice University and Tsinghua University.
The single-wall nanotube arrays, grown in a process invented at Rice, are both much more electroactive and potentially cheaper than platinum, a common catalyst in DSCs, said Jun Lou, a materials scientist at Rice. In combination with newly developed sulfide electrolytes synthesized at Tsinghua, they could lead to more efficient and robust solar cells at a fraction of the current cost for traditional silicon-based solar cells.
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Coming Soon: Electric Vehicles That Talk To The Power Grid To Prevent Blackouts →
Can power companies handle every car owner plugging in at the same time? Probably not, but new software will let the company figure out which cars need charging most so that everyone is powered up by morning.
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Google to build its first thermal storage for a data center →
Google has been more than creative when it comes to making its data centers more energy efficient and greener (seawater cooling and water recycling), and this week says it plans to implement a new energy efficient feature for a data center in Taiwan: thermal energy storage. Thermal energy storage systems commonly use chilled liquid or ice to act as a thermal battery, enabling a data center operator to run air conditioning at night (when rates are cheaper) and during the day pump the chilled liquid around the facility for cooling
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Advanced power-grid research finds low-cost, low-carbon future in Western U.S. →
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.
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Abandoning nuclear energy may not boost renewables →
The after-effects of Japan’s megaquake and tsunami continue to be felt. Two planned UK power stations have become the latest victims of the anti-nuclear sentiment that followed the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant last year. However, renewable technologies are unlikely to benefit.
German utility companies RWE and E.ON have pulled the plug on a joint project to build nuclear reactors at Wylfa on the island of Anglesey and Oldbury in Gloucestershire. The firms blame a shortage of cash following the German government’s decision last year to abandon nuclear power.
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Apple reveals more details about its fuel cell farm →
Last month Apple unveiled that it plans to build both a massive fuel cell farm and a huge solar farm at its data center in Maiden, North Carolina. Now, late last week, in a filing with the North Carolina Utilities Commission, Apple let loose a few more details about its fuel cell plans (hat tip Wired and the local News & Record).
Apple says in the filing that it will install twenty four 200 kW fuel cells at an outdoor site next to its data center, and the fuel cells could start generating electricity, using biogas, as early as June 2012. Apple expects the entire 4.8 MW system to be online by November 30, 2012.
