Researchers from Iowa State University and the Ames Laboratory have developed a process for fabricating more efficient polymer solar cells. The result is a polymer solar cell that captures more light and produces more power.
Microbiologists Derek Lovley, Zarath Summers and colleagues report in the Dec. 2 issue of Science that they’ve discovered a surprising new cooperative behavior in bacteria known as interspecies electron transfer. It could have important implications for the global carbon cycle and bioenergy.
Need has caught up with Case Western Reserve University researcher Gerhard Welsch's design for a self-healing, high-energy capacitor he patented a decade ago. ARPA-E has granted Welsch $2.25 million to start producing the small and lightweight device for hybrid and electric cars and more.
A broad review of current research on nuclear power economics has been published in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy. The report concludes that nuclear power will continue to be a viable power source but that the current fuel cycle is not sustainable.
With a new process, chemical engineers can make valuable chemicals such as benzene, toluene and xylenes from pyrolytic oils, the cheapest liquid fuels available today from biomass. This could reduce or eliminate reliance on fossil fuels to make industrial chemicals worth an estimated $400 billion.
Deregulation of the U.S. electricity industry led to higher prices and even shortages, but it also promises to bring a greener grid.
Scientists are learning more about the life stages and biology of an insect that may compete with humans for the energy crops of the future — the insect some scientists are calling the switchgrass moth.
Researchers in Baltimore, MD and Belgium have developed a model to calculate the optimal spacing of wind turbines for the very large wind farms of the future. They will present their work today at the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics meeting in Long Beach, CA.
Lessons learned from the ocean's largest mammals have inspired United States Naval Academy researchers to tackle one of the serious design challenges facing a technology that uses underwater turbines to convert ocean tides into electricity -- work present today at the American Physical Society’s Division of Fluid Dynamics (DFD) meeting in Long Beach, CA.
Students aim to improve Kenyan slum-dwellers’ access to basic sanitation — and generate renewable energy and jobs along the way.
New ideas for enhancing the efficiency of wind turbines are being presented today at the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics meeting in Long Beach, CA. These include a new type intelligent system for turbines operating under many different wind conditions and a way to reduce drag on turbine blades by covering them with tiny grooves.
Airplanes do not look much like birds, but should they? This question is exactly what a pair of engineers in California and South Africa inadvertently answered recently in experiments they describe today at the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics meeting in Long Beach, CA.
Registration is open for the 4th International Conference on the Integration of Renewable and Distributed Energy Resources, the premier event for technical discussion of electric integration of new energy resources.
A cement-like substance could help with stormwater management while potentially keeping millions of plastic bottles out of landfills.
U.S. policymakers must focus more closely on developing new energy storage technologies as they consider a national renewable electricity standard, according to one of the principal recommendations in a newly released report, Integrating Renewable Electricity on the Grid, by the American Physical Society’s Panel on Public Affairs (POPA). Establishing a national renewable electricity standard will help to unify the fragmented U.S. grid system—an important step in the wider adoption of using more wind and solar for energy generation.
More accurate simulations could lead to “break-even” fusion in foreseeable future
A switch to wind energy will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions -- and reduce the global warming they cause. But there's a catch, according to a paper in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy: rising temperatures decrease wind speeds, making for less power bang for the wind turbine buck.
Leading Energy Organizations to Highlight Latest Job-Producing Energy Technologies at Nov. 8-9 Conference in N.Y.C.
A common roadside plant could have the right stuff to become a new source of biofuel, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) studies.
To coincide with a national conference being hosted by the Southeast National Marine Renewable Energy Center at FAU, Florida Governor Charlie Crist has proclaimed November 1-7, 2010 as “Ocean Renewable Energy Week” in Florida.
Report estimates the level of oil production subsidies in Canada under a WTO definition that allows comparison with other countries. It also forecasts the fiscal, economic and environmental trade-offs of those subsidies.
The new Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center (ERC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has transformed a key building on the Institute’s storied campus into a test bed for high-efficiency lighting.
Arthur Wheaton, senior extension associate at Cornell University’s ILR School, comments on the recent J.D. Power & Associates report concluding that battery-powered cars are “overhyped.”
MTSU agriscience professor will drive 500 miles across Tennessee on from Bristol, Va., to West Memphis, Ark., in a Toyota fueled by sun and water. His goal for 2011 is to go coast to coast using just 10 gallons of gas.
Algae could make the perfect renewable fuel.
John D. Graham, dean of the Indiana U. School of Public and Environmental Affairs and an expert on federal fuel policy, discusses proposed fuel efficiency standards for medium- to heavy-duty trucks and buses.
Offshore wind power offers Maryland a feasible way to help meet renewable energy goals, but presents significant hurdles, concludes a new study by the University of Maryland Center for Integrative Environmental Research. “Offshore wind is not a slam dunk for Maryland, but the potential remains very strong," says UMD researcher Matthias Ruth.
A groundbreaking new equation developed in part by researchers at the University of Michigan could do for organic semiconductors what the Shockley ideal diode equation did for inorganic semiconductors: help to enable their wider adoption.
Researchers in California are aiming to create some of the tiniest batteries on Earth, the largest of which would be no bigger than a grain of sand. These tiny energy storage devices could one day be used to power the electronics and mechanical components of tiny micro- to nano-scale devices.
The Cold Triple Axis spectrometer, a new addition to Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s High Flux Isotope Reactor and a complementary tool to other neutron scattering instruments at ORNL, has entered its commissioning phase.
A team of Virginia Tech engineers has received a three-year, $1.5 million award from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy to investigate specific ways to reduce emissions from vehicles and to improve fuel economy.
The IL Institute for Rural Affairs (IIRA) at Western IL University has entered into an agreement with Wilmington (IL) CUSD #209 to develop a test site for monitoring wind velocity. The Value-Added Sustainable Development Center, an IIRA unit, works with schools, farmer and rural electric cooperatives, municipalities and in exploring wind potential in their locales.
Tulane University hosts one of the energy industry's most ambitious and realistic collegiate energy trading competitions this weekend on Oct. 23 in New Orleans.
NIST has advised the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that it has identified five 'foundational' sets of standards for Smart Grid interoperability and cyber security that are ready for consideration by federal and state energy regulators.
A flat sodium-nickel chloride battery could deliver 30 percent more power at lower temperatures than its cylindrical counterpart, making it a viable alternative to lithium-ion batteries for storing wind and solar power on the grid, according to work published by the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in the October 8 issue of ECS Transactions.
Supervisor Mark Lesko and Stony Brook University President Samuel L. Stanley, Jr., M.D., announced that the Town of Brookhaven has become the newest member of the University’s National Science Foundation (NSF) Center for BioEnergy Research and Development (CBERD).
Saint Joseph’s University has received a $1 million grant from the Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Program (EEREA) to fund key research and public education projects that will promote and advance responsible environmental stewardship. The award will also enable SJU to formally establish a proposed Institute for Environmental Stewardship.
A new study finds that fish located near coal-fired power plants have lower levels of mercury than fish that live much further away. The surprising finding appears to be linked to high levels of another chemical, selenium, found near such facilities, which unfortunately poses problems of its own.
By installing wireless sensors and replacing faulty traps along the 12 miles of steam lines at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, officials expect to save as much as $675,000 per year.
Ambitious plans to expand acreage of bioenergy crops could have a major impact on birds in the Upper Midwest, according to a study published today (Oct. 4) in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
A new lab at NIST is helping to bring these tiny but brilliant devices into your home, to help save both energy costs and the environment.
Virginia Tech is releasing its full version of the Smart Grid Information Clearinghouse (SGIC) web portal today (Sept. 30) -- the platform for direct sharing and dissemination of relevant smart grid information. It contains information about more than 200 smart grid projects in the US and more than 50 projects overseas.
Sandia National Laboratories researchers have developed a new system to monitor how clouds affect large-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants.
Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are leading a new $2 million NSF-funded study to help overcome a key bottleneck slowing the proliferation of large-scale wind and solar power generation.
A team led by a North Carolina State University researcher has shown that water-gel-based solar devices – “artificial leaves” – can act like solar cells to produce electricity. The findings prove the concept for making solar cells that more closely mimic nature. They also have the potential to be less expensive and more environmentally friendly than the current standard-bearer: silicon-based solar cells.
Engineering researchers from Tufts University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Harvard University have demonstrated the low-temperature efficacy of an atomically dispersed platinum catalyst, which could be suitable for on-board hydrogen production in fuel-cell-powered vehicles of the future.
University of Illinois at Chicago materials engineer Eduard Karpov received National Science Foundation funding to develop and test a tiny battery made of nanomaterials designed to operate much like a solar cell, but powered by the catalytic oxidation of hydrogen instead of sunlight. The technology may prove useful in developing batteries for future nano-devices.
The Clean Energy Trust has received a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to help transfer research from the University of Chicago, Argonne National Laboratory, and other Illinois universities and science labs into clean-energy technologies and viable businesses.
The railroad industry’s 40-year conversion from steam to diesel power during the 20th century may offer clues for the auto industry as it attempts to develop alternatives to gas-powered vehicles, says a historian at Missouri University of Science and Technology in a new book.
As a member of the recently announced clean vehicles consortium, part of the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers are focusing on a suite of technologies to put more electric and hybrid vehicles on the road.
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