Archive for category Energy news

Hygroelectricity: A New Type Of Alternative Energy, Extracted From Air’s Electrical Charge

Posted by Ovidiu in Energy news, New Inventions on August 26, 2010

In their search of alternative energy resources, scientists have stopped at a phenomenon that, although known for ages, brought them surprises. They want to harvest electricity by profiting from the fact that air is loaded with electric charges, and work on a prototype for such a harvester.

No Comments

New Urine Fuel Cell From UK Could Piss Off Oil Companies Badly

Posted by Ovidiu in Energy news on August 20, 2010

In the not-so-distant future, you’ll probably be able to take a leak, or ease yourself, or drop some in your fuel tank to get that electric motor spinning, because scientists have figured out a material that could create that fuel cell which transforms urine into electricity. Cheap electricity.

No Comments

A New Research Center to Develop Methods of Generating Fuel from Sunlight

Posted by Mike in Energy news on July 27, 2010

A new research center in California is about to be established after the U.S. Department of Energy has invested $122 million. Researchers from the new center will try to find ways of generating fuels made by using sunlight. The project will be led by a team of researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Caltech.

No Comments

Genetically Modified Enzyme Leads to Better Carbon Sequestration at Coal Powered Plants

Posted by Ovidiu in Energy news, Global Warming on July 24, 2010

Capturing the carbon dioxide that a coal-powered plant produces and sequestering it is not an easy task, and until now it rose the costs of the electricity produced by 80 percent. Due to researchers at Codexis, a Redwood, CA, company, genetically modified enzymes can make carbon dioxide capture much cheaper, increasing the cost of electricity by less than a third.

No Comments

Google Signs 20 Year Contract With Major U.S. Wind Power Provider

Posted by Ovidiu in Energy news, Wind Power on July 21, 2010

The next time you do a search on Google after July 30, remember that they are buying energy from North America’s largest wind power provider, NextEra Energy Resources, LLC. The search magnate will purchase 114 MW of clean energy within a 20-year contract.

No Comments

Dutch & Norvegian Researchers Say Osmosis Power Plants Could Suffice World’s Electricity Needs

Posted by Ovidiu in Energy news on July 20, 2010

A new approach to generate electricity comes from engineers from Europe’s northern countries of the Netherlands and Norway. They want to use the difference between salty and fresh water through osmosis in two different manners and say that their solutions could suffice the entire world’s energy needs. The New Scientist joined them both in an interesting case study.

No Comments

Hawaii To Run $1 Billion Undersea Cable That Will Share Wind Power Between Islands

Posted by Ovidiu in Energy news, Wind Power on June 9, 2010

Replacing Hawaii’s dirty diesel powered generators that provide the electricity necessary to run the islands isn’t an easy job. The state’s current plan is to feed Oahu, the state’s most populated island, through an undersea cable, from the wind farms on the islands Molokai and Lanai.

1 Comment

Mini Black Hole for Microwave Energy Created by Chinese Scientists Could Have Green Uses

Posted by Ovidiu in Energy news on June 4, 2010

Two researchers from the State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves at Southeast University from Nanjing, China, have discovered and prototyped a device that acts like a black hole for electromagnetic waves in the microwave spectrum. It consists of 60 concentric rings of metamaterials, a class or ordered composites that can distort light and other waves.

1 Comment

Japanese Joint Venture Proposes EVs as Buffer for Nighttime Excess Wind Power

Posted by Ovidiu in Electric Vehicles, Energy news on May 12, 2010

As electric vehicles seem to increase their market share in the next few years, alternative energy companies think of methods to store the excess power produced during the night, when electricity utilities don’t buy their energy, because of reduced consumption.

No Comments

Compressed-Air Energy Storage Plants Offering Solution for Excess Wind/Solar Power

Posted by Mike in Energy Storage, Energy news on March 18, 2010

In the renewable energy field, wind turbines have played an important step, but today the future of wind energy may come from the underground. The compressed-air energy storage plants could be the solution. Air is pumped into large underground formations where it can be used later to deliver the large amount of energy that it previously received.