Home 2010 May

Monthly Archives: May 2010

Oyster 2 – A New Wave Power Generator Producing More Electricity

Aquamarine Power, a wave energy developer, has recently unveiled a new wave power generator called Oyster 2, that is able to capture about 250% more electricity than its predecessor. The Oyster 2 measures about 85 feet long and 53 feet wide, being capable to produce 800 kilowatts of energy.

Tesla Motors + Toyota: Electric Car Joint Venture or Fusion Plan?

Arnold Schwarzenegger had first leaked this news while in a visit to Google's HQ in Mountain View, and stirred powerful reactions in the media and in Downey City, to whom Tesla Motors promised that they will build a car factory there.

How to Measure a Stirling Engine's Efficiency (video)

The next video shows a Stirling engine while working to achieve its best, powered by a 70W light bulb. The poster also shows how he measured various parameters of the engine, like speed, torque, input/output power.

Reducing Platinum and Adding Gold: Three Inventions That Increase Fuel Cell Efficiency and Decrease...

Fuel cells are indispensable for hydrogen powered cars, and it looks like hydrogen may be the ultimate energy storage that meets all the demands of a clean "fuel" (though it's only a carrier, not a fuel). Fuel cells, are expensive, though, and their price is due to platinum, which is a rare metal.

Besides Warming the Planet, High CO2 Levels Could Also Affect Our Crops' Nutritional Qualities

We have been talking about global warming lately, and implicitly of carbon dioxide as being one of the gases associated with it. We have also been talking about carbon dioxide's indirect effect on warming through the modification it brings to trees, but never has the carbon dioxide been associated with crop plants' nutritional values before, which affect us, humans, directly.

Fraunhofer Researchers Developing 41.1% Efficient Solar Panels

They used Fresnel lenses situated 10 cm apart from stacked layers of solar cells. The metamorphic triple-junction solar cells consist of gallium indium phosphide, gallium indium arsenide and germanium semiconductors. The efficiency of these cells is dazzling: 41.1 percent - higher than ever before. The two scientists even for the 2010 Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize.

Electric Nissan Leaf to Be Sold for Under 30,000 Euros Starting December

The electric car that caught most of the attention from the press lately is Nissan Leaf, presented as being the first mass-market electric car. The Netherlands will be the country that Nissan is going to sell it first, probably because of the country's green orientation. The unveiling will take place in December this year.

Solar Powered Windows From Pythagoras Solar Both Transparent and Productive

Some solar energy adopters wish to use their solar panels in the classic manner - installed on a roof or in their backyard. Still, there are situations where installing a flat solar panel is near to impossible, due to space limitations in places like corporate buildings or where aesthetics matters.

New Catalyst for Electrolysis Reduces Costs by 97% and Increases Hydrogen Production Fourfold

Hydrogen, the cleanest energy storage in the Universe, is most of the time associated with high costs, although it is extracted from water, which is the cheapest yet the most precious element to life. Extracting hydrogen from water is done through a method called electrolysis, but doing electrolysis efficiently requires the usage of catalysts such as platinum, which is very expensive.

MIT Designs Fuel-Efficient Airplanes That Emit Less NOx for NASA

A team of engineers from MIT have designed fuel-efficient aircraft that are expected to reduce the emission of nitrogen oxides and unlike conventional models, to consume 70 percent less fuel.