Dutch & Norvegian Researchers Say Osmosis Power Plants Could Suffice World's Electricity Needs
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.
Hawaii To Run $1 Billion Undersea Cable That Will Share Wind Power Between Islands
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.
Mini Black Hole for Microwave Energy Created by Chinese Scientists Could Have Green Uses
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.
Japanese Joint Venture Proposes EVs as Buffer for Nighttime Excess Wind Power
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.
New SOLO-TREC Thermal Engine Powers Ship Indefinitely by Using Ocean Energy
The Office of Naval Research is funding a project called "SOLO-TREC" (Sounding Oceanographic Lagrangian Observer -- Thermal RECharging), that uses the temperature difference in layers of the ocean to generate electricity and propel a ship theoretically indefinitely.
Compressed-Air Energy Storage Plants Offering Solution for Excess Wind/Solar Power
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.
Astounding Discovery: Marine Algae Using Quantum Mechanics Principles for Light Harvesting
Professor Greg Scholes, the lead author of the study published recently in Nature, says: "There's been a lot of excitement and speculation that nature may be using quantum mechanical practices. Our latest experiments show that normally functioning biological systems have the capacity to use quantum mechanics in order to optimize a process as essential to their survival as photosynthesis."
Haier's Wirelessly-Powered TV Demonstrates WiTricity Technology On Higher Powers
Haier, a Chinese home electronics producer, has demonstrated WiTricity's wireless power technology at CES 2010 by powering a TV set with no strings attached.
EU Planning on Building An European Renewable Energy "Supergrid"
The first electricity grid dedicated to renewable power becomes a political reality this month, because nine European countries draw up plans to link their clean energy projects around the North Sea.
New Discovery: Generating Electricity With Ground Bacteria Shewanella
Bio-chemist David Richardson of the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom said that Shewanella is the ideal candidate for environmental-cleanup tasks as it lives in the underground: "Understanding their biochemistry could help to develop strategies to stimulate their activities [at the cleanup sites]."
