400 kW Piezoelectric Energy Recovery System Under Israel's Highways
When I was like 12, I did an interesting experiment: I connected a piezoelectric cigarette lighter to a halogen lamp based voltmeter measuring up to 3000V. The short spark easily raised the voltage above that figure. Of course, the current is very small, but the voltage is high - to the degree of about several tens of thousands volts.
Fridge Powered by Heat Invented at Stanford
We have been talking a while ago about refrigerators that needed no electricity or that were powered by the Sun, through evaporation, helping poor countries with a cool place to keep their food. Now, venture capitalist Adam Grosser teamed up with some Stanford scientists to create refrigerator that really doesn't need to be plugged in anything but the Sun.
BOINC Software to Cut 20 Years in Solar Cell Development
Everyone knows two are more powerful than one. On the same principle, IBM and Harvard University researchers launched a joint project today in an effort to search for the optimum combination of materials to create the most efficient solar cells ever.
DOE Studying How Concrete Could Absorb Solar Power Better
Some University of Arkansas researchers want to give solar power a new meaning. They want to store the Sun's heat in concrete, and then pass that heat on to generate electricity. Since the US hasn't had many projects involving storing of thermal energy in concrete, it is a good time to start.
Clean Nuclear Fusion Now Possible Using Electromagnetic Waves
Two MIT scientists, physicist Yijun Lin and principal research scientist John Rice, using the university's Alcator C-Mod fusion reactor, proved that electromagnetic waves produced with the help of a Tokamak (pictured above) could be used to keep that plasma hot and make nuclear fusion possible.
New MIT Thin Film Solar Cells Brag 50% More Efficiency
MIT researchers invented new and improved thin film solar cells that present 50% more efficiency, while being much more cheap than classic solar cells. Their price is due to using less silicon than conventional solar cells.
Air#Maze: Cheapest and Simplest Solar Powered Room Heater
"Environmental Art must work," says artist/inventor Doyle Doss. "As artists, as creative individuals, we must do all we can to make our work actually solve a problem. What we create must make positive impacts on an environment that has been severely damaged. The question for each of us will always remain, 'Is my work a part of the solution, really, or is it just a re-statement of the problem?' "
Solar Balloon to Harness 400 Times More Energy
An image is worth a thousand words. As you may see in the picture above, this balloon, made by Cool Earth, is concentrating the solar power to a focal point, where a photovoltaic solar cell is harnessing the light.
Could Extreme Wind Turbine Usage Alter Weather Patterns?
While there's no Hancock to save the world from global warming, I guess we have to do that ourselves. We try and try, struggle with all the issues nature has put in our face, but yet we don't succeed with 100% efficiency, or we don't convert our efforts well enough to capture the forces that move around us freely.
Sharp and Enel to Produce 1 GigaWatt Thin Film Solar Power Yearly
It's good news to hear that green technology is growing rapidly in our times, and that new inventions in solar power are being applied months after they had been on the engineers' desks. This time it's about a new joint venture between the Japanese company Sharp and the largest Italian electricity provider, Enel.
