Green Tech

Georgia Tech researchers have developed a system that uses dye-sensitized (Grätzel) solar cells wrapped around optical fibers to increase their overall efficiency, since it's known Grätzel cells are not very efficient. The fiber solar cells they obtained are 6 times more efficient than zinc-oxide solar cells having the same area.

IBM is seemingly more and more concerned about green technologies, and now invests in a project that can solve the problem of cooling solar cells that would otherwise be hard to use because of the high temperatures they're exposed to (120°C), aka concentrated photovoltaics.

Worldwide terminus lakes could benefit from a new system to desalinate water, using a low-cost solar pond and patented membrane distillation system powered by renewable energy.

While most new inventions are for wealthy people, with some social status, once in a while there are inventions aimed to help the poor and provide the minimal sanitary conditions through simple and inexpensive methods.To get one liter of boiling water you need one kilo of firewood. People living in areas with no safe water usually spend 3-10% of total income/year on water.

University of Florida researchers have invented spray-on polymers that can reflect or transmit any color, and can be applied to glass or plastics as well. "That's what this newest paper is about, but we've also developed polymer coatings for all the other colors of the spectrum," said John Reynolds, a scientist at the University of Florida who led a team that developed the clear-to-black polymers.

The IT industry is one of the most polluting industries in the world and the fact that its development accelerates by the year is even more concerning. Its future grow and the impact it's going to have to the economy if limits are placed on carbon emissions have been evaluated by the Institute for Sustainable and Applied Infodynamics (ISAID) in Singapore and Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston.

Hard as steel, quick-growing (three times faster than hard woods), bamboo has been long used in countries like Colombia to make good, durable home....

We've got to love the MythBusters on The Discovery Channel. These guys have the incredible ability to break all, OK maybe not all, but...

Here is one for all green transportation lovers, who have a secret (or not so secret) obsession with dinosaurs. Meet the super cool rideable...

Nanosolar has created a thin film solar battery, much more efficient than anything existing on the market nowadays. Its thin film technology transfers the sun...