It looks like sensors regularly used in space missions can now be a part of a technology aimed to improve the making of glass. Hold on, not any kind of glass, but one that excels in thermal insulation in both cold and hot environments - a glass that may reduce carbon dioxide emissions and your electric bill, too.
A new material that could one day change the efficiency of thermal solar panels has been invented by MIT and Boston College researchers, with collaborators from GMZ Energy. The thermoelectric device is at least eight times more efficient than what's currently available in labs.
Several large data centers have opted for solar roofs this April, in an attempt to reduce their internal electricity consumption. It seems logical that they should do so, given the kind of roofs that they have. What so far didn't really make economic sense, right now seems to be the right thing to do.
Germany was recently at a crossing point between 2 options: going ahead with nuclear energy or turning to green resources. Fortunately, the nation learned its lesson from the Fukushima disaster and chose to go green instead, forcing authorities to take notice.
Wind power is the most use form of clean energy that nations around the world are now harnessing as one of their most valuable asset. It has been speculated, though, that power extracted from wind will decrease while global temperatures will rise during the next decades. A study performed by Indiana University Bloomington researchers proves this theory is wrong, and encourages decision makers to pursue their existing plans.
Operating a water pump with the force of gravity may seem like an interesting project for many. Roger Barton, from Ferron, Utah, didn't just dream about it, but put his ingenious mind to work and, with the help of an engineering firm from Redmont he managed to change his diesel pump with a gravity-powered one.
Once electric motors for boats have been discovered and there was clearly a demand for them, then it would have been impossible not to see improvements being added. One of them is the 30 hp version of the Aquawatt electric motor produced by the Australian electric outboard motor specialist All4Solar.
Tides are capable of producing electricity and are more predictable than wind or solar power. Just like wind turbines in the sea, they need to stand on very firm ground. All of that is known from the 60's, but what researchers didn't know was how to make that cost-effective, the main reason why development lagged behind.
Usually, one man's garbage is another man's gold, as they say. The rule does not always stand up when the latter pays 20 times more than he should, and there's so much of it that it can't be carried from one to another. That's the case with some Scottish wind farms that just provided too much energy and had to be disconnected recently, but the wind power companies had to be paid anyway.
Jun Xu and his team from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory have just created a three-dimensional "nanocone-based solar cell platform," which is able to increase the light conversion efficiency by almost 80 percent by eliminating the issue of poor charge transport due to bulk material defects.
