Now, everyone who's ever done a redecoration of their home knows how time and energy wasting is to buy the bed, then realize that the color won't fit the color of the wall, or that you wanted another model for the table, wall clock etc.
Scientific breakthroughs have been known to come by accident, not necessarily after a nice, long study: look at Newton's apple! This is roughly what happened at the Krafla volcano in Iceland: instead of testing geothermal energy harvesting, the team of researchers discovered the amazing power of magma.
WiTricity, one of the first promoters of wireless chargers, have recently signed a deal with Toyota. The Japanese car maker is now investing in the U.S.-based technology and will probably embed the 3.3 kilowatt-hour charger within future plug-in electric and hybrid models (such as the well-known Prius).
Infrared light makes up the most part of the light spectrum, but the glitch in today's solar panels is that they can't really harvest it for direct electricity generation, because of the long wavelengths involved. Thus, a standard solar panel misses about 75% of the incoming energy, and some of them, concentrated solar cells, need cooling to prevent damage to the silicon substrate that favors the energy conversion.
It would be such a shame if countries with huge solar potential would sit around doing nothing about it. Saudi Arabia is not to be told twice! First, because it is one of those countries which enjoy sunlight from dawn till dusk and second of all, because some of its massive oil reserves are slowly but surely emptying out.
If you live in the city in the US and you're not sure whether you should buy an electric vehicle, Ford helps you out. Not financially, as many would like, but with a map, so you can see if your city is among those most ready to receive the fully electric Ford Focus on its roads.
As you may know, many people became experts in generating wind power in recent years. Even so, they are still searching for more powerful, more consistent winds. For this purpose, some graduates from MIT came up with a new concept: if we can produce wind power on the ground, why not try to do the same thing in the air?
South Korea, through its most important group Samsung, is taking the business of "eco-friendliness" to a whole new level: it doesn't mess around with things like electric cars or wind turbines. Samsung thinks big: a green energy complex at Saemangeum wetland area south of Seoul!
Watch the chart on the left... what do you think it represents?
Did you watch it carefully enough? This represents the auto industry's top notch statistic, claiming that 4 (four) running men (the average size) pollute more than 1 (one) hybrid car (carrying its 1.2+ tons and the four men) running at a speed of 30 km/h. Do you also think that's stupid? I did, too.
When cars or trains move on the surface of the earth, they produce vibrations. These vibrations can be captured and directed through underground piezoelectric materials to a smart grid or roadside batteries.
