Energy

UN Report On Renewable Energy And Efficiency Technologies Investments In 2006

The report says investment capital flowing into renewable energy climbed from $80 billion in 2005 to a record $100 billion in 2006. As well, the renewable energy sector's growth "although still volatile... is showing no sign of abating." The ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 20 2007 - 11:08am

It's A Biological Fuel Cell

Scientists at Oxford University have come up with a way to make electricity biologically. It’s not an English version of Ed Begley, pedaling his stationary bike attached to a turbine to make tea and crumpets. Nope, two different enzymes (hydrogenase and l ...

Article - Jane Poynter - Jun 19 2009 - 10:55pm

Coal-to-Liquid Researchers Are Ahead Of National Debate

From Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" to heated Congressional debates about federal tax incentives for new alternative fuels, the issue of coal's place in supplying America's energy and fuel needs has taken on added importance in ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 6 2007 - 6:23am

Are People Skeptical Of Biomass Energy Because Of Context?

Opinions people have about innovations are influenced by the context in which they form their opinion. For example, opinions about a novel energy source like biomass are influenced by thoughts regarding other energy sources. The less knowledge, interest or ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 13 2007 - 11:09pm

Organic Solar Cell Gets A New Boost

Using plastics to harvest the energy of the sun just got a significant boost in efficiency thanks to a discovery made at the Center for Polymers and Organic Solids at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Nobel laureate Alan Heeger, professor of phy ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 12 2007 - 4:03pm

Pink Solar Cells Help You Go Green

Scientists here have developed new dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) that get their pink color from a mixture of red dye and white metal oxide powder in materials that capture light. Currently, the best of these new pink materials convert light to electri ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 30 2007 - 3:05pm

Experimental Gas Turbine Makes Ultra-Clean Electricity

LSI (low-swirl injector) technology, developed by Robert Cheng of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, recently won a 2007 R&D 100 award from R&D magazine as one of the top 100 new technologies of the year for successfully using pure hydrogen as ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 2 2007 - 5:10pm

Net Energy Is A 'Dangerous' And 'Misleading' Metric, Says Expert

As oil becomes scarce, the world needs new transportation fuels. As new fuel options develop we need means of assessing which are most effective at replacing petroleum. So far many scientists have used a measure called ‘net energy’. However, Professor Bruc ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 7 2007 - 11:52pm

Ammonia Borane Pellets May Power Hydrogen Cars Of The Future

Hydrogen is an interesting idea for a clean, renewable fuel but storage and refueling issues present challenges. A new and attractive storage medium being developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory scientists may provide the “power of pellets” to f ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 22 2007 - 7:50am

Sony Develops "Bio Battery" Generating Electricity From Sugar

Sony today announced the development of a bio battery that generates electricity from carbohydrates (sugar) utilizing enzymes as its catalyst, through the application of power generation principles found in living organisms. Test cells of this bio battery ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 31 2007 - 7:09pm