Energy

Artificial Photosynthesis Gets A Boost From Rust

Chemists recently achieved a breakthrough in efforts to develop an economical means of harnessing artificial photosynthesis by narrowing the voltage gap between the two crucial processes of oxidation and reduction, according to a new paper. The team repor ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 12 2013 - 11:52am

Green Energy CEO Predicts Demise Of His Competition

Jeremy Leggett, who runs the largest solar power installer in the UK, is celebrating the World Energy Congress in South Korea by selling you a book predicting the demise of his competitors in conventional energy companies. Well, he is going to be right eve ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Oct 14 2013 - 7:30am

Wind Turbine Arrays Get Better Modeling

Wind turbines often disappoint because the models that justified them weren't all that accurate. But as wind turbines themselves hopefully improve, modeling may as well. And output power may get some extra energy from an unexpected direction: below.  ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 22 2013 - 3:52pm

Solar Cell Efficiency Gets A Boost From InGaN Crystals For Diodes

Crystals form the basis for the penetrating icy blue glare of car headlights- they could also be fundamental to the future in solar energy technology? Manufactured alloy crystals, such as indium gallium nitride or InGaN, form the light emitting region of ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 26 2013 - 10:34am

Staggering Wind Turbines Could Improve Performance 33 Percent, Says Numerical Model

Wind farms can be part of our future energy mix assuming the cost of offshore turbine energy versus their efficiency can be made manageable. A new computer projection found a better way to arrange the turbines is a step in the right direction. A team from ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 31 2013 - 10:30am

CO2 Injections Blamed For Texas Earthquakes

A new study correlates a series of small earthquakes near Snyder, Texas between 2006 and 2011 with the underground injection of large volumes of carbon dioxide (CO2), long before the adoption of current hydraulic fracking and a finding that is relevant to ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 5 2013 - 11:50am

What Makes A Thin Film Solar Cell Efficient?

For many years scientists and engineers have been trying to provide low-cost solar energy by developing a cheap solar cell that is both highly efficient and at the same time simple to build, enabling it to be mass produced. Now, the team led by Empa resea ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 29 2013 - 5:30am

Direct Current: Photovoltaic DC Could Be The Next Big Thing

If you have traveled, you know that in some other countries the voltage used in homes and businesses are different than where you live. But not the type of electricity; all countries use alternating current. Yet a lot of appliances and devices then conver ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 5 2013 - 4:37pm

If There Were Lobbyists For Bats, There Would Be Fewer Wind Turbines

Outside the companies getting subsidy money from the government, not many people like wind turbines. ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 9 2013 - 12:46pm

Sustained Fusion Burn: Uniform Energy Spread Could Prevent Tokamak Disruptions

The sun uses fusion energy and everyone likes the idea of solar power but it requires a lot of infrastructure to translate that fusion energy to our usable kind. Fusion energy on Earth has been studied for decades, and it really isn't close, but if i ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 12 2013 - 6:10pm