Clipmarks | Silkweaver's 'energy' clips

Street lamps powered by discarded batteries light the neighborhood for cheap

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 22:40:09 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Really cool idea

That battery you're throwing away may not have enough energy left to power your gadgetry, but it does have enough juice to light up a low-energy LED. That's the driving idea behind South Korean designer Sung Woo Park's conceptual Energy Seed, a stylish street lamp powered entirely by discarded batteries.

Drop a battery into one of the Energy Seed's disposal holes and it'll fall down into a tube. Several batteries can be stacked one on top of the other, daisy-chaining drained batteries into a long-lasting power supply for an LED lamp that will give pedestrians a bit of light on the sidewalk. It's a great way to re-appropriate trash that we'd otherwise consider useless.

Tags: clean energy, recycling

Scientists Reach Hydrogen Storage Milestone

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:19:04 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver

Clip Source: cleantechnica.com

Hydrogen cars may be feasible sooner than previously thought thanks to the efforts of a research team at the University of Crete in Greece. The scientists have developed a hydrogen storage model that can store up to 41 grams of hydrogen per liter— almost matching the US Department of Energy’s target of 45 grams per liter.

The storage structure consists of graphene sheets that are only one atom thick connected by vertical columns of carbon nanotubes. Hydrogen is stored in the gaps between the nanotubes and the graphene sheets. The researchers also added lithium ions to the structure for increased storage capacity.

In the past, one of the major drawbacks in using hydrogen for transportation purposes has been a lack of storage ability. This new discovery comes close to removing that hurdle. But since most hydrogen is still produced using fossil fuels, we still have a ways to go before hydrogen-powered cars are ready for commercial use.

Tags: clean energy, hydrogen economy

Copernican principle re-examined: We might be living in a giant cosmic bubble

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 22:40:17 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Clifton, along with Oxford researchers Pedro G. Ferreira and Kate Land, say that in coming years we may be able to distinguish between dark energy and the void. They point to the upcoming Joint Dark Energy Mission, planned by NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy to launch in 2014 or 2015. The satellite aims to measure the expansion of the universe precisely by observing about 2,300 supernovae.

The scientists suggest that by looking at a large number of supernovae in a certain region of the universe, they should be able to tell whether the objects are really accelerating away, or if their light is merely being distorted in a void.

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

If the notion of dark energy sounds improbable, get ready for an even more outlandish suggestion.

Earth may be trapped in an abnormal bubble of space-time that is particularly void of matter. Scientists say this condition could account for the apparent acceleration of the universe's expansion, for which dark energy currently is the leading explanation.

Current thinking is that 74 percent of the universe could be made up of this exotic dark energy, with another 21 percent being dark matter, and normal matter comprising the remaining 5 percent.

Until now, there has been no good way to choose between dark energy or the void explanation, but a new study outlines a potential test of the bubble scenario.

One problem with the void idea, though, is that it negates a principle that has reined in astronomy for more than 450 years: namely, that our place in the universe isn't special.

Tags: cosmology, dark energy, copernicus

Clean energy 2030

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 22:12:11 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: This is doable not only in US. It needs vision, leadership and active participation.

Clip Source: googleblog.blogspot.com

Right now the U.S. has a very real opportunity to transform our economy from one running on fossil fuels to one largely based on clean energy.

The energy team at Google has been crunching the numbers to see how we could greatly reduce fossil fuel use by 2030.

Our analysis, led by Jeffery Greenblatt, suggests a potential path to weaning the U.S. off of coal and oil for electricity generation by 2030 (with some remaining use of natural gas as well as nuclear), and cutting oil use for cars by 40%.

Our goal in presenting this first iteration of the Clean Energy 2030 proposal is to stimulate debate and we invite you to take a look and comment -- or offer an alternative approach if you disagree.

Over 22 years this plan could generate billions of dollars in savings and help create millions of green jobs.

(1) Reduce demand by doing more with less

(2) Develop renewable energy that is cheaper than coal (RE<C)

(3) Electrify transportation and re-invent our electric grid

Tags: energy, clean energy, google

Long-distance demonstration of solar-powered wireless power transmission achieved

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:10:18 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: In the longer term, with sufficient investments in space infrastructure, space solar power can be built from materials from space. The full environmental benefits of space solar power derive from doing most of the work outside of Earth's biosphere. With materials extraction from the Moon or near-Earth asteroids, and space-based manufacture of components, space solar power would have essentially zero terrestrial environmental impact. Only the energy receivers need be built on Earth.

Clip Source: www.nss.org

The United States and the world need to find new sources of clean energy.

Space Solar Power gathers energy from sunlight in space and transmits it wirelessly to Earth. Space solar power can solve our energy and greenhouse gas emissions problems. Not just help, not just take a step in the right direction, but solve. Space solar power can provide large quantities of energy to each and every person on Earth with very little environmental impact.

The solar energy available in space is literally billions of times greater than we use today.

As Earth receives only one part in 2.3 billion of the Sun's output, space solar power is by far the largest potential energy source available, dwarfing all others combined.

This technology on a larger scale, combined with already demonstrated wireless power transmission (see 2-minute video of demo), can supply nearly all the electrical needs of our planet.

Space solar power can completely solve our energy problems long term.

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Tags: clean energy, solar energy, space

Sahara Forest Project Will Generate Fresh Water, Solar Power & Crops in African Desert

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 00:17:21 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: This sounds like a really good idea. I am sure it will cost a fraction of the defense budget of certain countries.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Last week, a trio of visionaries launched the Sahara Forest Project to combine two innovative technologies, concentrated solar power (CSP) and seawater greenhouses, to produce renewable energy, water and food in the Sahara -the hottest place on earth.

The Sahara Forest Project aims to provide a new source of fresh water, food and renewable energy in hot, arid regions, as well as providing conditions that enable re-vegetating areas of desert. The Sahara is used here as a metaphor for any desert that formerly supported vegetation and could do so again, given sufficient water.

Seawater Greenhouses have been built in some of the hottest regions on earth, Abu Dhabi and Oman for example, where they create freshwater from seawater, while providing cooler and more humid growing conditions

Concentrated solar power is increasingly seen as one of the most promising forms of renewable energy, producing electricity from sunlight at a fraction of the cost of photovoltaics.

Tags: renewable energy, fresh water, sahara

Celebrate The Launching of the LHC with a Cool Physics Rap

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 01:21:28 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: The coolest way to update on high energy particle physics.

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

[Video]

The Large Hadron Collider may be causing fears for the future of the world, but it has become the bizarre setting for an unlikely music hit.

Written and performed by 23-year-old Kate McAlpine, who works in the Press office at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland, the video features Kate and two background dancers bopping about in lab coats.

A long way from rap’s usual subjects of violence and crime, the rap focuses on the science of high-energy particle physics.

One section goes: ‘Two beams of protons/ swing ’round./ Through the ring they ride/’til in the hearts of the detectors/ they’re made to collide!/ And all that energy packed/ in that tiny room/ becomes mass,/ particles created from the vacuum.’

A CERN spokesman said: ‘We love the rap and the science is spot on.’

Tags: physics, rap music, lhc

Energy Ball brings a quiet wind turbine to your roof

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 01:51:49 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver

Clip Source: dvice.com

Looking for a small, quiet wind turbine to stick on your roof and generate free energy for you whenever there's a breeze? Take a look at the Energy Ball. A small, beautifully designed turbine, it'll generate more energy than any other personal turbine while remaining whisper quiet.

The spherical Energy Ball takes advantage of the Venturi Effect, something that measures the pressure created when water moves through a contained space. By taking that principle into effect, the Energy Ball is able to bring extra efficiency to the table that allows it to generate energy even with very slow wind speeds. What are you waiting for? We're talking free energy here!

Tags: environment, clean energy

Future for clean energy lies in 'big bang' of evolution

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:45:01 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: For humans now there is the tantalising possibility of tweaking the photosynthetic reactions of cyanobacteria to produce fuels we want such as hydrogen, alcohols or even hydrocarbons, rather than carbohydrates.
Progress at the research level has been rapid, boosting prospects of harnessing photosynthesis not just for energy but also for manufacturing valuable compounds for the chemical and biotechnology industries. Such research is running on two tracks, one aimed at genetically engineering real plants and cyanobacteria to yield the products we want, and the other to mimic their processes in artificial photosynthetic systems built with human-made components. Both approaches hold great promise and will be pursued in parallel, as was discussed at a recent workshop focusing on the photosynthetic reaction centres of cyanobacteria, organised by the European Science Foundation (ESF).

Clip Source: scienceblogs.com

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

Amid mounting agreement that future clean, "carbon-neutral", energy will rely on efficient conversion of the sun's light energy into fuels and electric power, attention is focusing on one of the most ancient groups of organism, the cyanobacteria.

Dramatic progress has been made over the last decade understanding the fundamental reaction of photosynthesis that evolved in cyanobacteria 3.7 billion years ago, which for the first time used water molecules as a source of electrons to transport energy derived from sunlight, while converting carbon dioxide into oxygen.

The light harvesting systems gave the bacteria their blue ("cyano") colour, and paved the way for plants to evolve by "kidnapping" bacteria to provide their photosynthetic engines, and for animals by liberating oxygen for them to breathe, by splitting water molecules.

Tags: clean energy, molecular biology

The Secret Of Fast Complex Brain Restructuring

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:29:42 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Up to now, it had been assumed that nerve cells can only exchange information via the synapses which are special contact points. However, synapses require up to two days to become fully functional - a waste of time and energy if the contact is to be broken down again. The brain could take almost 1000 years to develop if a synapse had to mature at each cell contact.

It appears that nerve cells can also obtain information about their neighbours even without a synapse. Neurobiologists Christian Lohmann and Tobias Bonhoeffer from the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology have now explained how they do that.

The secret to how the information is exchanged: local calcium signals very quickly transmit all the necessary information to the cell. A synapse only actually develops when the cell and the contact point prove to be suitable candidates for long-term contact.

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

Nerve cells constantly create new contact points to their neighbouring cells.

This is how the basic structure of our brain develops. In adults, new contact makes learning and memory possible. However, not all contact between cells is useful - most of it is dismantled again very quickly.

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology in Martinsried near Munich have now described a completely new technique with which nerve cells can evaluate the quality of the cells they contact in a very time- and energy-saving way.

During brain development, young nerve cells must come into contact with the correct partner cells so that the brain can carry out its complex functions. However, contact between nerve cells is also constantly being set up and dismantled in adults. It is this continuous restructuring of the brain that allows us to learn and to forget.

Tags: neuroscience, molecular biology

Nano-Solar Power -Will it Be the Next Revolutionary Technology?

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:50:11 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Not that the technology is perfect. The system can absorb energy very well, but that's no good to anyone until they work out a way to harvest it from the sheet - when you're dealing with a hyper-complex web of millions of units oscillating at trillions of cycles per second, you can't just solder copper wires to the ends and call them plus and minus. This isn't a mistake or a weakness in the concept though; it's an issue because no-one has ever done this before. You know, the kind of thing that happens with cutting edge invention.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Nanotech has fueled the imaginations of science-fictioners for years, with world-changing and ending inventions in equal measure.

But the real strength of this molecular machinery is how it can upgrade existing concepts, and this time it's solar power's turn.

Considering that the Sun already provides all the Earth's organic energy in one form or another, it seems a shame we can't make the machines use it too.

Step forward Idaho National Laboratories, who were working on nano-enhancing existing technologies

Now they're working on entirely nano-paneling

The new nanonet is flexible and can be printed on many surfaces. A demonstration was printed on plastic bags

The microscopic structures can pick up the infrared wavelengths that only Predators can even see, absorbing energy at 80% efficiency - four times the efficiency of commercial panels.

Tags: energy, solar energy, nanotehcnology

String Theory Faster-Than-Light Drive Proposed

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 22:18:29 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Dreams of interstellar travel may need to be put on hold for the moment, however. Cleaver and Obousy estimate that the amount of energy needed to influence the extra dimension is equivalent to the entire mass of Jupiter being converted into pure energy for a ship measuring roughly 10 meters by 10 meters by 10 meters. "That is an enormous amount of energy," Cleaver said. "We are still a very long ways off before we could create something to harness that type of energy."

But what if we could make ourselves very very small??? I am ready to squeeze myself quite a bit to get really far...

Clip Source: www.scienceagogo.com

Physicists Gerald Cleaver and Richard Obousy, of Baylor University, believe they have come up with a new method for a spaceship to travel faster than the speed of light without breaking the laws of physics.

They theorize that by manipulating the extra spatial dimensions of string theory around a spaceship with an extremely large amount of energy, it would create a "bubble" that could cause the ship to travel faster than the speed of light.

The Baylor physicists believe that manipulating the 10th spatial dimension postulated in string theory would alter the dark energy in three large spatial dimensions: height, width and length.

The new method is based on the Alcubierre drive, which proposes expanding the fabric of space behind a ship and shrinking space-time in front of the ship.

The ship would not actually move, rather the ship would sit in a bubble between the expanding and shrinking space-time dimensions.

Tags: physics, string theory, faster than light drive

Quantum Crystals: A Solution to Inexpensive & Efficient Green Energy?

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:34:05 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Innovalight is already planning to make flexible solar panels available at a cost that could be as much as ten times cheaper than the current solar cell technology.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Those concerned about Earth’s future will be encouraged to hear about the announcement by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy. They reported the discovery of a unique quantum physics effect in silicon nanocrystals, which should eventually help humankind come much closer to the goal of leaving “dirty” energy behind.

The researchers

discovered a new effect called Multiple Exciton Generation (MEG).

The effect occurs efficiently in silicon nanocrystals, resulting in the formation of more than one electron per absorbed photon, the scientists reported.

When today’s photovoltaic solar cells absorb a photon of sunlight, about 50 percent of the incident energy is lost as heat. MEG provides a way to convert energy lost as heat into additional electricity.

The finding might lead to the application of MEG for greatly enhancing the conversion efficiency of solar cells based on silicon.

Tags: solar energy, clean energy, quantum physics

Kites could provide electricity for 100,000 homes

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:53:25 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Several other scientists are investigating the use of kites to harness energy from the wind - which some researchers estimate provides more than 100 times the amount required to power the entire planet. In 2007, Google´s philanthropic arm invested about $10 million in a US kite company called Makani. An Italian company called Kitegen has a multi-kite scheme that could generate a gigawatt of power, as much as a standard coal plant.

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

High-flying kites tethered to generators could supply as much as 100 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 100,000 homes, according to researchers from the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands.

The scientists have recently demonstrated that flying a single 10-square-meter kite could produce 10 kilowatts of power, which could supply electricity for about 10 homes.

In their next experiment, the researchers plan to test a 50-kilowatt version, called Laddermill. Eventually, their goal is to build a multi-kite system that could generate a full 100 megawatts.

Electricity produced by kites in the wind could be inexpensive, too. The researchers predict prices to be comparable with generating electricity using coal power, and half that of using wind turbines.

kites generate power by pulling on their strings that are attached to generators on the ground. After reaching their maximum height, the kites are reeled back down to repeat the process.

Tags: energy, clean energy, wind, kites

Green Group Declares the Future Leader in Clean Energy Is… China?

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:12:15 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver

Clip Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com

China currently leads the world in its use of renewable energy, and is poised to also take first place on investment in clean energy technologies, according to a new report from an international non-profit, The Climate Group.

The report serves as a stark contrast to the steady drumbeat of recent news about China’s pollution problems, which include the smoggy air of Beijing that may imperil Olympic athletes during this month’s summer games.

The report says that China has hardly shed all of its allegiance to dirty energy; [I]t is building one coal-fired power station a week and its carbon dioxide emissions have surged since 2002, from seven percent of the global total to more than 24 percent

However, the government’s investment in clean technology is on an upward trend, the report says. In 2007, China’s $12 billion investment in renewables was second only to Germany’s; by 2009, China’s renewables-investment is expected to be the world’s largest

Tags: clean energy, environment, china