The Green Optimistic

Swiss Solar Airplane Lands in Madrid, Halfway Through to Morocco

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 25 May 2012 18:02:30 +0000

Solar Impulse, world’s first and only aircraft powered solely by the 12,000 solar cells mounted on its wings started a journey to Rabat in Morocco, with a stop in Madrid. So, today, Andre Borschberg, the pilot, landed in Madrid this morning at 6:30 GMT and seemed very excited about it. Last year, Borschberg flew 2,500 [...]

Sea Sponges Could Be Used to Detect Climate Change and Water Pollution

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 25 May 2012 17:32:13 +0000

Kuo Yang and Susanne Zeile, guided by Prof. Wei Zhang discovered that sea sponges can tell whether they’ve suffered changes because of climate change or other pollutants in the water they live in. They performed tests on sea sponges by artificially increasing water temperatures, adding pollutants or modifying the acidity levels. The results have been [...]

Cops Go Electric, Too – Check out the Zero DS Bike

Mihai Sandru — Fri, 25 May 2012 07:38:04 +0000

Maybe you thought electric motorcycles aren’t such a good idea – what if they remain without “fuel” while the criminal just slips away? However, it can be done! Especially since the electric-motorcycle maker Zero Motorcycles offers different configurations, after two years of intense collaboration with the police. That means you could be seeing one Zero [...]

Spanish Housing Project Substantially Reduces Carbon Dioxide Emissions

Boniface Ndirangu — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:53:12 +0000

A sustainable housing project developed by architects at ACTX in Salburúa, Spain, is a remarkable masterpiece of modern architecture. This eco-friendly project is said to have a substantial reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and was completed in 2011. It was designed to integrate 9 shops at the ground level while all the other upper floors [...]

Americans Considering a Smaller, Fuel-Efficient Car as Their Next

Boniface Ndirangu — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:40:27 +0000

Among the key factors that the Americans will consider when buying their next car is fuel economy, according to a recent Consumer Reports survey. As it has always been the case, an ever increasing trend of gas prices has led to fewer vehicles being driven and serious considerations of changing big fuel guzzling vehicles for smaller [...]

New Type of Highly Efficient Grätzel-Like Solar Cells Don’t Leak

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 23 May 2012 19:50:01 +0000

A research group from Northwestern University has unveiled a new type of dye-sensitized (organic) solar cell that is a technological leap forward and that will make Michael Grätzel proud of his invention. Their new solar cell is not more efficient, but lasts for longer in real life conditions. Current dye-sensitized solar cells use a liquid electrolyte. [...]

World’s Five Most Sustainable Buildings

Mihai Sandru — Wed, 23 May 2012 18:59:54 +0000

If we want to show you some of the world’s most sustainable buildings, it’s because we want to point out that it’s not enough to drive an electric car to save energy; the approach must be extended to every activity that relies on electricity. And the buildings showcased here are a fine example of how [...]

Nissan to Start Producing the e-NV200 Electric Van by 2014

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 23 May 2012 18:52:03 +0000

Just like Tesla Motors, Nissan is taking the next step in their electric car sequel. Borrowing the front part from the Leaf and the rear from an already successful taxi called NV200, the company led by Carlos Ghosn has announced its decision to roll out yet another electric car, the e-NV200. The e-NV200 is basically [...]

Tesla Motors to Start Model S Deliveries on June 22

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 23 May 2012 13:53:58 +0000

Tesla Motors has announced today that they’ll start deliveries of their first electric sedan, the Model S, exactly a month from now. Well, but the first customers will be those who paid more, as the first deliveries will be of a Model S Signature, with prices ranging from $87,900 to $97,900. The premium electric sedan [...]

New EV Battery Case from NTS Works Makes Replacing Individual Faulty Elements a Breeze, Lowers Price

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 22 May 2012 17:17:52 +0000

Even if their price plummeted in the last two to three years by 30%, batteries are still the most expensive part of an electric vehicle. What’s most troubling about such a battery is that if it breaks, only specialized factories are able to fix them, because they are welded together for maximum electrical conductivity. Neal [...]

Coastal Seagrasses Store Two Times More Carbon Than Forests

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 22 May 2012 15:10:54 +0000

Although they’re easily ignored, seagrasses have been found to be one of the greatest carbon sinks on the planet. The study, published in Nature Geosciences, reveals that they can store up to 83,000 metric tons of carbon per square kilometer. For a change, the average forest can only store 30,000 tons of carbon per square [...]

European EV Motor Market to Face Continuous Rise, Study Says

Mihai Sandru — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:45:10 +0000

According to a new analysis from business research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, we are to witness a continuous electrification of the cars we’ll drive in the near future. No pun intended, but I guess you could have guessed that by yourself, without the analysis telling you so. It’s enough to look at the [...]

Computer Simulation Reveals Global Warming Scenario for 2050

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:07:41 +0000

A piece of software written specially for running on home computers in a widely-distributed worldwide network has performed about 10,000 simulations regarding the climate change and found out that chances are equal that by 2050 the average temperature will raise by another 3 degrees Celsius or 1.4 degrees. The results and conclusions have been presented [...]

A Chemical Reaction That Could Level CO2 Emissions and Generate Power

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 21 May 2012 21:24:23 +0000

A chemical reaction that turns carbon dioxide into a solid and on the top of it, releases energy, has been discovered by a Michigan Technological University researcher and could revolutionize how we sequester the powerful greenhouse gas to our advantage. So far, people trying to put CO2 molecules together did it by adding energy, which [...]

Why Rolls Royce Dropped the Electric Version of Phantom

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 21 May 2012 20:57:23 +0000

Last year we’ve been telling you that Rolls Royce will enrich its big and ugly Phantom cars made for the rich and tasteless with yet another big and ugly Phantom – not one powered by a V12 engine, but by a quiet, clean and smooth electric motor… The Rolls Royce 102 EX. Well, they did. [...]

Porsche Reveals New Details and Photos of 918 Spyder Hybrid

Mihai Sandru — Mon, 21 May 2012 16:44:17 +0000

There are not a lot of car manufacturers out there that get it right every time so that you startle when hearing of a new release, but Porsche is certainly one of them. Just last week did the German company announced the testing of the 918 Spyder hybrid, that everyone turned their attention towards it, [...]

Graphene Solar Cells Reaching Record 8.6 Percent Efficiency

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 21 May 2012 16:25:03 +0000

A new efficiency record for graphene solar cells has been established by University of Florida in Gainesville researchers. The new solar cell, made of graphene impurified with an organic dopant now reaches an efficiency of 8.6 percent, versus the 1.9% of the previous iterations. Sefaattin Tongay and Arthur F. Hebard, the two researchers who published [...]

Solar Powered Cement Production Technology Takes Off at George Washington University

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:46:14 +0000

Right now, cement production accounts for 5 to 6 percent of total man-made greenhouse gases. Producing lime, its key ingredient, uses an energy-intensive process that needs temperatures as high as 1,500 degrees Celsius, and that can only be obtained with fossil fuels. A new, rudimentary contraption at George Washington University does all that with solar [...]

California Leads in Green Energy Sector, Reduces Greenhouse Emissions

Mihai Sandru — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:42:50 +0000

When the independent nonprofit group Next 10 recently released the 2012 California Green Innovation Index put together by Collaborative Economics, they knew it was time to show off. And well, they did have the reasons: California leads the way in venture capital investment, patent registration of clean technology and how much green energy they produce. [...]

EV Battery Maker A123 Dropping Fast, Funding Needed

Boniface Ndirangu — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:37:55 +0000

There are sharp declines in the financial position of lithium-ion battery manufacturer A123 Systems, fanning in a lot of heat on this 10-year-old company founded and based on technology developed at MIT. To have a more clear picture of how terrible the situation is A123 just posted a $125 million net loss in its most [...]

New Concept Gasoline Engine Runs Like a Diesel, Increases Efficiency by 50%

Boniface Ndirangu — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:02:24 +0000

A hurdle that has faced researchers for many decades might soon be overcome by Delphi, a leading supplier of major parts to automakers. The company has developed an engine that could sit between low-emission gasoline engines on one side, and the highly polluting but more efficient diesel engines on the other. The new technology could [...]

Strathclyde Scientists Design Small Satellites to Gather and Beam Solar Power to Earth

Mihai Sandru — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:38:26 +0000

Forget about silicon-based solar cells or other improvements in the solar energy area: researchers at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow have something better for us in store: space-harvested sunlight. That solves the issue of energy intermittence in solar power, since the satellites would see the Sun all the time and send the energy they collect [...]

Siemens to Test eHighway, an Electric Heavy Truck Powering System in California

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:54:10 +0000

Siemens has been prototyping lately something that’s not new, but which can ultimately do to highways what electric buses (also called trolleys) have done to European cities – cleaning them of dirty diesel smoke. The company is converting heavy trucks into hybrid and putting an overhead power line along the highway so that they can [...]

The Story of Send: Google’s Own Way of Saying “Hi, I’m Green!”

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 16 May 2012 17:30:26 +0000

You probably found this while googling, so the search giant Google is no stranger to you. Well, they may be giant and all, but as far as I know they’re the greenest Internet service provider out there. That’s why Google decided today that it’s important to let people know what chain is actually involved when [...]

Wireless Power Transmission Made Better by Old Electronics Principles and New Circuitry

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:40:14 +0000

NC State University researchers have recently implemented what is being used in radios for decades in wireless power transfer (WPT) receivers – the ability of the receiver to keep track of the transmitter’s frequency if the differences are really small. This could ultimately impact electric vehicle wireless power transfer systems by making them more efficient [...]

Organic Solar Cells Market to Skyrocket in 10 Years, Report Says

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:42:45 +0000

If you are about to invest in silicon-based photovoltaics, please stop for a moment and read this. IDTechEx, a market research company, has published a report saying that the organic (not silicon) photovoltaic market is about to hit a value of $630 million in ten years. The growth will be stupendous: 1300% from today’s $4.6 [...]

Yi Cui’s New Silicon Nanotube Batteries Can Get Recharged Up to 6,000 Times

Boniface Ndirangu — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:34:35 +0000

Yi Cui, a Stanford scientist and founder of Amprius, is working on a high-tech lithium ion battery that could last for 6,000 charge and discharge cycles – all without degrading itself below 85 percent. This could bring an end to the headaches that many go through with aging laptop batteries or electric cars which just [...]

Americans Willing to Pay Extra for Clean Energy, Study Says

Boniface Ndirangu — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:27:16 +0000

Barack Obama’s January 2011 State of the Union address called for a National Clean Energy Standard (NCES) that would target having 80% of all energy sources in the US to be generated from green sources by 2035. The U.S. citizens are ready to pay the extra cost – as long as they will get green [...]

Couple Drives 1626.1 Miles in Diesel-Powered 2012 VW Passat

Mihai Sandru — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:55:28 +0000

Remember when you used to say clean vehicles couldn’t take you very far? John and Helen Taylor prove you wrong: after 90 fuel economy and vehicle-related records around the world, they have decided to go for one more. What came out of that is a new record for the longest distance covered on one tank [...]

Thinergy’s New Batteries Redefine The Realm of Recharging

Izzy Maxino — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:41:38 +0000

Today’s society is heading towards being a more mobile, technology-driven one. The market has been demanding smaller and thinner portable electronics, and manufacturers were able to produce thinner gadgets for its consumers. Now, with Infinite Power Solutions’ (IPS) breakthrough, manufacturers may be able to achieve the thinnest gadgets that we could ever possibly imagine. IPS of Littleton, Colorado [...]

Shocking USGS Image Shows How Much Potable Water We Actually Have Available

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 14 May 2012 15:41:47 +0000

The USGS (United States Geological Survey) has published a post on their water-related website that shows an amazing 3D rendering of actually how much water exists on Earth and how much of that water is potable. You can see the results on the left – they shocked me. The blue sphere floating above the Earth [...]

NASA Scientist Warns About Canadian Tar Sands’ Potentially Catastrophic Impact on Climate

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:06:42 +0000

Tar sands – Canada’s dream of a richer life, are about to disrupt changes so dramatic in the global climate that 20 to 50 percent of the planet’s species could go extinct and civilization as we know it could reach the edge of peril. However, those tar sands filled with bituminous fuel aren’t seeing daylight [...]

Texas Wind Turbine Research Center to Open in October

Boniface Ndirangu — Sat, 12 May 2012 13:59:54 +0000

The Scales Wind Farm Technology Facility (SWIFT), a state-of-the-art wind turbine research facility in the Texas Panhandle, is expected to become fully operational starting October. Stephanie Holinka, a Sandia National Laboratories’ spokesperson, said that the first phase of this project is being constructed by collaboration with Sandia’s academic and private partners. The other collaborators involved [...]

Revolutionary Butane-Powered Backup Charger to Hit Market This Year

Mihai Sandru — Fri, 11 May 2012 15:09:38 +0000

A 10-year-old MIT spinoff, Lilliputian Systems is now ready to commercialize a portable charger that, if priced correctly, will revolutionize batteries and backup charging for mobile devices. It runs on butane and contains a revolutionary fuel cell that transforms the liquid into electricity. The device will be retailed through Brookstone and will probably hit the market [...]

Researchers Urging Decision Makers for Agreement on Plutonium Waste Disposal

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 10 May 2012 18:16:28 +0000

A new research on the actions to be done about nuclear waste has been recently published in the science journal Nature. Their conclusions have been that the wastes should be disposed of safely and securely, so that they are unreachable by third parties who could build nuclear weapons. Worldwide, about 500 metric tons of plutonium [...]

How to Make Your Own Solar Cell From a Bunch of Scrap Diodes (Video)

Mihai Sandru — Thu, 10 May 2012 16:42:21 +0000

Buying photovoltaic panels from the store and installing them can prove a costly process, so why not try making a pair of your own at home? Warning: they may not generate much electricity, while losing some of it, but if it works, wouldn’t it be a shame not to have tried? Especially since you don’t [...]

Gas Resulting from Geothermal Drilling Causes Respiratory Diseases in Iceland

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 10 May 2012 04:07:01 +0000

A three-year study performed in Iceland revealed that toxic gases associated with geothermal drilling can be dangerous to human health. The study found a link between underground-originating hydrogen sulfide (the rotten eggs-smelling substance) and asthma and various respiratory diseases. The hydrogen sulfide had been measured next to a busy intersection in Reykjavik, from March 2006 [...]

Zinc Anode Smart Battery System Carries Electric and Financial Savings for Buildings

Mihai Sandru — Wed, 09 May 2012 19:01:33 +0000

The CUNY Energy Institute has built its “fame” on the production of batteries that are safe, non-toxic, and reliable but still have a reasonable price. Now the company has poured all that know-how into a prototype zinc anode battery system in an attempt to surpass nickel cadmium batteries or make lead-acid ones redundant. However, one [...]

New UK-Led Project Aims to Combine Biofuel and Microbial Cell in Cheap Fuel Cells

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 09 May 2012 17:16:57 +0000

Biofuel cells (BFCs) and microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are about to get a boost in efficiency thanks to a project aimed at creating hybrid electrodes. In this particular meaning, “hybrid” means that the UK-led project will combine inorganic with organic electrodes to make them more efficient and cheap, and avoid the use of platinum, nowadays [...]

Tesla Motors’ Shares Drop 7 Percent Because of Toyota RAV4′s Price

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 09 May 2012 15:42:17 +0000

Tesla Motors is again having financial troubles these days, as their shares fell by 7 percent, down to $30.19 in NYSE. The drop has been caused by news that Toyota’s new electric RAV4 will sell for double what it costs in its gasoline version. Toyota has an agreement with Tesla for using their electric motor, [...]

Microsoft to Become Carbon Neutral by Internally Taxing Carbon Emitted by Own Offices

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 09 May 2012 15:10:10 +0000

Microsoft is going green starting July – the latest news tell that’s for sure. However they’re not taking the Facebook or Apple approach to that, but a rather more bureaucratic, systematized and nevertheless still effective way – they’re putting an internal tax on carbon emissions to each of their U.S. offices. Well, that may sound [...]

Nanocomposite Materials Make Up New Cheap Piezoelectric Harvester

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:37:03 +0000

A new large-area piezoelectric nanogenerator technology has been developed by a team of scientists at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. The new technology uses piezoelectric ceramic nanoparticles and overcome limitations of previous piezoelectric materials. Led by Prof. Keon Jae Lee, the team set itself the goal to build a simple and low-cost [...]

Denso’s Air Conditioning System Customizes Your Car Aircon and Saves Gas

Mihai Sandru — Tue, 08 May 2012 13:34:19 +0000

Did you ever fight the driver of a car because he wanted to turn on the air conditioning and you didn’t, afraid that you might catch a cold? Or the other way around? No need to worry from now on – everybody in the car can enjoy their own, personalized air climate thanks to Denso [...]

Volta Volare GT4 – The Plug-In Hybrid Plane That Eliminates Range Anxiety

Mihai Sandru — Mon, 07 May 2012 16:11:04 +0000

If electric vehicles sound scary (because of range anxiety), how do electric planes sound? Being stranded on the ground is nothing compared to getting stranded in the sky! But have no fear, the GT4 is here! More precisely, the Volta Volare GT4 from an aeronautics company in Portland, Oregon is a plug-in hybrid plane to [...]

Scientists Theorize One of the Problems Facing Nuclear Fusion

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 07 May 2012 16:01:55 +0000

Fusion reactors are thought to be the mothers of all power plants. They’ll emit no gases, eat up no polluting resources and provide all of the energy humanity needs for heading towards self-destr… evolution. However, science didn’t allow us thus far to produce more energy than we consume in a nuclear fusion process, but a new [...]

NGK Discovers 90% Efficient Gallium Nitride LED Source

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 07 May 2012 15:07:39 +0000

A new gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductor developed by NGK Insulators will hugely increase the luminous efficiency of LEDs from 30-40% to about 90%, reports TechOn. The transparent wafer created by NGK has a very low defect density and has been made by using a proprietary liquid phase growth method for a single-crystal growth process. (if [...]

GELI to Unveil Operating System That Will Manage Future Smart Grids

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 07 May 2012 14:37:53 +0000

In the years to come, the electric grid is to change radically. What is now produced by coal-fired plants and consumed instantly, will then be produced by wind turbines and solar panels, and stored inside batteries or other forms of energy storage. The worldwide network of energy grids will be interconnected and will need software [...]

Karabag Fiat 500e – Combining a Forklift and Gas Car Results Cheap EV

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 07 May 2012 13:53:18 +0000

Everyone knows electric cars have to be cheap to be accessible to become mainstream and to make the transition from gas faster and steadier. Karabag, a German startup specialized in electric vehicle conversions, is combined a 20 kW forklift motor with a Fiat 500E, and got the cheapest city electric vehicle on the market. Karabag [...]

IHS Unveils West Africa’s Largest Solar Powered Cellular Site

Mihai Sandru — Fri, 04 May 2012 17:31:55 +0000

Should someone have told you a few years ago that it would only take 2 years to reduce diesel consumption by up to 50% for the cellular communications towers in West Africa, you’d have raised an eyebrow. This not the case anymore: IHS Africa, a major telecommunications infrastructure provider, can from now count the largest [...]

UK and Denmark to Throw Cables at Each Other for Transferring Wind Power

Boniface Ndirangu — Fri, 04 May 2012 11:41:25 +0000

UK and Denmark are contemplating and studying options to construct a connector power cable between them to facilitate the import and export of the renewable wind energy that they both generate so as to increase market competition. This is according to a Monday report given by the countries’ grid operators. An initial interconnector study will [...]

UK Entrepreneur Retrofits His Home to Save Electricity and Become Greener

Boniface Ndirangu — Fri, 04 May 2012 10:41:34 +0000

59 year-old visionary Nick Sandy has ambitiously developed his 1960s house into a stylish environmentally-friendly home fit for a superstar like James Bond. It took Sandy at least 18 months to bring about the transformation of his pad into a £1 million property of what many would label an environmentalist’s fantasy. But this is not [...]

World’s Most Important Automakers Set Standard for EV Charging

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 04 May 2012 09:28:31 +0000

A new agreement between the world’s most important automakers regarding the standardization of electric vehicle charging systems has been announced on Thursday. The new standard is meant to speed up charging and make it more safe. The new charging system will be on display at this year’s Electric Vehicle Symposium and has been adopted by [...]

K1 Evelio Could Become a Real Competitor For Tesla Roadster

Mihai Sandru — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:37:50 +0000

Of course, before you’ll have read this article, your eyes will instinctively have looked at the picture first and what you’ll have seen will most probably seem to you as come off from a movie about the future. I mean, isn’t the K1 Evelio a sight? However, besides being a sight, it’s a fuel efficient [...]

Honda Demonstrates How Its Smart Home System Integrates Electric Cars, Solar Panels and The Grid

Mihai Sandru — Wed, 02 May 2012 19:50:51 +0000

Far from making you feel like your house has a mind of its own, the Honda Smart Home System (HSHS) pertaining to the famous automotive company Honda Motor Co., Ltd wants to reach a whole new level of energy efficiency. To prove it, the company embarked yesterday on a house demonstration in Saitama, Japan and [...]

French Wind Turbine Produces Water From Atmospheric Humidity

Boniface Ndirangu — Wed, 02 May 2012 19:43:52 +0000

French company Eole Water has developed and is in the process of marketing an amazing invention- a modified wind turbine that has the capacity to produce fresh water for human consumption. This, states Eole Water, is a boon to remote communities challenged by the lack of fresh drinking water. The new product, named WMS1000, has [...]

Solar Power Doesn’t Get Subsidized More Than Coal, Study Reports

Boniface Ndirangu — Wed, 02 May 2012 19:36:37 +0000

Complaints that renewable solar energy has received special incentives advanced by the U.S. government different from its support for traditional energy sources may be unfounded, reports Reuters. The said report was derived from a solar-industry backed report. This was a published assessment by researching scientists from the University of Tennessee’s Baker Center for Public Policy [...]

Honeywell to Test Jet Biofuel in Never-Tried-Before Concentrations

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 01 May 2012 15:51:34 +0000

Honeywell is about to start a test program meant to prove biofuel/fossil fuel blends can be used in aviation successfully. UOP, its subsidiary, will cooperate with the National Research Council of Canada and Agrisoma Biosciences to carry out the program. Some may argue (rightfully) that corn biofuels compete for land with food crops, but Honeywell’s [...]

Wood Waste Converted to Biofuel by Fast Pyrolysis

Mihai Sandru — Tue, 01 May 2012 15:27:40 +0000

Pulp and paper company Domtar from Montreal and Battelle, an independent research and development specialist in Columbus, Ohio chose Domtar’s mill operations in Dryden, Ontario to test fast pyrolysis: oxygen-free heating for the conversion of biomass (wood chips) into biofuel. The role of Battelle in all this comes in looking for a bigger market value – [...]

City Center Inhabitants Prone to Heart Disease, Danish Study Reveals

Boniface Ndirangu — Tue, 01 May 2012 08:42:27 +0000

A recent heart study specific to coronary artery calcification (CAC) suggests that city center pollution doubles vascular calcium build-up risk and thus raises the incidence of heart disease in major Danish cities. Residents of city centers who participated in this study were found to be at twice a higher risk of developing heart disease from [...]

Wind Farms Warm Local Climate Slightly, Albany Study Says

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:48:07 +0000

Researchers at the University of Albany have studied the effect of wind farms on local climate over a region of Texas that’s home to over 2,350 wind turbines. Their results showed an increase in temperature of 0.72 degrees in that area compared to neighboring sites that didn’t have wind farms on them. The study took [...]

47% Efficiency for Solar Cells With Microscopic Folds and Wrinkles

Mihai Sandru — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:17:46 +0000

Researchers have so far bent over backwards to find the best way to make solar cells as efficient as possible and just when you thought this is it – this one’s the best, here comes another one, claiming the exact same thing. So let’s hear the “microscopic folds” formula out, which reclaims an efficiency of [...]

CarbonSat: The New Ultra-Precise Greenhouse Gas Monitoring Satellite Designed by Astrium

Boniface Ndirangu — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 07:44:01 +0000

A new climate-monitoring satellite is being designed by Europe’s leading aerospace company Astrium. CarbonSat, the new greenhouse gases trailer, is being prepared for the European Space Agency (ESA). The project is expected to continue over a span of another 22 months. ESA announced its resolution to grant Astrium a contract to design and make the [...]

Asteroids Could Be Future Source of Water and Precious Materials

Mihai Sandru — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:13:45 +0000

Some would say it’s a long shot, some that it’s pure science fiction, but the challenge is on: mining asteroids for water, platinum, nickel and iron has never seemed more real than now! The initiative belongs to Google founders Larry Page and Eric Schmidt and X-Prize creator Peter Diamandis. With the hovering threat of resource [...]

30% Less Fuel Consumption for Cargo Ships of 2016

Mihai Sandru — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:26:36 +0000

First, they looked at cars to reduce fuel usage. Then they looked at airplanes. Next thing you know, they’ve taken to the sea to make some overconsumption cuts! The Wind Challenger Project from the University of Tokyo has returned to the basics in an effort to bring down the amount of fuel large merchant vessels [...]

Arctic Melt to Release Huge Quantities of Methane, NASA Mission Concludes

Mihai Sandru — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:21:36 +0000

The HIAPER Pole-to-Pole Observations (HIPPO) airborne campaign set out a campaign to see where greenhouse gases come from and where are they stored in our planet’s system. So they flew specially instrumented aircraft over the Pacific Ocean from nearly pole to pole. Between 2009 and 2010, they measured at a 8.7 miles height from the [...]

Americans Care More About Gasoline Prices Than Its Effect on Climate, Study Reveals

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 16:06:25 +0000

Polls are often the only way to see the health, normality or sickness of a population’s mindset when it comes to topics like religion, beliefs, political views or even global warming. But sometimes polls just bring out the naked truth, even if it sometimes is hard to swallow. A recent poll performed by the University [...]

“Oil, not Alternative Energy, is the Future…”

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 20:33:34 +0000

Usually I look for and read stuff related to alternative energy, electric cars, things that aren’t that obtrusive to the environment and that don’t harm our children and our planet’s future health. I have never thought for one second that in the 21st century someone can say: “Oil, not Alternative Energy, is the Future” For [...]

Ikea Unveils Chic Cardboard Digital Camera

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:53:46 +0000

Digital cameras have had such tremendous success since their invention that anyone with a cellphone (even the cheapest ones) or a laptop has them embedded – they’re like the buttons on a shirt. Ikea is now celebrating digital cameras in a greener fashion with a cardboard model. To commemorate the 2012 Fuorisalone held in Milan [...]

USC’s Future Liquid Solar Cells Will Be Printed Like Newspapers

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:15:20 +0000

A new printable solar cell technology has been developed by University of Southern California (USC) researchers. It consists of an ink made from nanocrystals that can actually be printed on any surface. 250 billion of such solar nanocrystals can easily get along on the heat of a pin. The nanocrystals are made of the semiconductor [...]

Startup Company to Produce Liquid Metal Batteries for Grid Energy Storage

Boniface Ndirangu — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:19:03 +0000

Cheap batteries that can store power from renewable energy sources like wind and solar are being developed by a startup company. Liquid Metal Battery’s ambition as a company is to bring this rechargeable battery at a very affordable price to the market. Even though their workspace is a small basement headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the [...]

African Underground Contains Enough Water for 9 Billion People

Boniface Ndirangu — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 19:19:24 +0000

Reuters reported on Friday that there are huge underground water reserves in some of the driest parts of Africa. This could provide a buffer against climatic change challenges for years to come. There are large aquifers, or underground water sources, that the researchers mapped. This was a pioneering project by the British Geological Survey and University [...]

Solar Cells Could Break 40% Efficiency With Photochemical Upconversion

Boniface Ndirangu — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:30:34 +0000

Researchers from the University of Sydney have developed what they term as a “photochemical upconversion” technique to increase the solar cells’ efficiency. This could potentially be up to a record breaking 40%. Even though there has been a continued improvement in the overall efficiency of conventional silicon solar cells in the past few years, and [...]

Cheap, Green and Paper-Thin TVs From Georgia Institute of Technology

Mihai Sandru — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:30:03 +0000

Maybe you thought that with OLED TVs we went as far as we could go in terms of electronic thinness. Or maybe you think that the thinner they are, the more expensive they become. Wrong! The Georgia Institute of Technology reinvented the notion of thin Tvs by bringing to the market a paper-thin but viable [...]

This Earth Day, Philips Unveiled Lightbulb With 20-Year Lifespan

Mihai Sandru — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:57:35 +0000

Would you pay 50 bucks for a light bulb? No. But would you pay 50 bucks for one that lasts 20 years? I guess you would! And now you can: thanks to the renowned company Philips, who wanted to really pitch in for Earth Day (this past Sunday the 23rd), buyers can now go online [...]

Heat Flow Controlled With Atomic Precision by Illinois Scientists

Boniface Ndirangu — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 13:57:37 +0000

Heat flow can now be controlled with atom-level precision. This, as has been demonstrated by investigators from the University of Illinois, can be achieved through a combination of a design of atomic-scale materials and ultrafast measurements to regulate how heat flows between two materials across an interface. In a study published this week in Nature [...]

Honda to Recycle Old Nickel-Metal Hydride Batteries From Hybrid Models

Boniface Ndirangu — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 13:19:09 +0000

Honda Motor Co., Ltd is commencing the large-scale recycling of rare earth metals from used parts in its products. In collaboration with Japan Metals & Chemicals Co., Ltd, Honda announced the establishment of a pioneering process on an industrial mass-production process. The recycling plant proposed will not be made for experimental trials, as Honda further [...]

Phoshporic Acid Fuel Cells Explained by International Team of Scientists

Boniface Ndirangu — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 13:04:22 +0000

The molecular workings of a promising fuel cell electrolyte have been unraveled by chemists. A team of investigators from the New York University and the Max Planck Institute (Stuttgart) have revealed how protons migrate in phosphoric acid (H3PO4), a mineral acid, in a study published in Nature Chemistry. A mystery has always surrounded the understanding of [...]

100 of GE’s Most Efficient Wind Turbines Shipped to Turkey

Mihai Sandru — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 21:11:56 +0000

General Electric recently informed that it will land some of its most efficient wind turbines in Turkey – the 1.5-MW ones, about 100 of them, from a manufacturing facility in Salzbergen, Germany. You might be wondering why Turkey in particular and not some other European state, but it makes perfect sense to start a project [...]

Heliatek Unveils Organic Window Solar Panels

Boniface Ndirangu — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 21:07:47 +0000

A brand new type of window solar panel has been developed in Germany by Heliatek. This new invention involves a technology utilizing small, organic molecules deposited on films of polyester. The mechanism behind this new product is very similar to what is generally used for OLED (organic light-emitting diode) displays for flat screen TVs and [...]

Cleantech Industry Falling Due to Reduced Government Incentives, Study Says

Boniface Ndirangu — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 09:20:50 +0000

Scholars at the Brookings Institution and the Oakland’s Breakthrough Institute are to release a report on Wednesday that warns that there is a sharp decline in finances set for federal spending on clean technologies. The study warns that more clean-tech companies are possibly on the road to bankruptcy or consolidation now that there seems to [...]

Analysis on Pressure-Retarded Osmosis Reveals High Energy Generation Potential

Boniface Ndirangu — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 08:59:33 +0000

River mouths have recently been reported to have the capacity to produce renewable electricity that could support over half a billion people. A river mouth is where a river drains into the ocean. At that point there is a process termed as pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO) that takes place. According to the new analysis, the pressure-retarded [...]

Sewage Geothermal Technology Used to Extract Free and “Filthy” Heat in Philadelphia

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:11:05 +0000

Wastewater is and will always be warm, and its heat so far has usually been lost, without powering anything (but bacteria). To prevent this precious (filthy) energy go down the drain, NovaThermal Energy LLC, based in Philadelphia, wants to implement what they call a “sewage geothermal” technology, meant to recover most of it. “It’s just [...]

Solar-Powered Clothing Researched at Colorado State University

Boniface Ndirangu — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:08:56 +0000

A very recent study at Colorado State University could bring a complete revolution to the traditional way solar panel charging systems are handled and utilized. Researchers and students affiliated to the university have shown that there is a possibility that natural clothing material could be incorporated with solar-powered chargers and be used to tap solar [...]

Battery-Like Bacterial Enzyme Stores Energy Biologically

Boniface Ndirangu — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:41:23 +0000

Clean energy is now an almost achieved dream, especially with the newly reported Concordia University (Canada) physicists’ research findings. The researchers led by Associate Professor László Kálmán have been able to modify a battery-like enzyme so as to yield carbon-neutral energy. The study showed that there is possibility of extending the length of time the bacterial enzyme can store [...]

EV Batteries Price Dropped 30% Since 2009, BNEF Says

Boniface Ndirangu — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:23:52 +0000

Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) has recently reported a 14% decrease in electric vehicles’ lithium-ion battery prices. In a statement, BNEF made this comparison to what the average price was in the past year. BNEF attributes this fall to shifts in production capacity exceeding demand. The London-based research company compared the average batteries cost of [...]

Upgraded Version of 2013 Chevrolet Volt to Be Produced This Year

Mihai Sandru — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 13:13:42 +0000

General Motors chose this last weekend to reveal most of their order guides for the 2013 product lineup, so if you want to find out what’s in store for the 2013 Chevrolet Volt, here’s a quick update on the new stuff. First of all, the car received a design tune-up: a rear liftgate and a [...]

Family Business: Tesla Motors’ Batteries to Complete SolarCity’s Solar Power Products

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 19:49:16 +0000

An interesting cohesion between Tesla Motors and SolarCity is seemingly getting bigger as of lately. The first are known for their trustworthy car batteries and the latter for their solar panels. The two of them could revolutionize how home-based solar power is sold throughout the United States. Tesla is known for importing lithium ion batteries [...]

Australian and German Scientists Improve Solar Cell Efficiency to 40%

Mihai Sandru — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 14:45:01 +0000

What happens when two countries like Germany and Australia come together, united by the sole goal of coming up with the perfect solar cell? A photochemical upconversion happens, triggering an amazing 40% efficiency! The Energy&Environmental journal recently published the result of a collaboration between Professor Tim Schmidt from the University’s School of Chemistry (Australia) and [...]

Shocking Video: How Human Pollution Affects Wildlife on Remote Pacific Atoll

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 13:51:23 +0000

I love animals. I love birds. I always imagined that birds are safe in their natural habitats, in forests or islands or places of the sort. But they’re not. In fact, animals are not safe even at 2,000 miles away from the nearest continent. The ghost of our unfulfilled dreams, ignorance and thirst for money [...]

Wind Farms’ Impact on Bird Population Not as High as Thought, Study Suggests

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 06:52:04 +0000

A wind farm is a very economical form of renewable energy in the long run. But wind power harvesting has a few drawbacks, as well. One of the major problems caused by wind farms was considered to be the decreasing of bird population, but studies show that this issue is not actually as big as [...]

Smartphone App Compares Different Heating Fuels, Saves Money and CO2

Mihai Sandru — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:25:54 +0000

Mobile device applications were designed to make our lives better, so this is what Heating Fuel Comparison is doing these days: offering us valuable information on how to best heat our home. That is if you have an Android or an Apple device. Developed by NDSU Extension Service, the app allows you to draw a [...]

Dyson Appliance Motors Powering Electric Car Race

Ovidiu Sandru — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 11:55:35 +0000

Dyson, the famous British appliance company, usually manufactures vacuum cleaners, among its other products. They’re not involved in racing events of any sorts, but this time they may actually strike some people’s sensitive chords, as their 650 engineers put their minds to creating the world’s first race powered by appliance motors. The original dragsters’ motors [...]

Eat Less Meat, Produce Less N2O, Reduce Global Warming

Kasun Madushanka — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 07:07:59 +0000

Meat is one of the main food items consumed worldwide. The meat consumption of developed countries is relatively high than that of the developing countries. New studies have shown that meat consumption must be reduced in order to reduce their related greenhouse gas emissions. The most recent publications show that we must cut the meat [...]

Modifying Urban Surface Reflectivity Levels Could Slash 150 Billion Tons of CO2

Kasun Madushanka — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 13:03:36 +0000

The Sun, our only external source of energy, is also responsible for the heat on Earth. This heat is what makes all life possible on our blue planet. However, this energy is also responsible for global warming. Imagine cities reflecting this sunlight away from Earth. A team of researchers from Concordia University did some research [...]

World Tour Cyclist Helping Solar Power in Africa Gets Hit by Truck in Arkansas

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 12:04:26 +0000

Sean Conway, the man who wants to circle the globe only on his bike, in an effort to gather money for SolarAid – the charity work destined to bring clean energy to East Africa, was hit by a truck while cycling near Little Rock, AK. Conway’s target is London, the place where he departed from, [...]

Hitachi’s New Electric Motor Not Using Rare Neodymium, Could Lower Market Prices

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 11:09:52 +0000

A new, highly-efficient permanent magnet synchronous motor has been unveiled by Hitachi. Nothing unusual so far. The only big and important difference between Hitachi’s new motor and everything that exists in the industry is that this one doesn’t have neodymium magnets. Neodymium magnets contain a rare-earth material, which is the cause for its high price [...]

Elektra One: Electric Airplane Doubles Range by Installing Solar Panels

Kasun Madushanka — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 10:26:30 +0000

Is it a big thing to produce an airplane that runs on solar power? The obvious answer is yes. It may cost more on the beginning but it will be very affective in the long run. Solar world and PC Aero have joined hands to take the lead in solar aviation. The child of this [...]

Tiltable Hybrid (Heat+Electricity) Solar Panels Commercialized by Naked Energy

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 09:24:22 +0000

A solar panel installation that can also deliver heat besides electricity has been developed and now is being commercialized by Naked Energy, a Guilford, UK-based company. The hybrid solar panel has been named Virtu and has a few advantages over similar stuff out previously produced. As you’ve probably been used to seeing solar panels standing at [...]

Copper-Gold Nanoparticles to Help Transform CO2 into Methane

Mihai Sandru — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 18:39:26 +0000

Here’s a good question for all you ecologists out there: what do we do with the carbon dioxide emissions after capturing them? As it frequently happens, MIT took up the challenge and came with a “golden”eff idea: a hybrid-copper-gold nanoparticle to transform CO2 into methane (CH4). Now why is that important – coming up with [...]

Corals Deeply Affected by Increasing Atmospheric CO2, Scientists Say

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 18:36:41 +0000

The increasing CO2 concentration in air is having a profound impact on corals in the most unforeseen ways. It had been previously thought that CO2 would affect the calcium structure of the coral skeleton, but an international team of researchers proved something that’s deeper: CO2 affects the very core of the corals: their genes. “Every [...]