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Generating Electricity From Viruses?
Posted in Power Management, Displays/Monitors/HMIs, Energy Harvesting, Energy, Nanotechnology, News on Monday, May 14 2012
Berkeley Lab scientists have developed a way to generate power using harmless viruses that convert mechanical energy into electricity. Their generator is the first to produce electricity by harnessing the piezoelectric properties of a biological material.
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Sensor System Spurs Biofuel Production
Posted in Sensors, Biomass, Renewable Energy, News on Friday, May 11 2012
University of California, Berkeley researchers have developed a genetic sensor that enables bacteria to adjust their gene expression in response to varying levels of key intermediates for making biodiesel. As a result, the microbes produced three times as much fuel. The sensor-regulator system could eventually make advanced biofuels cheaper.
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Technology Awarded for Improving Submarine Air Quality
Posted in Remediation Technologies, Greenhouse Gases, Materials, Nanotechnology, News on Monday, May 07 2012
Creators of a nanotech-based system that captures carbon dioxide from the atmosphere within a submarine while providing a more environmentally friendly removal process have won the Federal Laboratory Consortium Interagency Partnership Award for 2012. The technology — Self Assembled Monolayers on Mesoporous Supports, or SAMMS — is destined for incorporation into future submarines.
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Copper-Gold Nanoparticles Efficiently Convert Carbon Dioxide
Posted in Remediation Technologies, Greenhouse Gases, Materials, Metals, Energy Efficiency, Nanotechnology, News on Thursday, May 03 2012
Copper is one of the few metals that can turn carbon dioxide into hydrocarbon fuels with relatively little energy, but it is temperamental and easily oxidized. MIT researchers have engineered nanoparticles of copper mixed with gold - which is resistant to corrosion and oxidation - making the copper much more stable. They coated electrodes with the hybrid nanoparticles and found that much less energy was needed for conversion.
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Boosting Nanowires for Better Batteries and Solar Cells
Posted in Batteries, Alternative Fuels, Energy Storage, Solar Power, Renewable Energy, Nanotechnology, News on Tuesday, May 01 2012
Stanford University engineers have found a novel method for "decorating" nanowires with chains of tiny particles to increase their electrical and catalytic performance. The technique is simpler and faster than earlier methods and could lead to better lithium-ion batteries, more efficient thin-film solar cells, and improved catalysts that yield new synthetic fuels.
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Tailoring Metal Oxides for Green Technological Applications
Posted in Batteries, Electronics & Computers, Power Management, Metals, Energy Storage, Solar Power, Renewable Energy, Energy Harvesting, News on Thursday, April 26 2012
Harnessing solar energy can be as simple as tuning the optical and electronic properties of metal oxides at the atomic level by making an artificial crystal or super-lattice ‘sandwich.’ "Metal oxides can be tailored to meet all sorts of needs, which is good news for technological applications, specifically in energy generation and flat screen displays,” said Louis Piper, assistant professor of physics at Binghamton University.
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Boosting Energy Efficiency of Multi-Hop Wireless Networks
Posted in Batteries, Power Management, Energy Efficiency, Communications, Wireless, News on Wednesday, April 25 2012
Multi-hop wireless networks can provide data access for large and unconventional spaces, but they face significant limits on the amount of data they can transmit. North Carolina State University researchers have developed a more efficient data transmission approach that can boost the amount of data the networks can transmit by 20 to 80 percent.
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Develop Wireless Chargers for Electric Vehicles
Posted in Batteries, Energy Storage, Energy Efficiency, Wireless, Transportation, Automotive, Government Initiatives, News on Thursday, April 19 2012
The U.S Department of Energy has recently announced up to $4 million available this year to accelerate the development and deployment of wireless charging systems for light-duty electric vehicles (EVs).

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Magnetic Testing Technique Helps Ensure Reliability of PV Cells
Posted in Solar Power, Renewable Energy, Test & Measurement, Semiconductors & ICs, MEMs, News on Friday, April 13 2012
Making use of the force generated by magnetic repulsion, Georgia Tech researchers have developed a new technique for measuring the adhesion strength between thin films of materials used in microelectronic devices, photovoltaic cells, and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).
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Funding for Biomass R&D Initiative
Posted in Biomass, Renewable Energy, Government Initiatives, News on Wednesday, April 04 2012
Projects funded through the Biomass Research and Development Initiative (BRDI) — a joint program through the USDA and the DOE — will help develop economically and environmentally sustainable sources of renewable biomass. The White House has announced up to $35 million over three years to support research and development in advanced biofuels, bioenergy, and high-value biobased products.
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Using Electricity to Generate Alternative Fuel
Posted in Batteries, Alternative Fuels, Greenhouse Gases, Energy Storage, Solar Power, News on Friday, March 30 2012
Electrical energy generated by various methods can be difficult to store efficiently. Chemical batteries, hydraulic pumping, and water splitting suffer from low energy-density storage or incompatibility with current transportation infrastructure. UCLA researchers have demonstrated a method for storing electrical energy as chemical energy in higher alcohols, which can be used as liquid transportation fuels.
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New 3D Designs Double Solar Power
Posted in Computers, Solar Power, Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, Test & Measurement, News on Tuesday, March 27 2012
A team of MIT researchers is building cubes or towers that extend solar cells upward in three-dimensional configurations. The results from the structures they’ve tested show power output ranging from double to more than 20 times that of fixed flat panels with the same base area.
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PDC Drill Bits Open Up Options for Geothermal Energy
Posted in Geothermal Power, Renewable Energy, Test & Measurement, Machinery & Automation, News on Tuesday, March 20 2012
Nearly two-thirds of the oil we use comes from wells drilled using polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) bits, originally developed 30 years ago to lower the cost of geothermal drilling. Sandia National Laboratories and the U.S. Navy recently brought the technology full circle, showing how geothermal drillers might use it.
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Sandwich-Like Structures for Efficient Hydrogen Fuel Cells
Posted in Alternative Fuels, Materials, Metals, News on Friday, March 16 2012
Making hydrogen fuel cells practical on a large scale requires them to be more efficient and cost effective, and a research team from the University of Central Florida may have found a way around both hurdles.
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Nanotrees Turn Sunshine into Hydrogen Fuel
Posted in Alternative Fuels, Greenhouse Gases, Solar Power, Renewable Energy, Energy Harvesting, Nanotechnology, News on Wednesday, March 14 2012
University of California, San Diego electrical engineers are building a forest of tiny nanowire trees in order to cleanly capture solar energy and harvest it for hydrogen fuel generation. Nanowires, which are made from abundant natural materials like silicon and zinc oxide, offer a cheap way to deliver hydrogen fuel on a mass scale.
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Insect Biochemistry & Generating Electricity
Posted in Environmental Monitoring, Sensors, Transducers, Energy Efficiency, Energy, News on Thursday, March 08 2012
Touted as possible first responders, insect cyborgs could be the research community's next big breakthrough. Researchers from Case Western Reserve University have discovered that an insect's internal chemicals can be converted to electricity - potentially providing power to sensors and recording devices.
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Deploying U.S. Offshore Wind Projects
Posted in Wind Power, Renewable Energy, Government Initiatives, News on Monday, March 05 2012
Offshore wind is an enormous potential resource for the United States - with strong, consistent winds located in the Atlantic, Pacific, the Great Lakes, and the Gulf of Mexico. As part of a planned six-year $180 million initiative, an initial $20 million will be available from the DOE this year as the first step in supporting up to four innovative offshore wind energy installations across the U.S.
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Identifying Effective Carbon Capture Technologies
Posted in Remediation Technologies, Greenhouse Gases, Materials, Mathematical/Scientific Software, News on Thursday, March 01 2012
Approximately 75 percent of electricity used in the U.S. is produced by coal-burning power plants that expel carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Berkeley Lab researchers are searching for porous materials to filter out the CO2 before it reaches the atmosphere, but identifying these materials is easier said than done.
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Measuring Techniques Improve Efficiency & Safety of Nanoparticles
Posted in Imaging, Smart Grid, Green Design & Manufacturing, Energy Efficiency, Nanotechnology, News on Tuesday, February 28 2012
Using high-precision microscopy and X-ray scattering techniques, University of Oregon researchers have gained new insights into the process of applying green chemistry to nanotechnology - resulting in high yields, improved efficiency, and a dramatic reduction of waste and potential negative exposure to human health or the environment.
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Device Uses Temperature Differences to Create Electrical Charge
Posted in Batteries, Power Management, Materials, Thermoelectrics, Energy Harvesting, Nanotechnology, News on Wednesday, February 22 2012
Power Felt is a new thermoelectric device developed by researchers at the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials at Wake Forest University. By touching a small piece, body heat is converted into an electrical current.
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New Approach to Graphene Electronics
Posted in Electronics, Power Management, Materials, Solar Power, Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, LEDs, News on Tuesday, February 21 2012
Graphene has been touted as the next silicon, but it is too conductive to be used in computer chips. A University of Manchester team led by Nobel laureates Professor Andre Geim and Professor Konstantin Novoselov has literally opened a third dimension in graphene research.
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Next-Generation Battery Technology
Posted in Batteries, Energy Storage, Solar Power, Wind Power, Renewable Energy, News on Friday, February 17 2012
Sandia National Laboratory researchers have developed a family of liquid salt electrolytes - known as MetILs - that could lead to better batteries and well as devices that can help incorporate large-scale intermittent renewable energy sources, like solar and wind, into the nation’s electric grid.
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$12 Million Funding Opportunity to Spur Solar Innovation
Posted in Solar Power, Renewable Energy, Government Initiatives, News on Wednesday, February 15 2012
Through the DOE's SunShot Incubator program, over $12 million in funding is available to accelerate innovation in solar energy and manufacturing - supporting advancements in hardware, reductions in soft costs, and the development of pilot manufacturing and production projects.
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New Genome Map Speeds Biofuel Development
Posted in Alternative Fuels, Biomass, Renewable Energy, News on Monday, February 13 2012
Researchers at University of Georgia's Plant Genome Mapping Laboratory have mapped the genomes of two originator cells of Miscanthus x giganteus - a large perennial grass with promise as a source of ethanol and bioenergy.
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Hydrogen from Acidic Water
Posted in Alternative Fuels, News on Friday, February 10 2012
A technique for creating a new molecule that structurally and chemically replicates the active part of the widely used industrial catalyst molybdenite has been developed by researchers at Berkeley Lab. This technique holds promise for the creation of catalytic materials that can serve as effective low-cost alternatives to platinum for generating hydrogen gas from water that is acidic.
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