News

Generating Hydrogen from Water

Researchers with Berkeley Lab and the University of California, Berkeley have discovered an inexpensive metal catalyst that can effectively generate hydrogen gas from water.

Thin Film Absorbers for Solar Cells

Oregon State University researchers have made an important breakthrough in the use of continuous flow microreactors to produce thin film absorbers for solar cells - an innovative technology that could...

Paving the Way for Electromobility

Fraunhofer researchers are engineering wheel hub motors, which are integrated into a car's wheels, and could become the accepted drive concept for electric vehicles. The scientists are testing these and...

Electrical Current Stemming From Algae

Stanford scientists have harnessed a tiny electrical current from algae cells. They found it at the very source of energy production – photosynthesis - and it may be the first step toward generating...

Moving Toward a Carbon-based Solar Cell

To make large sheets of carbon available for light collection, Indiana University Bloomington chemists have attached what amounts to a 3D bramble patch to each side of the carbon sheet. The scientists...

Princeton's Plastics Hold Potential for Lowering Cost of Solar Panels

Princeton University engineers have developed translucent, malleable, and electricity-conducting plastics, which could represent a low-cost alternative to indium tin oxide...

New Path to Solar Energy Via Solid-State Photovoltaics

Berkeley Lab researchers have found a new mechanism by which the photovoltaic effect can take place in semiconductor thin-films. This new route to energy production overcomes the bandgap...

The Smallest Superconductor in the World

Scientists have discovered the world’s smallest superconductor - a sheet of four pairs of molecules less than one nanometer wide. The Ohio University-led study provides the first evidence that...

New Alloys Key to Efficient Solar Energy and Lighting

A recent advance by Arizona State University researchers in developing nanowires could lead to more efficient photovoltaic cells as well as better LEDs. ASU electrical engineers are...

Check out the March Lighting Technology Ezine

The first issue of Lighting Technology has arrived! This digital magazine is the latest offering from Green Design & Manufacturing, and features articles, tech briefs, applications and more...

Intelligent Energy Management

Smart meters – intelligent devices to measure consumption – make it possible to read and control power consumption, even of private households, while away from the property. New software shadows the...

Process Yields High-Energy-Density Plant-Based Transportation Fuel

A team of University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers has developed a highly efficient, environmentally friendly process that selectively converts gamma-valerolactone - a biomass...

Highly Absorbing, Flexible Solar Cells Created With Silicon Wire Arrays

Using arrays of long, thin silicon wires embedded in a polymer substrate, California Institute of Technology scientists have created a new type of flexible solar cell...

Eco-friendly Nanocatalyst

A new nanotech catalyst developed by McGill University chemists Chao-Jun Li, Audrey Moores, and their colleagues offers industry an opportunity to reduce the use of expensive and toxic heavy metals. Li describes the...

Turning Light Into an Electrical Current Using a Golden Nanoscale System

University of Pennsylvania material scientists have demonstrated the transduction of optical radiation to electrical current in a molecular circuit. The array of...

Crystals for Carbon Dioxide Capture

UCLA chemists have created three-dimensional synthetic DNA-like crystals that have a sequence of information which is believed to code for carbon capture. The discovery could result in a new way to capture...

System Provides Hybrid Electric Autos With Power to Spare

A new PHEV traction drive power electronics system provides more power than typical freestanding portable generators, and can be used in emergency situations such as power outages and...

External Electric Fields and Hydrogen Storage

It has been difficult to find materials that can efficiently and safely store and release hydrogen with fast kinetics under ambient temperature and pressure, but an international research team has...

Computer Model Simulates the Impact of White Roofs

The first computer modeling study to simulate the impact of white roofs on urban areas worldwide - led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, CO -...

Engineers Concerned About Algae-Based Biofuel

DOE recently announced that it is awarding $78 million in stimulus money for research and development of algae-based biofuel. Yet researchers from the University of Virginia have found there are...

Study on Superconducting Hydrogen Offers Promise in Field

Researchers from Carnegie Institute for Science have modeled three hydrogen-dense metal alloys and found there are pressure and temperature trends associated with the superconducting...

Wildfire Detection and Monitoring System

A low-cost wildfire detection and monitoring system using mobile communications technology is being developed by researchers at University of Adelaide's School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

Paper Strips Detect Toxin in Water

Engineers at the University of Michigan led the development of a new biosensor - a strip of paper infused with carbon nanotubes - that can quickly and inexpensively detect a toxin produced by algae in drinking...

Engineered Tobacco Plants Up Biofuel Potential

Researchers from the Biotechnology Foundation Laboratories at Thomas Jefferson University have found a way to increase the oil in tobacco plant leaves, which may be the next step in using the...

Microphotovoltaic Cells Open New Doors

Sandia National Laboratories scientists have developed tiny glitter-sized photovoltaic cells that are expected to be less expensive and have greater efficiencies than current photovoltaic collectors...

Recovering Raw Materials for Green Technologies

Engineering researchers from the University of Leeds have discovered how to recover significant quantities of rare-earth oxides, present in titanium dioxide minerals. Rare-earth oxides are useful...

A Backyard Science Approach to Environmental Monitoring

Jessica Lundquist - a University of Washington assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering - uses dime-sized temperature sensors, which were first developed for the...

Bacteria Turns Carbon Dioxide Into Liquid Fuel

Researchers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have genetically modified a cyanobacterium to consume carbon dioxide and produce the liquid fuel isobutanol,...

User-Friendly Forest-Monitoring Technology

Forest-monitoring technology developed by scientists at Carnegie Institute’s Department of Global Ecology combines free satellite imagery and powerful analytical methods into an easy-to-use,...