Energy Efficiency

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...

LED Bulb Replaces Incandescent Bulb

A 40-watt GE Energy Smart® LED bulb from GE Lighting (Cleveland, OH) will be available later this year or early 2011. The new LED bulb is expected to consume only 9 watts, provide a 77 percent energy...

LED Edge-Lighting Solution

Global Lighting Technologies (GLT), Inc. (Brecksville, OH) now offers LED edge-lighting solutions that focus light into a high-performance backlight, or light guide. Because the LEDs are located on the edge of the...

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...

Electrochemical Double Layer Capacitors

New large cell prismatic electrochemical double layer capacitors (EDLC) from Ioxus (Oneonta, NY) are for transportation and utility applications and are lower in cost for the overall system design. The...

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...

Evolution of the Solid-State Lighting Connector

Keeping pace with emerging solid-state lighting (SSL) applications can be difficult for design engineers, not only from an end-product standpoint, but at the component level as well. Design...

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...

Why All The Talk About High-Power LED Technology?

It is in the headlines worldwide. Cities, states, and countries around the globe are transitioning away from traditional lighting and towards newer technologies such as high-power LEDs for...

Power Conversion for Reduced Cost, Volume, and Weight - and Increased Efficiency

Industry and consumers are increasingly aware of the benefits of efficacious use of metered power, as costs and cost trends increase. Making the right choices...

Keep Lighting Green from Start to Finish With Proper Packaging and Disposal of Used Fluorescent Lamps

Fluorescent lamps are a popular lighting option for businesses and consumers that are looking for ways to conserve energy and cut down on...

Nanofiber-based Lighting Technology

RTI International developed a polymer nanofiber material with nanoscale properties that provides cost-effective management of visible light in a solid-state lighting device. This video shows prototypes of...

Development of Advanced LED Phosphors by Spray-based Processes for Solid-State Lighting

Luminescent materials were developed using aerosol processes, for making improved LED devices for solid-state lighting. In essence this means improving...

Sliding Mode Pulsed Current Averaging IC Drivers for High-Brightness Light Emitting Diodes

Light Emitting Diode (LED) driver ICs associated with specific (uniquely operated) switching power supplies that optimize performance for High Brightness...

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...

Electric Motor Efficiency Regulations: What Motor Manufacturers, OEMs, and Motor Users Need To Know

Large Cell Ultracapacitors

Maxwell Technologies Inc. (San Diego, CA) has introduced its new K2 series large cell BOOSTCAP ultracapacitors. About the size of a soda can, the K2 series BOOSTCAP cells operate at 2.7 volts and incorporate design...

"Powder to Power"

Today, Bloom Energy Corporation (Sunnyvale, CA) announced the availability of the Bloom Energy Server™, a patented solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology that provides clean, affordable, and continuous onsite electricity...

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...

Desalinating Water Using Solar Pond and Membrane Distillation System

Ecosystems of terminus lakes around the world could benefit from a system being developed at the University of Nevada, Reno that desalinates water using a specialized...

Development of a Centrifugal Hydrogen Pipeline Gas Compressor

DOE has prepared a Multi-Year Research, Development, and Demonstration Plan to provide hydrogen as a viable fuel for transportation after 2020, in order to reduce the consumption of...

Oil Refineries Could Improve Energy Efficiency With New Method

Chemical plants spend from 50 to 70 percent of their energy in "separations," which are usually distillation steps required to separate a raw material into various products. An...

Fuel-Cell Water Separator