Renewable Energy

Electronic "Bucket Brigade" Could Boost Solar Cell Voltages

If solar cells could generate higher voltages when sunlight falls on them, they’d produce more electrical power more efficiently. Ferroelectrics - materials with an overall...

Boost for Energy Storage Systems

Batteries could get an upgrade from an Oak Ridge National Laboratory discovery that increases power, energy density, and safety while reducing charge time. The results could also have significance for...

Electricity and Carbon Offsets from Hog Waste

A system constructed by Duke University and Duke Energy on a hog finishing facility converts hog waste into electricity and creates carbon offset credits. Google, which invests in carbon offsets...

Inverter Testing and Certification for Global Markets

Inverters/converters are a key element of most renewable energy systems where the power generated is not suitable to either be used locally or to provide power directly to the electric...

Human Gait to Power Portable Electronics

Engineering researchers Tom Krupenkin and J. Ashley Taylor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a new energy-harvesting technology that could reduce our dependence on batteries and...

DC Filter for PV Systems

SCHURTER Inc. (Santa Rosa, CA) presents the DC filter series FMER SOL suited for use on the DC side of the inverter in photovoltaic systems. FMER SOL filters are designed for rated currents from 25 A to 1500 A at 55°C...

Hybrid Solar System For Rooftop Hydrogen

Instead of systems based on standard solar panels, Duke University engineer Nico Hotz proposes a hybrid option in which sunlight heats a combination of water and methanol in a maze of glass tubes on a...

Discovery Could Streamline Production of Biofuels

A team of researchers at the Department of Energy’s BioEnergy Science Center (BESC) have pinpointed the gene that controls ethanol production capacity in a microorganism. This discovery could...

Solar Battery Charger

Texas Instruments (Dallas, TX) introduces the bq24210, a Li-ion linear charger targeted at space-limited portable applications. The high input voltage range with input over-voltage protection supports low-cost...

Making Durable Synthetic Catalysts for Energy Storage

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) researchers have used a common protein to guide the design of a material that can make hydrogen gas. The synthetic material works ten times...

With Photovoltaic Polarizers, Devices Could be Powered by Sunlight

UCLA engineers have created a novel concept for harvesting and recycling energy for electronic devices — one that involves equipping these devices' LCD screens with...

LAUNCH: Energy Challenge Is Open For Submissions

NASA, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Department of State, and NIKE formed LAUNCH to identify, showcase, and support innovative approaches to global challenges through a...

Unusual Effect May Lead to More Efficient Thermoelectric Devices

Berkeley Lab scientists have found that temperature gradients in semiconductors, when one side of the device is hotter than the opposite side, can produce electronic vortices...

Making Biomass Economically Viable

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center have found a potential key for unlocking the energy potential from non-edible biomass materials such as corn leaves and...

Solar Panels Act as Roof Shades

A team of researchers led by Jan Kleissl, a professor of environmental engineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, determined that during the day, a building’s ceiling was 5 degrees...

Online Database for Tidal Energy Resources

The DOE and Georgia Institute of Technology offer a new database highlighting the energy potential available in the U.S. from ocean tides. This online database is an important step towards providing...

Printing Flexible, Foldable Arrays of Solar Cells

New MIT-developed materials make it possible to produce photovoltaic cells on paper or fabric. The technique represents a major departure from the systems used until now to create most solar...

Solar Mini-Inverter

CyboEnergy (Rancho Cordova, CA) offers CyboInverter, a solar power mini-inverter. The mini-inverter has four input channels and four pairs of DC wires with standard MC-4 connectors that can connect to four solar panels. A...

New Hope for Hydrogen Energy

Chemistry researchers at the University of Adelaide, Australia are exploring how metal nanoparticles act as highly efficient catalysts in using solar radiation to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

Geothermal Technology Sequesters Carbon Dioxide Underground

University of Minnesota researchers have developed an innovative approach to tapping heat beneath the Earth’s surface. The method is expected to not only produce renewable...

Wind Power Plant Short-Circuit Current Contribution for Different Fault and Wind Turbine Topologies

An important aspect of wind power plant impact studies is to evaluate the short-circuit current (SCC) contribution of the plant into the...

Powering Remote Villages with Airborne Wind Technology

Remote villages without access to the power grid must rely on diesel or petroleum generators for electricity, which means they have power only when they can get fuel. Windlift develops...

Software Helps Accelerate Offshore Wind Innovations

Marine Innovation & Technology (MI&T) used digital prototyping software from Autodesk to develop the WindFloatTM - a small, floating platform capable of supporting large offshore wind...

Combiner Box for Solar Panel Installations

TE Connectivity (Harrisburg, PA) offers the UL 1741-Listed pre-wired SOLARLOK combiner box for solar panel installations. The five-string combiner box offers 30-second, error-proof terminations through...

'Create the Future' - Sustainably

There are only 10 days left to enter the 2011 "Create the Future" Design Contest, sponsored by COMSOL, Creo - a PTC product, and Tech Briefs Media Group. The contest will award a Grand Prize of $20,000 USD for...

Geothermal Technology Advancement for Rapid Development of Resources in the U.S.

DOE has announced that up to $70 million is available in funding for technology advancements in geothermal energy. Innovations in exploration technologies to...

Combatting Wind Turbine Noise

Acoustics researchers at the University of Adelaide in Australia are developing a computer model to predict the noise output from wind farms so they can accurately and quickly assess the effectiveness of...

Splitting Water to Create Renewable Energy: Simplified

An international team of scientists led by a team at Monash University of Melbourne, Australia has found that the key to the hydrogen economy could come from a very simple mineral -...

Researchers Counteract Biofuel Toxicity in Microbes

Advanced biofuels are highly touted as potential replacements for gasoline, diesel, and jet fuels. Equally touted is the synthesis of these fuels through the use of microbes. However, many...