Discussions on curbing climate change tend to focus on comprehensive, emissions-focused measures: a global cap-and-trade scheme aimed at controlling carbon, or a tax on all carbon emissions. But a new study by researchers at MIT finds that a “segmental” approach — involving separate targeting of energy choices and energy consumption through regulations or incentives — […]
Power Electronic Tips
Novel Organic Solar Cells
Future solar cells will be light and mechanically flexible. They will be produced at low costs with the help of printing processes. POPUP, the new BMBF-funded research project, aims at developing more efficient materials and new architectures for organic photovoltaic devices. An interdisciplinary team headed by Dr. Alexander Colsmann of the KIT Light Technology Institute […]
A New Generation of Energy
BioLite is setting out to solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges by converting wood into electricity.
Quantum Waves at the Heart of Organic Solar Cells
Researchers have been able to tune ‘coherence’ in organic nanostructures due to the surprise discovery of wavelike electrons in organic materials, revealing the key to generating “long-lived charges” in organic solar cells – material that could revolutionize solar energy. By using an ultrafast camera, scientists say they have observed the very first instants following the […]
Company Designing Small Nuke Power Modules
The U.S. Department of Energy said Thursday that it has awarded an Oregon company a grant to help it design and obtain federal approval for a kind of nuclear power plant – small modular units that can be built in a factory and shipped to installation sites. The department said the matching grant awarded to […]
Boston Company Plans Hydroelectric Project
A Boston-based company announced plans Thursday to retrofit and reactivate a long-idle southern Indiana hydroelectric power plant in a $12 million project that’s expected to generate enough electricity to power more than 2,000 homes. Free Flow Power Corp. plans to install four new turbines at the Williams Dam on the East Fork of the White […]
Can We Turn Unwanted Carbon Dioxide into Electricity?
Researchers are developing a new kind of geothermal power plant that will lock away unwanted carbon dioxide (CO2) underground – and use it as a tool to boost electric power generation by at least 10 times compared to existing geothermal energy approaches. The technology to implement this design already exists in different industries, so the […]
$150 Million in Tax Credits to Invest in U.S. Clean Energy Manufacturing
Building on President Obama’s Climate Action Plan to continue America’s leadership in clean energy innovation, the U.S. Department of Energy today announced $150 million in clean energy tax credits to build U.S. capabilities in clean energy manufacturing. The credits will go towards investments in domestic manufacturing equipment by 12 businesses. Through the Advanced Energy Manufacturing […]
AMETEK Acquires Powervar
AMETEK, Inc. has acquired Powervar, a provider of power management systems and uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems, for approximately $128 million. Headquartered in Waukegan, IL, the privately held company has annual sales of approximately $70 million. Powervar provides highly engineered and customized products designed to deliver reliable, high-quality power to critical applications. It offers an […]
Graphene-Based Nano-Antennas May Enable Networks of Tiny Machines
Networks of nanometer-scale machines offer exciting potential applications in medicine, industry, environmental protection and defense, but until now there’s been one very small problem: the limited capability of nanoscale antennas fabricated from traditional metallic components. With antennas made from conventional materials like copper, communication between low-power nanomachines would be virtually impossible. But by taking advantage […]