Published on February 21st, 2010
A team of students at Columbia University has made it to the next round of Walmart’ s Better Living Business Plan Challenge. They achieved their spot in the sustainability-focused competition by yes, reinventing the wheel. The team has proposed a business venture that would make energy efficient, lightweight composite wheels for buses, trucks and other large vehicles. Advancing in the competition means a chance to pitch the plan to top Walmart execs and earn seed money to get started.
Lightweight composite wheels are familiar to bicyclists and ATV enthusiasts, but their use in wheels for heavier vehicles has been limited so far. That could be about to change. Three of the four members of the team are Boeing employees involved in the distance learning program of the Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, so a likely inspiration for the project is the growing use of durable, lightweight composite materials in aircraft.
Published on February 18th, 2010
Australian solar physicist John Cook of Skeptical Science has created a nifty little iPhone app that includes numerous climate skeptic arguments as well as the science-based counterarguments to those (since we are all tired of the misinformed myths about climate science but normally can’t cite scientific articles and data off the top of our head).
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Published on February 17th, 2010
Innovalight of Sunnyvale, California has just won a key patent for a new process that will significantly lower the cost of manufacturing silicon solar cells. Working with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the company has come up with a way to apply silicon ink to silicon wafers without using the expensive vacuum-based process typically in use today.
Innovalight’s process is based on an inkjet type technology for manufacturing solar cells. Compared to conventional vacuum processes, the inkjet method is significantly less expensive, and far more energy efficient. It also allows for a higher rate of production than conventional vacuum based methods.
Published on February 17th, 2010
Clever boffins over at Imperial College, London, have announced their intention to kill off the battery once and for all.
They’re working on a $4.5m project to develop a lightweight material capable of storing electricity. The carbon fibre based polymer resin is already patented and will be light enough to form the casing of anything from MP3 players to car bodies.
In addition, unlike batteries the substance’s performance won’t degrade over time because the electricity storage and release doesn’t rely upon a chemical reaction.
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Published on February 15th, 2010
In the burgeoning world of carbon capture technology, all sorts of interesting things are popping up. Here’s one from UCLA graduate student Hexian Deng and biochemistry professor Omar M. Yaghi, who have developed synthetic crystals that can be used to trap carbon dioxide.
Carbon capture is often conflated with so called clean coal technology for power plants, but UCLA’s “designer crystal” approach opens the door for more low cost, scalable applications, such as trapping carbon dioxide from factories or vehicle exhaust pipes.
Published on February 14th, 2010
You just can’t rest on your solar laurels these days. Just a couple of months ago the Energy Research Center of the Netherlands announced a record-setting 17.0% efficiency for its multicrystalline silicon solar panels, which broke the previous record of 16.53% set by SunTech just a few months before that, and now both have been eclipsed by Kyocera, which has just announced an aperture area efficiency of 17.3.
Aperture area refers to the surface of the solar panel, and it’s a standard way of comparing efficiencies. In crystalline silicon solar technology, small increments in efficiency can make a big difference in the cost-effectiveness in a solar installation.
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Published on February 13th, 2010
Pentadyne's new flywheel weighs less, stores more energy.
Flywheels are the ultimate green energy storage machines. They store energy mechanically, like a wind-up toy, so they don’t involve large quantities of lead, acid, or other environmental hazards, and they have a much longer lifespan than conventional batteries. That makes flywheels an ideal storage format for sustainable energy, but until recently their full potential wasn’t exploited. Early versions were heavy, difficult to maintain, and not very efficient compared to lead-acid batteries.
Pentadyne Power has come out with a new GTX flywheel that represents the kind of next-generation improvements that are pushing the technology into more widespread use. It combines lightweight carbon fiber components with magnetic levitation to achieve a level of energy efficiency that competes favorably, pound for pound, with conventional lead-acid batteries – and shows how the new developments are beating old school flywheels at their own game.
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Published on February 11th, 2010
Boston Dynamics has just won a $32 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop LS3, a walking robot. Also known as the Legged Squad Support System, the purpose of the LS3 is to serve as a robotic mule to aid in combat operations by carrying supplies over rough terrain.
LS3 is still in the early concept stage, and so far it resembles its Boston Dynamics robot cousins, Big Dog and Little Dog, which in turn recall those legged Empire tanks from Star Wars, so it’s no stretch to imagine outfitting a robot mule with weapons some day (after all, we already use airborne drones), but in addition to its combat mission the LS3 may also have an important role to play in disaster response and a more sustainable future.
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Published on February 5th, 2010
Wipro, the second largest IT company in India, has beaten many of the giants in electronics and unveiled a toxic free computer.
In so doing it becomes only the third manufacturer in the world, behind Apple and HP, to make a toxic free desktop.
Only Acer laptops are similarly toxin free. All other manufacturers, including Dell, Toshiba and Samsung, continue to make PCs which are environmentally damaging.
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Published on February 3rd, 2010
Columbia University has received a federal grant of $2.8 million to develop energy efficiency computer chips using magnetic materials.
Magnetic materials are set to play a big role in a more energy efficient future for the information technology sector. Last month the U.S. Department of Energy announced $47 million in grants for new IT energy efficiency projects, and a big chunk of that – $2.8 million – will go to the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University (SEAS) to develop new computer chips using nano-scaled magnetic materials.
Columbia will be working with partners IBM and Cornell University on the project, which is funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). It’s a compelling example of the ripple effect that government investment in research can have, as the increased efficiencies are expected to yield significant bottom line savings for established IT players and startups alike. Private industry is chipping in a cool $70 million in matching funds for the overall DOE program.
