alternative energy

The inventor of the nickel metal hydride (NiMH) technology used for building batteries for countless portable electronic gadgets and now hybrid gas-electric cars believes the hydrogen economy is already upon us.
In a paper published in the current issue of the International Journal of Nuclear Hydrogen Production and Applications, Stanford Ovshinsky, Chairman and CEO of Ovshinsky […]

A transition to hydrogen vehicles could greatly reduce U.S. oil dependence and carbon dioxide emissions, says a new congressionally mandated report from the National Research Council, but making hydrogen vehicles competitive in the automotive market will not be easy. While the development of fuel cell and hydrogen production technology over the past several years has […]

Imagine windows that not only provide a clear view and illuminate rooms, but also use sunlight to efficiently help power the building they are part of. MIT engineers report a new approach to harnessing the sun’s energy that could allow just that.
The work, reported in the July 11 issue of Science, involves the creation of […]

Microorganisms once reigned supreme on the Earth, thriving by filling every nook and cranny of the environment billions of years before humans first arrived on the scene. Now, this ability of microorganisms to grow from an almost infinite variety of food sources may play a significant role in bailing out society from its current energy […]

A device consisting of a giant rubber tube may hold the key to producing affordable electricity from the energy in sea waves.
Invented in the UK, the ‘Anaconda’ is a totally innovative wave energy concept. Its ultra-simple design means it would be cheap to manufacture and maintain, enabling it to produce clean electricity at lower cost […]

In a move that promises to change the economics of biodiesel refining, chemical engineers at Rice University have unveiled a set of techniques for cleanly converting problematic biofuels waste into chemicals that fetch a profit.
The latest research is available online in the journal Metabolic Engineering. The new paper and others published earlier this year describe […]

Dramatic progress in renewable energy technology is needed if the United States desires to produce 25 percent of its electricity and motor vehicle fuel from renewable sources by 2025 without significantly increasing consumer costs, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today.
Produced by the RAND Environment, Energy and Economic Development program, the study provides a […]

Nanotechnology is paving the way toward improved solar cells. New research shows that a film of carbon nanotubes may be able to replace two of the layers normally used in a solar cell, with improved performance at a lower cost. Researchers have found a surprising way to give the nanotubes the properties they need: add […]

An international research team led by Swedish Professor Rajeev Ahuja, Uppsala University, has demonstrated an atomistic mechanism of hydrogen release in magnesium nanoparticles — a potential hydrogen storage material. The findings have been published in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS).
It is becoming clear that cars of the future […]

Diesel fuel prices approaching $5 a gallon — and the resulting economic impact on products transported by truck — have created renewed interest in fuel-saving technologies developed during the past decade at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI).
Use of pressurized air "active flow control" techniques combined with conventional aerodynamic streamlining could improve fuel efficiency by […]

MIT engineers have improved the power output of one type of fuel cell by more than 50 percent through technology that could help these environmentally friendly energy storage devices find a much broader market, particularly in portable electronics.
The new material key to the work is also considerably less expensive than its conventional industrial counterpart, among […]

A spidery fungus with a voracious appetite for military uniforms and canvas tents could hold the key to improvements in the production of biofuels, a team of government, academic and industry researchers has announced.
In a paper published today in Nature Biotechnology, researchers led by Los Alamos National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy Joint […]

Geotimes magazine examines Google’s efforts to develop affordable renewable energy in the April issue, available online and on newsstands now.
Google, Inc. launched RE<C: Renewable Energy cheaper than Coal in November 2007. The goal is to bring renewable energy, such as solar, wind and geothermal, to prices low enough to compete with coal within the next […]

A new approach is able to create a dramatic improvement in cheap solar cells now being developed in laboratories.
By using a popcorn-ball design — tiny kernels clumped into much larger porous spheres — researchers at the University of Washington are able to manipulate light and more than […]

People could live in glass houses and look at the world through rose-tinted windows while reducing their carbon emissions by 50% thanks to Queensland University of Technology Institute of Sustainable Resources (ISR) research.
Professor John Bell said QUT had worked with a Canberra-based company Dyesol, which is developing transparent solar cells that act as both windows […]

Researchers at the University of Minnesota studying bacteria capable of generating electricity have discovered that riboflavin (commonly known as vitamin B-2) is responsible for much of the energy produced by these organisms.
The bacteria, Shewanella, are commonly found in water and soil and are of interest because they can convert simple organic compounds (such as lactic […]

The energy from sunlight falling on only 9 percent of California’s Mojave Desert could power all of the United States’ electricity needs if the energy could be efficiently harvested, according to some estimates. Unfortunately, current-generation solar cell technologies are too expensive and inefficient for wide-scale commercial applications.
A team of Northwestern University researchers has developed a […]

Cardiff University researchers are exploring how waste heat from car exhausts could provide a new greener power supply for vehicles.
Professor Mike Rowe’s long term research interest at the Cardiff School of Engineering has been in thermoelectric generation — employing thermocouples to convert heat into electricity. The conversion technology is used in everyday applications such as […]

On a perfect New Mexico winter day — with the sky almost 10 percent brighter than usual — Sandia National Laboratories and Stirling Energy Systems (SES) set a new solar-to-grid system conversion efficiency record by achieving a 31.25 percent net efficiency rate. The old 1984 record of 29.4 percent was toppled Jan. 31 on SES’s […]

A new Nature Conservancy study finds that converting land for biofuel crops results in major carbon emissions, actually worsening the problem of global warming instead of mitigating it.
The first-of-its-kind study will be published in Science later this month.
“This research examines the conversion of land for biofuels and asks the question ‘Is it worth it?’ Does […]