Energy

ESL Bulbs Are Better Than CFLs and LEDs, Says Company

Another contender has stepped into the ring of energy efficient lighting: called ESL (electron-stimulated luminescence), this new type of bulb works by using accelerated electrons to light up a phosphor coating on the inside of a glass bulb. ESLs can turn on instantly, can work with dimmers, and creates a light quality that's similar to incandescents and halogens. More »

5:00 PM on Sat Aug 2 2008
By Elaine Chow
19,645 views, 38 comments

solar energy

New Way Of Storing Solar Energy Discovered

Solar power has a lot of promise, but until recently there hasn't been an adequate way to store the energy the sun produces. Scientists at MIT have come up with a new fuel cell process that mimics the way plants store the sun's rays that is both efficient and inexpensive, not to mention environmentally sound. Without getting too technical, the system uses sunlight to separate water's hydrogen and oxygen atoms and then puts them back together in a fuel cell, providing energy. This means an almost limitless supply of clean energy might be just a few years away, though it's still too early to say when you'll have what you want: a solar powered laptop. [PhysOrg]

10:00 PM on Thu Jul 31 2008
By Matt Hickey
19,960 views, 61 comments

Latest by n/a: Someone made this comment: "Unfortunately, our actual electrical and chemical battery technology really sucks- its bulky, expensive, often toxic, inefficient, has limited life spans, etc." There has recently been a development which could make current battery technology obsolete -- it's more »

south korea

Korean Scientists Closer To Fusion?

Korean scientists are one step further in reaching sustainable fusion reactors. In an experiment for the National Fusion Research Institute, scientists were able to achieve a form of supercharged plasma for 249 milliseconds, almost two and a half times longer than they had anticipated. It's a new form of plasma that can be used to generate electricity in a manner similar to conventional nuclear plants but with far less radioactive waste. We think that's cool. So do bears. [Korea Times]

10:00 PM on Fri Jul 25 2008
By Matt Hickey
14,928 views, 94 comments

Latest by n/a: @jkr2: No, it would appear that you're moving backwards in time relative to your position. If the light from a clock is traveling away from the clock at "c" and you travel in the same direction away from the clock at more »

wind power

Rock Port, Missouri, is First US City to Generate All Its Electricity From Wind Turbines

(Photo by Steve Morse)
Not to be outdone by those crazy Danish bastards out on the isle of Samso, Science Daily reports an equally crazy group of Missourian bastards in Rock Port now generate all their electricity using wind turbines. Rock Port went completely wind-powered last week, making use of the 75 wind turbines spread out across three Missouri counties, and local experts are excited about the potential for wind power throughout the state. However, PopSci thinks it won't be so easy to make this a widespread trend in the US. More »

4:20 PM on Fri Jul 25 2008
By Adrian Covert
6,145 views, 67 comments

Latest by strangesnow: They've done studies on the Danish wind miracle. Fact is that they sell all of their wind power to Britain and their own consumption is powered by coal fired plants. In fact, after spending that much money on more »

energy

Team Doubles Efficiency of Thermoelectric Material: Good News for Car Electrics

Scientists at Ohio State University have taken a thermoelectric material that's been used for decades to power deep-space probes, and worked out how to double its efficiency. That's good news: thermoelectrics convert heat directly into electrical energy. By catching exhaust heat, the new material may allow car alternators to be replaced... and that'll push up the efficiency of car engines. The team doped lead telluride with tiny amounts of thallium, which adjusts the crystal structure and increases its heat-electricity conversion efficiency from around 6% to over 10%. Even better, since engineers have years of experience of working with lead telluride, it should be easy to commercialize the product. Environmentalists will have to be pleased, and relax about the high toxicity of thallium, though. [Technology Review]

5:24 AM on Fri Jul 25 2008
By Kit Eaton
2,358 views, 14 comments

Latest by Red Right Hand: what was that great flick? A young poisoner's handbook or something? more »

oled

Researchers Squeeze 60% More Light Out of OLEDs With Tiny Lenses

Optics junkies at the University of Michigan have found a way to greatly boost the efficiency of OLEDs to produce 60% more light from the same amount of power as those previous, cranking out 70 lumens per watt. Their method uses a layer of five-micrometer-wide lenses mounted on top of a reflective grid, which coaxes the light out from the organic substrate and into the world. OLEDs to date have been held back by efficiency problems—they still can't match CFL bulbs' 90 lumens per watt, but they're getting there. This could mean lighting that adds even less power consumption to OLED's many benefits over compact fluorescents (longer life, better light, theoretical 100% efficiency, etc), and more energy-sipping OLED TV panels down the road. [Technology Review via DVICE]

3:40 PM on Wed Jul 23 2008
By John Mahoney
1,852 views, 11 comments

Latest by Hello_Newman: Any progress in making Olympic Womens Gymnastics in Hi-Def look better is a noble effort. Stop the hating of OLED TV's cheaper so we can marvel at pert buttocks in our own homes. If we stop viewing pert buttocks, the more »

solar power

Solar Windows Generate Up To 70 Watts, Serious Debt

Solar windows have finally made their way to the consumer market, and these new panes from Nihon Telecommunications Systems in Japan aren't a bad start. The inconspicuously equipped windows, at peak, generate a claimed 70 watts per square meter, which can be accessed through a few USB ports. In other words, the only way to offset the $1,900 per square meter cost of these windows is charging your iPods and running necktie air conditioners nonstop for the rest of your life. Also advertised is the fact that the windows filter about 90% of sunlight to help reduce cooling costs, which should be a given considering that these panes are using it to generate power. Nihon expects to move 10,000 panes annually, so hopefully we'll see a price drop before too long. [Crunchgear]

1:48 PM on Wed Jul 23 2008
By John Herrman
3,977 views, 12 comments

Latest by hammertime1994: @raleel: Umm... I don't know about you, but most of the world doesn't have an A/C bill... more »

wind energy

NASA Wind Map Shows You Where The Greatest Gusts Blow

In an effort to figure out the best areas to harvest wind energy, scientists from NASA's Earth Science Division have used several years of QuikSCAT satellite data to produce some pretty awesome looking wind power density maps. According to them, if the areas with high wind power—an average wind of greater than 30 knots (45 miles an hour)—were tapped, they could potentially supply 10 to 15 percent of the world's energy needs. More »

6:00 PM on Sat Jul 12 2008
By Elaine Chow
8,828 views, 34 comments

solar

Solar-Powered LCD Brings TV to Anywhere the Sun Shines

As part of Sharp's recent efforts to shove itself to the forefront of solar innovation, the company is showcasing a prototype of a 26-inch LCD Aquos TV that can be powered entirely by the sun. Now even the 1.6 billion people on earth without electricity won't have an excuse to miss the next season of Lost. More »

12:00 PM on Sat Jul 5 2008
By Elaine Chow
3,159 views, 8 comments

green

Danish Isle Runs Completely on Renewable Energy, Is Greenest Guinea Pig Ever

In this week's New Yorker, Elizabeth Kolbert wrote about the Danish isle of Samsø, which over the past 10 years, has gone from exclusively using fossil fuel energy sources, to living exclusively off renewable energy. Using a combination of onshore and offshore turbines, private mini-turbines, solar panels, straw-burning furnaces and biofuels, the 4,300-resident island has become a sort of a sandbox for green experimentation. More »

4:30 PM on Fri Jul 4 2008
By Adrian Covert
21,693 views, 62 comments

turbine

Democratic Ecology: Philippe Starck's Cheap Designer Wind Turbine For Your Home

Famous designer Philippe Starck recently revealed he felt a certain shame that all the things he'd designed were not essential for living. This turbine, which he designed with the help of generator company Pramac, can theoretically provide a single home with 20-60% of all the electricity it needs. The name, which needs work, or at least the prefix "turbo" in front of it, is "Democratic Ecology." If the performance is indeed true, at $633, it's actually a steal and I'd order one right now. [inhabitat via Boingboing]

4:30 PM on Wed Jul 2 2008
By Brian Lam
9,886 views, 24 comments

Latest by n/a: $633 for a generator that could provide the average american home with 40 to 60 percent of it's electricity needs is something on the order of Tony Stark's "Arc Reactor". Free power. If the total unit, not taking into the more »

hydroelectricity

Hydroelectric Bucket Will Gladly Help You Miss the Point of Camping

Sam Redfield of the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group has designed a bucket-based hydroelectric generator that can be made with easily obtainable, affordable parts. The "pico generator" is intended to provide a modest power supply suitable for home lighting and small appliances to remote destinations. They've already tested the bucket at La Florida in Guatemala, where it demonstrated the ability to power five retro Motorola handsets from hustle'n flow of a small stream. More »

7:45 PM on Fri Jun 27 2008
By John Herrman
12,162 views, 13 comments

breasts

The Breast Motion Power Generator is a Genius Idea

Adrienne So over at Slate has used her natural gifts to come up with the most genius idea yet: an energy-generating bra. Instead of just holding her boobs in place and dispelling that excess kinetic energy into, I don't know, heat, why not use it to power a gadget? According to a breast specialist, a D-cup in a lousy bra moves up to 35-inches up and down during exercise. Professor Wang of Georgia Tech is working on just this problem, using nanowires inside fabric to convert that visual spectacle into something useful. But is it enough to power an average iPod? This Wang says yes. [Slate]

9:29 PM on Mon Jun 23 2008
By Jason Chen
17,845 views, 59 comments

Latest by n/a: @GadgetPlay: Well,if it will help you,in the June 2008 issue of Playboy,page 106,I just discovered that "kuni sabisu" means 'cunnilingus',"A-zeme" means 'anal attack' (bet that's a great pick up line over there!) and "kokku sakkingu" means...well,sound it out. more »

cellphones

Wind, Solar Recharge Tent Keeps Phones Juiced at Glastonbury Festival

Glastonbury festivalgoers won't have to worry about not having enough juice in their cellphones, thanks to U.K. mobile company Orange's green cellphone charging stations. The freestanding tentpods draw their electricity from a wind generator and solar panels. With a peak power of 1Kw, the pod can charge up to 100 mobile phones per hour and stores unused energy in a battery bank. The tent also contains a fully functional weather station and a nifty panel that keeps track of power generated and consumed throughout the festival. More »

4:00 PM on Sun Jun 22 2008
By Elaine Chow
5,701 views, 14 comments

Latest by n/a: Hm, I would need something like this. A big ass party tent that is both good-looking, and power-accessible. but, I would like that one with sleeping quarters, and not that big cylinder that works as a fly attractor at night... and not more »

garbage power

Military TGER Generator Runs on Trash

The U.S. military has been running two prototype generators that run on leftovers, shredded documents and ammunition wrappers at their headquarters in Iraq. The Tactical Garbage to Energy Refinery (TGER) works by breaking down garbage into small bits and then heating it up until it becomes a synthetic gas and then combining it with the ethanol produced from the fermenting of foods and liquids. The result is a fuel capable of running the generators. More »

3:30 PM on Fri Jun 20 2008
By Sean Fallon
4,655 views, 27 comments

solar

MIT Students Build Solar Dish that Can Melt You, Your Family

MIT students have spent the past several weeks assembling a 12-foot mirrored dish that can concentrate sunlight 1,000 times over. In the picture here, we see the panel instantly igniting a plank of wood in its path. As for lighting your house—no problem. More »

11:20 AM on Fri Jun 20 2008
By Mark Wilson
21,343 views, 68 comments

lcd

Sony Brings Out Energy-Efficient 32-Inch LCD in Japan

The Bravia KDL-32JE1 is an energy-efficient TV from Bravia which consumes just 89W of power, compared to 160W on an equivalent Bravia. It also uses plastic parts recycled from other Sony departments, such as the plastic waste from collected TVs, polystyrene packaging and the waste from the optical film from LCD TVs. Available on July 25 in Japan, the KDL-32JE1 has 1366x768 resolution, HDMI interface, 2500:1 contrast ratio and 178-degree view angle, and comes in two colors, Champagne Gold and Silver. It will cost the equivalent of $1,390 in Yen. [Impress]

6:00 AM on Tue Jun 17 2008
By AddyDugdale
1,513 views, 2 comments

Latest by Monty: I am interested in how they were able to (finally) get a large LCD display to use less power than the equivalent CRT. Of course, the next question is how we take those techniques and put them into every more »

gas crisis

Genepax Unveils a Car That Runs on Water and Air

Running a car on water has been the holy grail for car manufacturers for some time now, but it appears that a Japanese company named Genepax may have pulled ahead of the competition with a prototype vehicle that runs entirely on water and air. Their new "Water Energy System (WES)," generates power by supplying water and air to the fuel and air electrodes using a proprietary technology called the Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA). The secret behind MEA is a special material that is capable of breaking down water into hydrogen and oxygen through a chemical reaction. More »

6:10 PM on Fri Jun 13 2008
By Sean Fallon
49,162 views, 123 comments

Latest by skierpage: @noirdreams: Capillary action doesn't break any law of physics, and isn't really a nanoscale issue. "I've noticed some counter-intuitive physical processes, therefore a car that runs on water and air is possible" is not a strong argument. more »

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