Developed at Sandia National Laboratories, the new cells are made of crystalline silicon, which means that they can produce the same energy as most standard solar cells, even while they are 10 times thinner. How much? They can get 14.9 percent solar-to-electricity power conversion efficiency at only 14 to 20 micrometers thickness. By comparison, a human hair is 70 micrometers thick.

As a result of their thickness and overall size, the Sandia Labs' solar cells can be attached to any flexible surface, including cloth. In other words: These things have the potential to turn your jacket or underpants into a giant walking power source. Or a small one. That depends on you. [Physorg via Inhabitat]

This 49.3 megawatt biomass power plant in the United Kingdom will be fully integrated with its surroundings on the banks of the River Tees. Fully integrated as in "hey, look that cool big fat metal volcano coming out of those woods." [Heatherwick via Dezeen via Inhabitat]

The Power Smart Tower has four of these Green outlets, four normal outlets (in case you have stuff that needs to draw power all the time) and two USB jacks, and will run $80. Its little brother, the Power Smart Wall, is meant to be wall-mounted, and has half the number of outlets and no USB jacks. It'll retail for $30 (this one is pretty tempting to me personally—seems fairly priced and a nice easy way to save some power). Finally, the diminutive laptop charger, helpfully named Laptop Charger, only charges your computer when it actually needs it, and offers an additional plug for a mobile device. That one'll run you $100. All three products are available now from iGo's site. [Krunker via Ubergizmo]

Statkraft, the company leading this project, has built a small-scale operation near Oslo in Norway, but hopes that it'll have a commercial plant built by 2015, which could generate power for 10 per cent of the country. If osmotic power plants were adopted throughout the world, Statkraft claims up to 1,600 - 1,700 terawatt hours could be generated, which is around half the energy that comes out of the EU currently.

Osmosis, if you cast your mind back to science class, is when a solution in water passes naturally through a semi-permeable membrane separating the weaker solution from the strong.

In this particular Norwegian case, the membrane has been made from polyester, polysulfone and polyamide, and while some of the energy harnessed keeps the pumps ticking over, the rest of it powers a turbine—although currently, only one watt per square meter is being produced. It's believed that they'd need to generate five watts to make it worth its while, so it looks like it's back to the drawing boards for Statkraft for now. Wonder if they're related to the plastic cheese manufacturers? [Economist]

There's a ton more ideas—not just tech ones—at the full spread. Read it, it'll make you more intelligent, though you'll feel a lot dumber on a personal level. [NYT]

Energy RC-Micro 5.1

Energy is big on small speakers. Their RC-Micro 5.1 system ($600) includes four satellite speakers that stand a mere 4.7 inches tall, and the center speaker isn't a whole lot bigger. The wee 240-watt, 8-inch subwoofer is a seriously gutsy performer. The big catch with most little systems is they crush wham-bam dynamics, and their bass either booms or runs out of gas. No problem here, the RC-Micro 5.1 belts out bombast like a larger system. It's simply one of the most refined sounding micro systems I've heard to date.

Mirage Nanosat 5.1 Home Theater

The Mirage Nanosat 5.1 Home Theater ($600) sounds unlike any box-type satellite system on the planet. Conventional speakers project sound forward, the Nanosat speakers produce a ratio of 30 percent direct and 70 percent reflected sound. The direct sound heads straight to the listeners, while the other 70 percent bounces off the room's walls and ceiling before finally reaching the listeners. With the room lights turned off, the Mirage satellite speakers can literally disappear as sources of sound. The system comes with five identical satellite speakers and a rather potent mini-subwoofer.

Definitive Technology ProCinema 600

Definitive Technology is a high-end speaker company, but it is one that has learned how to sell its products for a lot less than high-end prices. Take the ProCinema 600 six-piece satellite-subwoofer system ($800). Clever engineering solutions make for an exceptional package. For example, the system's injection-molded mineral-filled polymer speaker cabinets have more of a high-end feel than more typical plastic or fiberboard cabinets. The 250-watt, 8-inch subwoofer has a second 8-inch "infrasonic radiator," in order to produce extraordinary deep-bass slam. The ProCinema 600's resolution of fine detail, razor-sharp imaging, and dynamic kick are the stuff that make high-end worth it. Listen and you'll see.

For more details and full reviews of these three amazing systems, head over to The Audiophiliac.

Steve Guttenberg's CNet blog, The Audiophiliac covers high and low-end audio and everything in between. He's been reviewing audio components for 14 years. He has never ever heard anyone make a Police Academy or Short Circuit joke about his name. Ever.

It seems pretty obvious, really: There's no reason to cool down the hallways, corridors, entrances and lobbies if you spend all your time in a cube, so why not restrict climate control to places where people actually work? Hell, they even tried it in Singapore, where the weather is definitely worse than Scranton, PA; Slough, England; or wherever Office Space was filmed, and it cut energy costs right in half. Bring that up to Jeff, the next time he tries to lower the temperature enough to freeze your coffee. [New Scientist]

[HU2 Design via Inhabitat]

According to the witches and wizards at NEC Electronics and Onryoku Hatsuden, their new remote generates electricity when the users clicks on any button. They are planning to see the first production remotes in 2011. [Aiajin via Crunchgear]

Yes, coconut-shell charcoal plays a key role in a facility which is estimated to turn into a $10 billion project because for some weird reason the stuff acts like an "environmental sponge" and sucks up helium and hydrogen byproducts like nothing else. Experiments with the Tokamak reactor which is the heart of the ITER facility won't even start until 2018, but I'm already getting concerned about what's going to happen to the world supply of coconuts now. [H+ Magazine via Slashdot]

President Barack Obama announced today a $8-billion federal plant to modernize the United State's power grid. $3.4 billion will come from the government, and the rest will be put up by private companies. In his words:

At this moment, there's something big happening in America when it comes to creating a clean-energy economy. But getting there will take a few more days like this one, and more projects like this one. Here in this region of Florida, this project will reduce demand for electricity by up to 20 percent during the hottest summer days that stress the grid and power plants,. It will provide smart meters to 2.6 million more customers. And most importantly, it will create thousands of jobs - good jobs, by the way, that can't be outsourced; jobs that will last and jobs that pay a decent wage.

In my words: About fucking time. We need to modernize the power grid not only for the jobs, but for the long term survivability of the country's economy. It's the only way to depend less on other countries, and make production more efficient and competitive.

And it's not only about using renewable energies. It's about increasing the efficiency of electricity transport and consumption at homes. That's why $1 billion is going to smart meters and other consumer oriented technology, which will make more than 5 million homes to consume a lot less. Two billion dollars will go to infrastructure to support those meters, and $400 to modernize power lines, with an additional $25 million to push for smarter, more power efficient devices.

Do you think this is a lot of money? It is, especially since it only covers a small part of the grid. But here's what we are getting in return: $20 billion in savings during the next decade, plus increasing the reliability of the grid to avoid power outages that cost $150 billion a year to the US economy.

I can only hope this goes well, and we keep modernizing the rest of the grid as soon as possible. [Miami Herald and Ars Technica]

The structure generates 130 kilowatts of solar power, enough to offset 145,000 lbs of greenhouse gas emissions annually. There are even charging terminals available for electric cars, but only two can be charged at a time. Seems like a pretty smart way to keep drivers comfortable and harvest some spare energy on the side. [Dvice]

How do they do it? With a triple junction compound solar cell that uses three photo absorption layers made from elements like indium and gallium. I'll leave it to the physical chemistry geniuses among you to explain exactly what that means in the comments.

You might have heard of efficiency ratings that climb into the 40% range. Sharp even lists one in their press release. To clarify, those are different tests. Apparently there's a distinction made in efficiency ratings between concentrated and unfocused light. The more you know, right?

Don't expect to be covering your house in these soon, they're meant for use in satellites. [Akihabara via Engadget]

Sony's Wireless Power Transfer can push 60 watts of electrical energy over almost 20 inches (50 centimeters). That's a pretty decent distance, especially when they say that it can be extended using passive extender units. In fact, they have already achieved 31 inches in other tests.

They claim that their method—which sounds similar to Intel's—uses some dharmastastic magnetic resonance, in which electromagnetic energy gets transmitted from one device to another, both sharing the same resonant frequencies.

Sony says that this system offers 80% efficiency, which may get reduced to about a minimum of 60% if there is a misalignment in the frequencies, which needs to be corrected.

I don't know if this is safe for our bodies or not, but I would like to have it. Even if that requires me not wearing my tinfoil hat while watching the sixth season of Lost. [Sony via i4u]

NPR says that NASA has not made any new Plutonium-238 since the 1980s, instead opting to borrow from Mother Russia. And because they use up to 11 pounds of the material each year, it would take 8 years worth of production to begin satisfying demand again. But the requested $30 million from Congress is only a start—the full Plutonium-238 production program could cost up to $150 million.

Because it gets so cold in deep space (reaching absolute zero), spacecrafts traveling out that far need a fuel generating a lot of heat, so they can convert that energy to electricity. Plutonium-238 naturally generates a serious amount of heat as it goes through radioactive decay, so it's often the fuel of choice for these NASA adventures, such as voyages to Saturn and beyond.

According to a Johns Hopkins planetary scientist, NASA has enough Plutonium left to fuel the next Mars Rover mission, and maybe enough to test out some new power generators. After that, they need more scratch for more fuel. [NPR via MIT Tech Review]

It works great, apparently. The backpack itself is mounted on rails, so it moves up and down when its wearer moves. The movement generates enough electricity to power your gadgets, and the design actually relieves stress from the user. [Lightning Packs via Defense Tech]

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence, and William Kamkwamba has it in spades. At age fourteen, while many of us were sneaking out of classrooms, William was struggling to sneak into them—his family was unable to afford the $80 annual tuition. As is bound to happen to most students, he was caught. But instead of being sent to detention, he was barred from the school. In a show of the driven man he would become, he didn't allow that to hinder him and instead started spending his days in the local library. While there, he encountered a book called Using Energy:

Using Energy described how windmills could be used to generate electricity. Only two percent of Malawians have electricity, and the service is notoriously unreliable. William decided an electric windmill was something he wanted to make. Illuminating his house and the other houses in his village would mean that people could read at night after work. A windmill to pump water would mean that they could grow two crops a year rather than one, grow vegetable gardens, and not have to spend two hours a day hauling water. "A windmill meant more than just power," he wrote, "it was freedom."

This book is what changed his life. And I don't mean that as an exaggeration. It was truly what made a difference in his life. Because of that book, and the potential he saw in its ideas, William began to build:

William scoured trash bins and junkyards for materials he could use to build his windmill. With only a couple of wrenches at his disposal, and unable to afford even nuts and bolts, he collected things that most people would consider garbage-slime-clogged plastic pipes, a broken bicycle, a discarded tractor fan-and assembled them into a wind-powered dynamo. For a soldering iron, he used a stiff piece of wire heated in a fire. A bent bicycle spoke served as a size adapter for his wrenches.

Imagine that. A young boy being so motivated by ideas and the sheer need to build something life-changing that he discovered materials and uses for them which most of us wouldn't even dream of. As Mark Frauenfelder put it:

For an educated adult living in a developed nation, designing and building a wind turbine that generates electricity is something to be proud of. For a half-starved, uneducated boy living in a country plagued with drought, famine, poverty, disease, a cruelly corrupt government, crippling superstitions, and low expectations, it's another thing altogether. It's nothing short of monumental.

After completing his first windmill, William "went on to wire his house with four light bulbs and two radios, installing switches made from rubber sandals, and scratch-building a circuit breaker to keep the thatch roof of his house from catching fire." His project had the attention of village locals early on, but at this point he gained the attention of TED, Technology Entertainment Design, through whom he was introduced to individuals willing to contribute to his plans to "electrify, irrigate, and educate his village, as well as pay his tuition at the prestigious African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg."

In short: A young man struggled to educate himself, to build something his village needed, and in the end made a difference to the entire locale and gained the education he'd always wanted. Yes, it's a fluffy, feel-good story with a happy ending. What should you take from the it? Maybe that there's hope in the bleakest of situations, maybe that your teachers and parents were right about the power of education, maybe just that I'm a sappy bookworm with a soft spot for happy endings. No matter, if you wish to learn more, you can read the recently released The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, check out William's blog, or peek at this video from before he ever wrote his autobiography. [GOOD via Boing Boing]

This dishwasher concept from De Dietrich uses cavitation to clean your dishes. In layman's terms that means tiny bubbles strike your dinnerware and scrub the surfaces clean. The process cuts out much of the water and energy waste associated with traditional dishwashers.

Sadly, this dishwasher can't be used to steam a salmon, which, on second thought, may be a good thing. [De Dietrich via Appliancist via DVICE]

So if you notice that you use a lot of energy around 7pm, maybe it's time to turn off the TV, lower the thermostat or eat that steak raw rather than using the Earth's dwindling natural resources to char it all fancy-like.

The only real design flaw with the Energy Aware Clock is that the face only looks more interesting by displaying your corpulent energy spikes. So while your data could be handy, the end product positively reinforces wastefulness. A better idea, and I'm just spit-balling here, would be a clock that kicked you in the nuts every time you left a room without turning off all the lights while running a hairdryer, or something. [designboom via DVICE via geek via BBG]

The whole deal is being put together by Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and industrial design company IGI Corp. The plan involves a gigantic solar panel floating around in space, soaking up a gigawatt of energy and beaming it to Earth without the use of cables. And they hope to have it ready to rock within four years.

Pretty amazing stuff. Here's hoping it works well and doesn't end up giving the entire country of Japan cancer. Thanks for testing that whole thing out for us, guys! [Bloomberg via Inhabitat]