# Advances in batteries/energy thread



## ScienceRocks

---This thread will have the latest advances in batteries @ energy technology----Batteries, Wind, solar, wave, oil, coal, nuclear, fusion, etc...This is modeled after the threads in the science forum. I will consider making another thread for general news...We will see.

*Texas Instruments brings fast charging, extended life to Li-ion batteries* 

By Myriam Joire posted Jun 7th 2013 9:14AM  19  

Texas Instruments brings fast charging, extended life to Li-ion batteries


> Yesterday Texas Instruments introduced a couple of new chipsets (fuel gauge an charger ICs) designed to improve the charging speed and life expectancy of single-cell Li-ion batteries. The technology, called MaxLife, is expected to provide an improvement of up to 30 percent in battery service life and faster charging times. Cell impedance is carefully monitored by the fuel gauge chip while the charger IC uses a model of battery degradation to charge the cell in the most optimal way. Both chips are connected via an I2C bus to form an autonomous battery management system which, according to the company, is safer and more thermally efficient than existing solutions. The two chipsets (2.5A and 4.5A) are now available along with a development kit, so it's only a matter of time until this technology lands into handsets and other devices that use single-cell Li-ion batteries
> 
> Mobile phone users are frustrated when their batteries' charge doesn't last as long after months of daily charging and discharging. TI's MaxLife technology leverages an innovative degradation modeling system to minimize charge time while extending battery service life &#8211; as much as 30 percent according to lab tests. Based on TI's popular Impedance Track&#8482; battery capacity measurement technology, the MaxLife algorithm accurately predicts and avoids charge conditions that could degrade the battery.



Texas Instruments brings fast charging, extended life to Li-ion batteries


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## ScienceRocks

*New all-solid sulfur-based battery outperforms lithium-ion technology *

New all-solid sulfur-based battery outperforms lithium-ion technology


> Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have designed and tested an all-solid lithium-sulfur battery with approximately four times the energy density of conventional lithium-ion technologies that power today's electronics.
> 
> The ORNL battery design, which uses abundant low-cost elemental sulfur, also addresses flammability concerns experienced by other chemistries.
> 
> The new ionically-conductive cathode enabled the ORNL battery to maintain a capacity of 1200 milliamp-hours (mAh) per gram after 300 charge-discharge cycles at 60 degrees Celsius. For comparison, a traditional lithium-ion battery cathode has an average capacity between 140-170 mAh/g. Because lithium-sulfur batteries deliver about half the voltage of lithium-ion versions, this eight-fold increase in capacity demonstrated in the ORNL battery cathode translates into four times the gravimetric energy density of lithium-ion technologies, explained Liang.
> 
> Although the team's new battery is still in the demonstration stage, Liang and his colleagues hope to see their research move quickly from the laboratory into commercial applications. A patent on the team's design is pending.



Imagine a electric car with 4 times the range!


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## ScienceRocks

*Researchers Design a New Low Cost Lithium-Polysulfide Flow Battery*
Researchers Design a New Low Cost Lithium-Polysulfide Flow Battery | SciTech Daily

May 24, 2013 by Staff





> Menlo Park, California &#8212; Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy&#8217;s (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have designed a low-cost, long-life battery that could enable solar and wind energy to become major suppliers to the electrical grid.
> 
> &#8220;For solar and wind power to be used in a significant way, we need a battery made of economical materials that are easy to scale and still efficient,&#8221; said Yi Cui, a Stanford associate professor of materials science and engineering and a member of the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, a SLAC/Stanford joint institute. &#8220;We believe our new battery may be the best yet designed to regulate the natural fluctuations of these alternative energies.&#8221;
> 
> Cui and colleagues report their research results, some of the earliest supported by the DOE&#8217;s new Joint Center for Energy Storage Research battery hub, in the May issue of Energy & Environmental Science.
> 
> In this video, Stanford graduate student Wesley Zheng demonstrates the new low-cost, long-lived flow battery he helped create. The researchers created this miniature system using simple glassware. Adding a lithium polysulfide solution to the flask immediately produces electricity that lights an LED. A utility version of the new battery would be scaled up to store many megawatt-hours of energy. Credit: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
> 
> Currently the electrical grid cannot tolerate large and sudden power fluctuations caused by wide swings in sunlight and wind. As solar and wind&#8217;s combined contributions to an electrical grid approach 20 percent, energy storage systems must be available to smooth out the peaks and valleys of this &#8220;intermittent&#8221; power &#8211; storing excess energy and discharging when input drops.


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## ScienceRocks

Some more news on batteries lasting 10,000 cycles at 85%! 27 years.


*New Durable High-Power Lithium-Ion Battery Developed In Germany*


May 30, 2013  Thomas 



> Scientists at the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research (ZSW) in Ulm, Germany have developed a top-class lithium-ion battery, in terms of cycle stability &#8211; an important parameter for the lifetime. It is exceeding the current international state of technology for high-performance battery cells.
> 
> More than 10,000 full cycles have been achieved so far. With other values, such as the power density, the batteries are equivalent to those produced by leading Asian manufacturers. The active materials for the batteries exclusively originate from German companies. The ZSW has designed the cells, developed the manufacturing process, and produced a small sample series in the 18650-format. The technology has created the basis for manufacturing large-size pouch cells and large-size prismatic cells. The lithium-ion batteries are intended for use in electric vehicles and as solar power storage systems.
> 
> &#8220;After 10,000 complete charging and discharging cycles with a complete charge and discharge cycle per hour (2 C), our lithium batteries still have more than 85% of the initial capacity,&#8221; reports Dr. Margret Wohlfahrt-Mehrens, head of the Accumulator Material Research Department in Ulm. &#8220;That also provides excellent prospects for a long calendar life.&#8221; A long service life is an essential requirement from automotive companies. Lithium-ion batteries need to be able to do their work in cars for at least ten years without the battery capacity dropping to less than 80% of the rated value.


Read more at New Durable High Power Lithium Ion Battery from Germany


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## ScienceRocks

*Solar Power Windows Fast Approaching Commercial Production*


May 17, 2013  Nathan 

Solar Power Windows Fast Approaching Commercial Production | CleanTechnica


> Commercial production of solar windows, using the patented SolarWindow spray-on solar power coating system, may be just around the corner. A recent announcement from US building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) developer New Energy Technologies Ltd. (which we&#8217;ve been following for years) has us feeling that the time may soon come.
> 
> As per New Energy Technologies&#8217; recent announcement, the big news is that the fabrication time of the technology has been greatly reduced. The fabrication process, which involves methodically spraying layers of extremely small solar cells onto glass, has been reduced from a couple of days to only a couple of hours. According to the company, the process has been cut to 1/6 of the previous fabrication time.
> 
> And perhaps as significantly, New Energy has also reported that it has achieved &#8220;a two-fold increase in power conversion efficiency&#8221; and improved the transparency if the glass. Here are some more notes from the company:
> 
> 
> Researchers achieved today&#8217;s advances by way of a novel, patent-pending breakthrough, which enables fabrication of large-scale mini-module SolarWindow&#8482; devices, important to commercial deployment of the world&#8217;s first-of-its-kind glass window capable of generating electricity.



Read more at Solar Power Windows Fast Approaching Commercial Production | CleanTechnica


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## ScienceRocks

*New Framework for Understanding the Energetics of Ionic Liquids*



> June 7, 2013 &#8212; A new study by researchers at UC Santa Barbara provides clues into the understanding of the behavior of the charged molecules or particles in ionic liquids. The new framework may lead to the creation of cleaner, more sustainable, and nontoxic batteries, and other sources of chemical power. The research was published in an early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
> 
> "I think this framework would provide a nice strategy to begin discussions toward batteries utilizing ionic liquids," said graduate student researcher Matthew Gebbie, first author of the paper, "Ionic liquids behave as dilute electrolyte solutions."


New framework for understanding the energetics of ionic liquids


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## ScienceRocks

*Scientists create novel silicon electrodes that improve lithium-ion batteries*



> Stanford University scientists have dramatically improved the performance of lithium-ion batteries by creating novel electrodes made of silicon and conducting polymer hydrogel, a spongy material similar to that used in contact lenses and other household products
> 
> Writing in the June 4 edition of the journal Nature Communications, the scientists describe a new technique for producing low-cost, silicon-based batteries with potential applications for a wide range of electrical devices.
> 
> "Developing rechargeable lithium-ion batteries with high energy density and long cycle life is of critical importance to address the ever-increasing energy storage needs for portable electronics, electric vehicles and other technologies," said study co-author Zhenan Bao, a professor of chemical engineering at Stanford.
> 
> To find a practical, inexpensive material that increases the storage capacity of lithium-ion batteries, Bao and her Stanford colleagues turned to silicon &#8211; an abundant, environmentally benign element with promising electronic properties.
> 
> "We've been trying to develop silicon-based electrodes for high-capacity lithium-ion batteries for several years," said study co-author Yi Cui, an associate professor of materials science and engineering at Stanford. "Silicon has 10 times the charge storage capacity of carbon, the conventional material used in lithium-ion electrodes. The problem is that silicon expands and breaks."
> 
> Studies have shown that silicon particles can undergo a 400-percent volume expansion when combined with lithium. When the battery is charged or discharged, the bloated particles tend to fracture and lose electrical contact. To overcome these technical constraints, the Stanford team used a fabrication technique called in situ synthesis polymerization that coats the silicon nanoparticles within the conducting hydrogel.
> This technique allowed the scientists to create a stable lithium-ion battery that retained a high storage capacity through 5,000 cycles of charging and discharging.



 Read more at: Scientists create novel silicon electrodes that improve lithium-ion batteries

This will solve our electric car range problems!


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## ScienceRocks

*ZSW engineers build lithium-ion battery able to last for 27 years*

3 hours ago by Bob Yirka report



> (Phys.org) &#8212;Officials at Germany's Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg, (ZSW) have issued a press release describing improvements they've made to lithium-ion batteries. They claim their improvements allow a single battery to be recharged up to 10,000 times while still retaining 85 percent of its charging capacity. Such a battery, if used in an electric car, they note, would allow its owner to recharge the battery every day for 27.4 years.




 Read more at: ZSW engineers build lithium-ion battery able to last for 27 years


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## ScienceRocks

New Class Of Solar Cell Reaches New Efficiency Breakthrough


June 11, 2013  Joshua S Hill	



> Oxford PV have announced that they have achieved a new efficiency high-watermark for their new photovoltaic technology of 15.4%, continuing the march towards scale-up and commercialisation.


Read more at New Class Of Solar Cell Reaches New Efficiency Breakthrough | CleanTechnica


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## ScienceRocks

*Unzipped nanotubes unlock potential for batteries*

34 minutes ago 



> (Phys.org) Researchers at Rice University have come up with a new way to boost the efficiency of the ubiquitous lithium ion (LI) battery by employing ribbons of graphene that start as carbon nanotubes.
> 
> Proof-of-concept anodesthe part of the battery that stores lithium ionsbuilt with graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) and tin oxide showed an initial capacity better than the theoretical capacity of tin oxide alone, according to Rice chemist James Tour. After 50 charge-discharge cycles, the test units retained a capacity that was still more than double that of the graphite currently used for LI battery anodes.
> 
> The research appeared this week in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano




 Read more at: Unzipped nanotubes unlock potential for batteries


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## Sallow

It's breath taking how quickly this technology is starting to advance.


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## Old Rocks

New boron-silicon electrode could boost lithium-ion battery capacity

Laptops could work longer and electric cars could drive farther if it were possible to further increase the capacity of their lithium-ion batteries. The electrode material has a decisive influence on a battery&#8217;s capacity. So far, the negative electrode typically consists of graphite, whose layers can store lithium atoms. Scientists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) have now developed a material made of boron and silicon that could smooth the way to systems with higher capacities.

Loading a lithium-ion battery produces lithium atoms that are taken up by the graphite layers of the negative electrode. However, the capacity of graphite is limited to one lithium atom per six carbon atoms. Silicon could take up to ten times more lithium. But unfortunately, it strongly expands during this process&#8212;which leads to unsolved problems in battery applications.

Looking for an alternative to pure silicon, scientists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen have now synthesized a novel framework structure consisting of boron and silicon, which could serve as electrode material. Similar to the carbon atoms in diamond, the boron and silicon atoms in the novel lithium borosilicide (LiBSi2) are interconnected tetrahedrally. But unlike diamond they moreover form channels.

"Open structures with channels offer in principle the possibility to store and release lithium atoms," says Thomas Fässler, professor at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, Technische Universitaet Muenchen. "This is an important requirement for the application as anode material for lithium-ion batteries."

*Yet another avenue to extend the life and increase the capacity of the batteries. With other applications outside of that field, also. Folks, at this point, I think that it is a given that we will see EV's with a thousand miles range, and performance that blows away ICE's. And we can fuel them with solar that we own ourselves.*


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## Old Rocks

Green Car Congress: Amprius launches new high-capacity and high-energy-density Li-ion batteries with silicon anodes

Amprius Inc., a developer of lithium-ion batteries using silicon nanowire anodes (earlier post), has launched the first generation of its high-capacity and high-energy-density Li-ion batteries. The company has begun supplying smartphone and tablet OEMs with its first first two product families, based on an 1,850 mAh (580 Wh/L) battery and a 4,060 mAh (600 Wh/L) battery. Amprius has also signed contracts with its OEM customers to design batteries that meet custom specifications.

The company has also demonstrated greater than 650 and 700 Wh/L batteries with its second-generation and third-generation technology platforms. Amprius plans to begun pilot production of its second-generation batteries later this year.


Amprius' first-generation batteries are made with silicon anodes&#8212;not silicon nanowire anodes, which will appear in the subsequent generations.

 Amprius&#8217; technology was initially developed at Professor Yi Cui&#8217;s laboratory at Stanford University (earlier post); Prof. Cui is a founder of the company


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## ScienceRocks

*High-power lithium ion microbatteries from interdigitated three-dimensional bicontinuous nanoporous electrodes*
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v4/n4/full/ncomms2747.html


> High-performance miniature power sources could enable new microelectronic systems. Here we report lithium ion microbatteries having power densities up to 7.4&#8201;mW&#8201;cm&#8722;2&#8201;&#956;m&#8722;1, which equals or exceeds that of the best supercapacitors, and which is 2,000 times higher than that of other microbatteries. Our key insight is that the battery microarchitecture can concurrently optimize ion and electron transport for high-power delivery, realized here as a three-dimensional bicontinuous interdigitated microelectrodes. The battery microarchitecture affords trade-offs between power and energy density that result in a high-performance power source, and which is scalable to larger areas.






*Tiny lithium-ion battery recharges 1000x faster than rival tech, could shrink mobile devices *

By Alexis Santos posted Apr 17th, 2013 at 8:01 AM 0   

Researchers devise 'most powerful' batteries in the world, shame supercapacitors


http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/17/researchers-devise-fast-and-powerful-microbattery/


> Supercapacitors are often hailed as the holy grail of power supplies, but a group of researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a lithium-ion microbattery that leaves that prized solution in the dust, recharging 1,000 times faster than competing tech. Previous work done by Professor William P. King, who led the current effort, resulted in a fast-charging cathode with a 3D microstructure, and now the team has achieved a breakthrough by pairing it with an anode devised in a similar fashion.
> 
> The resulting battery is said to be the most powerful in the world, avoiding the usual trade-off between longevity and power while having a footprint of just a few millimeters. By altering its composition, scientists can even optimize the contraption for more juice or increased life. It's expected that the technology could make devices 30 times smaller and help broadcast radio signals up to 30 times farther, but it'll still be a while before it winds up in a super-slim phone within your pocket. For now, the researchers have their sights set on integrating the tech with other electronic components and investigating low-cost manufacturing.




http://www.greencarcongress.com/2013/04/king-20130420.html

This is how the electric car will violently slaughter the gasoline car!


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## ScienceRocks

*Better way to turn ocean into fuel*


The University of Wollongong  

Wednesday, 12 June 2013

Better way to turn ocean into fuel (ScienceAlert)


> UOW scientists have developed a novel way to turn sea water into hydrogen, for a sustainable and clean fuel source.
> 
> Using this method, as little as five litres of sea water per day would produce enough hydrogen to power an average-sized home and an electric car for one day.
> 
> The research team at UOW&#8217;s Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES) have developed a light-assisted catalyst that requires less energy input to activate water oxidation, which is the first step in splitting water to produce hydrogen fuel.
> 
> A major limitation with current technologies is that the oxidation process needs a higher energy input, which rules out using abundant sea water because it produces poisonous chlorine gas.


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## ScienceRocks

*Unzpip A Carbon Nanotube, Find A Graphene Ribbon, Create A &#8220;Flexible&#8221; Li-Ion Battery*


June 17, 2013  Tina Casey	


> In what sounds like a solution in search of a problem, a few years ago researchers at Rice University figured out a way to create graphene ribbons by &#8220;unzipping&#8221; carbon nanotubes. Well, now it looks like a problem has been found, and it&#8217;s a big one with huge implications for the solar and wind power markets, to say nothing of electric vehicles and portable electronics. In the latest twist, the Rice team has applied carbon nanotube-derived graphene nanoribbons to energy storage, and the result is a promising new platform for creating more durable, lightweight and efficient lithium-ion batteries.
> 
> For the latest experiments, the Rice team created graphene nanoribbons from carbon nanotubes using a sodium/potassium solution. They used that to make a  &#8220;slurry&#8221; composed of graphene nanoribbons along with nanoscale particles of tin oxide and a bit of water, all bound together with cellulose gum, a common food additive.
> 
> As reported in the current issue of the American Chemical Society&#8217;s ACS Nano journal, when the researchers applied the slurry to the anode of small &#8220;button-style&#8221; lithium-ion batteries the results were promising.
> 
> *After 50 discharge cycles, the batteries retained far more capacity &#8212; more than double &#8212; than Li-ion batteries using standard graphite anodes.*
> 
> Mike Williams of Rice University runs down the numbers:
> 
> &#8220;Lab tests showed initial charge capacities of more than 1,520 milliamp hours per gram (mAh/g). Over repeated charge-discharge cycles, the material settled into a solid 825 mAh/g.&#8221;
> 
> That could be just the beginning. According to Williams, lead researcher Jian Lin is confident that the new battery could handle &#8220;many more&#8221; cycles without a significant loss of capacity.
> 
> Part of the reason for improved durability is the increased flexibility that graphene nanoribbons lend to the anode. Conventional Li-ion batteries use silicon and other materials that break down and lose efficiency. With a graphene nanoribbon platform the tin oxide particles maintain a consistent size, rather than expanding and contracting.



Read more at Graphene Batteries Made From Unzpipped Carbon Nantuebes


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## ScienceRocks

*Battery Made From Wood  Efficient, Long-Lasting, Environmentally-Friendly Battery Developed*


June 19, 2013  Nathan 


> An environmentally-friendly, efficient, and long-lasting battery created out of wood? Sounds too good to be true? Well it may not be  researchers say that they have now developed just such a battery.
> 
> The tiny new battery  composed of a sliver of wood coated with tin  appears to have great potential, already showing itself to be among the most long-lasting of all sodium-ion nanobatteries. The researchers think that batteries based on this new technology would be best suited for large-scale energy storage  such as storing the excess energy produced by renewable energy installations.


Read more at Battery Made From Wood -- Efficient, Long-Lasting, Environmentally-Friendly Battery Developed | CleanTechnica


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## ScienceRocks

*Solar Cell Efficiency World Record Set By Sharp &#8212; 44.4%*


June 23, 2013  Mathias 



> Editor&#8217;s Note: In May, Sharp regained the world&#8217;s triple-junction, non-concentrator solar cell efficiency record &#8212; 37.9%. Now, it has also taken the overall world solar cell efficiency record &#8212; 44.4%. Here&#8217;s another repost from Solar Love on the news.
> 
> A research team at Sharp Corporation has announced that it has created a solar cell capable of converting 44.4% of incoming sunlight into electricity. The solar cell is of the &#8220;concentrator triple-junction compound&#8221; type, which basically is a lens-based system that focuses sunlight.
> 
> The high conversion efficiencies that we see with compound solar cells are due to several photoabsorbing layers typically made from indium and gallium. Sharp&#8217;s record-setting solar cell uses three layers (InGaP top, GaAs middle, and InGaAs bottom), as you can see on the illustration below:


Read more at Solar Cell Efficiency World Record Set By Sharp -- 44.4% | CleanTechnica



*Better droplet condensation could boost power efficiency*

29 minutes ago by David L. Chandler 



> Researchers at MIT have developed an innovative approach to improving heat transfer in power plants and cooling systems. The new system could provide a 100 percent improvement in the efficiency of heat transfer over conventional systems, the researchers say.




 Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-06-droplet-condensation-boost-power-efficiency.html#jCp


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## ScienceRocks

*III-V Solar Cell Efficiency Record Of 31.1% Set By NREL*


June 24, 2013  Guest Contributor	



> NREL just passed along the following news release about yet another solar cell efficiency record (not the Sharp record we reported yesterday).
> 
> The Energy Department&#8217;s National Renewable Energy Lab has announced a world record of 31.1% conversion efficiency for a two-junction solar cell under one sun of illumination.
> 
> NREL Scientist Myles Steiner announced the new record June 19 at the 39th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference in Tampa, Fla. The previous record of 30.8% efficiency was held by Alta Devices.


Read more at III-V Solar Cell Efficiency Record Of 31.1% Set By NREL | CleanTechnica


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## ScienceRocks

*Solar power heads in a new direction: thinner*



> Most efforts at improving solar cells have focused on increasing the efficiency of their energy conversion, or on lowering the cost of manufacturing. But now MIT researchers are opening another avenue for improvement, aiming to produce the thinnest and most lightweight solar panels possible
> 
> Pound for pound, he says, the new solar cells produce up to 1,000 times more power than conventional photovoltaics. At about one nanometer (billionth of a meter) in thickness, "It's 20 to 50 times thinner than the thinnest solar cell that can be made today," Grossman adds. "You couldn't make a solar cell any thinner."



 Read more at: Solar power heads in a new direction: thinner

*Cree Releases Highest Efficacy Color LEDs, & More&#8230;*


June 27, 2013  Zachary Shahan	



> XPE2_Warm_medCree, a leader in LEDs, recently announced the commercial availability of XLamp® XP-E2 color LEDs. According to the company, XP-E2 color LEDs produce up to 88% higher maximum light output than competing high-power color LEDs.



Read more at Cree Releases Highest Efficacy Color LEDs, & More... | CleanTechnica


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## KissMy

Matthew said:


> Some more news on batteries lasting 10,000 cycles at 85%! 27 years.
> 
> *New Durable High-Power Lithium-Ion Battery Developed In Germany*
> 
> May 30, 2013  Thomas
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Scientists at the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research (ZSW) in Ulm, Germany have developed a top-class lithium-ion battery, in terms of cycle stability  an important parameter for the lifetime. It is exceeding the current international state of technology for high-performance battery cells.
> 
> More than 10,000 full cycles have been achieved so far. With other values, such as the power density, the batteries are equivalent to those produced by leading Asian manufacturers. The active materials for the batteries exclusively originate from German companies. The ZSW has designed the cells, developed the manufacturing process, and produced a small sample series in the 18650-format. The technology has created the basis for manufacturing large-size pouch cells and large-size prismatic cells. The lithium-ion batteries are intended for use in electric vehicles and as solar power storage systems.
> 
> After 10,000 complete charging and discharging cycles with a complete charge and discharge cycle per hour (2 C), our lithium batteries still have more than 85% of the initial capacity, reports Dr. Margret Wohlfahrt-Mehrens, head of the Accumulator Material Research Department in Ulm. That also provides excellent prospects for a long calendar life. A long service life is an essential requirement from automotive companies. Lithium-ion batteries need to be able to do their work in cars for at least ten years without the battery capacity dropping to less than 80% of the rated value.
> 
> 
> 
> Read more at New Durable High Power Lithium Ion Battery from Germany
Click to expand...


Germany is kicking the Worlds ass. They already get over 12% of the power they use from solar & they are in a bad location for sun light. They have the best economy in the World. If they develop this battery it will be like endless energy for them.


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## ScienceRocks

*Hybrid nanostructure with extreme light absorption looks promising for photovoltaics*



> (Phys.org) In photovoltaics, there is generally a trade-off in terms of semiconductor thickness, with thicker semiconductors offering better photon absorption and thinner ones offering higher charge carrier extraction efficiency. In recent years, scientists have begun investigating semiconductor nanowire solar cells, which tackle this tradeoff through morphology-dependent resonances that significantly enhance the absorption compared to a planar film.
> 
> Now, somewhat counterintuitively, scientists have theoretically found that thin semiconductor films wrapped around metal nanowires have substantially better light absorption properties than solid semiconducting nanowires, despite the fact that they use less semiconducting material. At the same time, the metal core acts as a contact to efficiently extract charge carriers. By confronting the semiconductor thickness trade-off and offering exceptional performance, the nanostructures might become ideal building blocks for inexpensive photovoltaic and solar fuel applications.



 Read more at: Hybrid nanostructure with extreme light absorption looks promising for photovoltaics


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## ScienceRocks

*GaAs Solar Cell Nanowires Could Boost Commercial Solar Module Efficiency 25%*


July 3, 2013  Nicholas Brown	


> Sol Voltaics, a Swedish startup company, has received a $6.2 million loan from the Swedish Energy Agency to produce Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) nanowires (SolInk) for use in solar module. This may be bigger than it sounds.
> 
> Gallium Arsenide is a highly efficient semiconductor material tested in some solar panels which has achieved efficiency ratings in excess of 40%, which translates to an outstanding power-to-size ratio of 400 watts per square meter of solar panels.
> 
> In the case of this project [PDF], the gallium arsenide semiconductor material will be used to create a layer for use on top of conventional solar modules to enhance their efficiency by 25%, basically as a hybrid solar module.
> 
> So, a 15% efficient solar module could be increased to 18.75%, or a 20% efficient solar module could be increased to 25%.


Read more at Sol Voltaic Receives $6.2M Loan To Build GaAs Nanowires For Solar Cells



*Affordable, scalable process of carbon nanotube-based catalyst outperforming platinum for electric-automobiles*

1 hour ago 

New Catalyst replaceable platinum for electric-automobiles 



> Korean researchers from Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), S. Korea, developed a novel bio-inspired composite electrocatalyst outperforming platinum.
> The resulting material, bio-inspired FePc-Py-CNTs catalyst has shown outstanding durability and electrocatalytic activity for ORR in an alkaline media, offering better performance than a commercial Pt/C catalyst. Compared to other unpyrilysed metal macrocycles catalysts, this bio inspired FePc-Py-CNTs catalyst has achieved a much longer cycle life , reaching more than 1,000 cycles in a durability test.
> 
> "I believe the FePc-Py-CNTs catalysts is a technologically promising candidate for practical applications in metal-air batteries and alkaline fuel cells," said Prof. Cho. "The origin of the enhanced performance for this bio-inspired catalysts in aromatic macrocycle, provides important insight into rational design of metal macrocycles catalysts for other applications such as solar harvesting and catalysts for other redox reactions."



 Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-07-scalable-carbon-nanotube-based-catalyst-outperforming.html#jCp


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## flacaltenn

Matthew said:


> *Solar Cell Efficiency World Record Set By Sharp  44.4%*
> 
> 
> June 23, 2013  Mathias
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Editors Note: In May, Sharp regained the worlds triple-junction, non-concentrator solar cell efficiency record  37.9%. Now, it has also taken the overall world solar cell efficiency record  44.4%. Heres another repost from Solar Love on the news.
> 
> A research team at Sharp Corporation has announced that it has created a solar cell capable of converting 44.4% of incoming sunlight into electricity. The solar cell is of the concentrator triple-junction compound type, which basically is a lens-based system that focuses sunlight.
> 
> The high conversion efficiencies that we see with compound solar cells are due to several photoabsorbing layers typically made from indium and gallium. Sharps record-setting solar cell uses three layers (InGaP top, GaAs middle, and InGaAs bottom), as you can see on the illustration below:
> 
> 
> 
> Read more at Solar Cell Efficiency World Record Set By Sharp -- 44.4% | CleanTechnica
> 
> 
> 
> *Better droplet condensation could boost power efficiency*
> 
> 29 minutes ago by David L. Chandler
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Researchers at MIT have developed an innovative approach to improving heat transfer in power plants and cooling systems. The new system could provide a 100 percent improvement in the efficiency of heat transfer over conventional systems, the researchers say.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> 
> Read more at: Better droplet condensation could boost power efficiency
Click to expand...


We've known since the 70s that Gallium Arsenide GA-AS PV cells would increase efficiencies by 30% or more. The reason isn't hasn't gone anywhere in commercial applications is that NO ONE wants to be "king of Arsenic mining".. 

The press on that distinction would be inherently bad for business. And the solar biz in general..


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## ScienceRocks

You're probably right about that. 

*Corning Willow Glass used to make flexible solar power roofing shingles, could lower the cost of solar power significantly*
By Sebastian Anthony on July 3, 2013 at 8:25 am
2 Comments
Corning Willow Glass used to make flexible solar power roofing shingles, could lower the cost of solar power significantly | ExtremeTech


> The US government&#8217;s National Renewable Energy Laboratory has built flexible solar cells out of Corning&#8217;s Willow Glass. These new solar cells are strong enough that they could eventually replace roofing shingles, which would significantly shrink the biggest barrier to mass adoption of solar power: the cost of installation.
> 
> As you probably know, Corning is the manufacturer of Gorilla Glass, which furnishes the front of many smartphones, including the iPhone, and most HTC and Samsung devices. (See: Gorilla Glass coming to cars, making them more resilient and efficient.) Gorilla Glass is essentially a variety of alkali-aluminosilicate toughened glass that has been engineered for a combination of desirable factors (high strength and toughness, while remaining thin and light).


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## Old Rocks

flacaltenn said:


> Matthew said:
> 
> 
> 
> *Solar Cell Efficiency World Record Set By Sharp  44.4%*
> 
> 
> June 23, 2013  Mathias
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Editors Note: In May, Sharp regained the worlds triple-junction, non-concentrator solar cell efficiency record  37.9%. Now, it has also taken the overall world solar cell efficiency record  44.4%. Heres another repost from Solar Love on the news.
> 
> A research team at Sharp Corporation has announced that it has created a solar cell capable of converting 44.4% of incoming sunlight into electricity. The solar cell is of the concentrator triple-junction compound type, which basically is a lens-based system that focuses sunlight.
> 
> The high conversion efficiencies that we see with compound solar cells are due to several photoabsorbing layers typically made from indium and gallium. Sharps record-setting solar cell uses three layers (InGaP top, GaAs middle, and InGaAs bottom), as you can see on the illustration below:
> 
> 
> 
> Read more at Solar Cell Efficiency World Record Set By Sharp -- 44.4% | CleanTechnica
> 
> 
> 
> *Better droplet condensation could boost power efficiency*
> 
> 29 minutes ago by David L. Chandler
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Researchers at MIT have developed an innovative approach to improving heat transfer in power plants and cooling systems. The new system could provide a 100 percent improvement in the efficiency of heat transfer over conventional systems, the researchers say.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> 
> Read more at: Better droplet condensation could boost power efficiency
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> We've known since the 70s that Gallium Arsenide GA-AS PV cells would increase efficiencies by 30% or more. The reason isn't hasn't gone anywhere in commercial applications is that NO ONE wants to be "king of Arsenic mining"..
> 
> The press on that distinction would be inherently bad for business. And the solar biz in general..
Click to expand...


What bullshit. Arsenic is a byproduct of most metallic sulphide mining. And the Gallium Arsenide is not going to leach out of the solar panel.


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## flacaltenn

Old Rocks said:


> flacaltenn said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Matthew said:
> 
> 
> 
> *Solar Cell Efficiency World Record Set By Sharp  44.4%*
> 
> 
> June 23, 2013  Mathias
> 
> 
> Read more at Solar Cell Efficiency World Record Set By Sharp -- 44.4% | CleanTechnica
> 
> 
> 
> *Better droplet condensation could boost power efficiency*
> 
> 29 minutes ago by David L. Chandler
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Read more at: Better droplet condensation could boost power efficiency
> 
> 
> 
> 
> We've known since the 70s that Gallium Arsenide GA-AS PV cells would increase efficiencies by 30% or more. The reason isn't hasn't gone anywhere in commercial applications is that NO ONE wants to be "king of Arsenic mining"..
> 
> The press on that distinction would be inherently bad for business. And the solar biz in general..
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> What bullshit. Arsenic is a byproduct of most metallic sulphide mining. And the Gallium Arsenide is not going to leach out of the solar panel.
Click to expand...


That's a pretty cavalier attitude for "an environmentalist" concerning one of the most regulated carcinogens on the planet. It's OK to consider using ugrams of GaAs in cell phones -- it's completely different to consider using Kilos of it in a Solar panel installation. 

Contrary to your assertion -- even SOLID GaAs will leach out if EXPOSED to the environment in the presence of natural acids. Which makes any unauthorized disposal an IMMEDIATE health concern. Not to mention the impact if mining operations shift from recovering it as "byproduct" to a major industrial commodity.. 

There's worker safety, pollution of water and air in manufacturing, and all those other considerations. 

Not bullshit --- That's the reason it ain't happened (along with cost) since the 70s... 
You are a genuine hypocrital piece of work....


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## ScienceRocks

*New catalyst could cut cost of making hydrogen fuel*

New catalyst could cut cost of making hydrogen fuel | KurzweilAI
July 4, 2013



> A discovery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison may represent a significant advance in the quest to create a &#8220;hydrogen economy&#8221; that would use this abundant element to store and transfer energy.
> 
> Theoretically, hydrogen is the ultimate non-carbon, non-polluting fuel for storing intermittent energy from the wind or sun. When burned for energy, hydrogen produces water but no carbon dioxide. But practically speaking, producing hydrogen from water, and then storing and using the gas, have proven difficult.
> 
> The new study, published at the Journal of the American Chemical Society, introduces a new catalyst structure that can facilitate the use of electricity to produce hydrogen gas from water.
> 
> Significantly, the catalyst avoids the rare, expensive metal platinum that is normally required for this reaction. (Catalysts speed up chemical reactions without themselves being consumed.)


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## flacaltenn

Matthew said:


> *New catalyst could cut cost of making hydrogen fuel*
> 
> New catalyst could cut cost of making hydrogen fuel | KurzweilAI
> July 4, 2013
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A discovery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison may represent a significant advance in the quest to create a &#8220;hydrogen economy&#8221; that would use this abundant element to store and transfer energy.
> 
> Theoretically, hydrogen is the ultimate non-carbon, non-polluting fuel for storing intermittent energy from the wind or sun. When burned for energy, hydrogen produces water but no carbon dioxide. But practically speaking, producing hydrogen from water, and then storing and using the gas, have proven difficult.
> 
> The new study, published at the Journal of the American Chemical Society, introduces a new catalyst structure that can facilitate the use of electricity to produce hydrogen gas from water.
> 
> Significantly, the catalyst avoids the rare, expensive metal platinum that is normally required for this reaction. (Catalysts speed up chemical reactions without themselves being consumed.)
Click to expand...


gimme an "H".. gimme another "H" Gooooo Hydrogen...

It's either this hard work --- or we find an asteroid made of 40% platinum...


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## ScienceRocks

*CZTSe Solar Cells Achieve 9.7% Efficiency*



> A Copper Zinc Tin Selenide (CZTSe) solar cell technology has achieved an efficiency of 9.7% and an open-circuit voltage of 0.41 volts, a bit less than the 0.5 volts that most silicon-based solar cells achieve. (Solar cells are generally connected in series, which multiplies their voltage by the number of cells in the series connection.)


Read more at Solliance And Imec Achieve 9.7% Efficiency With New CZTSe Solar Cell


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## ScienceRocks

*Champion nano-rust for producing solar hydrogen*



> Water and some nano-structured iron oxide is all it takes to produce bubbles of solar hydrogen. EPFL and Technion scientists just discovered the champion structure to achieve this
> 
> In the quest for the production of renewable and clean energy, photoelectrochemical cells (PECs) constitute a sort of a Holy Grail. PECs are devices able of splitting water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen in a single operation, thanks to solar radiation. "As a matter of fact, we've already discovered this precious chalice, says Michael Grätzel, Director of the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces (LPI) at EPFL and inventor of dye-sensitized photoelectrochemical cells. Today we have just reached an important milestone on the path that will lead us forward to profitable industrial applications."
> 
> This week, Nature Materials is indeed publishing a groundbreaking article on the subject. EPFL researchers, working with Avner Rotschild from Technion (Israel), have managed to accurately characterize the iron oxide nanostructures to be used in order to produce hydrogen at the lowest possible cost. "The whole point of our approach is to use an exceptionally abundant, stable and cheap material: rust," adds Scott C. Warren, first author of the article.
> 
> At the end of last year, Kevin Sivula, one of the collaborators at the LPI laboratory, presented a prototype electrode based on the same principle. Its efficiency was such that gas bubbles emerged as soon as it was under a light stimulus. Without a doubt, the potential of such cheap electrodes was demonstrated, even if there was still room for improvement.


Champion nano-rust for producing solar hydrogen


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## ScienceRocks

*Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Achieve Record Efficiency Of 15%*


July 15, 2013  Nathan 


> A new efficiency record for dye-sensitized solar cells has been achieved by researchers at EPFL in Switzerland &#8212; the new record of 15% has now been achieved thanks to a new fabrication process created by the researchers.


Read more at Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Achieve Record Efficiency Of 15% | CleanTechnica


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## ScienceRocks

*Direct nitrogen fixation for low cost energy conversion*



> A simple, low-cost and eco-friendly method of creating nitrogen-doped graphene nanoplatelets (NGnPs), which could be used in dye-sensitized solar cells and fuel cells, is published in Scientific Reports today. The work, carried out at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) in South Korea, could be a step towards replacing conventional platinum (Pt)-based catalysts for energy conversion.



 Read more at: Direct nitrogen fixation for low cost energy conversion


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## KissMy

Pee To Power &#8211; African Teens Develop Revolutionary Generator Powered By Urine


> Four teenagers (The oldest of whom is only fifteen) have developed a very amazing way to generate electricity in their remote village in Africa.
> 
> The process is extraordinarily simple &#8211; Take waste urine (pee) ,  feed the urine into a electrolytic cell , crack the urine into its base elements &#8211; Nitrogen, water & hydrogen. Filter the hydrogen through a normal water purifier, filter the hydrogen then through liquid borax, then feed the now pure hydrogen into a run of the mill generator.
> 
> The end result is extremely flammable, pure hydrogen which can be used to power a generator, or a airship.
> 
> While this process isn&#8217;t exactly new (It was initially developed in Athens Ohio in 2009) one of the more amazing things is the fact that these teenage girls are using materials that are all easily found in their remote part of Africa.
> 
> One of the most crucial features of this device is that it does not used platinum to generate the hydrogen. Here in the US, our electrolysis cells contain highly valuable platinum which costs a whopping $1550 per ounce. Instead, the girls are using nickel, which is extremely abundant, and quite cheap at only $7 per pound. On top of this, they are not feeding the pure hydrogen into a expensive fuel cell, rather a cheap Chinese generator. The result is cheap, rugged and will run off 6 hours from one liter of urine.


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## ScienceRocks

*Voilà! US Algae Company Turns Sewage Into Biofuel, In France*


July 23, 2013  Tina Casey 



> Right around this time last summer we took note of a new US-France urban algae farming collaboration that combines algae biofuel production with wastewater treatment. Considering all the political poop that certain US legislators have lobbed in the direction of France over the past ten years or so, that&#8217;s a bit of poetic justice for you, especially since the project has been a success so far and it passed an important milestone last week.


Algae farming combines algae biofuel and wastewater treatment


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## ScienceRocks

*Electricity From CO2  New Technique*


Electricity From CO2 -- New Technique | CleanTechnica



> A new technique developed by a team of Dutch Engineers generates electrical power from a novel mixing of CO2, air, and water  without increasing CO2 emissions.
> 
> Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a simple molecule that results from either the natural breakdown of organic matter (by bacterial decomposition), or as a by-product of combustion of hydrocarbon-based fuels (coal, oil, natural gas, etc.). It can be a food source for vegetation (though this is limited by other factors such as soil nitrogen), or a source of pollution (a greenhouse gas, or GHG).


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## ScienceRocks

*The best of two worlds: Solar hydrogen production breakthrough*


> Using a simple solar cell and a photo anode made of a metal oxide, HZB and TU Delft scientists have successfully stored nearly five percent of solar energy chemically in the form of hydrogen. This is a major feat as the design of the solar cell is much simpler than that of the high-efficiency triple-junction cells based on amorphous silicon or expensive III-V semiconductors that are traditionally used for this purpose.
> 
> The photo anode, which is made from the metal oxide bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) to which a small amount of tungsten atoms was added, was sprayed onto a piece of conducting glass and coated with an inexpensive cobalt phosphate catalyst. "Basically, we combined the best of both worlds," explains Prof. Dr. Roel van de Krol, head of the HZB Institute for Solar Fuels: "We start with a chemically stable, low cost metal oxide, add a really good but simple silicon-based thin film solar cell, and &#8211; voilà &#8211; we've just created a cost-effective, highly stable, and highly efficient solar fuel device."
> 
> Thus the experts were able to develop a rather elegant and simple system for using sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. This process, called artificial photosynthesis, allows solar energy to be stored in the form of hydrogen. The hydrogen can then be used as a fuel either directly or in the form of methane, or it can generate electricity in a fuel cell. *One rough estimate shows the potential inherent in this technology: At a solar performance in Germany of roughly 600 Watts per square meter, 100 square meters of this type of system is theoretically capable of storing 3 kilowatt hours of energy in the form of hydrogen in just one single hour of sunshine. This energy could then be available at night or on cloudy days.*



 Read more at: The best of two worlds: Solar hydrogen production breakthrough


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## ScienceRocks

*Transparent Solar Film Gets Big Efficiency Boost *

CleanTechnica | Clean Tech News & Views: Solar Energy News. Wind Energy News. EV News. & More.



> A novel, transparent, two-layer solar film &#8212; possessing an impressive efficiency conversion of 7.3% &#8212; has been created by researchers at the University of California&#8211;Los Angeles. This is about double the transparent solar cell efficiency the researchers had previously achieved. The solar film can be placed on windows, buildings, sunroofs, electronics displays, etc; harvesting energy while still at the same time allowing light to pass through and visibility/transparency to be maintained.
> 
> The new solar film is essentially an improved form of the &#8220;breakthrough photovoltaic cell design&#8221; that the same researchers unveiled last year &#8211; an improved form with nearly double the efficiency, that is. It consists of two thin polymer solar cells that work together to maximize sunlight collection and conversion to electricity &#8212; the two cells absorb more light than single-layer solar devices do because together they absorb light from a wider part of the solar spectrum. There&#8217;s also a thin layer of &#8216;novel materials&#8217; present between the two cells that works to reduce energy loss.


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## ScienceRocks

*Shin-Etsu Chemical eyes 10X boost in smartphone battery life*

Shin-Etsu Chemical plans to begin mass production, in three to four years, of material that would enable one-week battery life.



> Shin-Etsu Chemical thinks new material it has developed could boost battery life by tenfold. Needless to say, even if the company achieved a fraction of that, it would be groundbreaking.
> 
> The new development replaces traditional carbon-based material in lithium-ion batteries with silicon, according to a report in the Japanese-language version of Nikkei -- which didn't provide much detail about the technology.



Shin-Etsu Chemical eyes 10X boost in smartphone battery life | Cutting Edge - CNET News


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## ScienceRocks

*Team develops new water splitting technique that could produce hydrogen fuel*



> A University of Colorado Boulder team has developed a radically new technique that uses the power of sunlight to efficiently split water into its components of hydrogen and oxygen, paving the way for the broad use of hydrogen as a clean, green fuel.
> 
> The CU-Boulder team has devised a solar-thermal system in which sunlight could be concentrated by a vast array of mirrors onto a single point atop a central tower up to several hundred feet tall. The tower would gather heat generated by the mirror system to roughly 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,350 Celsius), then deliver it into a reactor containing chemical compounds known as metal oxides, said CU-Boulder Professor Alan Weimer, research group leader.



 Read more at: Team develops new water splitting technique that could produce hydrogen fuel


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## ScienceRocks

*Water-splitting breakthrough could produce cheap hydrogen fuel*

Water-splitting breakthrough could produce cheap hydrogen fuel | DVICE



> When it comes to fuel, going green isn't just a trend, but a necessity for curbing a dependence on the limited (and dirty) resource of oil. Hydrogen fuel is a great alternative, but creating it is a complex and expensive process. However, a team of scientists at the University of Colorado-Boulder, have developed an easier and more cost-efficient way of getting hydrogen.
> 
> The CU-Boulder research team created a new system that uses sunlight, mirrors, and a tower that measures a few hundred feet tall. The mirrors, which sit at the top of the tower, collect the sunlight, which is converted into heat inside the tower. The heat (approximately 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit) gets transferred to a reactor that contains metal oxides (iron, cobalt, aluminum, and oxygen). As those metal oxides get warmer, oxygen atoms are released. When steam is added to the system, the metal oxides suck up all the oxygen, leaving hydrogen behind. That hydrogen can then be collected as a gas and stored.


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## ScienceRocks

*Battery design gets boost from aligned carbon nanotubes*

*Researchers at North Carolina State University have created a new flexible nano-scaffold for rechargeable lithium ion batteries that could help make cell phone and electric car batteries last longer.* 

 Read more at: Battery design gets boost from aligned carbon nanotubes


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## ScienceRocks

*JA Solar Attains 18.3% Multicrystalline Solar Cell Efficiency Record*




> JA Solar has reported that it has achieved a record 18.3% efficiency for a standard 156×156 mm2 multicrystalline solar cell. This was verified by Yangzhou Opto-Electrical Products Testing Institute. This is twice as efficient as my solar panel
> 
> Solar cell and solar panel efficiency isn&#8217;t as big an issue as some have made it out to be. However, efficiency improvements open new windows of opportunity, such as the ability to extend the battery life of portable electronics such as cellphones, tablet PCs, and laptops.
> 
> There is also the issue of cars and planes. Highly efficient solar panels could make solar-powered planes and solar-powered long-range electric cars much more feasible.




Read more at CleanTechnica | Clean Tech News & Views: Solar Energy News. Wind Energy News. EV News. & More.


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## ScienceRocks

*Lockheed Martin announces compact Fusion Reactor plans *
Lockheed Martin announces compact Fusion Reactor plans | FuseNet



> At the recent Google &#8220;Solve for X&#8221; conference on February 7, Lockheed Martin's long-term R&D department (&#8220;Skunk Works&#8221 announced they are working on a compact fusion reactor. With what seems a 4th generation prototype called "T4", the aerospace giant says to have developed a high beta configuration, which allows a compact reactor design and faster development timeline.
> 
> Public reactions describe the announcement of their activities on nuclear fusion remarkable, because Lockheed Martin doesn't usually make public announcements about Skunkwork projects unless they have a high degree of confidence in their chances of success. The developement timeline indicates plans to have a prototype 100-megawatt nuclear fusion machine of Lockheed Martin tested in 2017, and that a fully operational machine should be grid-ready ten years from now.




wow,



*Electron 'spin' key to solar cell breakthrough*

http://esciencenews.com/articles/2013/08/07/electron.spin.key.solar.cell.breakthrough



> Organic solar cells, a new class of solar cell that mimics the natural process of plant photosynthesis, could revolutionise renewable energy -- but currently lack the efficiency to compete with the more costly commercial silicon cells. At the moment, organic solar cells can achieve as much as 12 per cent efficiency in turning light into electricity, compared with 20 to 25 per cent for silicon-based cells.
> 
> Now, researchers have discovered that manipulating the 'spin' of electrons in these solar cells dramatically improves their performance, providing a vital breakthrough in the pursuit of cheap, high performing solar power technologies.


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## ScienceRocks

*A Material That Could Make Solar Power &#8220;Dirt Cheap&#8221;*

Researchers discover that a material known for a hundred years could lower the cost of solar power. 
By Kevin Bullis on August 8, 2013 


Why It Matters



> Solar power is much more expensive than fossil fuels, especially when you factor in its intermittency.
> 
> A new type of solar cell, made from a material that is dramatically cheaper to obtain and use than silicon, could generate as much power as today&#8217;s commodity solar cells.
> 
> Although the potential of the material is just starting to be understood, it has caught the attention of the world&#8217;s leading solar researchers, and several companies are already working to commercialize it.
> 
> Researchers developing the technology say that it could lead to solar panels that cost just 10 to 20 cents per watt. Solar panels now typically cost about 75 cents a watt, and the U.S. Department of Energy says 50 cents per watt will allow solar power to compete with fossil fuel.
> 
> In the past, solar researchers have been divided into two camps in their pursuit of cheaper solar power. Some have sought solar cells that can be made very cheaply but that have the downside of being relatively inefficient. Lately, more researchers have focused on developing very high efficiency cells, even if they require more expensive manufacturing techniques.
> 
> The new material may make it possible to get the best of both worlds&#8212;solar cells that are highly efficient but also cheap to make.



A Material That Could Make Solar Power ?Dirt Cheap? | MIT Technology Review


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## flacaltenn

Matthew said:


> *A Material That Could Make Solar Power &#8220;Dirt Cheap&#8221;*
> 
> Researchers discover that a material known for a hundred years could lower the cost of solar power.
> By Kevin Bullis on August 8, 2013
> 
> 
> Why It Matters
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Solar power is much more expensive than fossil fuels, especially when you factor in its intermittency.
> 
> A new type of solar cell, made from a material that is dramatically cheaper to obtain and use than silicon, could generate as much power as today&#8217;s commodity solar cells.
> 
> Although the potential of the material is just starting to be understood, it has caught the attention of the world&#8217;s leading solar researchers, and several companies are already working to commercialize it.
> 
> Researchers developing the technology say that it could lead to solar panels that cost just 10 to 20 cents per watt. Solar panels now typically cost about 75 cents a watt, and the U.S. Department of Energy says 50 cents per watt will allow solar power to compete with fossil fuel.
> 
> In the past, solar researchers have been divided into two camps in their pursuit of cheaper solar power. Some have sought solar cells that can be made very cheaply but that have the downside of being relatively inefficient. Lately, more researchers have focused on developing very high efficiency cells, even if they require more expensive manufacturing techniques.
> 
> The new material may make it possible to get the best of both worlds&#8212;solar cells that are highly efficient but also cheap to make.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A Material That Could Make Solar Power ?Dirt Cheap? | MIT Technology Review
Click to expand...


I just had to peek at this one to find out what the "secret dirt material" was... 

It's a perfect place to test the new USMB "spoiler" feature.. 
I'm still giggling. Sounds wonderful.. Really it is... But the Euros are gonna have a cow about this Pieroski material.. ((makes me hungry just thinking about it))



Spoiler: Get this



It contains small amounts of lead




Do you know how much effort they've exerted to make their continent a "lead-free" paradise over the past 15 yrs?? They've turned the electronics completely inside out to get rid of the last gram of lead.. 

This ought to be comical if these guys succeed in making product.. What are the Euros gonna do???


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## ScienceRocks

*Small-molecule solar cells get 50% increase in efficiency with optical spacer*


> (Phys.org) &#8212;In the world of organic solar cells, polymer-based devices may currently be at the top, but other organic materials such as "small molecules" also prove to be promising. Although small-molecule organic solar cells currently have lower efficiencies than polymer solar cells, they are generally easier to fabricate and their efficiencies are improving.
> 
> In a new study, researchers have shown that they can increase the efficiency of one type of small-molecule organic solar cell from 6.02% to 8.94% simply by tuning the thickness of the active layer and inserting an optical spacer between the active layer and an electrode. The efficiency improvement demonstrates that small-molecule solar cells have the potential to compete with their polymer counterparts, which have efficiencies approaching 10%.
> 
> The researchers, led by Alan J. Heeger at the University of California at Santa Barbara, have published their paper on the efficiency improvement in small-molecule solar cells in a recent issue of Nano Letters.



 Read more at: Small-molecule solar cells get 50% increase in efficiency with optical spacer


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## ScienceRocks

*Self-Healing Solar Cells &#8212; Vascular Channels Based On Plant Leaves Allow For Self-Healing In New Solar Cells*



> Self-healing solar cells &#8212; possessing &#8220;vascular&#8221; networks similar to those in plant leaves &#8212; have now been created by researchers from North Carolina State University. The new solar cells are able to effectively and inexpensively restore themselves to optimal functioning thanks to their possession of a &#8220;network of channels&#8221; which mimics the organic vascular systems found in most plants.
> 
> North Carolina State University explains:
> 
> 
> In their new paper, the researchers show that creating solar cell devices with channels that mimic organic vascular systems can effectively reinvigorate solar cells whose performance deteriorates due to degradation by the sun&#8217;s ultraviolet rays. Solar cells that are based on organic systems hold the potential to be less expensive and more environmentally friendly than silicon-based solar cells, the current industry standard.



Read more at Self-Healing Solar Cells -- Vascular Channels Based On Plant Leaves Allow For Self-Healing In New Solar Cells | CleanTechnica


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## ScienceRocks

*How Low Can Solar Go? Check Out Empa&#8217;s New Thin Film Breakthrough*




> What a difference 34 years can make. When the Carter Administration installed solar panels at the White House back in 1979, photovoltaic cells were space age technology that most households could not afford, aside from the rare DIY-er. Now the price of solar power has been sinking like a stone, thanks partly to the introduction of low cost materials and inexpensive thin film fabrication methods. Switzerland&#8217;s Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, has just come out with a low cost thin film solar cell breakthrough that demonstrates both in the form of a new high efficiency copper-doped cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cell.
> 
> Low Cost Materials For High Efficiency Solar Cells
> 
> The new Empa solar cell boasts an efficiency of 11.5 percent, which might not sound like a big deal compared to last year&#8217;s announcement of a 44 percent efficiency mark by the company Solar Junction, but we&#8217;re talking about two distinctive technologies. The key takeaway is that today there are multiple paths to affordable solar cells. One of them is finding the most efficient way to collect and convert solar energy, another is finding the cheapest way to do it, and a third way is to find a balance between the two.



Read more at Low Cost Solar Cell Breakthrough With Copper Doped CdTe Thin Film


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## Old Rocks

flacaltenn said:


> Matthew said:
> 
> 
> 
> *A Material That Could Make Solar Power Dirt Cheap*
> 
> Researchers discover that a material known for a hundred years could lower the cost of solar power.
> By Kevin Bullis on August 8, 2013
> 
> 
> Why It Matters
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Solar power is much more expensive than fossil fuels, especially when you factor in its intermittency.
> 
> A new type of solar cell, made from a material that is dramatically cheaper to obtain and use than silicon, could generate as much power as todays commodity solar cells.
> 
> Although the potential of the material is just starting to be understood, it has caught the attention of the worlds leading solar researchers, and several companies are already working to commercialize it.
> 
> Researchers developing the technology say that it could lead to solar panels that cost just 10 to 20 cents per watt. Solar panels now typically cost about 75 cents a watt, and the U.S. Department of Energy says 50 cents per watt will allow solar power to compete with fossil fuel.
> 
> In the past, solar researchers have been divided into two camps in their pursuit of cheaper solar power. Some have sought solar cells that can be made very cheaply but that have the downside of being relatively inefficient. Lately, more researchers have focused on developing very high efficiency cells, even if they require more expensive manufacturing techniques.
> 
> The new material may make it possible to get the best of both worldssolar cells that are highly efficient but also cheap to make.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A Material That Could Make Solar Power ?Dirt Cheap? | MIT Technology Review
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> I just had to peek at this one to find out what the "secret dirt material" was...
> 
> It's a perfect place to test the new USMB "spoiler" feature..
> I'm still giggling. Sounds wonderful.. Really it is... But the Euros are gonna have a cow about this Pieroski material.. ((makes me hungry just thinking about it))
> 
> 
> 
> Spoiler: Get this
> 
> 
> 
> It contains small amounts of lead
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Do you know how much effort they've exerted to make their continent a "lead-free" paradise over the past 15 yrs?? They've turned the electronics completely inside out to get rid of the last gram of lead..
> 
> This ought to be comical if these guys succeed in making product.. What are the Euros gonna do???
Click to expand...


Perovskites are a whole group of minerals, only a few of which contain lead. It seems that the crystal structure is the key, therefore, copying nature, but using differant elements, we may be able to not only improve on what nature has provided, but find a chemical configuration that includes no toxic elements. One can see the number of related minerals here;

Perovskite: Perovskite mineral information and data.

I really think that lead will not be a problem here, once they start working with the many options available.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*New Heavy oil recovery process can get over 80% of oil in place and is 11% better than previous method*

New Heavy oil recovery process can get over 80% of oil in place and is 11% better than previous method



> A new enhanced heavy oil recovery (EHOR) process called Cyclic Production with Continuous Solvent Injection (CPCSI) has been developed at the University of Regina in Canada.
> 
> In this process, a vapourized solvent near its dew point is continuously injected into the reservoir to maintain reservoir pressure and also supply extra gas drive to flush the diluted oil out through an injector that is located on the top of the reservoir; while a producer, which is located at the bottom of the reservoir, is operated in a shut-in/open cyclic way. A series of experiments have been conducted to evaluate the CPCSI performance. The recovery factors (RFs) are up to 85% of original oil in place (OOIP) in 1-D tests, and the RF is improved by 11% by using the 2-D lateral CPCSI, compared with the traditional 2-D lateral VAPEX. Well configurations and the producer shut-in/open scenarios are key optimization factors that affect the CPCSI performance. Experimental results show that the foamy oil flow and solvent trap are the two major EHOR mechanisms for enhancing the oil production rate during the production period. In comparison with continuous injection process, such as vapour extraction (VAPEX), and cyclic injection process, such as cyclic solvent injection (CSI), CPCSI offers free gas driving, and the reservoir pressure is maintained during the producer opening period so that the diluted oil viscosity is kept low. This work shows that CPCSI could be an alternative optimization production scenario for applying solvent based in situ EHOR techniques for heavy oil reservoirs in Western Canada.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*New rechargeable flow battery generates three times the power density of membraneless systems and ten times better than lithium ion*

New rechargeable flow battery generates three times the power density of membraneless systems and ten times better than lithium ion


> MIT researchers have engineered a new rechargeable flow battery that doesn&#8217;t rely on expensive membranes to generate and store electricity.  The palm-sized prototype generates three times as much power per square centimeter as other membraneless systems &#8212; a power density that is an order of magnitude higher than that of many lithium-ion batteries and other commercial and experimental energy-storage systems.
> 
> The device stores and releases energy in a device that relies on a phenomenon called laminar flow: Two liquids are pumped through a channel, undergoing electrochemical reactions between two electrodes to store or release energy. Under the right conditions, the solutions stream through in parallel, with very little mixing. The flow naturally separates the liquids, without requiring a costly membrane.
> 
> The reactants in the battery consist of a liquid bromine solution and hydrogen fuel. The group chose to work with bromine because the chemical is relatively inexpensive and available in large quantities, with more than 243,000 tons produced each year in the United States.
> 
> In addition to bromine&#8217;s low cost and abundance, the chemical reaction between hydrogen and bromine holds great potential for energy storage. But fuel-cell designs based on hydrogen and bromine have largely had mixed results: Hydrobromic acid tends to eat away at a battery&#8217;s membrane, effectively slowing the energy-storing reaction and reducing the battery&#8217;s lifetime.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Designer glue improves lithium-ion battery life*



> (Phys.org) &#8212;When it comes to improving the performance of lithium-ion batteries, no part should be overlooked &#8211; not even the glue that binds materials together in the cathode, researchers at SLAC and Stanford have found.





> The experimental battery using the new binder, known by the initials PVP, retained 94 percent of its original energy-storage capacity after 100 charge/discharge cycles, compared with 72 percent for cells using a conventionally-used binder, known as PVDF. After 500 cycles, the PVP battery still had 69 percent of its initial capacity.
> 
> Cui said the improvement was due to PVP's much stronger affinity for lithium sulfide; together they formed a fine-grained lithium sulfide/carbon composite that made it easier for lithium ions to penetrate and reach all of the active material within the cathode. In contrast, the previous binder, PVDF, caused the composite to grow into large clumps, which hindered the lithium ions' penetration and ruined the battery within 100 cycles
> 
> Even the best batteries lose some energy-storage capacity with each charge/discharge cycle. Researchers aim to reduce such losses as much as possible. Further enhancements to the PVP/lithium sulfide cathode combination will be needed to extend its lifetime to more than 1,000 cycles, but Cui said he finds it encouraging that improving the usually overlooked binder material produced such dramatic benefits.



 Read more at: Designer glue improves lithium-ion battery life


----------



## ScienceRocks

*
Nigeria: 25-Year-Old Nigerian Invents Electricity Generating Football*
By Isiaka Wakili, 17 August 2013 

allAfrica.com: Nigeria: 25-Year-Old Nigerian Invents Electricity Generating Football



> Jessica Mathew, a 25-year-old Nigerian, from Edo State, yesterday presented an electricity generating football and skipping rope she invented to President Goodluck Jonathan at the State House in Abuja.
> 
> The presentation earned Jessica an appointment as a soccer ambassador. The soccer ball, as demonstrated by Jessica, could generate three hours of electricity after 30 minutes of play and could store power for three days.
> 
> She said, the electricity generated by the ball could be used as electricity source to power lighting points and household equipments, adding that the airless football when not in use, could last for one-and-half years before replacement.
> 
> Jessica, a graduate of Psychology and Economics from Havard University, United States, said she taught herself Electrical and Mechanical Engineering because she was keenly interested in it.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Breakthrough advances nanomaterials for printable solar cells *


Breakthrough advances nanomaterials for printable solar cells


> A RMIT Univ. research collaboration with top scientists in Australia and Japan is advancing next-generation solar cells.
> 
> The development of cheaper and less toxic solar cells using nanotechnology is the focus of a collaborative research project conducted by RMIT, CSIRO and the Japan Science and Technology Agency.
> 
> The team is investigating the synthesis of semiconductor inorganic nanocrystals using low-cost and abundant elements for printable solar cell applications.
> 
> The research was recently published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Laser fusion experiment yields record energy at Lawrence Livermore's National Ignition Facility*



> LIVERMORE, Calif. -- In the early morning hours of Aug.13, Lawrence Livermore's National Ignition Facility (NIF) focused all 192 of its ultra-powerful laser beams on a tiny deuterium-tritium filled capsule. In the nanoseconds that followed, the capsule imploded and released a neutron yield of nearly 3x1015, or approximately 8,000 joules of neutron energy -- approximately three times NIF's previous neutron yield record for cryogenic implosions.
> This newest accomplishment provides an important benchmark for the program's computer simulation tools, and represents a step along the "path forward" for ignition delivered by the NNSA to Congress in December 2012.
> 
> Early calculations show that fusion reactions in the hot plasma started to self-heat the burning core and enhanced the yield by nearly 50 percent, pushing close to the margins of alpha burn, where the fusion reactions dominate the process.
> 
> "The yield was significantly greater than the energy deposited in the hot spot by the implosion," said Ed Moses, principle associate director for NIF and Photon Science. "This represents an important advance in establishing a self-sustaining burning target, the next critical step on the path to fusion ignition on NIF."



https://www.llnl.gov/news/newsrelea...t=buffer889f9&utm_medium=twitter#.UhvzF37n_VL


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Cheap Substitute For Silicon Grows From Carbon Nanotube &#8220;Seeds&#8221;*



> While we&#8217;ve been busy touting graphene as the &#8220;miracle material of the new millennium,&#8221; there&#8217;s another advanced materials kid on the block called carbon nanotubes and they haven&#8217;t exactly been on the snooze either. A team of researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) has just announced that they&#8217;ve cracked the code for cooking up single-walled carbon nanotubes with precise atomic structures. If the process can be scaled up, carbon nanotubes could substitute for silicon to usher in a new era of smaller, faster, more energy efficient computers and other electronic devices.
> 
> Growing Carbon Nanotubes From Seeds
> 
> For those of you new to the topic, carbon nanotubes are cylinders of carbon atoms no more than one nanometer (one billionth of a meter) thick. As low cost, highly efficient semiconductors they have endless potential applications.



Read more at Cheap Substitute For Silicon Grows From Carbon Nanotube "Seeds"


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Solar Cell Energy Efficiency And Lifespan Improved With Ion-Conducting Polymer*



> Dye-sensitized solar cells will soon receive a big boost to their energy efficiency and durability/lifespan thanks to new research from Stockholm&#8217;s KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The improvements are thanks to the discovery of a previously unknown quasi-liquid, polymer-based electrolyte &#8212; one that works to notably increase a dye-sensitized solar cell&#8217;s voltage and current, while at the same time lowering the resistance between its electrodes.
> 
> The new findings emphasize the advantages/possibilities of speeding up the movement of oxidized electrolytes in a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) &#8212; leaving open the possibility for further improvements through similar means.
> 
> &#8220;We now have clear evidence that by adding the ion-conducting polymer to the solar cell&#8217;s cobalt redox electrolyte, the transport of oxidized electrolytes is greatly enhanced,&#8221; states James Gardner, Assistant Professor of Photoelectrochemistry at KTH. &#8220;The fast transport increases solar cell efficiency by 20 percent.&#8221;


Read more at Solar Cell Energy Efficiency And Lifespan Improved With Ion-Conducting Polymer | CleanTechnica


----------



## ScienceRocks

*NRL achieves highest open-circuit voltage for quantum dot solar cells*


> WASHINGTON&#8212;U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) research scientists and engineers in the Electronics Science and Technology Division have demonstrated the highest recorded open-circuit voltages for quantum dot solar cells to date. Using colloidal lead sulfide (PbS) nanocrystal quantum dot (QD) substances, researchers achieved an open-circuit voltage (VOC) of 692 millivolts (mV) using the QD bandgap of a 1.4 electron volt (eV) in QD solar cell under one-sun illumination.



 Read more at: NRL achieves highest open-circuit voltage for quantum dot solar cells


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Molten-air battery's storage capacity among the highest of any battery type*



> (Phys.org) &#8212;Researchers have demonstrated a new class of high-energy battery, called a "molten-air battery," that has one of the highest storage capacities of any battery type to date. Unlike some other high-energy batteries, the molten-air battery has the advantage of being rechargeable. Although the molten electrolyte currently requires high-temperature operation, the battery is so new that the researchers hope that experimenting with different molten compositions and other characteristics will make molten-air batteries strong competitors in electric vehicles and for storing energy for the electric grid.



 Read more at: Molten-air battery's storage capacity among the highest of any battery type


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Solid-state battery could double the range of electric cars*

19 hours ago 



> (Phys.org) &#8212;A cutting-edge battery technology developed at the University of Colorado Boulder that could allow tomorrow's electric vehicles to travel twice as far on a charge is now closer to becoming a commercial reality



 Read more at: Solid-state battery could double the range of electric cars


----------



## Politico

Cool in a few years that means they might be halfway there!!


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Tesla patents an electric car battery that'll last 400 miles*



> One commonly touted problem electric cars have always faced is the lack of stations to charge them on long drives. As our own Evan Ackerman reported two years back, the Chevy Volt has a way of dealing with this issue. &#8220;After you run out of battery power, a small four-cylinder engine runs a generator to extend the range of the car for another 300 or 400 miles, and you can always just keep putting more gas into it to keep on going,&#8221; he writes.
> 
> But what if it simply wasn&#8217;t an issue? What if the car could go 300 or 400 miles without a recharge? That would make it pretty difficult to argue against the electric car, so it&#8217;s exactly what Tesla Motors went ahead and did: it patented a battery that can allegedly keep a car running for 400 miles.



Tesla patents an electric car battery that'll last 400 miles | DVICE


----------



## Old Rocks

Politico said:


> Cool in a few years that means they might be halfway there!!



They are there now. Since the Tesla's batteries are removable, you can replace them with higher capacity batteries as such come on the market. It takes about 2 minutes to replace a Tesla battery. Try that with your ICE's engine.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Soitec Sets CPV Commercial Module Efficiency Record &#8212; 31.8%*




> Soitec, a consistent leader in concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) efficiency and commercial development, this month announced that it had set a 31.8% CPV commercial module efficiency record.
> 
> 
> &#8220;Soitec&#8217;s new module, which is already in industrial volume production, has the highest efficiency of any commercial product available for multi-megawatt installations,&#8221; the company noted in a press release.
> 
> &#8220;Using an optimized anti-reflective coating, Soitec&#8217;s CX-M500 module increases nominal peak power output over previous generations from 2,335 Wp to 2,450 Wp. The new module has been certified according to the International Electrotechnical Commission&#8216;s (IEC)and Underwriters Laboratories&#8216; (UL) standards (IEC 62108, IEC 62688, UL 62108 and UL SU 8703), confirming that it meets product safety, performance and reliability requirements in both the US and European markets.&#8221;




Read more at Soitec Sets CPV Commercial Module Efficiency Record -- 31.8% | CleanTechnica


----------



## Politico

Old Rocks said:


> Politico said:
> 
> 
> 
> Cool in a few years that means they might be halfway there!!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> They are there now. Since the Tesla's batteries are removable, you can replace them with higher capacity batteries as such come on the market. It takes about 2 minutes to replace a Tesla battery. Try that with your ICE's engine.
Click to expand...


Yes two minutes to change and a second mortgage to pay for it.


----------



## Old Rocks

Most of the people buying Tesla's at present would consider the price as minor change. And the batteries are getting cheaper every year, just as the cost of producing solar panels has gone done every year. When the price of a 50 kwh battery is the same as the price of a 2 liter v-6, the ICE is done.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Record Solar Cell with 44.7% Efficiency*


> The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, Soitec, CEA-Leti and the Helmholtz Center Berlin jointly announced today having achieved a new world record for the conversion of sunlight into electricity using a new solar cell structure with four solar subcells. Surpassing competition after only over three years of research, and entering the roadmap at world class level, a new record efficiency of 44.7% was measured at a concentration of 297 suns. This indicates that 44.7% of the solar spectrum's energy, from ultraviolet through to the infrared, is converted into electrical energy. This is a major step towards reducing further the costs of solar electricity and continues to pave the way to the 50% efficiency roadmap.
> 
> Back in May 2013, the German-French team of Fraunhofer ISE, Soitec, CEA-Leti and the Helmholtz Center Berlin had already announced a solar cell with 43.6% efficiency. Building on this result, further intensive research work and optimization steps led to the present efficiency of 44.7%.




World Record Solar Cell with 44.7% Efficiency ? Fraunhofer ISE


----------



## KissMy

Matthew said:


> *Tesla patents an electric car battery that'll last 400 miles*
> 
> 
> 
> 
> One commonly touted problem electric cars have always faced is the lack of stations to charge them on long drives. As our own Evan Ackerman reported two years back, the Chevy Volt has a way of dealing with this issue. &#8220;After you run out of battery power, a small four-cylinder engine runs a generator to extend the range of the car for another 300 or 400 miles, and you can always just keep putting more gas into it to keep on going,&#8221; he writes.
> 
> But what if it simply wasn&#8217;t an issue? What if the car could go 300 or 400 miles without a recharge? That would make it pretty difficult to argue against the electric car, so it&#8217;s exactly what Tesla Motors went ahead and did: it patented a battery that can allegedly keep a car running for 400 miles.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Tesla patents an electric car battery that'll last 400 miles | DVICE
Click to expand...


95% of people don't need a 400 mile battery, they just think they do.


----------



## Politico

If you take even one vacation yes you do. So that's almost 100%. Not really the issue though.


----------



## KissMy

Politico said:


> If you take even one vacation yes you do. So that's almost 100%. Not really the issue though.



So you "feel" you must spend $double$ for more battery & weight to lug around because you "feel" you can't take a 20 minute break from driving every 3.5 hours while you are on vacation?  Many families have a second vehicle or rent one for unusual events like that.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Bio-based Nylon Could Reduce Climate Change Emissions 85% Compared To Petroleum-based*


> California-based Rennovia develops chemicals and chemical processes that are bio-renewable to replace petrochemical production. In a press release, they announced that they have produced a 100% bio-based nylon polymer. Compared with petroleum-based adipic acid, which is used in making nylon polymer 6,6, using their bio-based version could reduce climate change emissions by 85%.


Read more at Bio-based Nylon Could Reduce Climate Change Emissions 85% Compared To Petroleum-based | CleanTechnica


----------



## ScienceRocks

The National Ignition Facility in California has become the first fusion power facility to create a fusion reaction that generates more power than it requires to get the reaction started. This is perhaps the most important step ever towards the always-just-out-of-reach realization of clean, self-sustaining, limitless fusion power.  US fusion lab almost breaks even, takes a big step towards clean, limitless power | ExtremeTech


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Scientists develop heat-resistant materials that could vastly improve solar cell efficiency*



> Scientists have created a heat-resistant thermal emitter that could significantly improve the efficiency of solar cells. The novel component is designed to convert heat from the sun into infrared light, which can than be absorbed by solar cells to make electricity -- a technology known as thermophotovoltaics. Unlike earlier prototypes that fell apart at temperatures below 2200 degrees Fahrenheit (1200 degrees Celsius), the new thermal emitter remains stable at temperatures as high as 2500 F (1400 C). "This is a record performance in terms of thermal stability and a major advance for the field of thermophotovoltaics," said Shanhui Fan, a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University. Fan and his colleagues at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign (Illinois) and North Carolina State University collaborated on the project. Their results are published in the October 16 edition of the journal Nature Communications.
> 
> A typical solar cell has a silicon semiconductor that absorbs sunlight directly and converts it into electrical energy. But silicon semiconductors only respond to infrared light. Higher-energy light waves, including most of the visible light spectrum, are wasted as heat, while lower-energy waves simply pass through the solar panel.
> 
> "In theory, conventional single-junction solar cells can only achieve an efficiency level of about 34 percent, but in practice they don't achieve that," said study co-author Paul Braun, a professor of materials science at Illinois. "That's because they throw away the majority of the sun's energy."
> 
> Thermophotovoltaic devices are designed to overcome that limitation. Instead of sending sunlight directly to the solar cell, thermophotovoltaic systems have an intermediate component that consists of two parts: an absorber that heats up when exposed to sunlight, and an emitter that converts the heat to infrared light, which is then beamed to the solar cell.



Scientists develop heat-resistant materials that could vastly improve solar cell efficiency | e! Science News


----------



## ScienceRocks

*New nano-material could boost solar panel efficiency as high as 80%*


> Conventional solar cells based on photovoltaic technology have come a long way in recent years, but they&#8217;re still missing a big chunk of the electromagnetic spectrum. The silicon semiconductors in a solar cell are geared toward taking infrared light and converting it directly to electricity. Meanwhile, the visible spectrum is lost as heat and longer wavelengths pass through unexploited. A new nano-material being developed by a group of researchers spread across the country could act as a &#8220;thermal emitter,&#8221; making solar power significantly more efficient by scooping up more of that wasted energy.



New nano-material could boost solar panel efficiency as high as 80% | ExtremeTech


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Carbon-negative energy, a reality at last -- and cheap, too*



> In Berkeley, Calif., All Power Labs is turning out machines that convert cheap and abundant biomass into clean energy and rich, efficient charcoal fertilizer.
> BERKELEY, Calif. -- In 2007, officials from this famously liberal city shut off the electricity to an artists space known as the Shipyard. That action, which forced the artists there to seek a new way to power their flamethrowers, is the origin story of a company that now produces what it says is the world's only carbon-negative power source.
> 
> Located in one of the grittiest areas of town, where train tracks, garbage, and broken down  cars are far more prevalent than the hippies Berkeley is famous for, All Power Labs has set up shop inside the Shipyard. Run by CEO Jim Mason -- who owns the space -- the 5-year-old startup now produces technology used to transform dense biomass like corn husks or wood chips into clean, sustainable, and cheap energy.All Power Labs makes machines that use an ancient process called gasification to turn out not only carbon-neutral energy, but also a carbon-rich charcoal by-product that just happens to be a fertilizer so efficient that Tom Price, the company's director of strategic initiatives, calls it "plant crack."
> 
> Gasification, in which dense biomass smoldering -- but not combusting -- in a low-oxygen environment is converted to hydrogen gas, is nothing new. Price said that ancient cultures used it to enrich their soils, and during World War II, a million vehicles utilized the technology. But after the war, it more or less vanished from the planet, for reasons unknown. Until Mason needed a way to power his flamethrowers, that is.
> 
> All Power Labs has taken gasification and combined it with two of the Bay Area's most valuable commodities -- a rich maker culture and cutting-edge programming skills -- to produce what are called PowerPallets. Feed a bunch of walnut shells or wood chips into these $27,000 machines and you get fully clean energy at less than 10 cents a kilowatt hour, a fraction of what other green power sources can cost.


Carbon-negative energy, a reality at last -- and cheap, too | Cutting Edge - CNET News


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Vastly Improved Solar Cells Possible With Use Of New Heat-Resistant Materials*



> Significant improvements to the efficiency of solar cells could be possible in the near-future thanks to the recent development of a new heat-resistant thermal emitter by researchers at Stanford University.
> 
> The new heat-resistant thermal emitter was created as a means of converting the higher-energy portion of light into lower energy waves which can then be absorbed by the solar cells and converted into electricity, along with the lower energy portions that most solar cells convert. Technologies such as this &#8212; more broadly known as thermophotovoltaics &#8212; have been around for quite some time, but have, until now, possessed a number of important limitations that this new device seems to overcome.



Read more at Vastly Improved Solar Cells Possible With Use Of New Heat-Resistant Materials | CleanTechnica


----------



## Billo_Really

Matthew said:


> *Researchers Design a New Low Cost Lithium-Polysulfide Flow Battery*
> Researchers Design a New Low Cost Lithium-Polysulfide Flow Battery | SciTech Daily
> 
> May 24, 2013 by Staff
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Menlo Park, California  Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energys (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have designed a low-cost, long-life battery that could enable solar and wind energy to become major suppliers to the electrical grid.
> 
> For solar and wind power to be used in a significant way, we need a battery made of economical materials that are easy to scale and still efficient, said Yi Cui, a Stanford associate professor of materials science and engineering and a member of the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, a SLAC/Stanford joint institute. We believe our new battery may be the best yet designed to regulate the natural fluctuations of these alternative energies.
> 
> Cui and colleagues report their research results, some of the earliest supported by the DOEs new Joint Center for Energy Storage Research battery hub, in the May issue of Energy & Environmental Science.
> 
> In this video, Stanford graduate student Wesley Zheng demonstrates the new low-cost, long-lived flow battery he helped create. The researchers created this miniature system using simple glassware. Adding a lithium polysulfide solution to the flask immediately produces electricity that lights an LED. A utility version of the new battery would be scaled up to store many megawatt-hours of energy. Credit: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
> 
> Currently the electrical grid cannot tolerate large and sudden power fluctuations caused by wide swings in sunlight and wind. As solar and winds combined contributions to an electrical grid approach 20 percent, energy storage systems must be available to smooth out the peaks and valleys of this intermittent power  storing excess energy and discharging when input drops.
Click to expand...

It should be noted that utility company's control the amount of power being fed back onto the grid from separately derived systems.  All "grid-tie" systems are required to have a transfer switch to control when the energy can be fed back onto the grid.


----------



## flacaltenn

Matthew said:


> *Carbon-negative energy, a reality at last -- and cheap, too*
> 
> 
> 
> 
> In Berkeley, Calif., All Power Labs is turning out machines that convert cheap and abundant biomass into clean energy and rich, efficient charcoal fertilizer.
> BERKELEY, Calif. -- In 2007, officials from this famously liberal city shut off the electricity to an artists space known as the Shipyard. That action, which forced the artists there to seek a new way to power their flamethrowers, is the origin story of a company that now produces what it says is the world's only carbon-negative power source.
> 
> Located in one of the grittiest areas of town, where train tracks, garbage, and broken down  cars are far more prevalent than the hippies Berkeley is famous for, All Power Labs has set up shop inside the Shipyard. Run by CEO Jim Mason -- who owns the space -- the 5-year-old startup now produces technology used to transform dense biomass like corn husks or wood chips into clean, sustainable, and cheap energy.All Power Labs makes machines that use an ancient process called gasification to turn out not only carbon-neutral energy, but also a carbon-rich charcoal by-product that just happens to be a fertilizer so efficient that Tom Price, the company's director of strategic initiatives, calls it "plant crack."
> 
> Gasification, in which dense biomass smoldering -- but not combusting -- in a low-oxygen environment is converted to hydrogen gas, is nothing new. Price said that ancient cultures used it to enrich their soils, and during World War II, a million vehicles utilized the technology. But after the war, it more or less vanished from the planet, for reasons unknown. Until Mason needed a way to power his flamethrowers, that is.
> 
> All Power Labs has taken gasification and combined it with two of the Bay Area's most valuable commodities -- a rich maker culture and cutting-edge programming skills -- to produce what are called PowerPallets. Feed a bunch of walnut shells or wood chips into these $27,000 machines and you get fully clean energy at less than 10 cents a kilowatt hour, a fraction of what other green power sources can cost.
> 
> 
> 
> Carbon-negative energy, a reality at last -- and cheap, too | Cutting Edge - CNET News
Click to expand...


Carbon negative my ass. In a few months that Bay Area Air Resources Board will get wind of this new pollution source and shut them down.. They already are squatting on public land and ignoring the laws.. Why not make some shit up about THEIR BURNING of garbage is NOT polluting..

Burning biomass is NEVER carbon neutral or negative UNLESS --- you literally convert an existing non-carbon sink like a parking lot or a desert to a biomass crop...  Even then it's iffy....


----------



## Old Rocks

Note how the 'Conservatives' immediatly find fault with anything that someone is trying, no matter what it is? If Grandpa didn't do it, they're agin' it!


----------



## flacaltenn

Old Rocks said:


> Note how the 'Conservatives' immediatly find fault with anything that someone is trying, no matter what it is? If Grandpa didn't do it, they're agin' it!



Hey idiot.. Point is that GRANDPA DID DO IT.. It's just been picked up by a bunch of pinko squatters in COmmunist Berkeley and dubbed officially green.. 

As green as my ass...


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Scientists make breakthrough solar technology*



> In the near future, solar panels will not only be more efficient but also a lot cheaper and affordable for everyone, thanks to research by Nanyang Technological University (NTU) scientists.
> 
> This next generation solar cell, made from organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite materials, is about five times cheaper than current thin-film solar cells, due to a simpler solution-based manufacturing process.
> 
> Perovskite is known to be a remarkable solar cell material as it can convert up to 15 per cent of sunlight to electricity, close to the efficiency of the current solar cells, but scientists did not know why or how, until now


 Read more at: Scientists make breakthrough solar technology


----------



## Old Rocks

flacaltenn said:


> Old Rocks said:
> 
> 
> 
> Note how the 'Conservatives' immediatly find fault with anything that someone is trying, no matter what it is? If Grandpa didn't do it, they're agin' it!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Hey idiot.. Point is that GRANDPA DID DO IT.. It's just been picked up by a bunch of pinko squatters in COmmunist Berkeley and dubbed officially green..
> 
> As green as my ass...
Click to expand...


*My, now aren't you the smart guy. No, your grandpa did not do this, and the method has been lost for a long time.*

http://www.acresusa.com/toolbox/reprints/Feb07_TerraPreta.pdf

Its like finding a lost chapter from Peter Tompkins and Christopher Birds Secrets of the Soil  terra preta (literally black earth) is a manmade soil of prehistoric origin that is higher in nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and calcium than adjacent soils. It controls water and reduces leaching of nutrients from the rhizosphere. Rich in humus, pieces
of pre-Columbian unfired clay pottery, and black carbon, its like a microbial reef that promotes and sustains the growth of mycorrhizae and other beneficial microbes, and it has been shown to retain its fertility for thousands of years. In university trials, terra preta has increased crop yields by as much as 800 percent. It regrows itself when excavated. It is even possible to produce carbon-negative useable energy (such as diesel or hydrogen) while making the major input (bio-char) for terra preta on the farm.


----------



## Old Rocks

This next generation solar cell, made from organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite materials, is about five times cheaper than current thin-film solar cells, due to a simpler solution-based manufacturing process

 Read more at: Scientists make breakthrough solar technology

Already you can buy thin film for under $1 a watt, five times cheaper is less than $0.25 a watt. That would be $2500, or less, for the panels for a 10 kw installation.


----------



## flacaltenn

Old Rocks said:


> flacaltenn said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Old Rocks said:
> 
> 
> 
> Note how the 'Conservatives' immediatly find fault with anything that someone is trying, no matter what it is? If Grandpa didn't do it, they're agin' it!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Hey idiot.. Point is that GRANDPA DID DO IT.. It's just been picked up by a bunch of pinko squatters in COmmunist Berkeley and dubbed officially green..
> 
> As green as my ass...
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> *My, now aren't you the smart guy. No, your grandpa did not do this, and the method has been lost for a long time.*
> 
> http://www.acresusa.com/toolbox/reprints/Feb07_TerraPreta.pdf
> 
> Its like finding a lost chapter from Peter Tompkins and Christopher Birds Secrets of the Soil  terra preta (literally black earth) is a manmade soil of prehistoric origin that is higher in nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and calcium than adjacent soils. It controls water and reduces leaching of nutrients from the rhizosphere. Rich in humus, pieces
> of pre-Columbian unfired clay pottery, and black carbon, its like a microbial reef that promotes and sustains the growth of mycorrhizae and other beneficial microbes, and it has been shown to retain its fertility for thousands of years. In university trials, terra preta has increased crop yields by as much as 800 percent. It regrows itself when excavated. It is even possible to produce carbon-negative useable energy (such as diesel or hydrogen) while making the major input (bio-char) for terra preta on the farm.
Click to expand...


What the hell you babbling about Granpa? We're talking about ENERGY PRODUCTION FROM GASIFICATION.. For those hippies that couldn't pay their electric bills.. NOT the waste product from combusting the garbage.. BOTH SIDES used this during WW2.
Nothing new -- and CERTAINLY NOT a green process. PARTICULARLY when done by transient squatters..


----------



## flacaltenn

Want to see a picture of that battery GoldiRocks needs for each of his wind farms??? 



> http://www.popsci.com/science/artic...lds-largest-battery-36-megawatt-hour-behemoth
> 
> China Builds the World's Largest Battery, a Building-Sized, 36-Megawatt-Hour Behemoth
> By Clay Dillow
> Posted 01.04.2012 at 12:05 pm
> 
> That's enough to power something like 12,000 homes for an hour during a total power failure, and enough for SGCC authorities to declare it the world's largest energy storage device. The $500 million facility is constructed of arrays of BYD batteries "larger than a football field," according to an SGCC press release, and they should increase the region's renewable energy efficiency by up to 10 percent.
> 
> The array, located in Zhangbei, isn't just a stand-alone battery. It is hooked into 140 megawatts of wind and solar power generation projects as well as a smart grid transmission system. Together, these elements represent China's push toward a smart grid system that can generate renewable energy when conditions are ripe and store excess energy in its new battery array for use when energy generation troughs throughout the day.



Only a HUGE building and $500Mill.. That'll go over great in the wilderness where these clunkers are located.. And THAT doesn't get you thru Tues and part of Wednesday when the wind dont blow. This is a couple HOURS of storage...


----------



## Old Rocks

LOL. What a silly person you truly are. About six years ago I was on a trip to DC with another couple, good freinds, and they showed me this little TV that had a screen about 4" by 5". It was about 1/2 thick, with a total size of about 5" by 7". Now when I was young, I remember reading a Popular Mechanics magazine that I found in the attic of an old building, from 1923. It showed one of the first TV's, with a significantly smaller screen, and a cabinet the size of a desk.

Yes, this very large grid scale battery is large and clunky. And in a decade, one that size will store several orders of magnitude  more energy than that does. Fellows like you were yapping how the batteries would never power a vehicle more than a few tens of miles between charges five years ago, now Tesla is doing 250, and will have a battery capable of 400 in their vehicles by 2015. Technology marches on in spite of the Luddites.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Solar Cell Efficiency Breakthrough Achieved By Channeling LEGO*


> Chalk up another score for aluminum. The humble &#8212; as in, cheap and abundant &#8212; metal has been popping up all over the sustainable tech field, and in the latest development, an international research team has demonstrated that nanoscale LEGO-style array of aluminum studs can improve solar cell efficiency by up to 22 percent. If the labwork translates into commercial development, that will help drive the rapidly sinking cost of solar power down even farther.
> 
> That&#8217;s a significant breakthrough, because until now gold and silver have been the focus of attention in the solar cell efficiency field due to their vigorous interaction with light.



Read more at Solar Cell Efficiency Boosted By LEGO Style Aluminum Studs


----------



## flacaltenn

Old Rocks said:


> LOL. What a silly person you truly are. About six years ago I was on a trip to DC with another couple, good freinds, and they showed me this little TV that had a screen about 4" by 5". It was about 1/2 thick, with a total size of about 5" by 7". Now when I was young, I remember reading a Popular Mechanics magazine that I found in the attic of an old building, from 1923. It showed one of the first TV's, with a significantly smaller screen, and a cabinet the size of a desk.
> 
> Yes, this very large grid scale battery is large and clunky. And in a decade, one that size will store several orders of magnitude  more energy than that does. Fellows like you were yapping how the batteries would never power a vehicle more than a few tens of miles between charges five years ago, now Tesla is doing 250, and will have a battery capable of 400 in their vehicles by 2015. Technology marches on in spite of the Luddites.



I'm not yapping how the batteries would never power a vehicle more than 10s of miles BECAUSE I KNOW better... 



> Detroit Electric - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
> 
> Detroit Electric (19071939 and 2008present) was an electric car produced by the Anderson Electric Car Company in Detroit, Michigan. The company built 13,000 electric cars from 1907 to 1939.[1] The Detroit Electric brand was revived again in 2008 to produce modern all-electric cars by Detroit Electric Holding Ltd. of the Netherlands.[2][3]
> 
> Production of the electric automobile, powered by a rechargeable lead acid battery, began in 1907. For an additional US$600, an Edison nickel-iron battery was available from 1911 to 1916. *The cars were advertised as reliably getting 80 miles (130 km) between battery recharging, although in one test a Detroit Electric ran 211.3 miles (340.1 km) on a single charge.* Top speed was only about 20 mph (32 km/h), but this was considered adequate for driving within city or town limits at the time.



Was that you Gramps back in 1907 that was saying "some day, these EVs will get 250MILES between charges and they will go TWICE as fast??? 

As for your grid-scale storage plan --- there's this thing called energy density. And compressing a $500Mil multi-football size building down to realistic economics is gonna be a real challenge to both safety and reliability and cost. That China installation only improves 140MWatt renewable load by 10%... NONE of this is gonna happen in time to save the planet from CO2.. 

You need HOURS of storage for each installation.. Not one hour at one installation.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Record Breaking Solar Cell Efficiency From A &#8220;Perfect Crystal&#8221;*



> Gallium is already on its way to becoming the workhorse of the solar tech field, and now it looks like the soft metal is on track to become a thoroughbred. A team of US scientists has hit upon an improved method for growing indium gallium nitride (InGaN) crystals that could lead to record-breaking solar cell efficiency. So far the method has resulted in a film of InGaN that has &#8220;almost ideal characteristics.&#8221;
> 
> To ice the cake, an analysis of the film revealed the precise reason why the results of the new InGaN growing method were so good, which could lead to further improvements in LED technology as well as solar cells.
> 
> A Perfect InGaN Crystal
> 
> Nitride refers to a compound of nitrogen, in this case in conjunction with indium, a soft silvery-white, zinc-like metal, as well as gallium.



Read more at Solar Cell Efficiency Could Break New Records With Improved InGaN.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*A123 Partners With SolidEnergy To Achieve 4X Energy Density In Lithium-Ion Batteries*



> A123 Venture Technologies has teamed up with SolidEnergy to develop lithium-ion batteries with four times the energy density of conventional lithium-ion batteries. The technology is called a Solid Polymer Ionic Liquid (SPIL) electrolyte.
> 
> A123&#8242;s standard 18650 batteries only achieve 95 Wh/kg, which is still much better than lead-acid and NiMH batteries, but energy density was the weakness of A123 battery technology.
> 
> Conventional lithium-ion batteries are currently in the low 100 Wh/kg range. About 110. Multiply that by four, and you have a whopping 440 Wh/kg, which would reduce the weight of a battery the size of the Nissan Leaf&#8217;s from 218 pounds to a measly 54 pounds. That is so lightweight, you could lift it with one of your bare hands! (Well, if you are fairly strong.) That would make the Leaf light enough that it could travel much further on a charge, or would allow for more batteries to be put in the Leaf, also allowing for much longer range.



Read more at A123 Partners With SolidEnergy To Achieve 4X Energy Density


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Lithium-sulfur battery breakthroughs for holding good charges for up to 200 recharges*




> Cornell researchers&#8217; improvement of the performance of lithium-sulfur batteries, a promising alternative to today&#8217;s lithium-ion batteries.
> 
> Two recently published papers, both originating from the lab of Hector Abruña, the Emile M. Chamot Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, describe breakthroughs in the durability and performance of lithium-sulfur battery cathodes, one by using a component of corn starch, and the other, by modeling a nanocomposite material after the yolk-shell structure of eggs.
> 
> &#8220;Lithium-sulfur batteries could potentially offer about five times the energy density of today&#8217;s typically used lithium-ion batteries,&#8221; said Yingchao Yu, Ph.D. student with Abruña, and co-first author on the JACS publication. &#8220;But a lithium-sulfur battery is not a stable system, as its capacity tends to fade over a short period of time.&#8221;
> 
> After about 50 charge cycles, the energy density of a lithium-sulfur battery decreases rapidly due to a phenomenon called the polysulfide shuttling effect, which is when the polysulfide chains in the battery&#8217;s cathode (positive end) dissolve in the electrolyte, the ionizing liquid that allows electrons to flow.
> 
> To combat this problem and stabilize the sulfur, the researchers used amylopectin, a polysaccharide that&#8217;s a main component of corn starch.




Lithium-sulfur battery breakthroughs for holding good charges for up to 200 recharges


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Thin-Film Solar Cell Efficiency Record Set By Centre For Solar Energy & Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg*


> The Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) has announced that it has set a new copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) thin-film solar cell efficiency record.
> 
> The 20.8% record beats ZSW&#8217;s own previous record of 20.3% as well as the 20.4% multicrystalline PV cell record &#8212; the first time that thin-film solar cell efficiency has surpass multicrystalline PV cell efficiency.
> 
> &#8220;Our new record shows that CIGS thin-film technology still has untapped technological and economic potential,&#8221; says Michael Powalla, head of the photovoltaics division at ZSW.



Read more at Thin-Film Solar Cell Efficiency Record Set By Centre For Solar Energy & Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg | CleanTechnica


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Lasers point to the future of uranium enrichment*



> With the world&#8217;s first laser enrichment plant having received a construction and operating license from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2012, the stage has been set for a radical change in the industry. So how does laser enrichment work, and what commercial benefits, along with proliferation concerns, does this new process present compared to current methods?
> 
> Nuclear power plants generally benefit from uranium enrichment. By increasing the abundance of U-235 in uranium fuel rods from the natural abundance of 0.71 percent to 3 percent or greater, fewer compromises need be made to reach gigawatt power levels. A few reactors use uranium enriched to about 20 percent U-235, and at the extreme, some nuclear submarines use fuel enriched to about 93 percent.



Lasers point to the future of uranium enrichment


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Volume of nuclear waste could be reduced by 90 per cent says new research*


> Engineers from the University of Sheffield have developed a way to significantly reduce the volume of some higher activity wastes, which will reduce the cost of interim storage and final disposal.
> 
> The researchers, from the University&#8217;s Faculty of Engineering, have shown that mixing plutonium-contaminated waste with blast furnace slag and turning it into glass reduces its volume by 85-95 per cent. It also effectively locks in the radioactive plutonium, creating a stable end product.


Volume of nuclear waste could be reduced by 90 per cent says new research - News releases - News - The University of Sheffield

I hope to see this put into use and a tripling of our use of nuclear power


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Ambri liquid metal battery: Prototype deployment set for 2014*

16 minutes ago by Nancy Owano weblog


> Phys.org) &#8212;November is a milestone month for Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) spinoff company Ambri, where a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Marlborough, Massachusetts, on November 7 marked its new production facility. Ambri is targeting its liquid metal battery technology for use in the electricity grid. The company believes they have an electricity storage solution that will change the way electric grids are operated worldwide. Ambri's liquid metal battery technology breaks away from other storage options; each cell consists of three self-separating liquid layers, two metals and a salt, that float on top of each other based on density differences and immiscibility, said Ambri. The system operates at elevated temperature maintained by self-heating during charging and discharging.



 Read more at: Ambri liquid metal battery: Prototype deployment set for 2014


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Fusion reactor achieves tenfold increase in plasma confinement time*



> The promise of fusion is immense. Its fuel is hydrogen plasma, made from the most abundant atom in the Universe, and the major byproduct is helium, an inert gas. In this era with the threat of climate change, clean alternative sources of energy are more necessary than ever. However, even after decades of research and enormous investments of money, scientists haven't succeeded in producing a working nuclear fusion plant. Nevertheless, many feel the potential payoff is worth continued investment.
> 
> For that reason, work is proceeding apace on the next generation of fusion reactors. Researchers at the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) in Hefei, China, achieved a significant improvement in its confinement time and the density of the plasma it held. This step is necessary to maintain the appropriate conditions for fusion as well as to reduce the damage the hot plasma causes to the reactor walls. As described by J. Li and colleagues, the latest run at EAST achieved a plasma pulse lasting over 30 seconds, a record achievement that simultaneously demonstrated improvements in heat dispersal.



Fusion reactor achieves tenfold increase in plasma confinement time | Ars Technica


----------



## Old Rocks

Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) :: Towards sodium ion batteries ? understanding sodium dynamics on a microscopic level

Lithium ion batteries are highly efficient and provide electrical energy for laptops, mobile phones and lately also for the growing electric car market. But there are drawbacks to this technology: lithium is expensive and its extraction rather harmful to the environment. One possible alternative might be to substitute lithium with sodium &#8211; an element with similar chemical properties but much more abundant. Charging and discharging these batteries occurs via ion migration in and out of the battery electrodes. Therefore, to be able to develop the necessary sodium-based batteries, it is crucial to understand how sodium ions move in the relevant materials. Now, for the first time, scientists at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have determined the paths along which sodium ions move in a prospective battery material. They prepared the compound Na0.7CoO2 and investigated it using neutron-scattering at SINQ, the PSI&#8217;s Swiss neutron source. It turns out that the paths along which the ions move inside the electrode change with temperature and are directly connected to very small changes in the atomic structure of the material. With these results, one can now start to think of new and specific ways to manipulate the materials through slight changes to their structure or composition, for example &#8211; and thereby achieve the optimized material properties necessary for use in future batteries. The results have now been published in the journal Physical Review Letters


----------



## ScienceRocks

*EVA electric taxi can travel 200 km on a 15-minute charge*



> Given how many miles taxis put in per day, the concept of electric taxis is certainly appealing. That said, one problem is the amount of time that their batteries can take to recharge &#8211; most cabbies won't want to shorten their work day or do a split shift, in order to juice up their cars. With the EVA taxi, however, they wouldn't have to. The prototype vehicle can reportedly get enough of a charge in 15 minutes to travel 200 km (124 mi).
> 
> EVA was created via the TUM Create project, a collaboration between Germany's Technische Universität München and Singapore's Nanyang Technological University. The 200-km figure is based on typical Singapore taxi-driving patterns, with the air conditioning turned on.



EVA electric taxi can travel 200 km on a 15-minute charge


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Staggering Turbines Improves Performance 33%*




> Oct. 30, 2013 &#8212; Research into the best ways to arrange wind turbines has produced staggering results -- quite literally.
> 
> The University of Delaware's Cristina Archer and her Atmosphere and Energy Research Group found that staggering and spacing out turbines in an offshore wind farm can improve performance by as much as 33 percent. "Staggering every other row was amazingly efficient," said Archer, associate professor of physical ocean science and engineering and geography in UD's College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment.
> 
> The findings, which appeared last month in Geophysical Research Letters, could help engineers plan improved offshore wind farms.



Staggering turbines improves performance 33%


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Picture Gallery - Vestas 8MW tower finished*

27 November 2013 by Ben Miller, Be the first to comment 

DENMARK: The tower for Vestas' 8MW turbine has been completed and is being transported to the national test centre for large wind turbines in Østerild, north Denmark.



> When complete Vestas' V164-8.0MW will be the world's most powerful wind turbine. The tower is 133 metres high and consists of five sections, weighing a total of 700 tonnes. The tower has diameter of 6.5 metres at the base and 4.5 metres at the top.
> 
> In September, the first prototype blade of Vestas' 8MW V164 was produced at its research centre on the Isle of Wight, UK. The 80-metre blade, the longest produced by the company, will be tested for six months.
> 
> The V164-8MW prototype will be installed in the first quarter of 2014 at the Østerild testing centre.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Japanese firm proposes LUNA RING to send solar energy from moon to Earth*



> (Phys.org) &#8212;Japanese construction firm Shimizu Corp. has unveiled a proposal that entails building a solar panel array around the moon's equator, then sending the power it collects back to Earth. They are calling the project LUNA RING.



 Read more at: Japanese firm proposes LUNA RING to send solar energy from moon to Earth


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Plastic Solar Cells &#8212; Low-Priced Plastic Photovoltaic Technology Coming Along*



> Cost-efficient plastic solar cells are now one step closer to the market thanks to new research from Imperial College London &#8212; a new means of exerting control over the arrangement of polymer molecules within a thin layer of a plastic solar cell has been developed, allowing, essentially, the creation of &#8216;nanowires&#8217; within the material.
> 
> One of the primary obstacles to the creation of cheep, efficient plastic solar cells has been the difficulty in controlling the arrangement of polymer molecules within the thin layer of the printed polymer semiconducting material &#8212; a difficulty that now appears to have been overcome. The researchers at Imperial have developed &#8220;an advanced structural probe technique to determine the molecular packing of two different polymers when they are mixed together.&#8221;
> 
> 
> &#8220;By manipulating how the molecules of the two different polymers pack together, the researchers have created ordered pathways &#8212; or &#8216;nanowires&#8217; &#8212; along which electrical charges can more easily travel. This enables the solar cell to produce more electrical current.&#8221;
> 
> &#8220;Our work highlights the importance of the precise arrangement of polymer molecules in a polymer solar cell for it to work efficiently,&#8221; states Ji-Seon Kim, lead researcher and also a senior lecturer in experimental solid-state physics at Imperial College London. Kim also mentions that she expects polymer solar cells to hit the commercial market sometime within the next 5 to 10 years.
> 
> The obvious advantage of such polymer solar cells is that they have the potential to be significantly cheaper to produce than conventional solar cells &#8212; which typically require expensive, highly purified silicon. The cost savings that could result from replacing that silicon with polymers could be enormous.
> 
> The researchers explain: &#8220;Organic semiconducting materials, and especially polymers, can be dissolved to make an ink and then simply &#8216;printed&#8217; in a very thin layer, some 100 billionths of a meter thick, over a large area.&#8221;
> 
> &#8220;Covering a large area in plastic is much cheaper than covering it in silicon, and as a result the cost per Watt of electricity-generating capacity has the potential to be much lower,&#8221; states Kim.



Read more at Plastic Solar Cells -- Low-Priced Plastic Photovoltaic Technology Coming Along ?

When this hits the market = solar growing to over 200gw in America


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Robot with brush, water, wiper tackles solar panel cleaning*

18 hours ago by Nancy Owano weblog



> (Phys.org) &#8212;At large-scale solar plants, keeping the surfaces of solar panels free from dust, sand and bird droppings is not just a matter of finicky housekeeping. It can be a matter of plant profitability. Dirty panels lower power generation efficiencies. Bird droppings on panels, for example, block the sunlight. A Tokyo-based company has a solution. Sinfonia Technology announced late last month that it has developed a robot with camera and sensors that can move autonomously and clean solar panels at large-scale solar power plants. Sinfonia's robot has a distinction in being "autonomous" in that, rather than tethered to rails, the robot is able to move from panel to panel, to tackle the panels' dirt and debris. The robot is equipped with scrub brush, wiper and detergent; and also sprinkles water stored in its tank. The robot can work in the dark; it has LEDs, having wavelengths in the infrared range.



 Read more at: Robot with brush, water, wiper tackles solar panel cleaning


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Natcore Technology Moves Toward Low-Temperature Production Of Solar Cells*

Natcore Technology Moves Toward Low-Temperature Production Of Solar Cells


> Two weeks after an independent study concluded that Natcore Technology's black silicon technology could reduce silicon solar cell production costs by up to 23.5%, the company has taken additional steps that could further reduce production costs and *hazardous effluents.*
> 
> Black silicon technology can eliminate the plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) of silicon nitride currently in solar cell production lines. Now Natcore scientists are developing laser processing to replace the high-temperature diffusion furnace in the solar cell production process, thus significantly reducing energy and chemical costs associated with the furnace.
> 
> They have identified a versatile laser that the company plans to acquire for its R and D Center in Rochester, NY.
> 
> In typical solar cell manufacturing, the surface of the cell is doped in a process that involves heating the entire silicon wafer to a temperature in the range of 800 to 900 C. The process can damage the silicon, and wastes considerable energy. Laser doping works by firing a focused laser beam on the wafer. A small amount of dopant is initially sitting on the surface.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Boeing subsidiary sets new solar efficiency record*

Boeing subsidiary sets new solar efficiency record - Solar Tribune



> Spectrolab has set a new efficiency record for non-concentrated solar cells, with its III-V cells having a conversion efficiency of almost 39%.
> 
> The cells can convert 38.8% of incoming sunlight to electricity, beating the April 2013 record of 37.8% conversion efficiency. The new record has been verified by the Energy Department&#8217;s National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
> 
> Spectrolab is a subsidiary of Boeing and used the company&#8217;s semiconductor bonding technology to develop this multi-junction solar cell. Spectrolab claims this new technology could be used to provide power for spacecraft and unmanned aerial vehicles.
> 
> &#8220;Improving solar cell manufacturing technology is at the core of what we do at Spectrolab,&#8221; says Spectrolab President Troy Dawson. &#8220;We will continue to innovate new ways to achieve even better results.&#8221;


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Fraunhofer ISE unveils 24% efficient n-type solar PV cell*



> The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE, Freiburg, Germany) has unveiled a new 24% efficient solar photovoltaic (PV) cell, based on a passivated contact covering the entire rear surface.
> 
> The PV cell is based on n-type silicon, unlike the majority of commercial PV cells today, which utilize p-type silicon. Fraunhofer ISE states that phosphorous-doped n-type silicon is a superior PV cell material, but that patterning schemes for the rear contact have been an obstacle.



KW48*|*Fraunhofer ISE unveils 24% efficient n-type solar PV cell*-*SolarServer


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Team finds way to make solar cells thin, efficient and flexible*

11 hours ago 



> Converting sunshine into electricity is not difficult, but doing so efficiently and on a large scale is one of the reasons why people still rely on the electric grid and not a national solar cell network.
> 
> But a team of researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Central Florida in Orlando may be one step closer to tapping into the full potential of solar cells. The team found a way to create large sheets of nanotextured, silicon micro-cell arrays that hold the promise of making solar cells lightweight, more efficient, bendable and easy to mass produce.
> 
> The team used a light-trapping scheme based on a nanoimprinting technique where a polymeric stamp mechanically emboss the nano-scale pattern on to the solar cell without involving further complex lithographic steps. This approach has led to the flexibility researchers have been searching for, making the design ideal for mass manufacturing, said UCF assistant professor Debashis Chanda, lead researcher of the study.
> 
> The study's findings are the subject of the November cover story of the journal Advanced Energy Materials.



 Read more at: Team finds way to make solar cells thin, efficient and flexible


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Solar Frontier sets new CZTS solar PV efficiency record*



> Solar Frontier KK (Tokyo) has produced a copper zinc tin sulphur selenium (CZTS or CZTSe) solar photovoltaic (PV) cell with an efficiency of 12.6%, as verified by Newport Corporation (Irvine, California, U.S.).
> 
> The 0.42 square centimeter cell sets a new world record for CZTS technology, breaking Solar Frontier's previous record of 11.1%. The company emphasizes that CZTS offers a cost advantage over other PV technologies, due to the low cost and abundant supply of the materials used.
> 
> 
> &#8220;Breaking our previous record at such a fast pace shows the potential of CZTS for mass production in the future, and we are now in a position to drive that efficiency even higher,&#8221; said Solar Frontier Chief Technology Officer Satoru Kuriyagawa.
> 
> The cell was developed through joint research with IBM (Armonk, New York, U.S.) and Tokyo Ohka Kogyo (Tokyo).
> 
> 
> 
> Germany also working on CZTS research
> 
> The fall of 2013 has been a busy time for CZTS technology. In November 2013, the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW, Stuttgart, Germany) reported a 10.3% efficiency with a new production process for CZTS (also known as kesterite) PV cells.
> 
> ZSW's process does not require vacuum technology, which reduces complexity.
> 
> CTZS efficiency record follows on CIGS records
> 
> Solar Frontier notes that it has also achieved world record conversion efficiencies of 17.8% with a 900 square centimeter submodule based on copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS or CIS) technology, and 19.7% for a non-cadmium CIS cell.
> 
> The company currently offers CIS PV modules with up to 13.8% efficiency, the highest of any mass-produced thin film PV modules.




KW50*|*Solar Frontier sets new CZTS solar PV efficiency record*-*SolarServer


----------



## RGR

Matthew said:


> *Solar Frontier sets new CZTS solar PV efficiency record*



Cool! Have they solved the sun not always shining problem yet?


----------



## RGR

Matthew said:


> *Team finds way to make solar cells thin, efficient and flexible*



Excellent! So when they solve the sun doesn't always shine problem, we can more efficiently generate a small fraction of our power needs. Keep up the good work...but when are you going to post on how folks are planning on fixing the sun don't always shine problem?


----------



## ScienceRocks

RGR said:


> Matthew said:
> 
> 
> 
> *Solar Frontier sets new CZTS solar PV efficiency record*
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Cool! Have they solved the sun not always shining problem yet?
Click to expand...


I heard they're working on solar panels that can work within the IR.

*A new material for solar panels could make them cheaper, more efficient*



> A unique solar panel design made with a new ceramic material points the way to potentially providing sustainable power cheaper, more efficiently, and requiring less manufacturing time. It also reaches a four-decade-old goal of discovering a bulk photovoltaic material that can harness energy from visible and *infrared light*, not just ultraviolet light.



 Read more at: A new material for solar panels could make them cheaper, more efficient


----------



## ScienceRocks

> Despite the enormous untapped potential of solar energy, one thing is for sure- photovoltaics are only as good as the sun&#8217;s rays shining upon them. However, researchers at the Idaho National Laboratory are close to the production of a super-thin solar film that would be cost-effective, imprinted on flexible materials, and would be able to harvest solar energy even after sunset!
> 
> The technique involves the embedding of square spirals of conducting metal onto a sheet of plastic, each of which, referred to as a &#8220;nanoantenna,&#8221; just 1/25 the diameter of a human hair. The nanoantennas absorb infrared energy, which is absorbed by the earth during the day and released even hours after the sun goes down. The nanoantennas are thus able to harvest energy both during daytime hours and into the early evening. Because they can take in energy from both sunlight and the earth&#8217;s heat, the nanoantennas have a much higher efficiency (and potential applicability) than conventional solar cells.
> 
> The scientific principle isn&#8217;t a new one, but the manufacturing process that maximizes efficiency certainly is state-of-the-art. The innovation within nanotechnology is what has allowed the nanoantennas to be efficiently embedded to absorb energy in a flexible and inexpensive material.


New Solar Panels That Work At Night Nighttime solar panels, night solar panels, night photovoltaics, Solar cells, solar power at night, idaho national laboratory, solar technology, solar film, nanotechnology solar, nanoantennas - Gallery Page 0 ? Inh

https://inlportal.inl.gov/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=1269&mode=2&featurestory=DA_101047

RGR imagine if this hit the market


----------



## RGR

Matthew said:


> RGR said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Matthew said:
> 
> 
> 
> *Solar Frontier sets new CZTS solar PV efficiency record*
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Cool! Have they solved the sun not always shining problem yet?
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> I heard they're working on solar panels that can work within the IR.
Click to expand...


Well this is excellent! As soon as they can deliver 120 MW at 10PM on a given night, make sure to let the power engineers know how much that will cost.


----------



## Mr. H.

The IEA predicts that hydrocarbons will be the driving force in world economies for decades hence. 

Hence, Liberals have only their PR bullshit to prop up their... bullshit. 

They slice, they dice, they try to sell us 64 tools in one. 

Liberals can give you a can opener AND an asphalt spreader at the same time.

All you have to do is BELIEVE.


----------



## ScienceRocks

And that is why there's a shit load of states with 10, 15 and 20% wind and solar powering them  Keep sprouting the bull crap! I never said move totally away from fossil fuels and in fact I am for nuclear


----------



## Politico

Which explains why you do nothing but copy and paste solar articles.


----------



## ScienceRocks

3-4 states are already 15-25% renewables  All we'd have to do to make the US avg be 20% is make the rest of the states at that rate.

Doesn't seem very hard...We'd cut the imports of coal, natural gas and oil down big time


----------



## Old Rocks

Solar has one advantage that none of the other energy sources have. It is affordable for the individual, and can fuel both his home and vehicle. And, for that reason, earns the hatred from the fossil fuel companies.


----------



## ScienceRocks

Old Rocks said:


> Solar has one advantage that none of the other energy sources have. It is affordable for the individual, and can fuel both his home and vehicle. And, for that reason, earns the hatred from the fossil fuel companies.



Solar because of that and the fact that it is dropping in price is a major threat to fossil fuel.


----------



## Politico

You mean nuclear powered solar batteries?


----------



## mamooth

Chevy Spark to be first EV to crack $20K barrier.

Chevy Spark EV Priced at $19,995 After Federal Incentive; 36-Month Lease is $199 Per Month With $999 Down

Okay, that's counting a $7500 federal tax credit. But then, some states give additional tax credits. The Spark rolls out in California and Oregon starting in June, and is an all-electric vehicle with an 82 mile range.


----------



## ScienceRocks

> In a major endorsement of the fusion energy research and development program of start-up Lawrenceville Plasma Physics (LPP), a committee of senior fusion researchers, led by a former head of the US fusion program, has concluded that the innovative effort deserves &#8220;a much higher level of investment &#8230; based on their considerable progress to date.&#8221; The report concludes that &#8220;In the committee&#8217;s view [LPP&#8217;s] approach to fusion power &#8230; is worthy of a considerable expansion of effort.&#8221;
> 
> Lawrenceville Plasma Physics has been developing an extremely low-cost approach to fusion power based on a device called the dense plasma focus (DPF). In contrast to the giant tokamak machines that have been the recipients of most fusion funding, a DPF can fit in a small room. LPP&#8217;s final feasibility experiments and planned commercial generators will use hydrogen-boron fuel, which produces no radioactive waste and promises extremely economical clean energy.
> 
> The committee of researchers was led by Dr. Robert Hirsch, a former director of fusion research for the US Atomic Energy Commission and the Energy Research and Development Agency. Other members of the committee were Dr. Stephen O. Dean, President of Fusion Power Associates and former director of fusion Magnetic Confinement Systems for the Department of Energy; Professor Gerald L. Kulcinski, Associate Dean for Research, College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison; and Professor Dennis Papadopoulos, Professor of Physics, University of Maryland. The committee was organized by Dr. Hirsch at the request of Mr. Alvin Samuels, an investor in LPP&#8217;s effort, to give an objective assessment of the program. Neither Mr. Samuels nor LPP had any control over the committee&#8217;s conclusions.



Senior Fusion researchers give major endorsement to Lawrenceville Plasma Physics Dense Plasma Focus Fusion Work and say they expect feasibility will be shown within two years with adequate funding


*Former US Fusion Energy Chief, Senior Researchers Say Start-up&#8217;s Fusion Program Merits Much Higher Level of Investment*

An independent scientific review indicates that an economical and clean source of fusion energy may soon become reality.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts: Derek Shannon, Eric Lerner

Tel: 732-356-5900

E-mail: derek@lpphysics.com, eric@lpphysics.com



> Dec. 10, 2013 - MIDDLESEX, N.J. -- In a major endorsement of the fusion energy research and development program of start-up Lawrenceville Plasma Physics (LPP), a committee of senior fusion researchers, led by a former head of the US fusion program, has concluded that the innovative effort deserves &#8220;a much higher level of investment &#8230; based on their considerable progress to date.&#8221;  The report concludes that &#8220;In the committee&#8217;s view [LPP&#8217;s] approach to fusion power &#8230; is worthy of a considerable expansion of effort.&#8221;
> 
> Lawrenceville Plasma Physics has been developing an extremely low-cost approach to fusion power based on a device called the dense plasma focus (DPF). In contrast to the giant tokamak machines that have been the recipients of most fusion funding, a DPF can fit in a small room.  LPP&#8217;s final feasibility experiments and planned commercial generators will use hydrogen-boron fuel, which produces no radioactive waste and promises extremely economical clean energy.
> 
> The committee of researchers was led by Dr. Robert Hirsch, a former director of fusion research for the US Atomic Energy Commission and the Energy Research and Development Agency. Other members of the committee were Dr. Stephen O. Dean, President of Fusion Power Associates and former director of fusion Magnetic Confinement Systems for the Department of Energy; Professor Gerald L. Kulcinski, Associate Dean for Research, College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison; and Professor Dennis Papadopoulos, Professor of Physics, University of Maryland.  The committee was organized by Dr. Hirsch at the request of Mr. Alvin Samuels, an investor in LPP&#8217;s effort, to give an objective assessment of the program.  Neither Mr. Samuels nor LPP had any control over the committee&#8217;s conclusions.


- See more at: Former US Fusion Chief: Focus Fusion Merits Higher Investment


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Hydrogen squeezed from stone could be new energy source*



> Scientists from the University of Lyon have discovered a new way to split hydrogen gas from water, using rocks.
> 
> The method promises a new green energy source, providing copious hydrogen from a simple mixture of rock and water.
> 
> It speeds up a chemical reaction that takes geological timescales in nature.
> 
> In the reaction, the mineral olivine strips one oxygen and hydrogen atom from an H2O molecule to form a mineral called serpentine, releasing the spare hydrogen atom.
> 
> The results were discussed at this week's meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, and have been published in the journal American Mineralogist.
> 
> The researchers heated olivine minerals in water to a couple of hundred degrees Celsius, and added a little bit of ruby (aluminium oxide) to the mix to provide a source of aluminium atoms.
> 
> The whole mix was placed into a miniature pressure cooker, formed of two diamonds, that squeezed the mixture to 2,000 atmospheres pressure.



BBC News - Hydrogen squeezed from stone could be new energy source


----------



## Old Rocks

Matthew said:


> *Hydrogen squeezed from stone could be new energy source*
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Scientists from the University of Lyon have discovered a new way to split hydrogen gas from water, using rocks.
> 
> The method promises a new green energy source, providing copious hydrogen from a simple mixture of rock and water.
> 
> It speeds up a chemical reaction that takes geological timescales in nature.
> 
> In the reaction, the mineral olivine strips one oxygen and hydrogen atom from an H2O molecule to form a mineral called serpentine, releasing the spare hydrogen atom.
> 
> The results were discussed at this week's meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, and have been published in the journal American Mineralogist.
> 
> The researchers heated olivine minerals in water to a couple of hundred degrees Celsius, and added a little bit of ruby (aluminium oxide) to the mix to provide a source of aluminium atoms.
> 
> The whole mix was placed into a miniature pressure cooker, formed of two diamonds, that squeezed the mixture to 2,000 atmospheres pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> BBC News - Hydrogen squeezed from stone could be new energy source
Click to expand...


Hmmmmmmmmmm........   Any process operating at 2000 bar using diamond anvils has a real problem when it comes to scaling.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*New CZTS Solar Cell Efficiency Record*



> Solar Frontier, a Japan-based thin-film solar technology company, has reportedly broken the CZTS solar cell efficiency record, in partnership with IBM and TOK. The efficiency record was set on a solar cell 0.42 square centimeters in size.
> 
> The new record is 12.6% efficiency. The previous record of 11.1% was held by IBM, Solar Frontier, and partners, so that&#8217;s quite a jump.


Read more at New CZTS Solar Cell Efficiency Record | CleanTechnica


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Science moving closer to creating power through nuclear fusion*



> Nuclear fusion is pretty much the holy grail of power sources. In development for over 60 years already, the creation of electricity through nuclear fusion has been the goal of generations of scientists. If we ever achieve a self-sustaining, controlled fusion reaction we will have basically harnessed the power of the stars. A new breakthrough, published yesterday by the University of Twente in the Netherlands has brought us closer than ever to that lofty goal.
> 
> The basic problem of nuclear fusion is that it occurs at incredibly high temperatures. The plasma at the heart of a reactor in which the process takes place can reach 150 million degrees Celsius. That kind of heat needs a strong force to control it, something on the order of a magnetic field 13 of teslas in strength. Basically, the forces and stresses inside a fusion reactor are crazy-strong and they tend to wear out any equipment that they come into contact with pretty dang quick. That's where the new breakthrough comes into play: weaving.
> 
> *By weaving two superconductive wires responsible for generating these magnetic fields together with a single copper wire, the resulting cable gains an increased resistance to heat fluctuations. The weaving process can then be repeated until the massive cables needed for a fusion reactor have been constructed. It also turns out that when you increase the pitch (or length across which the copper wire spirals) of this two-to-one weave, the cables become way more efficient at mitigating heat. When that happens, because their excess heat is being sloughed off constantly, fusion reactions can be maintained.*
> 
> Maintained reactions mean reliable energy output, which could very possibly lead us to harnessing the energy production methods of the cosmos. That's some seriously awesome weaving.



Science moving closer to creating power through nuclear fusion | DVICE

http://www.utwente.nl/en/archive/20...-step-closer-to-nuclear-fusion-power-station/


----------



## RGR

Matthew said:


> Science moving closer to creating power through nuclear fusion | DVICE



Good thing we've got abundant fossil fuels in the meantime, by the time science moves some more closer, and then finally gets it to work, and then finances it, and builds the full size model, and then discovers that the cost supply curve isn't quite as advantageous as they thought, and begins to design the next version, we won't be sitting around in the dark. Good thing we've got those fossil fuels to tide us over a few decades....or centuries....


----------



## flacaltenn

Matthew said:


> And that is why there's a shit load of states with 10, 15 and 20% wind and solar powering them  Keep sprouting the bull crap! I never said move totally away from fossil fuels and in fact I am for nuclear



Those 'records' for states are pretty meaninless since the generation was done randomly and not according to actual demand..  Not one Baskin Robbins has EVER been powered by solar or wind.  When you can DO that --- then you have an ALTERNATIVE.  Right now what you got is a crap shoot in terms of powering a modern society...

BTW --  MANY of those solar PV  improvemnt articles ADMIT that there only market niche is in spacecraft or other cost insentive applications..  You might require a small amount of platinum in a catalytic converter,  but its not the size of a parking lot...


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Algae To Oil In 1 Hour*




> While electric cars are becoming increasingly popular with those seeking an alternative to oil, liquid fuels and combustion engines are going to remain a dominant force for decades to come. One of the most promising alternatives to fossil fuels is oil produced from algae, and researchers have developed a new process that takes just minutes to turn pond scum into carbon-neutral fuel.
> 
> Scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have created a continuous chemical process that turns wet algae into useful crude oil, the big difference being the use of wet, rather than dry algae. See, most algae-to-oil processes require energy-intensive drying of algae, before it can be converted into oil. Utah-based Genifuel has licensed the technology, and is in the process of building a pilot plant to create the algae oil en masse.
> 
> The entire process from algae to oil takes less than an hour, with water and phosphorus (which can be used to grow even more algae) being the main byproduct. From there, the algae oil can be further refined as either diesel, gasoline, or aviation fuel. While there are literally dozens of algae oil research operations just in America, the fuel remains incredibly expensive to produce and would require oil prices to skyrocket in order to be price competitive. This latest breakthrough could change all that.



Read more at Algae To Oil In 1 Hour | CleanTechnica


----------



## Delta4Embassy

Someone needs to come up wih a way of making a battery, capacitor, and whatever else so we can harness lightning strikes. The rapidity being the issue. So we need something that can absorb a very short pulse quickly and not blow up.


----------



## flacaltenn

Delta4Embassy said:


> Someone needs to come up wih a way of making a battery, capacitor, and whatever else so we can harness lightning strikes. The rapidity being the issue. So we need something that can absorb a very short pulse quickly and not blow up.



I would never discourage even the most DESPARATE attempts to add to the list of "renewables".. 
There's been serious work on harvesting lightning... 



> IEEE Xplore - A new source of renewable energy from lightning stroke: A small scale system
> 
> ....... a small-scale laboratory is set up based on natural characteristics of lightning. The purpose is to determine the performance and potential of the sampling capacitor as storage for the electricity produced by lightning. In this paper, the results of the laboratory experiment focusing on the sampling capacitors were presented. The capacitors are subjected to 1.2/50&#956;8, 4.2kV single-stroke impulse voltages. The results show that the small-scale system successfully illustrates the concept of capturing energy from lightning return strokes that can be a potential source of renewable energy.



The more interesting deal I've seen uses lightning to smash water apart and collect the hydrogen as fuel to run the building in which the "smasher" is located. The hydrogen BECOMES the storage mechanism -- no battery/capacitors needed.. 

Have at it man -- go fly a kite !!!!!


----------



## Delta4Embassy

Nice to see people are working on it. Long as I get an honorable mention somewhere...


----------



## flacaltenn

Delta4Embassy said:


> Nice to see people are working on it. Long as I get an honorable mention somewhere...



You're contribution will be duly noted right under Benjamin Franklin... 
Probably be a couple above Al Gore..


----------



## whitehall

If we "wean Americans off fossil fuel" as president Hussein suggests did anyone ever ask him what kind of batteries will power passenger jets in the future? Right now a typical 747 burns a gallon of av-fuel every second.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Organic mega flow battery promises breakthrough for renewable energy*


> A team of Harvard scientists and engineers has demonstrated a new type of battery that could fundamentally transform the way electricity is stored on the grid, making power from renewable energy sources such as wind and solar far more economical and reliable. The novel battery technology is reported in a paper published in Nature on January 9. Under the OPEN 2012 program, the Harvard team received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to develop the innovative grid-scale battery and plans to work with ARPA-E to catalyze further technological and market breakthroughs over the next several years.
> 
> The paper reports a metal-free flow battery that relies on the electrochemistry of naturally abundant, inexpensive, small organic (carbon-based) molecules called quinones, which are similar to molecules that store energy in plants and animals.




Organic mega flow battery promises breakthrough for renewable energy | e! Science News


----------



## ScienceRocks

*

At long last, new lithium battery tech actually arrives on the market (and might already be in your smartphone)
*
At long last, new lithium battery tech actually arrives on the market (and might already be in your smartphone) | ExtremeTech



> Amprius, a battery startup based in Silicon Valley, is making waves *with a new kind of lithium-ion battery that stores around 20% more energy than batteries currently on the market.* Unlike most battery breakthroughs that we write about on ExtremeTech, this one is actually here today: Amprius is already shipping its batteries to some smartphone makers, and has recently secured $30 million in funding to develop next-generation batteries that will store 50% or more energy than the current Li-ion batteries. This is massive news for mobile computing, but also for electric vehicles, where energy density per kilo (weight of the battery) is a major factor in the development of long-range EVs.
> 
> It isn&#8217;t often that we get to write about an actual, honest-to-God, on-the-market battery breakthrough &#8212; but it&#8217;s definitely not a coincidence that the founder of Amprius, Stanford&#8217;s Yi Cui, has been the star of more battery stories on ExtremeTech than any other researcher (by some margin). Yi Cui was the mastermind behind the silicon nanotube anode, the transparent lithium-ion battery, and the everlasting water-based battery. None of those techs are ready for commercial use, though. Instead, Amprius is commercializing something that&#8217;s a bit simpler: lithium-ion batteries with a silicon anode (negative; cathode is positive), rather than standard-issue graphite (carbon).


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Sugar Battery With Unmatched Energy Density Created*
Sugar Battery With Unmatched Energy Density Created | CleanTechnica



> A new &#8220;sugar battery&#8221; possessing an &#8220;unmatched&#8221; energy density has been created by a research team from Virginia Tech. The researchers think that their new battery &#8212; which, it bears repeating, runs on sugar &#8212; could potentially replace conventional forms of battery technology within only the next couple of years.
> 
> The researchers argue that their sugar batteries&#8217; relative affordability, ability to be refilled, and biodegradability, are significant advantages as compared to current battery technologies, and should give it the edge in competition. They are currently aiming for the technology to hit the market sometime within the next few years.



That will blow a lot of flca whines away with pollution


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Hybrid anode quadruples the lifespan of lithium-sulfur batteries*




> Increasing the range of electric vehicles and improving the storage of renewable energy systems are two examples of the benefits offered by lithium-sulfur batteries. Though they can hold four times the energy per mass of the lithium-ion batteries used today, their considerably shorter lifespan has proven something of a roadblock. Researchers from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have now designed a lithium-sulfur battery with four times the longevity, bringing the technology that little bit closer to maturity.
> 
> The team's research looked to solve a problem posed by a chemical reaction between the batteries two electrodes, where the sulfur-containing cathode corrodes the lithium-containing anode, substantially shortening the battery's life.
> 
> Over time, the anode disintegrates, with the sulfur dissolving into molecules called polysulfides which pass into the battery's electrolyte solution. As this liquid works as a highway for ions to move from one electrode to the other, the polysulfides follow suit and ultimately cause a thin film to form on the anode's surface. This film grows thicker until the battery is entirely inoperable, in effect shortening its life dramatically.


Hybrid anode quadruples the lifespan of lithium-sulfur batteries


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Tungsten diselenide shows potential for ultrathin, flexible, semi-transparent solar cells*



> Graphene, the two-dimensional lattice of carbon atoms, may be the wonder material du jour, but ultrathin layers of other elements are also proving to be an exciting area of research. One-atom-thick sheets of germanium and tin have shown potential as semiconductors and a topological insulators respectively, and now ultrathin layers of tungsten and selenium have been used to create a diode that could be used in ultrathin, flexible, semi-transparent solar cells.
> 
> Although graphene-based solar cells have graced our pages in the past, the electronic states in graphene are "not very practical for creating photovoltaics," according to Thomas Mueller from the Vienna University of Technology. That's why he and his team went looking elsewhere and sandwiched a layer of tungsten atoms between two layers of selenium atoms. The resulting tungsten diselenide (WSe2) monolayer was found to absorb light, similar to graphene, but was also able to use the light to generate electrical power.




Tungsten diselenide shows potential for ultrathin, flexible, semi-transparent solar cells


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Fusion reactor wall manages unexpected shielding against extreme heat loads*



> Researchers of the FOM Institute DIFFER[ have discovered that the wall material of a fusion reactor can shield itself from high energy plasma bursts. The wall material tungsten seems to expel a cloud of cooling hydrogen particles that serves as a protective layer. The research team publishes their results on 24 March 2014 in the journal Applied Physics Letters.
> Currently, an international collaboration building the fusion reactor ITER, designed to be the first in the world to produce net power from fusion. The heart of a fusion reactor like ITER contains an extremely hot plasma, from which short, intense energy bursts rain down on the reactor wall. In ITER, the tungsten wall will face powerful discharges of several gigawatts per square meter, several times per second.  However, researchers at FOM Institute DIFFER discovered that under some conditions less than half of that incoming energy actually hits the surface.




Fusion reactor wall manages unexpected shielding against extreme heat loads


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Nanostructures enhance light trapping for solar fuel generation*

Nanostructures enhance light trapping for solar fuel generation

6 hours ago by Lisa Zyga feature



> Phys.org) &#8212;As the world's dependence on fossil fuels causes ever-increasing problems, researchers are investigating solar fuels as an alternative energy source. To make solar fuels, sunlight is converted into hydrogen or another type of chemical energy. Compared to energy produced by solar cells, which convert sunlight directly to electricity, solar fuels such as hydrogen have the advantage of being easier to store for later use.
> 
> Because of the enormous amount of sunlight that reaches Earth, solar fuel generation has the potential to serve as a clean, terawatt-scale global energy source. But in order for this to happen, the photocatalysts that enhance light absorption and light trapping must be improved, both in terms of higher performance and lower cost.
> 
> In a new study, researchers Soo Jin Kim, et al., at the Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials in Stanford, California, have demonstrated that photocatalysts made from iron oxide exhibit substantial performance improvements when they are patterned with nanostructures. Their paper is published in a recent issue of Nano Letters.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Flexible, high-performance battery could soon finds its way to your smartwatch*

Flexible, high-performance battery could soon finds its way to your smartwatch



> Researchers at Rice University have created an ultra-thin, high-performance flexible battery that is lithium-free, only a hundredth of an inch thick, and also doubles as a supercapacitor. The technology could find use in mobile and wearable electronics such as smartphones and fitness bands.


----------



## Vikrant

This is a good thread actually for advancement in battery technology is a key to clean energy solution.


----------



## KissMy

[youtube]Ses1GfHJ-b4[/youtube]


----------



## ScienceRocks

*

New nano-dots could mean cheap, paint-on solar cells*



> They're too tiny to see, but a new form of light-sensitive nanoparticles could flood the world with solar power.
> 
> Colloidal quantum dots sound like something that young Jedi might use for training in a starfighter flight simulator, but they're actually a new form of solid nanoparticles that could lead to the creation of cheaper, lighter, and more flexible solar cells.
> 
> The new material could also be used to make better sensors, infrared lasers, remote controls, LEDs -- even satellites.
> 
> The dots were developed by a group led by post-doctoral researcher Zhijun Ning and Professor Ted Sargent at the University of Toronto. The team achieved more efficient light absorption in the material by solving a problem in which a type of semiconductor loses its electrons when exposed to the oxygen in the air. The new material can instead remain rich in electrons, even in the open air.



New nano-dots could mean cheap, paint-on solar cells - CNET


----------



## soonerthunder22

It would be great to have such batteries installed in not only cell phones, but In laptop computers and all the various pads we all use and love.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Solar Wind Energy's Downdraft Tower generates its own wind all year round*
Solar Wind Energy's Downdraft Tower generates its own wind all year round


> When we think of wind power, we generally think of huge wind turbines sitting high atop towers where they can take advantage of the higher wind speeds. But Maryland-based Solar Wind Energy, Inc. is looking to turn wind power on its head with the Solar Wind Downdraft Tower, which places turbines at the base of a tower and generates its own wind to turn them.
> 
> Described by the company as the first hybrid solar-wind renewable energy technology in the renewable energy market, the tower at the center of the system generates a downdraft that drives the wind turbines positioned around its base. This is done by using a series of pumps to carry water to the top of a tower standing up to 2,250 ft (685 m) tall, where it is cast across the opening as a fine mist. The mist then evaporates and is absorbed by hot, dry air, thereby cooling the air and making it denser and heavier than the warmer air outside the tower.
> 
> This water-cooled air then falls through the hollow tower at speeds up to and in excess of 50 mph (80 km/h). When it reaches the bottom of the tower, the air is directed into wind tunnels that surround the base, turning wind turbines that are contained within the tunnels. Although the system requires large amounts of water, the bulk of the water emitted at the top of the tower is captured at the bottom and recirculated through the system, being pumped back up to the top with some of the power generated by the wind turbines.
> 
> In this way, the company claims the system can generate electricity 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, when located in a hot, dry area &#8211; although electricity generation would be reduced in winter. Depending on the tower's geographical location, electricity generation could also be supplemented through the use of vertical "wind vanes" that would capture the prevailing wind and channel it into the tower.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Hydrogen breakthrough could be a game-changer for the future of car fuels*



> UK researchers today announced what they believe to be a game changer in the use of hydrogen as a "green" fuel.
> 
> A new discovery by scientists at the UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), offers a viable solution to the challenges of storage and cost by using ammonia as a clean and secure hydrogen-containing energy source to produce hydrogen on-demand in situ.
> 
> Hydrogen is considered by many to be the best alternative fuel for automotive purposes but there are complications with its safe and efficient storage and very significant concerns surrounding the costs of a hydrogen infrastructure for transportation. This new discovery may well have found the answers to both these challenges.



Read more at: Hydrogen breakthrough could be a game-changer for the future of car fuels


----------



## Discombobulated

Sallow said:


> It's breath taking how quickly this technology is starting to advance.



All bad news for the climate change deniers.  They always like telling people how all this new technology can't help us.


----------



## ScienceRocks

Solar can produce our global energy needs probably a dozen times over again. This isn't talking about wind, geo-thermal, wave, etc.
*
Chemists develop technology to produce clean-burning hydrogen fuel*

Chemists develop technology to produce clean-burning hydrogen fuel



> Rutgers Univ. researchers have developed a technology that could overcome a major cost barrier to make clean-burning hydrogen fuel&#8212;a fuel that could replace expensive and environmentally harmful fossil fuels.
> 
> The new technology is a novel catalyst that performs almost as well as cost-prohibitive platinum for so-called electrolysis reactions, which use electric currents to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. The Rutgers technology is also far more efficient than less-expensive catalysts investigated to-date.
> 
> &#8220;Hydrogen has long been expected to play a vital role in our future energy landscapes by mitigating, if not completely eliminating, our reliance on fossil fuels,&#8221; said Tewodros (Teddy) Asefa, associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology in the School of Arts and Sciences. &#8220;We have developed a sustainable chemical catalyst that, we hope with the right industry partner, can bring this vision to life.&#8221;
> 
> Asefa is also an associate professor of chemical and biochemical engineering in the School of Engineering.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Lithium Ion Batteries Get Big Performance Boost From Wonder Material Known As&#8230; Sand*
Lithium Ion Batteries Get Big Performance Boost From Wonder Material Known As... Sand | CleanTechnica


> &#8220;This is the holy grail &#8212; a low cost, non-toxic, environmentally friendly way to produce high performance lithium ion battery anodes,&#8221; states Zachary Favors, a graduate student working with Cengiz and Mihri Ozkan, both engineering professors at UC Riverside.
> 
> The idea came to Favors, very unsurprisingly, while he was hanging out at the beach. The exact moment was when &#8220;he picked up some sand, took a close look at it and saw it was made up primarily of quartz, or silicon dioxide. &#8221; That&#8217;s certainly a Eureka moment right there isn&#8217;t it?
> 
> Most commercial battery anodes currently in use (the industry standard) are composed of graphite. The material certainly works well but its limits have more or less been hit. As a result, researchers are currently exploring substitutes, of which silicon at the nanoscale is one.
> 
> There&#8217;s an issue with it, though: it degrades relatively quickly and it&#8217;s hard to produce cheaply in large amounts. That&#8217;s where the new work comes in.
> 
> The press release from UC Riverside provides more:
> 
> Favors set out to solve both these problems. He researched sand to find a spot in the United States where it is found with a high percentage of quartz. That took him to the Cedar Creek Reservoir, east of Dallas, where he grew up. Sand in hand, he came back to the lab at UC Riverside and milled it down to the nanometer scale, followed by a series of purification steps changing its color from brown to bright white, similar in color and texture to powdered sugar.
> 
> After that, he ground salt and magnesium, both very common elements found dissolved in sea water into the purified quartz. The resulting powder was then heated. With the salt acting as a heat absorber, the magnesium worked to remove the oxygen from the quartz, resulting in pure silicon.
> 
> The Ozkan team was pleased with how the process went. And they also encountered an added positive surprise. The pure nano-silicon formed in a very porous 3-D silicon sponge like consistency. That porosity has proved to be the key to improving the performance of the batteries built with the nano-silicon.
> *
> Via the improved performance, the researchers think that the lifespan of silicon-based electric vehicle batteries could be increased by as much as 300% or more*.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*New Solar CPV Module Efficiency World Record Set &#8212; 36.7% Efficiency Achieved Thanks To Fraunhofer ISE And Soitec Collaboration*

New Solar CPV Module Efficiency World Record Set -- 36.7% Efficiency Achieved Thanks To Fraunhofer ISE And Soitec Collaboration | CleanTechnica



> A new conversion efficiency world record for concentrator photovoltaic modules (CPV), of 36.7%, was recently set thanks to a research collaboration between the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE and the French CPV developer Soitec (along with the French research center CEA-Leti, and the Helmholtz Center in Berlin).
> 
> The researchers from Fraunhofer ISE &#8212; based in Freiburg, Germany &#8212; have spent the last few years working on the CPV module technology known as FLATCON, utilizing fresnel lenses to bundle and focus sunlight onto miniature, super efficient solar cells. The new record was achieved by combining this work with the adaption of a new wafer bonding solar cell structure developed together with Soitec
> By incorporating the said four-junction (GaInP, GaAs, GaInAs and InP) solar cell structure into the Fraunhofer ISE module concept, sunlight can be concentrated &#8220;by a factor of 230 suns onto fifty-two 7 mm2 miniature solar cells, with the help of fifty-two 16 cm2 Fresnel lenses.&#8221;
> 
> &#8220;Naturally we are incredibly excited about this high module efficiency,&#8221; stated Dr Andreas Bett, who leads the CPV research at Fraunhofer ISE.
> 
> The new work, according to Dr Bett, proves that the high efficiencies of Soitec&#8217;s novel four-junction solar cells can be carried over to the module level..


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Sponge-like structure generates steam using lowest concentration of solar energy yet*
Sponge-like structure generates steam using lowest concentration of solar energy yet



> Researchers working at MIT&#8217;s Department of Mechanical Engineering claim to have produced a sponge-like substance that helps convert water to steam using sunlight one-hundredth as bright as that required by conventional steam-producing solar generators. A composite of graphite flakes layered on a bed of carbon foam, the new material is reported to convert as much as 85 percent of received solar energy into steam.
> 
> In practice, the scientists say that the graphite flakes and carbon foam composite that they've created forms a porous insulating material structure that floats on water. After a number of experiments, the scientists found that the best method to maximize heat retention properties in the top layer was to exfoliate (expand a material by heating so that it increases in volume and lowers in density) graphite by cooking it in a microwave, causing it to bubble and swell. The outcome is an exceedingly permeable top layer able to maximize absorption and retention of solar energy.
> 
> The bottom layer is fashioned from carbon foam containing hundreds of tiny pockets of air that keeps the material floating on the surface of the water, while also providing insulation that prevents heat escaping to the water underneath it. Most importantly for the generation of steam, the foam is also riddled with tiny pores that allow water &#8211; through capillary action from applied heat &#8211; to make its way up through the material.


----------



## Delta4Embassy

Anyone developed a quick-charging battery so we can start harnessing lightning? All that electricity over our heads not being utilized.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Stanford researchers develop self-cooling solar cells*
Stanford researchers develop self-cooling solar cells


> Photovoltaic cells are one of the more promising alternative energy sources. Mechanically they are very simple, with no moving parts, and are clean and emission-free. Unfortunately they are also inefficient. One of the reasons for this is that they overheat, a problem that a Stanford University team under electrical engineering professor Shanhui Fan is addressing with the development of a thin glass layer that makes solar cells self-cooling.
> 
> Despite many advances in recent decades, solar cells suffer from efficiency problems. Only a small amount of the energy from sunlight that falls on solar cells is converted to electricity, peaking at below 20 percent for most cells on the market today. Overheating is a constant problem because the sunlight used to generate electricity routinely heats up the panels to 130&#8304; F (55&#8304; C) or higher.
> 
> This heating causes all sorts of problems &#8211; not the least of which is a dramatic drop in efficiency. According to the Stanford team, each degree Celsius (1.8&#8304; F) heating results in an efficiency drop of 0.5 percent. Equally unpleasant, with each increase in temperature of 10&#8304; C (18&#8304; F) the deterioration rate of the cells doubles.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Stanford creates &#8216;Holy Grail&#8217; lithium battery, could triple smartphone and EV battery life*

Stanford creates ?Holy Grail? lithium battery, could triple smartphone and EV battery life | ExtremeTech


> They&#8217;ve done it again: The battery barons of Stanford, led by Yi Cui, have created what those in the industry call the &#8220;Holy Grail&#8221; of lithium-ion battery design. In specific, they&#8217;ve finally worked out how to create a rugged lithium electrode that can increase the capacity of a lithium-ion battery by three to four times &#8212; as in, this lithium electrode, on its own, could increase the battery life of your smartphone by three times, or significantly reduce the size and cost of an electric car&#8217;s battery pack.
> 
> A lithium-ion battery&#8217;s capacity (i.e. the amount of work it can do before it runs out of juice) is mostly dictated by how many lithium ions can be sucked up into the anode during charging. (For a more details on lithium-ion battery chemistry, read our featured story about how they work.) In almost all modern LIBs, the anode is made of graphite. Graphite is cheap and long-lasting (it keeps its capacity over hundreds of charge/discharge cycles), but its useful capacity is actually quite low (about 350 mAh/g). Lithium is by far the best anode material with a specific capacity that&#8217;s more than ten times that of graphite (3,860 mAh/g), but it degrades very quickly &#8212; and, perhaps more importantly, it has a tendency to violently explode when brought into contact with the electrolyte. If these niggling issues could be rectified, a LIB with much higher capacity could be built (not quite 10 times higher though; there are lots of other factors at play that prevent theoretical limits from being hit).


----------



## flacaltenn

Matthew said:


> *New Solar CPV Module Efficiency World Record Set  36.7% Efficiency Achieved Thanks To Fraunhofer ISE And Soitec Collaboration*
> 
> New Solar CPV Module Efficiency World Record Set -- 36.7% Efficiency Achieved Thanks To Fraunhofer ISE And Soitec Collaboration | CleanTechnica
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A new conversion efficiency world record for concentrator photovoltaic modules (CPV), of 36.7%, was recently set thanks to a research collaboration between the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE and the French CPV developer Soitec (along with the French research center CEA-Leti, and the Helmholtz Center in Berlin).
> 
> The researchers from Fraunhofer ISE  based in Freiburg, Germany  have spent the last few years working on the CPV module technology known as FLATCON, utilizing fresnel lenses to bundle and focus sunlight onto miniature, super efficient solar cells. The new record was achieved by combining this work with the adaption of a new wafer bonding solar cell structure developed together with Soitec
> By incorporating the said four-junction (GaInP, GaAs, GaInAs and InP) solar cell structure into the Fraunhofer ISE module concept, sunlight can be concentrated by a factor of 230 suns onto fifty-two 7 mm2 miniature solar cells, with the help of fifty-two 16 cm2 Fresnel lenses.
> 
> Naturally we are incredibly excited about this high module efficiency, stated Dr Andreas Bett, who leads the CPV research at Fraunhofer ISE.
> 
> The new work, according to Dr Bett, proves that the high efficiencies of Soitecs novel four-junction solar cells can be carried over to the module level..
Click to expand...


Oh Boy !!!! *Solyndra 2.0*.. Can't wait for Obama to bless this and invest my money.. Lots of optics, less VERY EXPENSIVE multi-junction silicon.,.. Nothing but smoke and mirrors.


----------



## Old Rocks

flacaltenn said:


> Matthew said:
> 
> 
> 
> *New Solar CPV Module Efficiency World Record Set  36.7% Efficiency Achieved Thanks To Fraunhofer ISE And Soitec Collaboration*
> 
> New Solar CPV Module Efficiency World Record Set -- 36.7% Efficiency Achieved Thanks To Fraunhofer ISE And Soitec Collaboration | CleanTechnica
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A new conversion efficiency world record for concentrator photovoltaic modules (CPV), of 36.7%, was recently set thanks to a research collaboration between the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE and the French CPV developer Soitec (along with the French research center CEA-Leti, and the Helmholtz Center in Berlin).
> 
> The researchers from Fraunhofer ISE  based in Freiburg, Germany  have spent the last few years working on the CPV module technology known as FLATCON, utilizing fresnel lenses to bundle and focus sunlight onto miniature, super efficient solar cells. The new record was achieved by combining this work with the adaption of a new wafer bonding solar cell structure developed together with Soitec
> By incorporating the said four-junction (GaInP, GaAs, GaInAs and InP) solar cell structure into the Fraunhofer ISE module concept, sunlight can be concentrated by a factor of 230 suns onto fifty-two 7 mm2 miniature solar cells, with the help of fifty-two 16 cm2 Fresnel lenses.
> 
> Naturally we are incredibly excited about this high module efficiency, stated Dr Andreas Bett, who leads the CPV research at Fraunhofer ISE.
> 
> The new work, according to Dr Bett, proves that the high efficiencies of Soitecs novel four-junction solar cells can be carried over to the module level..
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> Oh Boy !!!! *Solyndra 2.0*.. Can't wait for Obama to bless this and invest my money.. Lots of optics, less VERY EXPENSIVE multi-junction silicon.,.. Nothing but smoke and mirrors.
Click to expand...


To a dumbass like you. To the rest of us, it is called research.


----------



## RGR

Delta4Embassy said:


> Anyone developed a quick-charging battery so we can start harnessing lightning? All that electricity over our heads not being utilized.



They are referred to as capacitors. They cannot, as of yet, accept either the input speed or magnitude of the energy contained in a lightning bolt. But Matthew will point you to some company who's stock he is in charge of pimping, claiming they are on the verge of doing it tomorrow.


----------



## RGR

Old Rocks said:


> flacaltenn said:
> 
> 
> 
> Oh Boy !!!! *Solyndra 2.0*.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> To a dumbass like you. To the rest of us, it is called research.
Click to expand...


Solyndra wasn't about PV research, it was about PV manufacturing. A different type of sun to power scheme, but still the same old scheme. They were beaten by the usual, "what happens when the other guy figures out how to come down the cost curve faster than you do" routine. Sometimes your slightly different idea is irrelevant in the face of market dynamics. My irritation in the entire mess mostly revolves around the government interference in picking (or TRYING to pick) market winners and losers.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Stacking Cells Could Make Solar as Cheap as Natural Gas*



> A novel manufacturing method could make it practical to stack solar cells and convert more of the energy in sunlight into electricity.
> 
> By Kevin Bullis on August 6, 2014
> 
> When experts talk about future solar cells, they usually bring up exotic materials and physical phenomena. In the short term, however, a much simpler approach&#8212;stacking different semiconducting materials that collect different frequencies of light&#8212;could provide nearly as much of an increase in efficiency as any radical new design. And a new manufacturing technique could soon make this approach practical.
> 
> The startup Semprius, based in Durham, North Carolina, says it can produce very efficient stacked solar cells quickly and cheaply, opening the door to efficiencies as high as 50 percent. (Conventional solar cells convert less than 25 percent of the energy in sunlight into electricity.)



Startup Demonstrates Ultra-efficient Stacked Solar Cells | MIT Technology Review


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Thin-Film Solar Cell Efficiency Record Set By First Solar (Again)*



> First Solar, the world&#8217;s largest manufacturer of thin-film solar photovoltaic cells and modules, has bettered its record of producing the most efficient thin-film solar cell.
> 
> The US-based company recently announced that a cell manufactured at its Ohio manufacturing factory and research & development center achieved an efficiency of 21%, the highest on record by a non-concentrating cadmium-telluride (CdTe) cell.
> 
> The efficiency of the research cell, certified by Newport Corporation&#8217;s Technology and Applications Center (TAC) PV Lab, is 3% more than a cell manufactured by First Solar in February 2014. The encouraging fact about the cell is that it has been constructed using processes and materials designed for commercial-scale manufacturing, thus making is possibly easier for First Solar to quickly switch to the cell&#8217;s mass production.
> 
> The new cell&#8217;s efficiency is now second only to a concentrating version of the CdTe cell in the thin-film solar cell domain. Within the non-concentrating segment, the second-highest efficiency was achieved by a Copper Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGS) cell at 20.9%. Solar Frontier made that cell earlier this year. First Solar has also gone a notch up on multi-crystalline silicon cells, whose efficiency peaked at 20.4% in 2004.
> 
> Also, as noted in a recent CleanTechnica exclusive, First Solar module efficiency doesn&#8217;t drop as much in hot temperatures as crystalline silicon solar modules.
> 
> The company will now look to replicate its success in the production facilities. The average production module efficiency in Q2 2014 reached 14%, up 0.5% from Q1 2014 and up 0.7% from FY2013. First Solar has set a target to enhance research cell efficiency to 22% in 2015.



Thin-Film Solar Cell Efficiency Record Set By First Solar (Again)


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Helion Energy has an update on their project to achieve commercial nuclear fusion.*
Helion Energy now has a Helium 3 fuel cycle for its magneto-inertial fusion process


> Helion Energy uses Magneto-Inertial Fusion: By combining the stability of steady magnetic fusion and the heating of pulsed inertial fusion, a commercially practical system has been realized that is smaller and lower cost than existing programs.
> 
> They want to create modular, distributed Power using shipping container sized, 50 Megawatt modules for base load power generation.
> 
> They are using Self-Supplied Helium 3 Fusion. It is pulsed, D-He3 fusion simplifies the engineering of a fusion power plant, lowers costs, and is even cleaner than traditional fusion.
> 
> Magnetic Compression: Fuel is compressed and heated purely by magnetic fields operated with modern solid state electronics.
> 
> This eliminates inefficient, expensive laser, piston, or beam techniques used by other fusion approaches.
> 
> Direct Energy Conversion: Enabled by pulsed operation, efficient direct conversion decreases plant costs and fusion&#8217;s engineering challenges.
> 
> It is safe: With no possibility of melt-down, or hazardous nuclear waste, fusion dose not suffer the drawbacks that make fission an unattractive alternative.


----------



## Abishai100

*A Pinata for Inspector Gadget*

Why don't they use media ads to make solar-powered calculators seem more exciting or romantic?

"Buy a solar-powered calculator for your girlfriend this Valentine's Day, and see her smile when she realizes she doesn't need to go looking for batteries for it while traveling to Europe."

After all, a small hand-held calculator is a very convenient restaurant tip-computation tool for your waiter/waitress.







Amazon.com AmazonBasics AA Rechargeable Batteries 8-Pack Pre-charged Electronics


----------



## JiggsCasey

RGR said:


> Solyndra wasn't about PV research, it was about PV manufacturing. A different type of sun to power scheme, but still the same old scheme. They were beaten by the usual, "what happens when the other guy figures out how to come down the cost curve faster than you do" routine. Sometimes your slightly different idea is irrelevant in the face of market dynamics. *My irritation in the entire mess mostly revolves around the government interference in picking (or TRYING to pick) market winners and losers*.



Picking market winners? You mean like when the Dept. of Energy underwrote George P. Mitchell's great fracking experiment? That's different, huh? No "irritation" there, we're sure.

LOL... situational ethics at its best.


----------



## RGR

JiggsCasey said:


> Picking market winners? You mean like when the Dept. of Energy underwrote George P. Mitchell's great fracking experiment? That's different, huh? No "irritation" there, we're sure.
> 
> LOL... situational ethics at its best.



Certainly when I was doing hydraulic fracturing in the late 80's and early to mid-90's, it was without government funding. And it wasn't an experiment, just using a process that has been around longer than you have. 

But then you never have known dick about the oil and gas industry, so you getting this type of nonsense wrong is just normal for the oil-ignorant. Now run off and find real information to parrot..and PLEASE tell us you've brought back someone from your church with functioning synapses to discuss this issues, rather than sending forth their parrot in chief?


----------



## JiggsCasey

RGR said:


> JiggsCasey said:
> 
> 
> 
> Picking market winners? You mean like when the Dept. of Energy underwrote George P. Mitchell's great fracking experiment? That's different, huh? No "irritation" there, we're sure.
> 
> LOL... situational ethics at its best.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Certainly when I was doing hydraulic fracturing in the late 80's and early to mid-90's, it was without government funding. And it wasn't an experiment, just using a process that has been around longer than you have.
> 
> But then you never have known dick about the oil and gas industry, so you getting this type of nonsense wrong is just normal for the oil-ignorant. Now run off and find real information to parrot..and PLEASE tell us you've brought back someone from your church with functioning synapses to discuss this issues, rather than sending forth their parrot in chief?
Click to expand...


LOL ... it's the same tired song and dance from you every time I pay a visit...   when you finally take a breath and remove the industry's nuts from your mouth, you spew on about the wonders 4-5M bpd of hydraulic fracturing provides to society... all while ignoring the hazards as well as the decline rates...

I stand by what I said. ... You wouldn't even have your big fracking circle jerk if it wasn't for government underwriting from the outset.... Hypocrite.... Stop lying, and start being honest... Your industry of choice is a brief, unsustainable bubble that has contributed to energy inflation and ecocide.

When you address the CLIFFLIKE decline rates, you know you'll be left with no more outs.... It's check-mate, you utter fraud.

I don't have any church, and I don't need one...   I crush you with data, economics 101 and common sense.  Every single time.


----------



## RGR

JiggsCasey said:


> LOL ... it's the same tired song and dance from you every time I pay a visit...



Which part? The part where you've been pimping your religious ideas for years and are a parrot? Or can't find anyone with functioning synapses or experience in the field to discuss the topic, them being too busy trying to collect more gullible folks like you?

How many years have you been wrong about peak oil now? 3 years? Half a decade? A decade?



			
				JiggsCasey said:
			
		

> I stand by what I said. ..



Which part? The part where oil was declining when it wasn't? EROEI and your bad math? Your ignorance of the Hirsch report? Or just your cutting and pasting of everything else trying to THINK about the topic that you parrot from?

To be honest, have YOU ever said anything, your parroting and cut and paste skills appear to be your only talents.



			
				JiggsCasey said:
			
		

> When you address the CLIFFLIKE decline rates, you know you'll be left with no more outs.... It's check-mate, you utter fraud.



The decline rates have been addressed by scientist types, and they look more like a curve rather than a cliff.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2013/1109/OF13-1109.pdf

I recommend checking out the various types of declines in figures 5 through 8.

Which ones are the cliff again? Some? All?

Do you even know what base production is? Or how it is established?

PLEASE send us back someone from your church with a brain? PRETTY PLEASE?


----------



## JiggsCasey

RGR said:


> Which part? The part where you've been pimping your religious ideas for years and are a parrot? Or can't find anyone with functioning synapses or experience in the field to discuss the topic, them being too busy trying to collect more gullible folks like you?



LOL... no, the part whereby you silently avoid the direct challenge put to you, yet in your infantile desperation to get in the last word within 12 hours (because you live here) spew a lot of meaningless words about church and religion that A) don't apply, and B) don't save your horribly arrogant argument.



RGR said:


> How many years have you been wrong about peak oil now? 3 years? Half a decade? A decade?



Conventional production is flat, some 9 years now. Changing the definition of globally traded oil while ignoring a tripling of global price since that time does zero for your rather laughable position. 



			
				JiggsCasey said:
			
		

> Which part? The part where oil was declining when it wasn't? EROEI and your bad math? Your ignorance of the Hirsch report? Or just your cutting and pasting of everything else trying to THINK about the topic that you parrot from?



Nope, small bus rider. Just the part where you show obvious bias for your "energy source" of choice which would be no where without government help, and then spew how you don't want the government "picking market winners" when it comes to renewables.

Could you be more of a used car salesman, you douche?



RGR said:


> The decline rates have been addressed by scientist types, and they look more like a curve rather than a cliff.
> 
> http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2013/1109/OF13-1109.pdf
> 
> I recommend checking out the various types of declines in figures 5 through 8.
> 
> Which ones are the cliff again? Some? All?
> 
> Do you even know what base production is? Or how it is established?
> 
> PLEASE send us back someone from your church with a brain? PRETTY PLEASE?



LOL!!! ... Pretty clear that all those graphs show the average well from your your pet industry is down some 60-80% after 24 months, making it a short-lived bubble endeavor and it's days are very numbered. No wonder you're freaking out on random web sites playing the role of this guy:






Anyhow, you've AIDS'd up yet another thread long enough. I just wanted to make sure other readers were reminded of your situational ethics at play yet again. See you in the appropriate threads, whereby you pretend a 60% annual production decline rate is no big deal.

This is too easy.


----------



## RGR

JiggsCasey said:
			
		

> Conventional production is flat, some 9 years now. Changing the definition of globally traded oil while ignoring a tripling of global price since that time does zero for your rather laughable position.



Distinctions without a difference (conventional) is important to your religious views. I understand. But you no more put conventional oil in your  gas tank than you do unicorn farts.



			
				JiggsCasey said:
			
		

> RGR said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> PLEASE send us back someone from your church with a brain? PRETTY PLEASE?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> LOL!!! ... Pretty clear that all those graphs show the average well from your your pet industry is down some 60-80% after 24 months, making it a short-lived bubble endeavor and it's days are very numbered. No wonder you're freaking out on random web sites playing the role of this guy:
Click to expand...


I asked a specific question. Which decline is a cliff? The ones provided by the scientists, or the similar ones from the Spraberry conventional accumulations in Texas? Prudhoe Bay? The Turner Sandstone in Wyoming?


----------



## HenryBHough

No question lithium batteries have come a long way.  Still, I prefer not to fly on airplanes powered by them.

I'm not much for death wishes.


----------



## mamooth

Abishai100 said:


> Why don't they use media ads to make solar-powered calculators seem more exciting or romantic?



Smartphones. There's no reason to carry a separate calculator. Maybe ask "why don't smartphones have solar cells?".

News in hydrogen ...

University of Glasgow University news
---
Chemists from the University of Glasgow report in a new paper in _Science_ today (Friday 12 September) on a new form of hydrogen production which is 30 times faster than the current state-of-the-art method. The process also solves common problems associated with generating electricity from renewable sources such as solar, wind or wave energy.

[...]

The new method allows larger-than-ever quantities of hydrogen to be produced at atmospheric pressure using lower power loads, typical of those generated by renewable power sources. It also solves intrinsic safety issues which have so far limited the use of intermittent renewable energy for hydrogen production.
---


----------



## HenryBHough

All these solar and wind power advocates tend to overlook the benefits to be had from simply rubbing two cats together on a dry day.


----------



## Old Rocks

HenryBHough said:


> All these solar and wind power advocates tend to overlook the benefits to be had from simply rubbing two cats together on a dry day.



Well, if you had two brain cells to rub together, your posts might make more sense.


----------



## HenryBHough

Y'know....I might consider buying an electric car with lithium batteries!

But only when they're equipped with an escape pod for a quick getaway when the fire starts.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Solar Cell Efficiency Conversion Record Hit By JA Solar*

*Solar Cell Efficiency Conversion Record Hit By JA Solar*



> Chinese solar manufacturer JA Solar Holdings says it has attained 20 per cent solar energy conversion efficiency in its multi-crystalline silicon solar cell, which it says is a world record for a multi-Si solar cell efficiency.
> 
> The new mark came just 9 months after it had set a previous record of 19 per cent efficiency in its multi-Sci cells. The company says the new record means that it can increase power output, and reduce costs for solar modules.
> 
> The new record was set by using advanced proprietary light trapping and surface passivation technologies. The company expects to mass produce multi-Si cells using its nw technology into commercial assembly lines in 2015.
> 
> “This accomplishment once again demonstrates JA Solar’s unrivaled ability to advance PV technology, and creates value for our customers by increasing power generation and reducing installation costs,” chief operating officer Yong Liu, said in a statement.
> 
> Dr. Wei Shan, the company’s chief scientist and R&D manager, said his team expected to set new efficiency gains in the quarters ahead. “We have only just begun. The confidence we had in surpassing 20% efficiency this year extends now to our expectation to realize even more efficiency gains in the quarters ahead,” he said.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*New CIGS Solar Cell Record — 21.7% CIGS Cell Conversion Efficiency Achieved At ZSW*

September 27th, 2014 by *James Ayre* 


> A new CIGS thin-film solar cell conversion efficiency record was recently achieved by researchers at the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research (ZSW) in Stuttgart.
> The new conversion efficiency record of 21.7% beats the previous record of 21% — that was set earlier this year by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems — pretty substantially, and represents a notable improvement in the technology.



New CIGS Solar Cell Record -- 21.7 CIGS Cell Conversion Efficiency Achieved At ZSW CleanTechnica


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Next-gen lithium-ion battery charges 20x faster, lasts 20x longer*

Next-gen lithium-ion battery charges 20x faster lasts 20x longer



> *Improved lithium-ion battery technology is coming, charging up your battery to 70% in two minutes, or an entire electric car in 15 minutes *
> *****************************************************
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The next-generation of lithium-ion batteries is really going to ensure that users get all-day, and even more battery life out of their devices. A team of researchers in Singapore have developed this improved lithium-ion battery tech, which is capable of recharging a battery to 70% in just two minutes, yes: 120 seconds.
> 
> 
> The clinch, is that this isn't a new battery technology, but it improves on the existing technology that is used. The improvements are coming from a form of nanostructures, where instead of traditional graphite used to create the lithium-ion battery's anode, this new technology uses a cheap titanium dioxide gel, which is a similar material to that used in sunscreen, that absorbs UV rays.
> 
> 
> The scientists have discovered a way to turn these compounds into nanostructures that super-speed the charging process, with this change making lithium-ion batteries capable of charging 20x faster, and lasting up to 20x longer. Associate Professor Chen Xiaodong of Nanyang Technological University said in a release *"With our nanotechnology, electric cars would be able to increase their range dramatically with just five minutes of charging, which is on par with the time needed to pump petrol for current cars"*. The researchers hope to have this technology on the market within two years, which should be perfect timing for our next, next-gen smartphones and electric cars.
Click to expand...


----------



## RGR

Matthew said:


> *Next-gen lithium-ion battery charges 20x faster, lasts 20x longer*
> 
> Next-gen lithium-ion battery charges 20x faster lasts 20x longer
> 
> *Improved lithium-ion battery technology is coming, charging up your battery to 70% in two minutes, or an entire electric car in 15 minutes *
> *****************************************************



Matt, long time no see! Been wondering where the "batteries are the greatest even if they can't bump off the usefulness, better price and higher energy content of our hydrocarbon powered world yet!" cheerleader went. You drop your pompoms or something?


----------



## Old Rocks

RGR said:


> Matthew said:
> 
> 
> 
> *Next-gen lithium-ion battery charges 20x faster, lasts 20x longer*
> 
> Next-gen lithium-ion battery charges 20x faster lasts 20x longer
> 
> *Improved lithium-ion battery technology is coming, charging up your battery to 70% in two minutes, or an entire electric car in 15 minutes *
> *****************************************************
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Matt, long time no see! Been wondering where the "batteries are the greatest even if they can't bump off the usefulness, better price and higher energy content of our hydrocarbon powered world yet!" cheerleader went. You drop your pompoms or something?
Click to expand...


Now that is the present situation. Rapidly changing as we post.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Lockheed says makes breakthrough on fusion energy project*
Lockheed says makes breakthrough on fusion energy project - Yahoo News




> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp said on Wednesday it had made a technological breakthrough in developing a power source based on nuclear fusion, and the first reactors, small enough to fit on the back of a truck, could be ready for use in a decade.
> 
> Initial work demonstrated the feasibility of building a 100-megawatt reactor measuring seven feet by 10 feet, which could fit on the back of a large truck, and is about 10 times smaller than current reactors, McGuire told reporters.
> 
> In a statement, the company, the Pentagon's largest supplier, said it would build and test a compact fusion reactor in less than a year, and build a prototype in five years.



Now this would help us off coal and natural gas! This is huge....


----------



## RGR

Matthew said:


> *Lockheed says makes breakthrough on fusion energy project*
> Lockheed says makes breakthrough on fusion energy project - Yahoo News
> 
> Now this would help us off coal and natural gas! This is huge....



It would be great!! And until then, we've got plenty of coal, natural gas and existing nukes to keep firing up these advanced batteries some of us have in our cars!! so what is the time frame on this one, somewhere between never never land and pie in the sky?


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Solar as Industrial Revolution - By the end of next year, the first test cars using 100 percent solar will come out, and you will be able to drive 80 kilometers, or about 18 miles, fully powered.*



> Q. Can you elaborate on this personal use and its application in our daily life?
> 
> A. The two advantages are flexibility and portability. The thin-film is so light you could have it on your jacket, on your hat and it could then power up your phone. It can embrace curves; that’s another big advantage. You can’t do that with a crystal panel. We are currently testing thin-film with Aston Martin Racing on the roof and rear windscreen of the car to power air-conditioning and other electrical functions in the car.
> 
> In the future, we’re planning to work with more commercial car manufacturers. Right now, we already have it on the rooftop of some commercial cars in China, and for now, you can help reduce the usage of the gasoline by 20 to 30 percent; but in the coming two to three years, you will be able to replace more. According to our calculations, you need six square miles of our solar module to generate electricity to power an electric car. By the end of next year, the first test cars using 100 percent solar will come out, and you will be able to drive 80 kilometers, or about 18 miles, fully powered.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*French-German collaborators claim solar cell efficiency world record (46%)*



> A new world record for the direct conversion of sunlight into electricity has been set by a multi-junction solar cell that converts 46% of the solar light into electrical energy.
> Multi-junction solar cells are based on a selection of III-V compound semiconductor materials. The world record cell is a four-junction cell, and each of its sub-cells converts precisely one quarter of the incoming photons in the wavelength range between 300 and 1750 nm into electricity. When applied in concentrator PV, a small cell is used with a Fresnel lens, which concentrates the sunlight onto the cell. The new record 46.0% efficiency was measured at a concentration of 508 suns and has been confirmed by the Japanese AIST (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology), one of the leading centers for independent verification of solar cell performance results under standard-testing conditions.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Researchers convert sunlight to electricity with over 40 percent efficiency*
*4 hours ago *







> UNSW Australia's solar researchers have converted over 40% of the sunlight hitting a solar system into electricity, the highest efficiency ever reported.
> 
> The record efficiency was achieved in outdoor tests in Sydney, before being independently confirmed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at their outdoor test facility in the United States.
> 
> The work was funded by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and supported by the Australia-US Institute for Advanced Photovoltaics (AUSIAPV).
> 
> "This is the highest efficiency ever reported for sunlight conversion into electricity," UNSW Scientia Professor and Director of the Advanced Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics (ACAP) Professor Martin Green said.





Read more at: Researchers convert sunlight to electricity with over 40 percent efficiency


----------



## ScienceRocks

* Superconducting coil to slash costs and improve efficiency of direct-drive wind turbines *
By Darren Quick
December 4, 2014


> Conventional offshore wind turbines are expensive and complicated pieces of machinery – in a large part because of their complex and maintenance-intensive gearboxes. Dr Shahriar Hossain from the University of Wollongong in Australia is looking to slash production costs and drastically improve efficiency replacing these gearboxes with a superconducting coil.
> 
> Wind turbine gearboxes connect the low-speed shaft, which is turned by the rotation of the blades, to the high-speed shaft that drives the generator, increasing the rotational speed of the low-speed shaft from around 30-60 rpm to the rotational speed required by the generator to produce electricity – which is usually around 1,000-1,800 rpm.
> 
> To avoid the cost, maintenance and efficiency-loss problems associated with the use of gear boxes, Dr Hossain, a materials scientist from the UOW's Institute of Superconducting and Electronic Materials with funding by the Australian Research Council in 2013 under the Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) scheme, is developing a magnesium diboride superconducting coil made from magnesium and boron that he says is very cheap and easy to manufacture and would allow wind turbines to operate with no gearbox at all.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*CleanTech Sector Gets A Boost As A Technological Breakthrough In Batteries Transforms The Potential Of Electric Cars*

Why do we consider this new battery disruptive?


> The lithium battery, which specialists suggest could fundamentally alter the global car market, can triple the driving range of an electric vehicle and significantly lower its costs. Batteries in existing electric cars can account for as much as 30 per cent of the cost a lower cost battery therefore could improve significantly the price performance of current electrical cars. Not only do existing batteries cost a lot because of the components, they also need temperature control systems to stop them overheating or catching fire. The new battery does not need the same systems as it can function safely at a wide range of temperatures, which accompanied with the fact that it is approximately 20 per cent cheaper than existing batteries should reduce costs.


----------



## RGR

Matthew said:


> *CleanTech Sector Gets A Boost As A Technological Breakthrough In Batteries Transforms The Potential Of Electric Cars*
> 
> Why do we consider this new battery disruptive?



WE…don't. But the low cost of liquid fuels right now sure makes it a bitch, don't it? Electric car sales are going to go into the crapper, if they haven't already. I mean seriously, when folks can fill up their cars now cheaper than they could their motorcycles a year or more ago (as I just did) the EV sitting in the garage certainly isn't near the economic choice it once was.

I don't care of course, I bought mine because I'm a gizmo guy, but it certainly is noticeable when I can fill up a car for <$20.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Aquion Energy Reveals Second-Gen AHI Battery Technology, 40% Increase In Energy*
Aquion Energy Reveals Second-Gen AHI Battery Technology 40 Increase In Energy CleanTechnica

November 13th, 2014 by *James Ayre*






> Aquion Energy recently revealed the second generation of its Aqueous Hybrid Ion (AHI™) battery and energy storage system technology.
> 
> The new second generation of the AHI technology reportedly offers an increase in energy “of up to 40%” — without any increase in the size/weight of the S-Line Battery Stack or the M-Line Battery Module product lines.
> 
> “We have been hard at work making the world’s best long duration battery even better. The improved chemistry of the second generation Aqueous Hybrid Ion battery yields more energy, and will deliver more value for our customers,” stated Scott A. Pearson, CEO of Aquion Energy. “We are unveiling the new technology at Solar Power International because Aquion’s unmatched long duration batteries enable optimal self-consumption of distributed solar generation and ease the burden of intermittent renewable energy on the grid. These two applications are the key to unlocking broad adoption of clean solar electricity as a mainstream energy source.”



This means smaller batteries for the same energy....More power can be placed into the same area.

This is good news!


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Europe’s Largest Energy Storage Plant Began Its Trial Run*
Europe s Largest Energy Storage Plant Goes Online

December 16th, 2014 by *Roy L Hales* 

Originally published on the ECOreport.



> Europe’s largest energy storage plant is now online. Energy & Climate Change Minister Amber Rudd switched on the new UKPN SNS facility in Leighton Buzzard yesterday. The fully automated 6MW/10MWh energy storage unit has commenced its trial run. As the existing infrastructure dates back to the 1970s, this facility represents an immediate +£6m savings over traditional network reinforcement methods such as transformers, cable and overhead lines. More important, this could be the beginning of a technology transition that research from *Imperial College* could save the UK £3bn a year by in the 2020s, based on the deployment of 2GW of energy storage.
> 
> “The project will shortly enter into the trial phase – where the performance of the system, and its use for a wide range of different network applications and benefits will be explored over the course of two years. In addition, the project is researching how different business models might work for storage, as well as recommendations into appropriate changes to the regulatory frameworks,”said Project Director Nick Heyward, UK Power Networks.
> 
> There are other smaller scale storage systems already installed in England, including another on UK Power Networks distribution network at Hemsby, near Gt Yarmouth. These are mainly looking at the technical impact of storage, rather than the economic and market challenges.
> 
> While we’ve no immediate plans to build any more; there is much interest from developers and investors who are considering energy storage. It is very likely there will be more storage installed in future years, as the level of intermittent renewable generation on the system grows further.
> 
> Two of the world’s leading energy storage companies collaborated on this £18.7 million project. S&C Electric fosters the improved efficiency and reliability required for intelligent grids in North America, the UK and around the world. Berlin-based Younicos contributed custom-built intelligent software architecture and components.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*New Tandem Thin-Film Silicon Solar Cell Efficiency Record Set By PhD Student*

December 17th, 2014 by *James Ayre*
New Tandem Thin-Film Silicon Solar Cell Efficiency Record Set By PhD Student





> A new tandem thin-film silicon solar cell efficiency record was recently set by a PhD student at TU Delft by the name of Hairen Tan.
> 
> The new record conversion efficiency of 14.8% was achieved via the use of a variety of “innovative techniques” for which Tan was awarded the Young Research Award at the 6th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, held recently in Kyoto.
> 
> To be specific, the record was set through the use of amorphous silicon and nanocrystalline silicon absorber layers which were stacked in a way that allowed for the improvement of light spectrum utilization. In addition, Tan also utilized a “modulated surface texture” approach that he developed himself — thereby scattering and absorbing the light more efficiently.
> 
> This approach was done via the creation of a “novel surface morphology” of a glass substrate, achieved via etching — or, “nano-scale features of a transparent electrode deposited on the etched glass,” as Tan put it.


----------



## RGR

What a wonderful PhD student!! And you bought the patent Matthew, or just doing more advertising for industry?


----------



## HenryBHough

Anything that innovates in the energy field should be welcomed provided it's genuine, not just a shot at grabbing government subsidies then stealing away into bankruptcy.  

As to disruptive, yeah.  IF something comes along that's more cost effective than whatever is presently being used; oil, coal, natural gas, biomass, etc. then there WILL be disruption.  Value of conventional means of producing (extracting, refining, distributing) will decline.  Jobs in those businesses will vanish.  Not all the people displaced will be able to find work in the new industry.

So suck it up.

Of course liberals will scream of free stuff for the displaced workers and some will try to halt innovation dead in its' tracks on that account.  But remember the classic buggy-whip analogy.  Of course the Buggy-Whip Craftsmen's Union didn't exist to lobby Congress at the time but that little sort of oversight is long behind us.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Calyxo To Launch New Thin Film Modules With Efficiencies Of Over 14%*
*New Thin Film Modules From Calyxo Clean Green Efficient*
December 19th, 2014 by *Anand Upadhyay*


> Calyxo GmbH has claimed that its new thin film product range, which will be launched in 2015, can achieve more than 14% module efficiency. These modules will be manufactured on the state of the art production line which opened a year back. The new thin film modules will be available under the name CX4.






Dr. Michael Bauer, CTO / COO said “It’s a great achievement to concurrently both ramp-up a new production line and use it to meet the targeted performance goals for the new product development. We believe that we can achieve over 14% efficiency with the new product generation. We are convinced that the unique Calyxo deposition process, in addition to its cost advantages, has the potential for the highest semiconductor layer qualities”.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Researchers open possible avenue to better electrolyte for lithium ion batteries*
*9 hours ago by Lynn Yarris *




X-ray absorption spectra, interpreted using first-principles electronic structure calculations, provide insight into the solvation of the lithium ion in propylene carbonate. Credit: Rich Saykally, Berkeley


> The lithium-ion batteries that mobilize our electronic devices need to be improved if they are to power electric vehicles or store electrical energy for the grid. Berkeley Lab researchers looking for a better understanding of liquid electrolyte may have found a pathway forward. A team led by Richard Saykally, a chemist with Berkeley Lab's Chemical Sciences Division, David Prendergast, a theorist with Berkeley Lab's Molecular Foundry, and Steven Harris, a chemist with the Lab's Materials Sciences Division, found surprising results in the first X-ray absorption spectroscopy study of a model lithium electrolyte.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> "A crucial process in lithium ion batteries is the transport of lithium ions between the electrodes," explains Saykally. "Commercial lithium-ion batteries contain a liquid electrolyte comprising a lithium salt dissolved in an alkyl carbonate solvent system. There's disagreement in the battery industry on the nature of the local solvation environment of lithium ions in these solutions, a critical issue because the desolvation of the ions as they move through the negative electrode is believed to limit the electrical power that can be made available."



Read more at: Researchers open possible avenue to better electrolyte for lithium ion batteries


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Thermoelectric power plants could offer economically competitive renewable energy*
*13 hours ago by Lisa Zyga 

*




A thermoelectric power plant might use energy harvested from ocean waves to pump cold water up through a heat exchanger/generator near the surface. The heat exchanger is made of thermoelectric materials which can use the temperature gradient …more


> (Phys.org)—A new study predicts that large-scale power plants based on thermoelectric effects, such as small temperature differences in ocean water, could generate electricity at a lower cost than photovoltaic power plants.
> 
> Liping Liu, Associate Professor at Rutgers University, envisions that thermoelectric power plants would look like giant barges sitting in the tropical ocean, where electricity is generated by heating cold, deep water with warm, shallow water heated by the sun. Liu has published a paper in the _New Journal of Physics_ in which he analyzes the feasibility of such power plants.
> 
> "This work is about the new idea of large-scale green power plants that make economic use of the largest accessible and sustainable energy reservoir on the earth," Liu told _Phys.org_, speaking of the oceans. This is because the sun heats the surface water to a temperature that, in tropical regions, is about 20 K higher than water 600 m deep. Essentially, the surface water acts as a giant storage tank of solar energy.




Read more at: Thermoelectric power plants could offer economically competitive renewable 
energy

Now here is a renewable that might kick solar and winds ass.


----------



## RGR

Could offer...maybe...potential....a student found....

How about you check back in when you have a REAL product you can tell us about, how you used it, what it cost you, how well it worked refueling your car, etc etc?


----------



## ScienceRocks

The next few years I expect to install solar.  But it is still kicking ass in the mean time.

Did you know that 12.4% of oregon energy comes from wind?


----------



## RGR

Matthew said:


> The next few years I expect to install solar.  But it is still kicking ass in the mean time.



Apparently not in a way that YOU can tell us about. I recommend some experience, then you might understand better the advantages, and disadvantages, of solar. Like that sun shining problem, a bit tricky for those PhD students to solve methinks.



			
				Matthew said:
			
		

> Did you know that 12.4% of oregon energy comes from wind?



In 2013, 13.8% of fuel for my car came from wind. So I've got Oregon beat, and then I figure that the panels kick in another 20%. Why is it that those of us who actually use this stuff know it can be a bit difficult to get those numbers to 100%, although admittedly Oregon is perhaps 12.4% better than you are already, and I'm a full 33.8% up on your fossil fuel consuming lifestyle. How excellent solar must be if you can't be bothered....funny thing that....the courage of your convictions is apparently.....zero. Get back to us when you aren't just a run of the mill fossil fuel guzzling America.


----------



## Old Rocks

RGR, a fun little game you are playing, so you can feel so superior. I appreciate Mathew's posts concerning the technological efforts to improve solar and batteries. And many people are starting to put solar on their roofs and wind has already acheived more than parity with fossil fuel, as will solar before 2020. Then it is just a matter of altering our grid for the advent of a distributed grid. Much better for all of us, even those that are only consumers.


----------



## RGR

Old Rocks said:


> RGR, a fun little game you are playing, so you can feel so superior.



FEEL superior? I've got bowel movements that are superior to mindless advertisers like Matthew. Unidirectional pimping is abhorrent regardless of topic, Matthew posts without a concern in the world for risk adjusted value, the cost of supply curve of the newest and latest and greatest that no one can buy and hasn't been proven to work, he might as well be breathlessly advocating unicorn farts as the next latest and greatest thing.



			
				Old Rocks said:
			
		

> I appreciate Mathew's posts concerning the technological efforts to improve solar and batteries.



I appreciate the ever forward march of technology in any and all fields, be it higher solar efficiency, the ultimate human solution to power generation called "fusion", and perf and plug hydraulic fracturing as opposed to sliding sleeves. Mindless advertising I do not.



			
				Old Rocks said:
			
		

> And many people are starting to put solar on their roofs and wind has already acheived more than parity with fossil fuel, as will solar before 2020.



And some of us with 20 year old panels are already using them to fuel our cars. We do not require mindless advertising from those who have zero experience with even their favorite advertisement. Solar is great stuff when the sun is shining. The wind is great stuff when the wind is blowing. And requiring backup power generation at either the individual or collective level to make up for their intermittent nature is expensive and negates any value of "grid parity" as calculated by advertisers who can't be bothered to THINK, certainly have zero EXPERIENCE, and aren't about to actually take the time to LEARN, as those doing the aforementioned mindless advertising.

Hence my irritation, and emphasis on their shortcomings as honest posters on said topic.



			
				Old Rocks said:
			
		

> Then it is just a matter of altering our grid for the advent of a distributed grid. Much better for all of us, even those that are only consumers.



My solar is already better for my neighbors as I put surplus power out for sale to others, and the utility kindly reimburses from me. The difference between those who DO and those who ADVERTISE is that the experience of doing shows the shortcomings, overlooked by those who can only pimp because hey, learning and experience and thinking is hard, and they can't be bothered.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Engineers identify, address cause of persistent solar cell issue*
*Dec 15, 2014 by Scott Schrage *





Jinsong Huang


> University of Nebraska-Lincoln engineers have doubled the efficiency of a prominent solar cell technology by unraveling the origins of a phenomenon known to hinder cell performance, stability and evaluation.
> 
> The researchers investigated a persistent problem with solar cells made of perovskite, which refers both to a type of atomic structure and any material that features it.
> 
> As a naturally abundant and inexpensive material, perovskite has gained significant interest among solar cell manufacturers and researchers in recent years. However, a certain class of perovskite-based cell exhibits photocurrent hysteresis – undesirable shifts in electrical conductivity that arise when applying increasing or decreasing amounts of voltage to a cell for the purpose of measuring its photocurrent.
> 
> Led by Jinsong Huang, associate professor of mechanical and materials engineering, the research group determined that this hysteresis results from the presence of "traps" that can ensnare electrons and consequently reduce electric current.
> 
> These traps also diminish the lifespan of perovskite-based devices and complicate measurements of how efficiently such devices convert sun.




Read more at: Engineers identify address cause of persistent solar cell issue


----------



## ScienceRocks

*A Prototype Battery Could Double the Range of Electric Cars*


> Startup Seeo has developed batteries that store far more energy than conventional ones, which could extend the range of electric cars.
> 
> An experimental lithium-ion battery based on materials developed at a U.S. Department of Energy lab stores twice as much energy as the batteries used in most electric cars.
> 
> If the technology can be commercialized, it could give affordable electric cars a range of over 200 miles per charge, says Hal Zarem, CEO of Seeo, a startup that’s working on the technology. Today the cheapest electric cars, which cost around $30,000, typically have a range of less than 100 miles.
> 
> Alternatively, the improved storage capacity could be used to cut the size of battery packs in half while maintaining the current driving range, making electric vehicles considerably cheaper. A conventional battery pack with a range of 100 miles costs roughly $10,000.
> 
> Seeo, which is based in Hayward, California, recently raised $17 million from investors, including Samsung Ventures. It plans to start shipping batteries to potential customers for evaluation next year.



A Solid-State Battery Could Double Electric Car Range MIT Technology Review


----------



## RGR

Again...could...might...plenty of potential....as usual...Matthew is advertising nothing he has experience with and continues to sell naught but hopium.


----------



## ScienceRocks

* Solid state nanostructured batteries could double lithium ion battery range but peroxide could boost by 7 times *

Next Big Future Solid state nanostructured batteries could double lithium ion battery range but peroxide could boost by 7 times



> An experimental lithium-ion battery based on materials developed at a U.S. Department of Energy lab stores twice as much energy as the batteries used in most electric cars.
> 
> Seeo has DryLyte batteries which is entirely solid-state, containing no liquid or gel components in the polymer electrolyte. It is a transformational solid-state battery technology based on a nanostructured solid polymer electrolyte. However, their current energy density is not better than what is in the Tesla Model S.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A group led by Noritaka Mizuno, professor at the School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo has a new battery which uses the oxidation-reduction reaction between oxide ions and peroxide ions at the positive electrode. The group proved that peroxides are generated and dispersed due to charge and discharge reactions by using a material made by adding cobalt (Co) to the crystal structure of lithium oxide (Li2O) for the positive electrode, verifying a battery system based on a new principle.
> 
> The new technology can realize an energy density seven times higher than that of existing lithium (Li)-ion rechargeable batteries, increase capacity, lower price and enhance safety. It is expected to be used for batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) and next-generation stationary batteries. The peroxide battery has a theoretical capacity of 897mAh per 1g of the positive/negative electrode active material, voltage of 2.87V and theoretical energy density of 2,570Wh/kg.
> 
> At that time, the energy density is 370Wh per 1kg of the positive/negative electrode active material, which is about seven times higher than that of existing Li-ion rechargeable batteries using LiCoO2 positive electrodes and graphite negative electrodes.


----------



## RGR

COULD DOUBLE!!

WOO HOO!!

Where can I buy one to determine if this is truth, or yet more Matthew advertising for things that don't exist?


----------



## ScienceRocks

* In 2015 LPP Fusion will test Tungsten cathode, beryllium electrode and Proton Boron Aneutronic Nuclear Fusion*
The long-awaited tungsten cathode is finally nearing completion with delivery to LPPFusion should occur by mid February, 2015.


> Tungsten has extreme resistance to heat. It is the lowest risk material for the next step of our experiment. They need to eliminate evaporation of the electrode and the resulting impurities to get a jump in the density of our plasmoid, and in the resulting fusion energy output or yield. They have firm experimental evidence that tungsten does not erode under the condition FF-1 is currently running.
> 
> They will confirm or refine the theories and technique, paving the way for the beryllium extrudes. Beryllium electrode are expected to be ordered in January, with delivery in the first half of 2015.
> 
> LPP Fusion is also preparing for the switch from using deuterium as a fuel to their final aneutronic fuel, hydrogen-boron or pB11. They have checked their 250-gm supply of decaborane—the compound of hydrogen and boron they intend to use. Chief Research Officer Dr. Hamid R. Yousefi has selected the safety equipment they need, such as glove boxes to handle the material, whose vapor is somewhat noxious. They are in the process of designing and purchasing the equipment needed to heat the device to approximately 120 C, needed to create the vapor pressure to fill the vacuum chamber. While it is still months before they are ready to run with decaborane, we will be ready to make the transition with as few delays as possible.
> 
> The new Tungsten anode and cathodes are expected to solve an arcing and contamination problem. Solving those problems should boost the power from the boost the power produced by the LPP fusion device by fifty times.
> 
> Then they need to up the current to get a further ten times gain and then 20 times gain by going to heavier proton-boron fuel.



Next Big Future In 2015 LPP Fusion will test Tungsten cathode beryllium electrode and Proton Boron Aneutronic Nuclear Fusion

I bet you will also think this is pie in the sky.


----------



## RGR

We're getting ready toent...TEST...something!!! Excellent! TESTING is good!!

Bet if they are TESTING it they haven't sold it, you haven't bought one, and CERTAINLY you can't tell us about it!! But it should...might...could some century...be a cool thing.....and have...potential......maybe.....

Sounds great!


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Tesla Roadster Can Now Travel 400 Miles, Go From LA To San Fran Without Recharging*

Tesla Roadster Can Now Travel 400 Miles
December 26th, 2014 by *Zachary Shahan* 


> Elon Musk got on Twitter last night (or early this morning) to announced a Christmas present for Tesla Roadster owners. The Tesla sports car, with a new upgrade, can travel 400 miles without recharging. As Musk noted in the tweet, that’s enough to get from Los Angeles to San Francisco without taking a break to charge.
> 
> In a follow-up post published today on the Tesla Motors blog, Tesla explains that this is simply the result of sharing with the Roadster what the Model S battery has developed into. Tesla was also careful to point out that this is not the result of upgrades that will work their way up to the Model S, Model X, Model 3, etc. The first, summary line of the blog reads: “The Roadster 3.0 package applies what we’ve learned in Model S to Roadster. No new Model S battery pack or major range upgrade is expected in the near term.”
> 
> The battery in battery-electric vehicles is the essence of electric vehicles’ fall from grace early in the 20th century and its rise again this century. At the stage batteries were at for decades, electric cars simply couldn’t have long range and be affordable. That has quickly been changing, thanks especially to lithium-ion batteries. Tesla, since its first car (the Roadster) to today, has even seen (and helped to bring about) a massive improvement in the technology. The Roadster is just being brought up to today’s level of battery development.
> 
> However, Tesla is also improving the Roadster’s range and efficiency with aerodynamics and better tires. Here are the three key improvements summarized by Tesla:
> 
> _*1. Batteries*_
> _The original Roadster battery was the very first lithium ion battery put into production in any vehicle. It was state of the art in 2008, but cell technology has improved substantially since then. We have identified a new cell that has 31% more energy than the original Roadster cell. Using this new cell we have created a battery pack that delivers roughly 70kWh in the same package as the original battery._
> 
> _*2. Aerodynamics*_
> _The original Roadster had a drag coefficient (Cd) of 0.36. Using modern computational methods we expect to make a 15% improvement, dropping the total Cd down to 0.31 with a retrofit aero kit._
> 
> _*3. Rolling Resistance*_
> _The original Roadster tires have a rolling resistance coefficient (Crr) of 11.0 kg/ton. New tires that we will use on the Roadster 3.0 have a Crr of roughly 8.9 kg/ton, about a 20% improvement. We are also making improvements in the wheel bearings and residual brake drag that further reduce overall rolling resistance of the car._
> 
> Overall, this comes to a 40–50% improvement in range, Tesla writes. However, Roadster 3.0, as Tesla is calling it, won’t be the final frontier of the Roadster. It is confident it will be providing more updates to its first, breakthrough vehicle.


----------



## HenryBHough

But why would anyone WANT to go from LA to Frisco unless they were into the gay bath house scene?


----------



## ScienceRocks

HenryBHough said:


> But why would anyone WANT to go from LA to Frisco unless they were into the gay bath house scene?



That is range...You could also go from medford Oregon to Seattle Washington or Portland to Boise.


----------



## RGR

HenryBHough said:


> But why would anyone WANT to go from LA to Frisco unless they were into the gay bath house scene?



Frisco is a scenic town. I love the Golden Gate bridge. Stop on over in Alameda and see the USS Hornet. San Quentin sits right there by the water. Camping on the western side of the peninsula. And as you go north from there it just is all pretty. Drove that section from Morro Bay to Crater Lake this past summer, are going to do Highway 1 all the way to Canada next summer perhaps, if gas prices stay reasonable.


----------



## ScienceRocks

Weird how the so called free market people come out against a business man like Musk. Shouldn't we allow the consumer to make this choice?


----------



## RGR

No one is coming out against Musk. This is America. You build your business model and allow it to compete with everyone else's and someone usually wins. Edison. Ford. Musk. Oil. Natural gas.


----------



## elektra

How long do we have to wait for the miracle battery? 

Think they will be bigger or smaller than a duracell D. You think we will throw these away just like flashlight batteries, I just hope they are not big.


----------



## Politico

Matthew said:


> Weird how the so called free market people come out against a business man like Musk. Shouldn't we allow the consumer to make this choice?


They have. And they have determined they don't have an extra 100k to spend on a toy.


----------



## Old Rocks

And, when the inevitable battery is created that will give a 400 mile range per charge, and is inexpensive enough to put in a 30 K minivan, they will not be a toy. They will be the preferred power source for automobiles.


----------



## Politico

Why is it the fact no one has argued the point seems to elude you Leftytoons? Again quit changing the topic and stay on point. When they make an electric car for under 20k that matches a gas powered model in performance and range that can be recharged in less than five minutes without the use of fossil fuels and does not leave a nickle cloud over Asia we will buy the shit out of it.


----------



## Old Rocks

Nickle cloud over Asia? Politico, you are getting as goofball as Billy Boob and Mrs. Elektra.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*New solar power material converts 90 percent of captured light into heat*



> The novel material features a "multiscale" surface created by using particles of many sizes ranging from 10 nanometers to 10 micrometers. The multiscale structures can trap and absorb light which contributes to the material's high efficiency when operated at higher temperatures.
> 
> Concentrating solar power (CSP) is an emerging alternative clean energy market that produces approximately 3.5 gigawatts worth of power at power plants around the globe—enough to power more than 2 million homes, with additional construction in progress to provide as much as 20 gigawatts of power in coming years. One of the technology's attractions is that it can be used to retrofit existing power plants that use coal or fossil fuels because it uses the same process to generate electricity from steam.


----------



## RGR

Have you tried this yet, or are you just advertising again?


----------



## elektra

Old Rocks said:


> Nickle cloud over Asia? Politico, you are getting as goofball as Billy Boob and Mrs. Elektra.


Sweet, Old Crock is obsessed with me, so upset with me, Old Crock ignores the facts and simply attacks the messenger, how sad Old Crock, I like the post I made in which Old Crock replied, that Non-Destructive testing of Metal is not performed where he worked in Steel, but to be fair, Old Crock simply had no understanding what it takes to make good steel, even though Old Crock worked in Steel Mills. Old Crock could not reply in that thread, nor in dozen others, all Old Crock can do, is throw stones and call me names. 

Old Crock, you are a weak-minded fool, I know, you need a link, right;

Google



> weak-mind·ed
> ˌwēkˈmīndəd/
> _adjective_
> 
> lacking determination, emotional strength, or intellectual capacity



Fool - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia



> *Fool*
> From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
> *Fool*, *The Fool*, or *Fools* may refer to:
> 
> 
> A bouffon, a clown, a harlequin, a jester
> *Fool*, *The Fool*, or *Fools* may also refer to


----------



## elektra

Matthew said:


> *New solar power material converts 90 percent of captured light into heat*
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The novel material features a "multiscale" surface created by using particles of many sizes ranging from 10 nanometers to 10 micrometers. The multiscale structures can trap and absorb light which contributes to the material's high efficiency when operated at higher temperatures.
> 
> Concentrating solar power (CSP) is an emerging alternative clean energy market that produces approximately 3.5 gigawatts worth of power at power plants around the globe—enough to power more than 2 million homes, with additional construction in progress to provide as much as 20 gigawatts of power in coming years. One of the technology's attractions is that it can be used to retrofit existing power plants that use coal or fossil fuels because it uses the same process to generate electricity from steam.
Click to expand...

Ivanpah is CSP, a 2.1 billion dollar solar failure, mattpooh is simply dumb, unable to distinguish the truth from the false.
I guess when mattpooh read all these threads, he/she simply did not understand

well, either way, the truth is that all Solar that is being built or installed today, is now Obsolete, yet we are stuck with the High Cost of Solar forever, all installed Solar is Obsolete today. 

Nice, kind of like being stuck with a 386 computer running DOS 3.1.

Boy, I wish I still had that old Dial Telephone, had a big circle with numbers, what a great idea, I will simply hook a battery up to it and I can use it forever.

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m1++MmJ6Jqw/Z4im37ysp+68OnIrjqsb+StskfN3NnGrVRAPpECSEdGGMB40j/AHz/ANsme5m5hwrdZVZWYcAvAX77mKON2TyauCg9r5Jbg8OKaKi8FUAeghO4EJqOMbQhCAGjyLdIOzWr4KqiKGcAMAe/Kb2HtJS8R46nmR1BtdSL8riJ+BxdOzy5lQX6xSW7gp0v498WbmYlqWNoVFP9YF8TmYKR9/4RPtPCmlVenbMVYgsDcEjvBnPY1RkxFJxYMtRSqgXLNfQWlCZ0ZI9YJwm054ckqCdDYX87TpNBzQhCEACcMVUyqzfCCfYX/Kd417z1smErsOIpPbzKkD8YmOKt0UY9fKrO31VLHxyrc/hHrd1RSWmXzEjtMUIBLE3Y+R7V+H0veN7W/YVf3T7d/wB15LNjUVqU8zVVpgLxa5zG/AAa8ATfXu5zLE7mR1wzth8cyVOsABsCACSRlItl46gDTyirYFLO7WFiWI77C4vYd/efujfWoEMUHaIJAy65gO8W4i2s77vVS1OuAzKVbUpbMq1Fy3F/FR/CTT5KMiW10ddprhs5U1aatrmZqT1dQbfUFr6d5JjnsypTP7Ngy6gEeFvqnVdNbHWR99jF9ARa/G1uJtwvpx5xzwOy1w5Ckhaji+VrBuIsSL3a4FrWFh5mJFGRR20nyT7Dnsi3IR1kI2NvChujEgqSpB4qQbEHl/ESSYfGC3ZIMtjJGOUWOcIkGKPhODVAOJEluI0LcS1lJ5C8i1XEZnJsNT3RTtDbSL2VN2JtpGfE4tqdmRmBPGwDoByqpwYHzB5ESLlyTjFjkWjbvDTzYep4KT7At+IEU4baNF/2l6LfEt3onxvbNT8msBwBPGOFXZFOvSZRXDI6kFqWU6EW0NyI/KJp7ZJsqlZ1pmxB5GOW8GxxhqoRXzhlzC9s6i5HbA07tDpfXTSIVWUVR14yUla8HTC1Mrj7LW9Aez/lyy3Ngf8Al6fgLegJA+60ppSc9Ru4VQPUUad5b26lXNh18NP595Zj8mPW8wTHiEIS45pi0LTMIAEIQgAQhCAGjRNXW4I5i0UOZH98drrhsLUqG9yMqgcSzaC0G6GlbpFDb07Pp0q706dbOqnU+PePG07bjYasuMo1KWFqVLOO0ytksdC1yLCw741JUJcdXTJcG4vzHeb8ZanRhv5Vr1vkuJQZ8pKOotfLxVhz8ZnirZ0MrcY15LWSbTUTaaDnBCEIAEjm/wDVy4Gr45R71FvJHIh0nVbYIj4nUfifykZfayzCryR/sqU0wysp4MCD5EWMXdH+1Ch6p2Cst6bErmAXQMcvfcAHyJiKlwjftKm1NxXp8RbOB3gcGHiOHlMkWdvJGywq+NNKq70mVutBLaXAzMSV8R91jYyO4DHnC4gVAMy6h1PBlP5iwI8p12btFK6XXj3j8x4TpvBsl6ZytlzAX7LA+h5HTgZN+0VKMftfyP8AjxVeiXwVyWIKlT2gmuYIefDx494lc4vZeINS606gqA3zMCL88zN3995I8JjK2BKrUCvTqqHKAkEcnGgak/pY+MkOFr4SshNOr22Fyj3zgg63B0I8iZF/UUc414texHhMQKdAPiqiKxIBfUZmtrrxYgZeAvE1PbLGqBhaqsCbZGzIxF/qORkue6/GJN692quJWm9NlvTBTIzZRqxOem3cSLAg/AIwYTc2uDeswp0wddVdz4Jl7/E8INlWxNXZPsbtfEpTdkLMU7m6sAC/F24KBOOxdoYquScQqqncVqXzcTbLpe+moke3mw9aqqjDtYgkmnmsXFtCD9Yi3A8b3kaXYeOqsAadYm4FyrADl23sBaNsjHFfySrenaHyatTqISbZguY3RW77INGcqRa+gGtiSbI9nb6Yi5aqFKE6AKFa3eQRpw5gyRU9ns9MJVC1GyqHLKMtRkW2Y37+JuNdfGb4XZeGw4D18NRUA3D1alRhw4CkSc5+zaN2ThtS5Vnd8NmCuhKBgGHgrC4uOI0kX25tnLUvh2KtSBtUXRmbibkfSXQCx0Os6bc3gqYqoaWHDEObcLPUNuQ+ithw5DWMR2VUz9W6NmNrKNSb2ZSpXiCLG4uInLkux4nXI4YHalTE1qteof2ltBw04BeSqOyPIxzq1lpoXY2Ci59If6MTDqAz3qC+e1jTHG2VhqTwuCOMQYZvlNUafMUmueVR1Nwo5gHU+QEfkvikojlQoMuFBfR2brGHJqjEkegIHpLK3Cq3w9uR/EfwkDxp+bbyv7EGS/o3qXpuPL85ZH7jNqVeH9kzhCEuOYEJiYvADN4TW8IAbzUmDGcKlSABWqAAkmwHEnuEpDpF3oOKqlKVVBSpnsfbbva/3CSPf3ezrA1DDucnCoygHN9lfDmbSq8dXY3BKPbXUWa3hfj5Smcr4Rv0+GlukOdLYgrUWqYfFq9akuapQdcj2HE02Js4/m8nPQjspKgfFOPnFY0xysQCSPE3lTYHCdZVQILFmCi2ts2mnhYmel91dk0sHQWjS4DUk8WY8SY4IhnlSqx+MZcRvZg0co+JpKwNiCw0PJjwHrIn0h9IdLDh8NTY9cylSyn9kWHdzex4d0ptcVQRGNMualxkJY6c86kdoHncEeMcp14Fh0zkrkejN7dvfJsG9enlY9kJfVSXYAHTiNb6co39HW89XG0qprKivSqBL075Wuga9jwPa5yg23rrdQ+GLXou61Ap+oynXJyB4kc9e83tHoL2gDSxS3161X9GphQfdDEp3IeTCoY37stmQHpUxH+rqv8AtR/wNJVtXbFOhTapVYKqjU/kOZlSbwb1Lj6ZZVyhKxC3NyV6tSGPI3ze0eR8UV6aDeRMZqZ0m84odJteZTtjZiMG9Fusw/mUH3lP0/8AySLYW+gak9Jsq9Z9O477W59kxDeIcdsxKmv0W+JdD6847KpQJbtnC0na9FmZSouzaktwOpGo0EjON2e41AvGulUxOHPZOZfs/mp/KOGF3rB0qJY+Gh9jBii64HHZG1sYrCnT+dznKKdUCoGJ/f8A1jrX3rfDk0q2DRXAH0H6sC9mBAAYEEW4GZwe9eFd1eopUqEymmBTOZSMxJQD6YuDyvpOWNxGFrpmZy1cnKSzjIEBNrelltwFrxf0VuMZPmJxqb5oxu9C/LK401/c4+MVYXfdrqtKg7sSAoes5F2NgMqqAdT3xoXZ9HuZfcR02bSwCqflJa+bTIwtlt3377gjyfwhyOWHGl4Ee3NtYxKoWovUORmCoAdCSLhiWHcRpyjZ1FSqc1RmYnvYkn3OskGL3gwnYdrPWUg1Gb5wVRYjIQbgACwFh7WjLtLeykWZkp2udALKqjuAA8La21h/bJQpLxQ67H2PktWFVaZUnKeLZh3BQDxF+OnPjFG1duUqNyD2tFznLmKLrTCoFtRy2W2W30ZDG2xiK5tSUgfZFh6t/GLdn7u65sQ2c/CPo+vONfgHTds2pdbizpenQHeOL+Cf90k+EpKihUGVVFgB3CcU04TqrSxcA+TriGujfun8JKOjGpo4+z+Y/WROs3Zb90/hJH0Xv2nH2fzElH7kU51/DIseEBCXnJNTNTNjNbQAxCbWhADWs1hrKp323w669DDhjT+s4sOs8FDHVPTWSfpN251GG6tfp17qLAk5BbOQB4ED1MqB69lN0a3kjD1FPtDzlWSXwjbpcKf1v9DdjqwvwGmotenUAHHTv/njGw0yx4kgagniNYuqXqMLEsDqNSbEDRhfUEWykeI7rSV7rbsFiGYAgE9lgeGYkflK4qzTlybB36Ot3eqvWqoMzG9O9rqNdfAm8sui5tGXAYAIAALeUdKL2l6VI5s5bnZQFSo/X1FADVnZzVZz2V7ZJBPK48yY37ZpVbDrDSF+5eJP4+ukdN6sI2HxlegpsXrF832KnbB9Fb8YhpYSmbhKZqHgalRrKpt38+dhM514PhHbYu5mKxNNKlOkWp1CQGJCgWNidTe3HXwktp7pbQ2bV63AFawK5WXQEjiVdCRex4EG8VdG+8dOknyOpUTMGJpWYlTnNzSBIsDmuQLm+Y+s+OLEtSVHPyylGTTK7xGw9qbSYDGkYeiDwFif7qAnXxM47y7DpYIpToghGQE3NyzqXDMx5kFfaWQcVK/6R8R85SHJSfc/wkZpKJLTzbyIj6PpNusiBKwtxmTiBzEybjqbhd1kOtjccUvOa/K15w3BY5mqJyqojfSUHzF4hONXnD5avOPeRfJs+zKXcCvkSPunNtmcnb1sfym3y1fGHy5fGG8jtRz/ANGH4/8AKJsNlf7Q+iibfLl8faZ+XDx9o96DajKbFT6zufUCLsNs2gv1Af3tfxiD5cvj7Q+XDx9o96HSJClcAWFgPDSdBiRzkb+XDmfaZGPHOHUHRJRiRNhiPGRoY4c5kY0fFHvCiTGuCCOYP4SS9GFT50jmp/KVoceOcnPRTir4kDmjfcJOErkirOv4pFxiZmqzaazimDMATaEACEIQApbpax4OMysbLRpqD36vdhYd5N+/QZSddBIfQx4qL9AKnxu1v8IA/QSRdNOAZMVn4CtY35WppTt/kv6yC4xM1Xqj9CnxHgugH885ml9x1ML+hUS7c/Z9KpWcZ0a1rWexI5g954DjewF5a2EwgUWlBptJiRSp2VLdo5QbAcQoIsO4X8ZI6PSBWwrUkQmqi2DpVObs5hYK57Qa19SSBppJQmiGfA5PcmXIEnNhYyAYLpCcVA1Yr1R6y6hQCBTo1Ki5G5koF1ve8Ztmb/4mq4d3y66oACg8Ld48b38ZNzRQtLO64F/SnsJi3yumCbIEqW7rGyt5WYj0EhuEwuVPnFYqugXKT+8xXvub8f0inGb94mvVYVWshJHVpdUAvwNvpeZjNtGv1NXNRZspsQCb2PePKVS5fBsw3GH1fA643E03pErZgNOzYMptpmBF7X9tPCWP0ebc+W4cl/21EhKn2gRdKhHcTZgfFSdL2FN43EZnz2tn+lbS99D+sm/Q6HFbEMPomkqn97rTl+5Xjg+SGqpxLX6rwlXdJ7f6yq/7EH/O8s5yw1lT9IVQtj9e6gv/ABvHl+0z6RfyESK+B9BMdWeR9jFsJl2HSsRdWfhPtMFW+ExcYQ2ILGwsR3QzNy+6Od4Xj2BY2XbkfaYs3I+0dLwhtDcNVm8fYzN28faOkI9obhs61v5EyMQ38iOUxlEWxBuEIrnwmRX8BFnVDkJjqV5SPTCxKK3hA4gcoq6leUx1I5RdMdiUVwZPOiWr/rtMfYf7x/CQz5OvKTLoysMdTt33H+UyzHGpIhl5xy/ovZDOgnCmZ2E3nEMwhCABCEIARHf7dsYujltqNRwuD4Eymdp7vVqDFqiixXISCDrcFWIvcXt7mekKi3jJtTYlOr9JFPmAfxkJRstx5XA80YNbPUHfa48r/wAfuiTEmzm/xA39pdO1ujRHfrFLBvs5VHqAJF8Z0XYhm+koXzJa3pKtrRq7iLVEMx6ErqbgNfy4xamyWp4WhXJIGIarYchRZVB9SW9hJBjdxMTnyonZOhN7W7tL3MeN6dhYh8Ph6NKj2cOLKAe4gA6njwBvEo8Mk863qSKux2GZWDHQVNVPcbMVb7xO+NS6BuVj72lg1tyK9TC0kAs6Fm7QGnWWzKCPITbZvRpVdMuI7JvcFGvoOdxHtI9aK3fkr/B4YuqqBdr2UXtxNzfyGsuDcHAdVStlIOma9tWtqdO6Ktj7iU6KhSA9uBZRf3tJRgtnhBYCTjGijJl3cGgEo/eXGtVxtYvYFS1MAadlKj5fWxEvp6EonpAwPV4yqSNKjZh68fvvCatCw5NkrGomYjcVHhMZBKthp7r8DlCNbqPH3MTOzfVJ9zDYHdL0Pt4XjGOs+JvczPznxN7mPYHdr0Pd4XjJ858Te5h858Te5i6Yd3H0PkxeMt6nxNDPU+Iw6Yd3H0x6vC8ZesqfEYdbU+Iw6bH3cfTHuF4yddU+IzAxNQHVjH02Hdx9MfCYAxsVifrH3M215n3MXTYd0vQ5Ax83Vx/UV1q6XQMQD3tlNh6mRMA8/vj3urgTVxFNFF7sL+V9bxxhyRlqk01R6RotcXihZworFAE0mAzCEIAEIQgBgzRlmIQA0KTQ0xCEQGppCHUiEIAY6oTPVCEIAZFMTotMQhAAZBGraGxqNUEVKauOTKD+MIQYEfr7g4A/+npjyBH4GJH6OcAf6m3kzj/mhCRpDNV6OcCP6q/mzn8WilNysIOFJR6fxhCKkOzp/Q/Df2a+0yN0MN/Zr7TEIUgM/wBEcN/Zr7Q/ohhv7NfaYhCkBg7m4X+zHtNTuVhf7Me0IQpAaf0Jwv8AZiancbCfAIQhSFZqdxMJ8E5VOj7Bnin8+8IQpBYkfotwZ4Gqvk/63mF6KsJ8dY/3x+QhCOgsV0OjDAjiKjedRvyIkl2JuxhsNrRpKp56lvcm8IRpCJKom8ISQBCEIAEIQgB//9k=


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## Old Rocks

Now calm down, Mrs. Elektra, no need to wet your panties. Nobody is obsessed with you. We simply correct the nonsense you post. 

Wind and solar have surpassed conventional as economical sources of power. Simple fact. The internal and external costs for both are lower than that of conventional or nuclear. External cost far, far lower. In the meantime, if you feel the need, go find a coal fired generation plant, and build a house downwind from it. You can enjoy all the pollution you advocate that way.


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## ScienceRocks

*Affordable Flow Battery Technology Reportedly Being Developed By Vinazene*
Affordable Flow Battery Technology Reportedly Being Developed By Vinazene CleanTechnica

December 31st, 2014 by *James Ayre* 


> An “affordable” flow battery technology is currently under development by researchers at Ann Arbor–based Vinazene Inc, in partnership with Grand Valley State University’s Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center and its Chemistry Department.
> 
> The new project — which is funded by a DOE Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant — is based around the use of proprietary, high-capacity organic electrolytes. The use of these organic electrolytes, rather than relatively expensive metals like vanadium, is what will reportedly allow for greater “affordability” — to date, the barrier to wide-scale use of flow battery technologies has been their relatively high costs.
> 
> Another purported advantage of the use of these proprietary organic electrolytes is the ability to specifically tailor the compounds used for higher solubility (amongst other traits). The Vinazene battery will reportedly have a higher energy density than the more well known vanadium-based systems, owing to this higher solubility.
> 
> Based on Vinazene’s website, the researchers involved seem pretty bullish on the technology — but then they often do, don’t they? Still, it sounds like there’s potential there. Perhaps something will come of it.
> 
> The researchers mention possible uses in remote military. surveillance, and/or telecommunication sites. Other potential uses include those in greenhouse farming and various types of industrial production facilities.


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## RGR

It is affordable! And reportedly being developed!!! How amazing!! But...if it is in the process of being developed...how do we know it is ...affordable?

matthew, have you used this affordable technology to verify these maybes and possibles, or are you just advertising again?


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## Old Rocks

Well, that is their claim. And they may be right. Much differant manufacturing and lab created. However, it is an interesting development.


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## Politico

Old Rocks said:


> Nickle cloud over Asia? Politico, you are getting as goofball as Billy Boob and Mrs. Elektra.


The fact you are arguing when you have no clue how these batteries are made is not surprising. Not that any facts will stop your parroting but here's how it works. Batteries contain lithium, nickel, cobalt and aluminum. Lithium is not a naturally occurring substance. The process of obtaining it pollutes the environment. We don't really have any here so it has to be imported from Argentina and Chile. Same goes for Nickel. That comes from Canada. From there it is shipped via fossil fuels to Japan, China or Korea depending on whether it is being manufactured by Sony or Panasonic who as you certainly don't know produce almost all of them. From there they are shipped back via fossil fuels and put into cars that you don't drive but tell everyone else to, and are recharged each night via more fossil fuels.

To achieve all this stupid the process of making the batteries has resulted in huge clouds of nickel, lead and graphite over these places that be seen from space. It pollutes the water and destroys the Ozone layer. But that's somewhere else so that's ok right? I can guarantee if that shit were hanging over your house you'd be singing a different tune.


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## ScienceRocks

RGR said:


> It is affordable! And reportedly being developed!!! How amazing!! But...if it is in the process of being developed...how do we know it is ...affordable?
> 
> matthew, have you used this affordable technology to verify these maybes and possibles, or are you just advertising again?



I haven't used or tested this affordable techonology...I just enjoy reading and posting the latest advancement in science & tech. I feel such subjects improve the board as it is far better than the mindless political crap you see within the political section.


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## Old Rocks

Politico said:


> Old Rocks said:
> 
> 
> 
> Nickle cloud over Asia? Politico, you are getting as goofball as Billy Boob and Mrs. Elektra.
> 
> 
> 
> The fact you are arguing when you have no clue how these batteries are made is not surprising. Not that any facts will stop your parroting but here's how it works. Batteries contain lithium, nickel, cobalt and aluminum. Lithium is not a naturally occurring substance. The process of obtaining it pollutes the environment. We don't really have any here so it has to be imported from Argentina and Chile. Same goes for Nickel. That comes from Canada. From there it is shipped via fossil fuels to Japan, China or Korea depending on whether it is being manufactured by Sony or Panasonic who as you certainly don't know produce almost all of them. From there they are shipped back via fossil fuels and put into cars that you don't drive but tell everyone else to, and are recharged each night via more fossil fuels.
> 
> To achieve all this stupid the process of making the batteries has resulted in huge clouds of nickel, lead and graphite over these places that be seen from space. It pollutes the water and destroys the Ozone layer. But that's somewhere else so that's ok right? I can guarantee if that shit were hanging over your house you'd be singing a different tune.
Click to expand...

Man, you are so full of shit. We have huge reserves of lithium in this nation, in California and Wyoming, and even have minable sources in Nevada and Oregon. No, there are no clouds of nickel hanging over anybody. Clouds of pollution from coal fired plants, but not from nickel, cobalt, or aluminum. You made the claims, so show us a link that backs your claims.


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## Politico

You are on crack. You cannot have reserves of something that does not occur naturally.


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## ScienceRocks

Politico said:


> You are on crack. You cannot have reserves of something that does not occur naturally.



Asteroid mining.. You seem to think we're limited to earth?



> Besides facilitating space settlements, another key area of exploration for NASA is mining the precious metals embedded in large asteriods, which could be worth millions back here on Earth -- metals like iron, nickel, titanium, platinum group metals, crucial to fuel-cell and clean-tech projects, and rare-earth elements such as lithium, used in batteries and mobile phones. The moon, too, holds troves of mineable resources, such as isotope helium-3, a precious fuel source for future nuclear fusion plants, another key factor in setting up a base there.



Space Mining NASA And Caterpillar CAT Team Up To Harness The Potential Of Mining On Asteroids The Moon And Mars


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## Politico

You think we mine asteroids? Seriously I want some of what you are smoking.


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## mamooth

Politico said:


> You are on crack. You cannot have reserves of something that does not occur naturally.



If lithium doesn't occur naturally, then where does it come from? Did space aliens place it here?


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## RGR

Politico said:


> You are on crack. You cannot have reserves of something that does not occur naturally.



Oh please!!! Of course you can!!!

Here are oil reserves. Note…in the picture…it really isn't even oil!! But those are certainly oil reserves, sure as shooting!! You have probably already put them in your gas tank and consumed them no less!


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## ScienceRocks

We mine the earth naturally...I am pretty sure we could do the same for the asteroids, mars, etc. 

Also, you're welcome to post advances in oil, natural gas, or nuclear in this thread. 

*With This Modest Little Machine, US Navy Could Rule The Seas*
New Machine Makes Sustainable Hydrogen From Seawater
January 2nd, 2015 by *Tina Casey*


> Well, the US Navy already does rule the seas, but this contraption could make the Navy even rulier than it is now. It’s a device for capturing carbon dioxide from seawater, and it also generates hydrogen as a byproduct, which means that you have your two basic ingredients for making your own fuel-on-the-go. That’s good news for the Navy, and that thing about the hydrogen could also mean there’s another pathway to sustainable hydrogen for fuel cell electric vehicles.
> 
> The real beauty of the device, dubbed the Electrolytic Cation Exchange Module, is that the whole process takes place without requiring additional chemicals or creating toxic byproducts. That’s a huge advantage compared to the conventional processes for recovering CO2 from seawater.
> 
> This thing crossed our radar back in 2012 and it won a coveted Popular Science “Best of What’s New” award last fall, so let’s check in again and see what we have to look forward to in 2015.


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## RGR

Matthew said:


> We mine the earth naturally...I am pretty sure we could do the same for the asteroids, mars, etc.
> 
> Also, you're welcome to post advances in oil, natural gas, or nuclear in this thread.



Oh no need. Unlike the potential you discuss, the hope, the maybe and mights, American drilling and completion technology delivers real world results, and no one needs to read here about the hopefully nature of it…because it delivers results direct to American oil production:






and of course delivers the consequences of this success right to the American people in real time. None of this hopium and maybe and might and potential stuff anywhere.

When is all your potential and hopium going to turn into dropping electricity rates for all americans?


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## Politico

mamooth said:


> Politico said:
> 
> 
> 
> You are on crack. You cannot have reserves of something that does not occur naturally.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> If lithium doesn't occur naturally, then where does it come from? Did space aliens place it here?
Click to expand...

It comes from chemically processing minerals such as spodumene or petalite/castorite and more recently saltwater. Unlike the clueless parrots posting say it is produced primarily outside the US as it cannot be found in North America. The only place here where it is extracted in limited amounts is from brine pools in Nevada.


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## ScienceRocks

*Perovskite solar cell reaches record efficiency*
*11 hours ago by Bob Yirka 

*






> A team of researchers with Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology and Sungkyunkwan University has developed a new formula for mixing perovskite structures that has led to the team achieving a new record level of efficiency in solar cells made from them. In their paper published in the journal _Nature_, the team describes how they came up with the new formula and what it might mean for the future of solar cell technology.
> 
> Solar cells have come down significantly in price over the past decade, but not enough to cause most people to rush out and buy them for use as an alternative energy source. For that reason, research goes on—scientists have continued to try to make silicon based cells more efficient, but have begun to run out of ideas. That has led to a search for other materials, one of which are perovskite structures (materials with the same structure as calcium titanium oxide)—they offer good power output from low cost materials and can be used in a simpler processes. Over just the past half decade, scientists have increased the efficiency of cells made using them from just 3.8 percent back in 2009, *to the new current record set by the team in Korea of 17.9 percent.*



Read more at: Perovskite solar cell reaches record efficiency


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## Old Rocks

Politico said:


> mamooth said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Politico said:
> 
> 
> 
> You are on crack. You cannot have reserves of something that does not occur naturally.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> If lithium doesn't occur naturally, then where does it come from? Did space aliens place it here?
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> It comes from chemically processing minerals such as spodumene or petalite/castorite and more recently saltwater. Unlike the clueless parrots posting say it is produced primarily outside the US as it cannot be found in North America. The only place here where it is extracted in limited amounts is from brine pools in Nevada.
Click to expand...

 
*Two or three years ago, you would have been correct;*

The Bolivian dream lithium batteries included GlobalPost

LA PAZ, Bolivia — Is Bolivia poised to become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” the vital ingredient in batteries for smartphones and electric cars?

The Uyuni salt flats, stretching across a remote Andean plateau in the southwest of the country, are easily the world’s largest reserve of the soft, light, whitish metal coveted by high-tech firms from Silicon Valley to Tokyo.

This year, President Evo Morales has moved swiftly ahead with plans to finally begin reaping a potential lithium windfall of billions of dollars for the impoverished South American nation.

In January, Bolivia opened its first trial plant. It will produce 40 tons of lithium carbonate a year. Over time, the government wants to ramp production up to 30,000 tons — roughly a fifth of current global demand.

However, Bolivia faces a series of technical challenges.

Uyuni’s lithium deposits are unusually salty and humid, with the entire salt flats flooded by seasonal rainfall every February and resembling an endless mirror perfectly reflecting the sky.

The lithium is mixed with magnesium, complicating the extraction process. The remote location will raise the cost of bringing in energy, water and other inputs.

*But that was yesterday
*
Massive deposit of lithium found in Wyoming could meet all U.S. demand TreeHugger

First, production of lithium from brines requires soda ash (sodium carbonate), and importation of soda ash to lithium production facilities often represents a large expense. However, the Rock Springs Uplift CO2 storage site is located within 20 to 30 miles of the world’s largest industrial soda ash supplies, so the costs of soda ash delivery (by rail, truck or pipeline) would be minimal.

Second, magnesium must be removed from brines before they can be used for lithium recovery, which makes the entire lithium recovery process more expensive. Fortunately, the brines from the Rock Springs Uplift reservoirs contain much less magnesium than brines at existing, currently profitable lithium mining operations.

Third, brines must be heated and pressurized before lithium can be extracted from them. However, because the Rock Springs Uplift brines lie so far underground, they are already at a higher pressure and temperature than brines at existing lithium operations. This would allow operators to essentially eliminate this step in the process, resulting in significant cost savings. (source)

Lithium the Salton Sea and a startup that 8217 s trying to change the game mdash Tech News and Analysis

The project is only at the demonstration scale right now, but the company plans to build a much larger (1,000 times larger in terms of volume produced) commercial-scale factory just south of the current one that could eventually create 15,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent a year. Lithium carbonate is one of the two lithium products that Simbol’s tech can deliver; the other is lithium hydroxide. Depending on the type of battery chemistry used, lithium ion battery makers would buy one or the other.


----------



## Debunker

In a new Fortune report interviewing President of Vorbeck Materials, John Lettow, we learn that fully charging a smartphone in ten minutes flat is only about two years away. Here's to hoping that Apple is working with this company or has a similar plan on the drawing board in their secret lab, because this kind of battery breakthrough could be a game changer for the industry. Graphene based Batteries Could Charge an iPhone in 10 Minutes - Patently Apple


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Improved solar panels and printed electronics on the horizon with new discovery*
*11 hours ago by David Scott *







> New and improved solar panels could result from the discovery of a new liquid crystal material, making printable organic solar cells better performing.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Published today in _Nature Communications_, University of Melbourne researchers say their discovery of the highly sought-after 'nematic liquid crystals' can now lead to vastly improved organic solar cell performance.
> 
> Lead author Dr David Jones of the University's School of Chemistry and Bio 21 Institute, said these cells will be easier to manufacture, with the new crystals now able to work in cells that are double in thickness on the previous limit of 200 nanometers.
> 
> "We have improved the performance of this type of solar cell from around 8 per cent efficient to 9.3 per cent, finally approaching the international benchmark of 10 per cent."



Read more at: Improved solar panels and printed electronics on the horizon with new discovery


----------



## ScienceRocks

LENR power generation technology looks increasingly legitimate: Ecat reactor has been successfully replicated by an independent scientist for the first time (self.Futurology)

submitted 4 hours ago * by paxtana


> Russian scientist Alexander Parkhomov has documented his results and presented them at a cold fusion seminar 2 weeks ago. More details will likely be revealed when he presents his findings on the 27th at a LENR Seminar at the Russian Nuclear Institute. Properly translated text available here.
> 
> I understand that many will still be skeptical of what would be a game-changing breakthrough in physics. Despite the multiple verifications from independent third parties, successful delivery of multiple 1MW powerplants to military and commercial customers, and the purchase of all intellectual property relating to it by a large American company. Skepticism may still be reasonable but reproducibility should not be casually dismissed.
> 
> So if it is true what does this mean for the future of energy? A rough estimate of cost to use an ecat powerplant puts it at $10/megawatt hour, about ten times cheaper than any currently used energy source.
> 
> Edited by request:
> Press release showing Industrial Heat acquired all IP relating to Ecat technology
> Latest 3rd party verification, 2014
> Earlier verification 2013
> A paper that briefly notes the current 1MW plants, one is a confidential military customer and the other is a commercial partner of Industrial Heat. After 1 year of operation (December 2015) the customer will publish findings of how well the plant worked out
> Likely there are better sources for some of these links, if anyone wishes to look around. This was just the result of some quick googling.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Deep-fried graphene may be the key to long-lasting batteries*
*Deep-fried graphene may be the key to long-lasting batteries*





 by *Jon Fingas* | @jonfingas | January 18th 2015 at 11:52 pm






> The deep frying process isn't just useful for livening up your food -- it might also be the ticket to better batteries in your mobile devices. South Korean researchers have created highly conductive, stable electrode materials by spraying graphene oxide droplets into a very hot blend of acid and organic solvent, much like you'd dip chicken into oil. The resulting "pom-poms" (what you see above) aren't at all tasty, but their open 3D structure makes them far better for transferring electrical charges than plain graphene.


----------



## elektra

Matthew said:


> RGR said:
> 
> 
> 
> It is affordable! And reportedly being developed!!! How amazing!! But...if it is in the process of being developed...how do we know it is ...affordable?
> 
> matthew, have you used this affordable technology to verify these maybes and possibles, or are you just advertising again?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I haven't used or tested this affordable techonology...I just enjoy reading and posting the latest advancement in science & tech. I feel such subjects improve the board as it is far better than the mindless political crap you see within the political section.
Click to expand...

You post, "mindless", energy "crap".

I just paid 4 bucks for 4 AA batteries, in which 50 years of research resulted in said battery, so how much will I have to pay for these "magic" batteries that do not exist, enough batteries to power a house for a lifetime, its 4 bucks a simple light, a 100 dollars for a battery used a couple times a day to start a car, how much for these batteries that will supply a house 24/7 as well as industry.

Most likely a battery could never supply industry so you only speak of the burden of me, or the public, having to purchase many expensive, disposable batteries. 

And what of industry, why should we be forced by the DICTATORSHIP of Government to buy expensive batteries by government created industry?

It is all garbage, ultimately all the batteries produced today are garbage as soon as tomorrow, I guess government can never produce enough garbage, huh?


----------



## Old Rocks

Ye Gods and little fishes. Might have an answer for that stream of crap, if I could make out a point that you are trying to make.


----------



## ScienceRocks

Most research is funded by either government or corporation. Government has been funding research for over 100 years!

We wouldn't remain a world power without it.  China, india and all first world countries do this. Stop bitching, retarded losertrian.


----------



## HenryBHough

No matter how much lithium is found in America it will not drive down the cost of batteries.  Because Obama's EPA will not allow it to be mined.


----------



## Old Rocks

HenryBHough said:


> No matter how much lithium is found in America it will not drive down the cost of batteries.  Because Obama's EPA will not allow it to be mined.


Ah Henry, if you had a brain, you would be dangerous. We are presently mining lithium in the US, in Nevada. And the mining that you are refering to is done on a brine, the water that is left over then being pumped back down to the resovoir it came from. Often that water is hot, and used to drive geo-thermal plants for power. The Salton Sea plant is an example.


----------



## HenryBHough

Old Rocks said:


> We are presently mining lithium in the US, in Nevada. And the mining that you are refering to is done on a brine, the water that is left over then being pumped back down to the resovoir it came from. Often that water is hot, and used to drive geo-thermal plants for power. The Salton Sea plant is an example.




OMG !!!

And nobody has told Algore?


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Lithium-Sulfur Battery Performance Improved Via New Cathode Stabilization Strategy*
Lithium-Sulfur Battery Performance Improved Via New Cathode Stabilization Strategy CleanTechnica

January 21st, 2015 by *James Ayre* 


> An effective new strategy to stabilizing the cathodes in lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries was recently developed by researchers at the University of Waterloo in Canada + BASF.
> 
> The new strategy allows for significantly improved cycle life performance, improving the number of times that the battery can be charged/discharged without losing significant capacity — which addresses one of the main issues with Li-S batteries, that the cathode degrades rapidly.


----------



## elektra

Matthew said:


> Most research is funded by either government or corporation. Government has been funding research for over 100 years!
> 
> We wouldn't remain a world power without it.  China, india and all first world countries do this. Stop bitching, retarded losertrian.


Most research is done by Governments, Free Governments, Democracy's or Dictators? 

Funding research over a 100 years, great, got some examples? 

Last I checked they did not fund Rockefeller or Tesla.

This is an energy forum, so..... Show us the Government research dollars back in the late 1800's.


----------



## elektra

Old Rocks said:


> HenryBHough said:
> 
> 
> 
> No matter how much lithium is found in America it will not drive down the cost of batteries.  Because Obama's EPA will not allow it to be mined.
> 
> 
> 
> Ah Henry, if you had a brain, you would be dangerous. We are presently mining lithium in the US, in Nevada. And the mining that you are refering to is done on a brine, the water that is left over then being pumped back down to the resovoir it came from. Often that water is hot, and used to drive geo-thermal plants for power. The Salton Sea plant is an example.
Click to expand...

Liar, where is your LINK.


----------



## elektra

Matthew said:


> *Lithium-Sulfur Battery Performance Improved Via New Cathode Stabilization Strategy*
> Lithium-Sulfur Battery Performance Improved Via New Cathode Stabilization Strategy CleanTechnica
> 
> January 21st, 2015 by *James Ayre*
> 
> 
> 
> An effective new strategy to stabilizing the cathodes in lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries was recently developed by researchers at the University of Waterloo in Canada + BASF.
> 
> The new strategy allows for significantly improved cycle life performance, improving the number of times that the battery can be charged/discharged without losing significant capacity — which addresses one of the main issues with Li-S batteries, that the cathode degrades rapidly.
Click to expand...

Lithium is not RENEWABLE, hence an Industry dependent on Lithium will suffer Peak Lithium. 

Oil can actually be made from plants, or animals, hence Oil has a better future than the Solar and Wind Industry who wish to increase the demand on Lithium.

So now we get to pay more for Cell Phones and Computers, anything with Lithium batteries will rise in price.


----------



## HenryBHough

The more lithium diverted to battery production the harder it will be for liberals to stay on their meds. You think Paris was bad?  Wait until a week or two after the lithium doses run out!


----------



## ScienceRocks

HenryBHough said:


> The more lithium diverted to battery production the harder it will be for liberals to stay on their meds. You think Paris was bad?  Wait until a week or two after the lithium doses run out!



You think asteroids don't have lithium? We will never run out!


----------



## HenryBHough

And in those lithium-deprived fantasies he'll don his cape and fly to the nearest edible asteroid!


----------



## ScienceRocks

HenryBHough said:


> And in those lithium-deprived fantasies he'll don his cape and fly to the nearest edible asteroid!



You republicans wonder the economics of space exploration outside of tech advancement. Well, it is very real and we should expand our sights.


----------



## HenryBHough

"You republicans....."

Asshole, accusing me of being one of those *left*-wingers!

Does lack of reading comprehension affect you as badly as lack of lithium?


----------



## ScienceRocks

HenryBHough said:


> "You republicans....."
> 
> Asshole, accusing me of being one of those *left*-wingers!
> 
> Does lack of reading comprehension affect you as badly as lack of lithium?



Please support your belief of lack of lithium by a supporting source.


----------



## HenryBHough

No shortage of lithium?  Then why in hell are you off your meds!

And in other news, grid-size battery failure in Hawaii makes headlines......

Failed battery at Hawaii solar farm part of learning process says analyst PV-Tech Storage

Many a tear has to fall but it's alllllll in the game......   Just throw some more money at it and everything will be A-OK.


----------



## Old Rocks

Oncor proposes giant leap for grid batteries Dallas Morning News

In a move that stands to radically shift the dynamics of the industry, Oncor is set to announce Monday that it is prepared to invest more than $2 billion to store electricity in thousands of batteries across North and West Texas beginning in 2018.

Utility-scale batteries have been a holy grail within the energy sector for years. With enough storage space, surplus electricity can be generated at night, when plants usually sit idle, to be used the next day, when demand is highest. Power outages would become less frequent. Wind and solar power, susceptible to weather conditions, could be built on a larger scale. The only problem has been that the price of batteries has been too high to make economic sense. But if they’re purchased on a large enough scale, that won’t be the case for long, said Oncor CEO Bob Shapard.

“Everyone assumed the price point was five to six years out. We’re getting indications from everyone we’ve talked to they can get us to that price by 2018,” he said in an interview Wednesday.

The Dallas-based transmission company is proposing the installation of 5,000 megawatts of batteries not just in its service area but across Texas’ entire grid. That is the equivalent of four nuclear power plants on a grid with a capacity of about 81,000 megawatts.

Ranging from refrigerator- to dumpster-size, the batteries would be installed behind shopping centers and in neighborhoods. Statewide, Oncor estimates a total price tag of $5.2 billion. A study commissioned by Oncor with the Brattle Group, a Massachusetts consulting firm that provides power market analysis for state regulators, says the project would not raise bills. Revenue from rental of storage space on the batteries, along with a decrease in power prices and transmission costs, should actually decrease the average Texas residential power bill 34 cents to $179.66 a month, the report said.

*And that would make solar and wind 24/7.*


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Graphene based solar panels will have energy efficiency of 60 percent*



> One of the major reasons that solar panels are facing such hurdles to replace conventional electricity sources is because they are very inefficient. The most efficient (and most expensive) panel is currently somewhere around 32 percent efficiency. However, scientists in Switzerland have figured out a way to utilize Graphene in solar panel design, raising its efficiency to an absolutely staggering 60% – a finally feasible amount.


----------



## HenryBHough

This is so silly.

What's coming is orbiting lenses and mirrors that will focus sunlight into narrow beams to boil water in structures positioned worldwide, each spinning turbines to produce electricity where needed; when needed.  

The mirrors to allow the focused rays to be directed into areas that normally would be in darkness.

Lenses powerful enough to burn through the most dense of cloud cover.

Hell on birds, it is true.  Also requires either sharply defined safe paths for aircraft.

Details.

Mere details.

The first step?  Appropriation of only about $689,000,000,000 for politically connected consultants to define the details more precisely.  That's for the first ten years.


----------



## ScienceRocks

Your idea is silly. really.

You just don't like innovation and investing in our country.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*The man who brought us the lithium-ion battery at the age of 57 has an idea for a new one at 92*






> The chances are you have never heard of—nor, until looking at this page, ever seen—John Bannister Goodenough. But you know his work. In fact, you almost certainly own some. Today, at 92, Goodenough still goes to his smallish office every day at the University of Austin. That, he says, is because he’s not finished. Thirty-five years after his blockbuster, the electric car still can’t compete with the internal combustion engine on price. When solar and wind power produce electricity, it must be either used immediately or lost forever—there is no economic stationary battery in which to store the power. Meanwhile, storm clouds are gathering: Oil is again cheap but, like all cyclical commodities, its price will go back up. The climate is warming and becoming generally more turbulent.
> 
> In short, the world needs a super-battery. That, “or I’m sorry we’re going to have wars on wars fighting over the last reserves of this, that or the other and we’re going to have global warming beyond anything we can bear,” Goodenough says.
> 
> The good news is that Goodenough has one last idea. He’s working on it with yet another crop of post-doctoral assistants. “I want to solve the problem before I throw my chips in,” he says. “I’m only 92. I still have time to go.”













> Elon Musk is doing the best he can with what is available now.
> 
> That's Goodenough's point. Elon Musk is doing the best he can with what is available now and bringing in small, incremental updates. Goodenough doesn't want what's current, he wants to make something for the future. He wants to come up with a concept and prove it works, then leave the execution to others.
> 
> Musk is looking at the short term and is content with shuffling along, Goodenough doesn't care about the short term and wants to leap forward.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*First Solar Achieves New World Conversion Efficiency Record For Cadmium-Telluride Solar Cells*

First Solar Achieves New World Conversion Efficiency Record For Cadmium-Telluride Solar Cells CleanTechnica

February 9th, 2015 by *James Ayre* 

Originally published on _Solar Love_.


> A new world record conversion efficiency for cadmium-telluride (CdTe) solar photovoltaic cells was recently achieved by researchers at First Solar’s Research & Development Center in Perrysburg, Ohio.
> 
> The new record of 21.5% efficiency was verified and certified at the Newport Corporation’s Technology and Applications Center PV Lab — and keeps the solar developer on track with regard to its current research and development roadmap.
> 
> Its worth noting here that the processes and materials used in the creation of the new record-setting solar cell are all “suitable” for commercial-scale manufacturing, according to First Solar.
> 
> The new record represents the 8th notable update to the CdTe cell record efficiency since 2011 — demonstrating the rapid improvement seen in the technology over the last few years… which has been overwhelmingly driven by First Solar.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Lithium Batteries With 200% Typical Energy Density*
Lithium Batteries With 200 Typical Energy Density CleanTechnica
February 9th, 2015 by *Jake Richardson* 

Solid Energy, a Boston-based startup, recently said it has developed battery materials that have 200% greater energy density. The company has created an “anode-less” battery prototype with 1200 Wh/L in energy density. Some lithium-ion batteries with graphite anodes provide less than 600 Wh/L. A thin sheet of lithium foil was used to replace the more conventional electrode material, which is graphite.


----------



## ScienceRocks

This is a good idea!

* Portland to generate electricity within its own water pipes *
By Ben Coxworth
February 17, 2015
3 Pictures





> There's a lot of water constantly moving through the municipal pipelines of most major cities. While the water itself is already destined for various uses, why not harness its flow to produce hydroelectric power? Well, that's exactly what Lucid Energy's LucidPipe Power System does, and Portland, Oregon has just become the latest city to adopt it.


----------



## HenryBHough

Remember, Portland, People's Republic of Oregon is big on adopting things.

Like unicorns.


----------



## ScienceRocks

HenryBHough said:


> Remember, Portland, People's Republic of Oregon is big on adopting things.
> 
> Like unicorns.




Seems to me that you oppose everything that isn't fossil fuel. We both know that hydro is dependable and a good source of energy right? This works the same way! Why not have a few of these on each street to help power our society.


----------



## HenryBHough

Matthew said:


> Seems to me that you oppose everything that isn't fossil fuel. We both know that hydro is dependable and a good source of energy right? This works the same way! Why not have a few of these on each street to help power our society.



Not at all!

Hydro is great if you don't mind killing fish.  Also if Algore is right, hydro will be dependable once rivers no longer freeze but only until megadroughts dry them up entirely.

Solar, as in photo-voltaic, is good provided you have cloudless days or big enough storage capacity to get you through a succession of nights and cloudy days.

Wind is great so long as you don't mind killing birds, can stand the noise, and live far enough way so you aren't injured by fly-away blades.

Tidal has a lot of promise as the batteries required wouldn't need to be nearly as large though they would not be entirely unnecessary.  

I'm not too big on solar as in focused beams as they're mechanically complex and require maintenance which may or may not be done at proper intervals.

Nope.

Most of the above are great for reducing the need for fossil-fueled generation so long as one is willing to accept the higher cost and can afford the capital investment.

But if we just finance all those thing with printed funny money then it's all free!

You know your dam, windmill, panel array or "sun tower" is ready to build when the weight of the paperwork is double that of the weight of all the components of the system.

Of course the greatest reduction in the need for electricity  cannot be achieved.  Because liberal bloggers won't park their SUVs and won't turn off their computers.


----------



## CultureCitizen

Lightsail Energy  is creating the technology to for high efficiency energy storage using compressed air. 
This could be a great boon for alternative energy. Energy can be stored for long periods of time without significant losses.
Also this is a very cheap way to store energy on large scale. 

LightSail Energy
A lot of hot air Why energy storage matters


----------



## ScienceRocks

* CorPower system gives wave power the gears *
By Ben Coxworth
February 18, 2015
3 Pictures





> Harnessing wave power can be a tricky business. It's one thing to build a device that simply moves up and down with the waves, but another to build one that's efficient enough to be cost-effective. Swedish company CorPower Ocean claims to have done just that, however. Its wave energy converter buoys reportedly generate five times more energy per ton of device, at a third the cost of other wave power systems.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*New paper-like material could boost electric vehicle batteries*
*13 hours ago by Sean Nealon *




Scanning electron microscope images of (a) SiO2 nanofibers after drying, (b) SiO2 nanofibers under high magnification (c) silicon nanofibers after etching, and (d) silicon nanofibers under high magnification.


> Researchers at the University of California, Riverside's Bourns College of Engineering have developed a novel paper-like material for lithium-ion batteries. It has the potential to boost by several times the specific energy, or amount of energy that can be delivered per unit weight of the battery.



Read more at: New paper-like material could boost electric vehicle batteries


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Sandia magnetized fusion technique produces significant results*


> Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories' Z machine have produced a significant output of fusion neutrons, using a method fully functioning for only little more than a year.
> It only took the two magnetic fields and the laser, focused on a small amount of fusible material called deuterium (hydrogen with a neutron added to its nucleus), to produce a trillion fusion neutrons (neutrons created by the fusing of atomic nuclei). Had tritium (which carries two neutrons) been included in the fuel, scientific rule-of-thumb says that 100 times more fusion neutrons would have been released. (That is, the actual release of 10 to the 12th neutrons would be upgraded, by the more reactive nature of the fuel, to 10 to the 14th neutrons.)
> 
> Still, even with this larger output, to achieve break-even fusion—as much power out of the fuel as placed into it—100 times more neutrons (10 to the 16th) would have to be produced.
> 
> The gap is sizable, but the technique is a toddler, with researchers still figuring out the simplest measures: how thick or thin key structural elements of the design should be and the relation between the three key aspects of the approach—the two magnetic fields and the laser.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Laser ignition demonstrated in a real engine could boost engine efficiency by 27%*



> Spark plugs can only ignite the fuel at one end of the chamber. A laser ignites the fuel in the middle of the chamber instead, burning more of the fuel and improving combustion efficiency by 27 per cent.Laser ignition could boost the fuel efficiency of a car from 40 miles per gallan up to around 50 miles per gallon, for example. The more complete burn emits fewer polluting by-products such as nitrogen dioxide. New Scientist reported on an ARPA-e energy innovation summit presentation
> 
> Lasers are also better at keeping up with the thousands of cycles a minute at which a car engine runs. They can be tuned more precisely than spark plugs so that they fire at the optimal instant for ignition. They can even be fired multiple times during the same cycle into different parts of the cylinder to maximise fuel burn.
> 
> Princeton Optronics is the first to show that it works in a real engine.


----------



## ScienceRocks

* Windwheel concept combines tourist attraction with "silent turbine" *
By Stu Robarts
February 25, 2015
1 Comment
4 Pictures





> The Dutch have long used windmills to harness wind energy. A new concept proposed for city of Rotterdam, however, is surely one of the most elaborate windmills ever conceived. The Dutch Windwheel is a huge circular wind energy converter that houses apartments, a hotel and a giant coaster ride.
> 
> The concept is designed to be part energy icon, part tourist attraction and part residential building. It is a 174-m (571-ft) structure comprising two huge rings that appear to lean against each other. "We wanted to combine a big attraction for Rotterdam with a state-of-the-art sustainable concept," explains Lennart Graaff of the Dutch Windwheel Corporation, to Gizmag.
> 
> The larger outer ring houses 40 pods on rails that move around the ring and provide those who visit with views of Rotterdam and its port. The smaller inner ring, meanwhile, houses 72 apartments, a 160-room hotel across seven floors and a panoramic restaurant and viewing gallery. Perhaps most remarkable feature of of all, however, is a huge "bladeless turbine" that spans the center smaller ring.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*ZSW + Manz Acheive 21% Conversion Efficiency With Cadmium-Free CIGS Solar Cell*
*ZSW Manz Acheive 21 Conversion Efficiency With Cadmium-Free CIGS Solar Cell CleanTechnica*
February 26th, 2015 by *James Ayre* 


> A cadmium-free small-area CIGS solar cell created by the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) and its partner, Manz, possesses a conversion efficiency of 21%, as verified by Fraunhofer ISE, according to a recent press release.
> 
> The 21% conversion efficiency marks a new record for cadmium-free solar cells in this surface area category — but not for CIGS solar cells overall, where ZSW holds the current record (21.7%), and Solexel holds the current record for concentrator CIGS solar cells (23.3%).


----------



## ScienceRocks

* Eyes inspire more efficient solar cell architecture *
By Richard Moss
February 28, 2015
2 Pictures


 


> Solar cells don't at first glance have any relation to a tiny structure in the eye that makes our central vision sharp, but that tiny structure – called the fovea centralis – may be the key to a huge boost in solar cell efficiency. A team of scientists at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light took the underlying mechanisms that guide the fovea and adapted them to silicon as a surface for collecting light in solar cells.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*A ‘breakthrough’ in rechargeable batteries for electronic devices and electric vehicles*


> Researchers from Singapore’s Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) of A*STAR and Quebec’s IREQ (Hydro-Québec’s research institute) have synthesized a new material that they say could more than double the energy capacity of lithium-ion batteries, allowing for longer-lasting rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles and mobile devices.
> 
> The new material for battery cathodes (the + battery pole) in based on a “lithium orthosilicate-related” compound, Li2MnSiO4, combining lithium, manganese, silicon and oxygen, which the researchers found superior to conventional phosphate-based cathodes. They report an high initial charging capacity of 335 mAh/g (milliAmpere-hours per gram) in the journal Nano Energy.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Researchers enable solar cells to use more sunlight*



> Scientists of the University of Luxembourg and of the Japanese electronics company TDK have extended sensitivity of a conductive oxide film used in solar cells in the near-infrared region to use more energy of the sun and thus create higher current.
> Similar attempts have been made before, but this is the first time that these films were prepared by a one-step process and, at the same time, stable in air, the researchers say.
> “The films made at the University of Luxembourg have been exposed to air for one and half years and are still as conductive as when they were fresh prepared,” says Prof. Susanne Siebentritt, head of the laboratory for photovoltaics at the University of Luxembourg.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*StoreDot rapid-charging battery heads to smartphones this year*

6 March 2015


> Smartphones are amazing things, but one gripe felt almost universally is the problem of dreadful battery life. StoreDot hopes to ease our worries, showing off the latest iteration of its charge-in-seconds tech at Mobile World Congress. What's more, it says we'll see this technology in a real smartphone before the end of this year.
> StoreDot's system, which you can see in action in the video above, uses a different chemical makeup to traditional batteries. We saw a modified Samsung Galaxy S5 go from 15 percent battery to 100 percent in a little under two minutes, but StoreDot says it hopes to get a 1,500mAh battery to charge in one minute by the end of the year.
> While mobile makers like Samsung and Apple have focused on trying to make batteries last longer, StoreDot's approach is different. Instead, it wants to build batteries that charge up very quickly, making topping up your phone's charge a trivial matter. There's a trade-off involved however -- StoreDot's current battery will only last you around 4-5 hours. But if charging is the work of a moment, having to charge a few times through the day might not be such a terrible compromise.




http://www.cnet.com/...ones-this-year/


----------



## ScienceRocks

*One step closer to artificial photosynthesis and 'solar fuels'*
*5 hours ago *


> Caltech scientists, inspired by a chemical process found in leaves, have developed an electrically conductive film that could help pave the way for devices capable of harnessing sunlight to split water into hydrogen fuel.



Read more at: One step closer to artificial photosynthesis and solar fuels


----------



## ScienceRocks

*New kind of ‘tandem’ solar cell developed*
Researchers combine two types of photovoltaic material to make a cell that harnesses more sunlight
*March 26, 2015*
*[+]*




> Researchers at MIT and Stanford University have developed a new kind of solar cell that combines two different layers of sunlight-absorbing material to harvest a broader range of the sun’s energy. The development could lead to photovoltaic cells that are more efficient than those currently used in solar-power installations, the researchers say.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Can perovskites and silicon team up to boost industrial solar cell efficiencies?*

27 March 2015



> Silicon solar cells dominate 90 percent of the global photovoltaic market today, yet the record power conversion efficiency of silicon photovoltaics has progressed merely from 25 percent to 25.6 percent during the past 15 years -- meaning the industry is keen to explore alternatives.
> 
> A collaboration between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford University may be poised to shake things up in the solar energy world. By exploring ways to create solar cells using low-cost manufacturing methods, the team has developed a novel prototype device that combines perovskite with traditional silicon solar cells into a two-terminal "tandem" device.
> As the team reports in the journal Applied Physics Letters, from AIP Publishing, their new tandem cells have the potential to achieve significantly higher energy conversion efficiencies than standard single-junction silicon solar cells.
> Perovskite is an inexpensive crystalline material that can easily be produced in labs and, as it turns out, stacking it atop a conventional silicon solar cell forms a tandem that has the potential to improve the cell's overall efficiency, a measure of the amount of sunlight the cell can convert into electricity.
> The team focused on tandem solar cells because there was big room for improvement in their cost and market penetration. Tandem solar cells have only garnered a worldwide market share of 0.25 percent compared to silicon solar cells' 90 percent. "Despite having higher efficiency, tandems are traditionally made using expensive processes -- making it difficult for them to compete economically," said Colin Bailie, a Ph.D. student at Stanford and an author on the new paper.






http://www.solardail...encies_999.html


----------



## ScienceRocks

*New discovery may be breakthrough for hydrogen cars*
*4 hours ago *




Enlarge
Virginia Tech professor Percival Zhang (right) and recent doctoral graduate Joe Rollin. Credit: Virginia Tech


> A team of Virginia Tech researchers has discovered a way to create hydrogen fuel using a biological method that greatly reduces the time and money it takes to produce the zero-emissions fuel. This method uses abundantly available corn stover - the stalks, cobs, and husks - to produce the hydrogen.





Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-04-discovery-breakthrough-hydrogen-cars.html#jCp


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Stanford develops flexible, fast-charging aluminum battery
Stanford develops flexible fast-charging aluminum battery - The Washington Post*



> April 6, 2015 6:43 PM EDT - Stanford University professor Hongjie Dai and colleagues developed a flexible, non-flammable aluminum battery that produces two volts of electricity, and recharges completely in just over a minute. The research team was also able to generate five volts, which is enough to power a smartphone when using two aluminum batteries and a converter. (Mark Shwartz, Precourt Institute for Energy, Stanford University)


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Researchers Enhance Ionic Conductivity Of Solid Electrolyte By 3 Orders Of Magnitude — Potential For High-Energy Li-Ion Batteries*
April 7th, 2015 by *James Ayre*
Researchers Enhance Ionic Conductivity Of Solid Electrolyte By 3 Orders Of Magnitude -- Potential For High-Energy Li-Ion Batteries CleanTechnica


> The ionic conductivity of polymer-based solid electrolyte has been enhanced by more than 3 full orders of magnitude by researchers at Stanford University, through the use of ceramic nanowire fillers, according to a recent press release from the university. The new ceramic-nanowire-filled composite polymer electrolyte also possesses a better (enlarged) electrochemical window of stability. (It might be obvious to some here, but just to be clear, an improvement of 3 orders of magnitude is a considerably greater one than when something is increased 3 times over — it’s actually an increase of ~1,000 times.)
> 
> This improvement opens the way toward the design of solid ion electrolytes with superior performance as compared against conventional electrolytes, according to the researchers involved.



Stuff like this is why I support tax payer funded research grants! Well, worth it!


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Company developing commercial tech to convert heat to electricity*




> NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, has licensed patents on high-temperature thermoelectric materials to Evident Technologies, Troy, New York, which provides these kinds of materials and related power systems.
> Thermoelectric materials convert heat into electricity. For example, by using this technology, waste-heat from a car could potentially be fed back into the vehicle and used to generate electricity. This would increase efficiency and deliver low-cost solutions for harvesting waste heat.
> 
> "The licensed technology could be applied to convert heat into electricity in a number of waste heat recovery applications, including automobile exhaust and high-temperature industrial processes such as ceramic and glass processing plants," said Thierry Caillat, task leader for the thermoelectrics team at JPL.




Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-04-company-commercial-tech-electricity.html#jCp

Who says we don't get innovation from the government? LOL


----------



## ScienceRocks

* Graphene device makes ultrafast light to energy conversion possible *
By Colin Jeffrey
April 15, 2015






> Converting light to electricity is one of the pillars of modern electronics, with the process essential for the operation of everything from solar cells and TV remote control receivers through to laser communications and astronomical telescopes. These devices rely on the swift and effective operation of this technology, especially in scientific equipment, to ensure the most efficient conversion rates possible. In this vein, researchers from the Institute of Photonic Sciences (Institut de Ciències Fotòniques/ICFO) in Barcelona have demonstrated a graphene-based photodetector they claim converts light into electricity in less than 50 quadrillionths of a second.


----------



## ScienceRocks

http://www.scienceda...50416132638.htm



> A potentially game-changing breakthrough in artificial photosynthesis has been achieved with the development of a system that can capture carbon dioxide emissions before they are vented into the atmosphere and then, powered by solar energy, convert that carbon dioxide into valuable chemical products, including biodegradable plastics, pharmaceutical drugs and even liquid fuels.
> 
> Scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley have created a hybrid system of semiconducting nanowires and bacteria that mimics the natural photosynthetic process by which plants use the energy in sunlight to synthesize carbohydrates from carbon dioxide and water. However, this new artificial photosynthetic system synthesizes the combination of carbon dioxide and water into acetate, the most common building block today for biosynthesis.


----------



## ScienceRocks

New device combines the advantages of batteries and supercapacitors
By Dario Borghino
April 19, 2015
2 Pictures






> Scientists at UCLA's California NanoSystems Institute have developed a new device that combines the high energy densities of batteries and the quick charge and discharge rates of supercapacitors. The hybrid supercapacitor is reportedly six times as energy-dense as a commercially available supercapacitor and packs nearly as much energy per unit volume as a lead-acid battery.


----------



## ScienceRocks

Lithium-Sulfur Batteries With High Capacity + Rate Performance Via Vertically Aligned Sulfur-Graphene Nanowall Cathodes

*Published on* April 18th, 2015 | _by James Ayre_


New cathode materials for lithium-sulfur batteries constructed out of vertically aligned sulfur–graphene (S-G) nanowalls on electrically conductive substrates — delivering high capacity + rate performance — have been developed by researchers at Beihang University in China. ...


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Nano ‘sandwich’ improves rechargeable lithium batteries*
*April 20, 2015*
*[+]*



The key to better cellphones and other rechargeable electronics may be tiny “sandwiches” made of nanosheets of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), according to Kansas State University assistant professor of mechanical and nuclear engineering Gurpreet Singh and his research team.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*3-D Printed Graphene “Liquid Smoke” Energy Storage Breakthrough*
April 24th, 2015 by *Tina Casey* 



> We already know that graphene is the nanomaterial of the new millennium, and that graphene is beginning to play a big role in next-generation energy storage, including electrical vehicle batteries. We also know that graphene is a quirky, funky little devil of a material to manufacture in bulk, which kind of puts a crimp in the dream of super-long-range but affordable EVs for everybody. However, a research team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is on to a solution that involves 3-D printing and a graphene aerogel, aka “liquid smoke.”


----------



## ScienceRocks

Audi just created diesel fuel from air and water
By Eric Mack
April 26, 2015
7 Pictures





> Audi is looking to fuel the future without fossil fuels. One of the company's pilot plants in Germany has just produced the first batches of a synthetic diesel made using only water and air. The company's pilot plant, which is operated by German startup Sunfire, produced its first batches of the "e-diesel" this month. German Federal Minister of Education and Research Johanna Wanka put a few liters of the fuel in her work car, an Audi A8, to commemorate the accomplishment.


----------



## ScienceRocks

Progress to Magnesium ion battery which theoretically could double lithium ion battery energy density
 


> The race is on around the world as scientists strive to develop a new generation of batteries that can perform beyond the limits of the current lithium-ion based battery. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have taken a significant step toward the development of a battery that could outperform the lithium-ion technology used in electric cars such as the Chevy Volt. They have shown they can replace the lithium...



Read more »


----------



## ScienceRocks

*3 Solar Cell Efficiency Records In Just 4 Days*
May 1st, 2015 by *Smiti Mittal* 


> Improving efficiency of solar photovoltaic cells takes months, sometimes years. The last few days, however, have been very interesting as three different companies announced record-breaking efficiencies. Two of the cells even have the same technology.
> 
> Trina Solar, one of the leading solar PV modules manufacturers, announced on April 24 that it had set a new world record for high efficiency p-type multi-crystalline silicon PV modules. Trina Solar’s Honey Plus multi-crystalline silicon module reached a new module efficiency record of 19.14%. The efficiency was independently confirmed by the National Center of Supervision and Inspection on Solar Photovoltaic Product Quality (CPVT) in Wuxi, China.
> 
> On April 27, Germany-based Manz announced that it had achieved 16% efficiency in copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar modules. This efficiency was achieved in commercially mass-produced solar PV modules. Manz managed to transfer the 21.7% world-record efficiency it had achieved in laboratory cells in September last year. The efficiency of the modules was verified by TUV Rheinland.
> 
> On April 28, Taiwan-based TSMC Solar announced that it achieved efficiency of 16.5% in commercially produced CIGS modules, bettering the Manz’s record made the day before. TSMC also improved upon its own previous record of 15.7% efficiency, achieved in 2013. The efficiency record for TSMC modules was verified by TUV SUD.
> 
> All three efficiency records seem to be associated with mass-produced solar PV modules and there remains huge potential to further increase the efficiency. Trina Solar also holds the world record for efficiency for lab-based multi-crystalline silicon PV modules. That record currently stands at 20.8%.



3 Solar Cell Efficiency Records In Just 4 Days

Glad to see other countries making some good advancements. I just don't trust the political climate of America anymore.


----------



## ScienceRocks

“Killer” Bacteria To The Rescue! Scientists Enlist E.Coli To Make Planet-Saving Plastic Out Of Practically Nothing

*Published on* May 3rd, 2015 | _by Tina Casey_


> The notorious E. coli bacteria plays a role in a "revolutionary" new artificial photosynthesis system that converts waste carbon dioxide into plastic...


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Solar Storage Technology Upgraded By German Inventor*
May 5th, 2015 by *Aisha Abdelhamid* 

Solar Storage Technology Upgraded by German Inventor CleanTechnica

SolarLove.org


> Unhappy with any of the available methods of solar storage, a German inventor and engineer has put his favorite pastime of tinkering to good use. While others are attempting to build a better battery, Wolfram Walter is instead building a better way to use the batteries he already has.
> 
> It’s not a long stretch of the imagination for Walter. The inventive German has already modified his bicycle and his Porsche, upgrading both of them to EVs. Featured on PRI’s _The World_, Walter is described as “a man obsessed with things electric.”


----------



## Old Rocks

Very good. Glad to see Tesla has competition. This is how advances are made rapidly. And why capitalism works.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Battery trial could kill anti-renewable energy argument*



> "If we can nail this down it means that they value of the PV solar on the grid is no longer just in the sunshine hours, but in the whole 24-hours of the day," he said.
> "It kills the argument put out there by the anti-renewable mob that they're intermittent and you can't rely on them… and it turns intermittent renewables like solar and wind into a direct competitor for base load power."
> Rather than research new options for storage, Mr Troman said the trail will purchase batteries for testing that are already commercially available making the impact more immediate and maintaining the independence of the data.
> Electric car maker Tesla's first foray into lithium-ion batteries for homes the Powerwall, announced last week featuring technology developed by Canberra start-up Reposit Power, could be part of the trials when it goes on the market.


----------



## ScienceRocks

China developing fast reactors that will be cheaper than coal
 







> China has a long range plan to develop nuclear power that is cheaper than coal. China will develop its own commercial scale fast reactor in 2023 with a more advanced version in 2030. They will then scale up production as part of a build up to around 400 gigawatts of nuclear power by 2050. This would be four times more than the nuclear power...



Between the renewables and nuclear power. I have a lot of faith that china can do away with fossil fuels. I wish we could do this!


----------



## ScienceRocks

Efficiency record for black silicon solar cells jumps to 22.1%
 




The researchers have obtained the record-breaking efficiency of 22.1% on nanostructured silicon solar cells as certified by Fraunhofer ISE CalLab. An almost 4% absolute increase to their previous record is achieved by applying a thin passivating film on the nanostructures by Atomic Layer Deposition, and by integrating all metal contacts on...


----------



## ScienceRocks

Russia's MBIR sodium-cooled fast neutron research reactor gets construction licence
 




Russian regulator Rostechnadzor has issued a construction licence for the multipurpose sodium-cooled fast neutron research reactor, or MBIR by its Russian acronym. The reactor complex will be located at the site of the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors (RIAR), in Dimitrovgrad. In November, Uralenergostroy was selected in an open tender


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Vortex bladeless turbines wobble to generate energy *
By Colin Jeffrey
May 19, 2015
4 Pictures



Looking somewhat like a giant reed gently swaying in the wind, the new Vortex bladeless wind-driven generator prototype produces electricity with very few moving parts, on a very small footprint, and in almost complete silence. Designed to reduce the visual and aural impact of traditional spinning-blade turbines, this new device takes advantage of the power contained in swirling vortices of air.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*34% Photovoltaic Efficiency Achieved*


> A company in Sweden is claiming to have designed a system that can convert 34% of sunlight into solar energy, potentially changing the future of solar power.
> 
> Ripasso, the company behind the development, is currently testing the product in South Africa’s Kalahari desert. The 34% power conversion is around double that of normal solar panels, reports The Guardian.


----------



## Abishai100

*Battery Birdcage
*

A discovery in using a defect in Lithium-ion batteries could enable producers to harness more energy from batteries.

This discovery offers a new spotlight into social investments in the *'exuberance energy'* dialogue.





Lithium-ion Battery Twin-Boundary Utility

Human Torch (Marvel)


----------



## Old Rocks

*Fifteen Grid Scale Energy Storage Solutions to Watch

This post looks at fifteen kinds of utility or grid scale energy storage solutions that are either in wide use or have significant potential to supply the energy storage capacity that will help make the grid both more efficient and more robust. These range from pumped hydro, which is by far the most prevalent form of energy storage at this scale to compressed air, thermal storage, advanced batteries, fuel cells and purely electric storage systems.*

Latest information on various methods of electrical storage.



Read more: Fifteen Grid Scale Energy Storage Solutions to Watch


----------



## ScienceRocks

Near term Transparent solar power windows could provide 60-90% of the energy for a high rise building
 




Oxford PV is developing and commercialising thin-film perovskite solar cells, which can be printed directly onto silicon solar cells, CIGS solar cells or glass. This will drive a paradigm shift in the aesthetics, performance and cost of both current solar panels and Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) systems. Perovskite materials have...

Read more »


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Squishy battery created using wood*
By Ben Coxworth
June 1, 2015






> Wood pulp-derived nanocellulose is turning out to be pretty useful stuff. Previously, we'd heard how it could be used in things like high-strength lightweight composites, oil-absorbing sponges and biodegradable computer chips. Now, researchers from Sweden and the US have used the material to build soft-bodied batteries that are more shock- and stress-resistant than their traditional hard counterparts.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Giant structures called plasmoids could simplify the design of future tokamaks*




> Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have for the first time simulated the formation of structures called "plasmoids" during Coaxial Helicity Injection (CHI), a process that could simplify the design of fusion facilities known as tokamaks. The findings, reported in the journal Physical Review Letters, involve the formation of plasmoids in the hot, charged plasma gas that fuels fusion reactions. These round structures carry current that could eliminate the need for solenoids - large magnetic coils that wind down the center of today's tokamaks - to initiate the plasma and complete the magnetic field that confines the hot gas.
> "Understanding this behavior will help us produce plasmas that undergo fusion reactions indefinitely," said Fatima Ebrahimi, a physicist at both Princeton University and PPPL, and the paper's lead author.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Solar cell sets world record with a stabilized efficiency of 13.6%*
*10 hours ago by Lisa Zyga feature*



Enlarge
Topological images of silicon films on honeycomb structures, which is what the researchers used to design the new solar cells. Credit: Sai, et al. ©2015 AIP Publishing


> (Phys.org)—In a new study, scientists have reported a world record stabilized efficiency of 13.6% for a triple-junction thin-film silicon solar cell, which is a newer version of the single-junction thin-film silicon solar cell that has been used in commercial products since the 1970s. This value edges out the previous record of 13.44%, and the researchers expect that a few reasonable improvements will push it above 14%.





Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-06-solar-cell-world-stabilized-efficiency.html#jCp


----------



## ScienceRocks

*China's LENR is getting excess 600 watts of heat from 780 watts of input power*



> The experiment set-up with powder fuels (Ni + 10%(in weight)LiAlH4) is 20 grams filled in a nickel cell，located in the stainless-steel reaction chamber. The existing heater is made of nichrome wire, which is wound on a ceramic tube. A stabilized DC power supply is used. The heater is surrounded by MgO thermal insulation material, which is filled in an aluminum hollow cylindrical jacket with inner-diameter of 55 mm, outer-diameter of 25 cm and 40 cm long. The temperature is measured by stainless steel shielded K-type thermocouples. The thermocouple T1 is located on the outer surface of the stainless-steel reaction chamber, T2 is placed in contact with outer surface of the nickel cell and T3 is inserted inside container in contact with the fuel powders. The experiment was carried out in 4-8 May.
> 
> The experiment was carried out in 4-8 May, 2015, lasted 96 hours. In the first day, the reaction chamber was vacuumed to 10-4 mbar, and then was heated up. The LiAlH4 was degassed, and the upper pressure in the chamber reached 400 kPa at temperatures of 150-300 0C or so. Then the pressure went down to -90 kPa in subsequent 18-hours. In the next day, when the temperature of thermocouple T3 was increased to about 950 0C by tuning electric power to 900 W, the temperature of thermocouple in the fuel cell increased rapidly


----------



## ScienceRocks

*First Solar’s thin film module achieves 18.6 % aperture conversion efficiency*



> First Solar has achieved 18.6% aperture conversion efficiency for its full size cadmium-telluride (CdTe) photovoltaic (PV) module.
> 
> Certified by the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the new record of 18.6% aperture area efficiency relates to a full area conversion efficiency of 18.2%.
> The achievement overcomes the previous record of approximate full area efficiency of 17.7% of multi-crystalline Si PERC module.
> First Solar CEO Raffi Garabedian said: "First Solar's CdTe thin film is now rightly categorized as a high performance product.
> "At one time, we might have been characterized as a low cost, low efficiency technology, but consistent with our technology projections we are now proving that CdTe thin film delivers both industry-leading performance AND sustainable thin-film cost structures.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*New manufacturing approach slices lithium-ion battery cost in half*


> An advanced manufacturing approach for lithium-ion batteries, developed by researchers at MIT and at a spinoff company called 24M, promises to significantly slash the cost of the most widely used type of rechargeable batteries while also improving their performance and making them easier to recycle.
> 
> "We've reinvented the process," says Yet-Ming Chiang, the Kyocera Professor of Ceramics at MIT and a co-founder of 24M (and previously a co-founder of battery company A123). The existing process formanufacturing lithium-ion batteries, he says, has hardly changed in the two decades since the technology was invented, and is inefficient, with more steps and components than are really needed.
> The new process is based on a concept developed five years ago by Chiang and colleagues including W. Craig Carter, the POSCO Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. In this so-called "flow battery," the electrodes are suspensions of tiny particles carried by a liquid and pumped through various compartments of the battery.
> The new battery design is a hybrid between flow batteries and conventional solid ones: In this version, while the electrode material does not flow, it is composed of a similar semisolid, colloidal suspension of particles. Chiang and Carter refer to this as a "semisolid battery."


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Researchers achieved 15% energy conversion efficiency in perovskite solar cells for an area over 1 square cm for the first time certified at an international public test center*



> A research group led by Dr. Liyuan Han, the leader of the Photovoltaic Materials Unit at the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS, Sukekatsu Ushioda, president) achieved 15% energy conversion efficiency in perovskite solar cells for the first time in the world as officially recognized by an international public test center.
> The most conversion efficiencies in perovskite solar cells reported thus far had been measured using small-sized cells (about 0.1 cm2). A conversion efficiency of 20.1% has been reported previously, but the measurement error was large in that study due to the small-sized cells used (0.0955 cm2) and the report did not present the measurement method. To steadily advance R&D of perovskite solar cells based on reliable data, it is an important issue to measure the conversion efficiencies at international public test center.
> The research group attained increased conversion efficiency and reproducibility of perovskite solar cells by controlling morphology of perovskite layer with new fabricating method. In addition, since the conventional material used for a charge carrier transport layer is hydrophilic, the conversion efficiency of the cell deteriorates rapidly. Here, we developed a new charge transport material which shows hydrophobicity and high carrier mobility, and successfully improved the stability of perovskite solar cells with this new material. Based on these results, we expanded the solar cell to more than 1 cm square and improved the method to create the device. As a result, we achieved 15% conversion efficiency in perovskite solar cells for the first time in the world certified by the international public test center (Calibration, Standards and Measurement Team at the Research Center for Photovoltaics, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology).


----------



## ScienceRocks

*US Anticipates Small Modular Nuclear Reactors in Next Decade*




> The United States may add small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) to its energy portfolio in the next ten years, US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said at the 2015 Energy Information Agency conference on Monday.
> "We are hoping we will see the first of these units [SMRs], particularly right now one in the 50 Mega Watt (MW) scale, deployed early in the next decade," Moniz stated.
> The US Department of Energy remains "very interested" in testing the deployment of small modular reactors to assess the safety and environmental benefits, Moniz noted, adding that the SMRs present other advantages because of their relatively low capital costs per unit.
> SMRs are smaller, factory produced units designed to provide electricity in areas that are isolated or may have smaller electric grids, or where water and space are limited. SMR energy production can range up to 300MW, under current designs.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Samsung Develops Tech to Double Lithium Battery Capacity*




> The research arm of Samsung Electronics announced on June 25 that it has developed a technology to make a silicon cathode material for coating high crystal graphene on a silicon surface to realize an energy density almost two times more than that of existing lithium batteries.
> 
> Existing lithium batteries, which were developed and commercialized by Sony in the 90’s, has been developed in a way of extending the capacity rather than increasing the life and density owing to limitations of material itself. The expansion of capacity has remained at best two times more than that of the first commercialized batteries.
> 
> Currently, the development of high-capacity battery materials has been mostly done in the United States. In particular, the research is active on silicon as a substitute material capable of raising the capacity more than 10 times that of the graphite currently used as an existing cathode material. There is, however, still the technological problem of the shortening the battery life by repeated charging and discharging.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Samsung Dramatically Increases Battery Capacity (Nearly Doubles It)*
June 30th, 2015 by *Nicholas Brown* 

Samsung Dramatically Increases Battery Capacity

Kompulsa


> Samsung researchers have developed a new technology that enables them to coat silicon battery cathodes with high crystal graphene. This means that they can now virtually double the capacity of lithium-ion batteries! This energy density increase could almost double the range of electric vehicles without adding a single pound of weight. This could also double the electric-mode range of plug-in hybrid cars, significantly reducing reliance on their built-in gasoline engines.


----------



## CultureCitizen

Matthew said:


> *Samsung Dramatically Increases Battery Capacity (Nearly Doubles It)*
> June 30th, 2015 by *Nicholas Brown*
> 
> Samsung Dramatically Increases Battery Capacity
> 
> Kompulsa
> 
> 
> 
> Samsung researchers have developed a new technology that enables them to coat silicon battery cathodes with high crystal graphene. This means that they can now virtually double the capacity of lithium-ion batteries! This energy density increase could almost double the range of electric vehicles without adding a single pound of weight. This could also double the electric-mode range of plug-in hybrid cars, significantly reducing reliance on their built-in gasoline engines.
Click to expand...

Hydraulic Energy Storage seems the best option with the current technology :
  Cheap, small footprint. efficient. 
It will also become a really good option for a startup within the next 10 years.


----------



## HenryBHough

They're running battery powered buses in York, England.

Well....they might be in the next week or two but not just now.

That's because one of the 11 bought burst into flames about a week ago and they're still trying to figure out how to keep the remaining 10 from doing the same.


----------



## ScienceRocks

Suntech Ramps Up Silicon Solar Cell Efficiency Again, Beats Own Record

*Published on* July 9th, 2015 | _by Tina Casey_


> The Chinese solar company Suntech has roared back to life with a new silicon solar cell efficiency record, just two months after setting a previous record...


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Phosphorene could lead to ultrathin solar cells*
How to make it using simple sticky tape; peeling off layers changes its properties
*July 22, 2015*




_Australian National University | Sticky tape the key to ultrathin solar cells_

Scientists at Australian National University (ANU) have used simple transparent sticky (aka “Scotch”) tape to create single-atom-thick layers of phosphorene from “black phosphorus,” a black crystalline form of phosphorus similar to graphite (which is used to create graphene).

Unlike graphene, phosphorene is a natural semiconductor that can be switched… read more


----------



## sealybobo

Matthew said:


> ---This thread will have the latest advances in batteries @ energy technology----Batteries, Wind, solar, wave, oil, coal, nuclear, fusion, etc...This is modeled after the threads in the science forum. I will consider making another thread for general news...We will see.
> 
> *Texas Instruments brings fast charging, extended life to Li-ion batteries*
> 
> By Myriam Joire posted Jun 7th 2013 9:14AM  19
> 
> Texas Instruments brings fast charging, extended life to Li-ion batteries
> 
> 
> 
> Yesterday Texas Instruments introduced a couple of new chipsets (fuel gauge an charger ICs) designed to improve the charging speed and life expectancy of single-cell Li-ion batteries. The technology, called MaxLife, is expected to provide an improvement of up to 30 percent in battery service life and faster charging times. Cell impedance is carefully monitored by the fuel gauge chip while the charger IC uses a model of battery degradation to charge the cell in the most optimal way. Both chips are connected via an I2C bus to form an autonomous battery management system which, according to the company, is safer and more thermally efficient than existing solutions. The two chipsets (2.5A and 4.5A) are now available along with a development kit, so it's only a matter of time until this technology lands into handsets and other devices that use single-cell Li-ion batteries
> 
> Mobile phone users are frustrated when their batteries' charge doesn't last as long after months of daily charging and discharging. TI's MaxLife technology leverages an innovative degradation modeling system to minimize charge time while extending battery service life &#8211; as much as 30 percent according to lab tests. Based on TI's popular Impedance Track&#8482; battery capacity measurement technology, the MaxLife algorithm accurately predicts and avoids charge conditions that could degrade the battery.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Texas Instruments brings fast charging, extended life to Li-ion batteries
Click to expand...

Pbs is doing a show on how much we and other countries like china are doing more and more with the power of the sun. Wind solar panels even harnessing currents. We have 7 billion people and ten billion by 2050. We can't rely on coal forever.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Solar to increase efficiency 50%*

*The humble butterfly could hold the key to unlocking new techniques to make solar energy cheaper and more efficient, pioneering new research has shown.*


> A team of experts from the University of Exeter has examined new techniques for generating photovoltaic (PV) energy – or ways in which to convert light into power.
> They showed that by mimicking the v-shaped posture adopted by Cabbage White butterflies to heat up their flight muscles before take-off, the amount of power produced by solar panels can increase by almost 50 per cent.
> Crucially, by replicating this ‘wing-like’ structure, the power-to-weight ratio of the overall solar energy structure is increased 17-fold, making it vastly more efficient.
> The research by the team from both the Environment and Sustainability Institute (ESI) and the Centre for Ecology and Conservation, based at the University of Exeter’s Penryn Campus in Cornwall, is published in the leading scientific journal,Scientific Reports.


----------



## sealybobo

Matthew said:


> *Solar to increase efficiency 50%*
> 
> *The humble butterfly could hold the key to unlocking new techniques to make solar energy cheaper and more efficient, pioneering new research has shown.*
> 
> 
> 
> A team of experts from the University of Exeter has examined new techniques for generating photovoltaic (PV) energy – or ways in which to convert light into power.
> They showed that by mimicking the v-shaped posture adopted by Cabbage White butterflies to heat up their flight muscles before take-off, the amount of power produced by solar panels can increase by almost 50 per cent.
> Crucially, by replicating this ‘wing-like’ structure, the power-to-weight ratio of the overall solar energy structure is increased 17-fold, making it vastly more efficient.
> The research by the team from both the Environment and Sustainability Institute (ESI) and the Centre for Ecology and Conservation, based at the University of Exeter’s Penryn Campus in Cornwall, is published in the leading scientific journal,Scientific Reports.
Click to expand...

I saw the pbs special about all the ways we can harness the energy from the sun. Not only solar and wind come from the sun. So do the currents which rise and fall 50 ft per day. I said a long time ago we should be able to harness ocean currents.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*World's first "aqueous solar flow battery" outperforms traditional lithium-iodine batteries*
By Nick Lavars - August 3, 2015  3 Pictures 





> The scientists that revealed the "world's first solar battery" last year are now, following some modifications, reporting its first significant performance milestone. The device essentially fits a battery and solar cell into the one package, and has now been tested against traditional lithium-iodine batteries, over which the researchers are claiming energy savings of 20 percent.


----------



## there4eyeM

Thanks for all this informative, promising news. Nay-sayers are in despair!


----------



## Wyatt earp

HenryBHough said:


> They're running battery powered buses in York, England.
> 
> Well....they might be in the next week or two but not just now.
> 
> That's because one of the 11 bought burst into flames about a week ago and they're still trying to figure out how to keep the remaining 10 from doing the same.


 In Senca SC that's all they run, been operational for a year now, batterys  take like 10 mins to charge good for 40 miles.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Magnesium diboride superconductors can lower the cost of wind turbine generator coils by over fifteen times*



> In January 2001, it was announced that MgB2 (magnesium diboride), a compound that was well known to chemists, was superconducting up to 39 Kelvin. Building on this discovery, Hyper Tech was formed in 2001 to use the compound to create a high-performing, low cost superconducting wire. Hyper Tech developed and patented a continuous tube forming...


----------



## ScienceRocks

* China will start construction of a 600 MWe fourth generation nuclear reactor and it could be Terrapower traveling wave reactor *






Construction of the Xipu fast neutron reactor nuclear power demonstrative project in east China's Fujian province is designed to start at the end of 2017, China Business News quoted Xu Mi, an academician with Chinese Academy of Engineering, as saying. The demonstrative nuclear power project, designed with 600,000kw (600 MWe) installed capacity,...


----------



## ScienceRocks

* Helion Energy raised $10.9 million and has filed to raise $21 million which would be enough to build a breakeven scale fusion machine in 2016-2017 *







> Helion Energy has raised $10.6 million in a new funding round in July, 2015 to develop technology that aims to create a fusion reactor to generate power. The company disclosed the funds in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Helion plans to raise more than $21 million total in the continuing round. Nextbigfuture...


----------



## ScienceRocks

*  Lockheed Martin Compact Fusion Reactor Update with Video of Technical Presentation made at Princeton *







> Lockheed Martin Skunkworks is developing a compact fusion reactor concept, CFR. The novel magnetic cusp configuration would allow for stable plasmas in a geometry amenable to economical power plants and power sources. The details of the CFR configuration will be discussed along with a status of the current plasma confinement experiments underway...


Read more »


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Scientists have increased the efficiency of the artificial leaf from a previous 18% to 22% energy efficiency*



> The world could one day be powered by photosynthesis from artificial leaves, say researchers from Monash University in Melbourne. Their system to turn water into fuel, using nothing but solar energy, could be used to run cars, houses and even whole communities.
> The 'artificial leaf' created by researchers is actually more of a solar-powered device that is able to produce hydrogen with a record-breaking degree of efficiency. The details of the technology, which marks a massive step towards simulating practical, artificial photosynthesis, have been laid out in a paper published in the journal Energy and Environmental Science.
> The process involves basically splitting up the water by passing an electric current through it, separating out the hydrogen particles so they can be used for fuel. While it sounds expensive, it is apparently cheap to do, and results in one of the cleanest forms of energy, which contains no carbon and produces no carbon dioxide as a by-product.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Making hydrogen fuel from water and visible light at 100 times higher efficiency*



> Researchers at Michigan Technological University have found a way to convert light to hydrogen fuel more efficiently — a big step closer to mimicking photosynthesis.
> Current methods for creating hydrogen fuel are based on using electrodes made from titanium dioxide (TiO2), which acts as a catalyst to stimulate the light–>water–>hydrogen chemical reaction. This works great with ultraviolet (UV) light, but UV comprises only about 4% of the total solar energy, making the overall process highly inefficient.*
> The ideal would be to use visible light, since it constitutes about 45 percent of solar energy. Now two Michigan Tech scientists — Yun Hang Hu, the Charles and Carroll McArthur professor of Materials Science and Engineer, and his PhD student, Bing Han — have developed a way to do exactly that.
> They report in Journal of Physical Chemistry that by absorbing the entire visible light spectrum, they have increased the yield and energy efficiency of creating hydrogen fuel by up to two magnitudes (100 times) greater than previously reported.**


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Rechargeable batteries with almost indefinite lifetimes coming, say MIT-Samsung engineers*


> MIT and Samsung researchers have developed a new approach to achieving long life and a 20 to 30 percent improvement in power density (the amount of power stored in a given space) in rechargeable batteries — using a solid electrolyte, rather than the liquid used in today’s most common rechargeables. The new materials could also greatly improve safety and last through “hundreds of thousands of cycles.”
> The results are reported in the journal Nature Materials. Solid-state electrolytes could be “a real game-changer,” says co-author Gerbrand Ceder, MIT visiting professor of materials science and engineering, creating “almost a perfect battery, solving most of the remaining issues” in battery lifetime, safety, and cost.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Secretive fusion company makes reactor breakthrough*



> In a suburban industrial park south of Los Angeles, researchers have taken a significant step toward mastering nuclear fusion—a process that could provide abundant, cheap, and clean energy. A privately funded company called Tri Alpha Energy has built a machine that forms a ball of superheated gas—at about 10 million degrees Celsius—and holds it steady for 5 milliseconds without decaying away. That may seem a mere blink of an eye, but it is far longer than other efforts with the technique and shows for the first time that it is possible to hold the gas in a steady state—the researchers stopped only when their machine ran out of juice.
> “They’ve succeeded finally in achieving a lifetime limited only by the power available to the system,” says particle physicist Burton Richter of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, who sits on a board of advisers to Tri Alpha. If the company’s scientists can scale the technique up to longer times and higher temperatures, they will reach a stage at which atomic nuclei in the gas collide forcefully enough to fuse together, releasing energy.
> Although other startup companies are also trying to achieve fusion using similar methods, the main efforts in this field are huge government-funded projects such as the $20 billion International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), under construction in France by an international collaboration, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s $4 billion National Ignition Facility (NIF) in Livermore, California. But the burgeoning cost and complexity of such projects are causing many to doubt they will ever produce plants that can generate energy at an affordable cost.
> Tri Alpha’s and similar efforts take a different approach, which promises simpler, cheaper machines that can be developed more quickly. Importantly, the Tri Alpha machine may be able to operate with a different fuel than most other fusion reactors. This fuel—a mix of hydrogen and boron—is harder to react, but Tri Alpha researchers say it avoids many of the problems likely to confront conventional fusion power plants. “They are where they are because people are able to believe they can get a [hydrogen-boron] reactor to work,” says plasma physicist David Hammer of Cornell University, also a Tri Alpha adviser.


----------



## HenryBHough

The quest to power America with angel farts went off the rails when the researchers confined their search to the grounds of The (former) White House.


----------



## ScienceRocks

HenryBHough said:


> The quest to power America with angel farts went off the rails when the researchers confined their search to the grounds of The (former) White House.




What a dumb fucker you're. A human joke.


----------



## HenryBHough

Wonderful new lighter powered by a single lithium battery.

Only issue is it decides on its own when it wants to set fire to something.


----------



## Old Rocks

HenryBHough said:


> Wonderful new lighter powered by a single lithium battery.
> 
> Only issue is it decides on its own when it wants to set fire to something.


All of which is supposed to mean what? Your posts are beginning to sound like the ramblings of someone deep into dementia. 

Lithium batteries are here until replaced by something better.


----------



## ScienceRocks

* Samsung unveils higher capacity Lithium ion batteries for electric bikes to provide 100 kilometer range in one charge *






Samsung SDI already had high capacity 2.9 Ah (29E) cells for E-bikes. High capacity cells such as 2.9 Ah improve the driving distance of the E-bike and provide convenience to the customers. Samsung SDI unveiled a 500Wh e-bike Li-ion battery pack that can run for 100 km on a single battery charge. Samsung SDI is exhibiting six types of standardized...


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Quantum dot solar cell exhibits 30-fold concentration*

Quote

By combining designer quantum dot light-emitters with spectrally matched photonic mirrors, a team of scientists with Berkeley Lab and the University of Illinois created solar cells that collect blue photons at 30 times the concentration of conventional solar cells, the highest luminescent concentration factor ever recorded. This breakthrough paves the way for the future development of low-cost solar cells that efficiently utilize the high-energy part of the solar spectrum.
“We’ve achieved a luminescent concentration ratio greater than 30 with an optical efficiency of 82-percent for blue photons,” says Berkeley Lab director Paul Alivisatos, who is also the Samsung Distinguished Professor of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the University of California Berkeley, and director of the Kavli Energy Nanoscience Institute (ENSI), was the co-leader of this research. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest luminescent concentration factor in literature to date.”


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## ScienceRocks

*High-efficiency, semi-transparent perovskite/graphene solar cells created at low cost*

 Colin Jeffrey 
September 11, 2015
 3 PICTURES 





> With the continued rise in the uptake of solar cells, consumers are now looking at less obtrusive ways to incorporate these in buildings and vehicles. Transparent or semi-transparent cells provide greater flexibility and visual appeal than standard, opaque silicon solar cells, however their relatively high-cost and poor efficiencies have meant that their adoption has been slow. To help remedy this, researchers working at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) have created semi-transparent, efficient, low-cost perovskite solar cells with graphene


----------



## ScienceRocks

* Maximizing Energy from Solar Panels on Slanted Roofs with kirigami shapechanging solar cells *







> Researchers have shown a new way to help solar cells track the sun as it moves across the sky, which could boost a panel’s energy generation by 40 percent. Most of the solar panels in the world sit on rooftops at a fixed angle, so they miss out on capturing energy during parts of every day. Now researchers have shown that by cutting solar...


----------



## ScienceRocks

*This transparent solar-powered battery looks like a futuristic Tony Stark invention*

Quote

Remember Iron Man’s transparent smartphones? They might become reality sooner than you think thanks to an unusual new type of battery that’s not only transparent, but it can also charge via solar power. The technology could also be used for other products in the future, such as smart office and home windows that would be able to let the sun’s light pass through them, but also recharge and store energy.
Developed by a team of researchers at the Kogakuin Univeristy, the lithium ion battery is not entirely transparent, as it contains the same chemical compounds that make any battery work. Furthermore, when exposed to sunlight, the battery becomes slightly tinted, transmitting 30% less light – but it’s still transparent. When fully discharged, the light transmittance rises to approximately 60 percent,TechXplore reports.

To pull these tricks off, the team of scientists shrunk down the electrodes, all the way down to around 80-90nm, to allow light to pass through.





_Image Source: *Screenshot*_


----------



## ScienceRocks

* Bosch claims they will commercialize 400 watt hour per kilogram solid state batteries at half the price of todays batteries by 2020*






> German company Bosch acquired California Battery startup Seeo. Seeo submitted batteries for official testing late last year, claiming an energy density of 220 watt-hours per kilogram. CEO Hal Zarem told GigaOm's Katie Fehrenbacher that the company had "started working on a second-generation battery" which will have an energy density of 400...


----------



## ScienceRocks

*A rechargeable battery to power a home from rooftop solar panels*
A team of Harvard scientists and engineers has demonstrated a rechargeable battery that could make storage of electricity from intermittent energy sources like solar and wind safe and cost-effective for both residential and ...


----------



## ScienceRocks

* Bill Gates Terrapower and China national nuclear corp will build a prototype traveling wave reactor- a liquid sodium-cooled fast reactor *





Bill Gate’s efforts to close a deal with China National Nuclear Corp. have finally paid off. The company has inked a deal to build a first-of-a-kind unit of their sodium cooled fast reactor in China and then manufacture a commercial version of it. Zhimin Qian, President of China National Nuclear Corp. signed the deal with Lee McIntire,...


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## 30 year chrysler mechanic

Matthew said:


> *New all-solid sulfur-based battery outperforms lithium-ion technology *
> 
> New all-solid sulfur-based battery outperforms lithium-ion technology
> 
> 
> 
> Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have designed and tested an all-solid lithium-sulfur battery with approximately four times the energy density of conventional lithium-ion technologies that power today's electronics.
> 
> The ORNL battery design, which uses abundant low-cost elemental sulfur, also addresses flammability concerns experienced by other chemistries.
> 
> The new ionically-conductive cathode enabled the ORNL battery to maintain a capacity of 1200 milliamp-hours (mAh) per gram after 300 charge-discharge cycles at 60 degrees Celsius. For comparison, a traditional lithium-ion battery cathode has an average capacity between 140-170 mAh/g. Because lithium-sulfur batteries deliver about half the voltage of lithium-ion versions, this eight-fold increase in capacity demonstrated in the ORNL battery cathode translates into four times the gravimetric energy density of lithium-ion technologies, explained Liang.
> 
> Although the team's new battery is still in the demonstration stage, Liang and his colleagues hope to see their research move quickly from the laboratory into commercial applications. A patent on the team's design is pending.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Imagine a electric car with 4 times the range!
Click to expand...

4 times  range . take tesla's battery pack a nitrogen cooled sc motor and put it to a series hydraulic hybrid .

best battery  ever designed= stable plasma spiral electron torid. go to nasa institute for advanced concepts, click on funded studies and toward bottom of list article on low cost transportation to mars by clint seward. the  reason  fusion  energy  research is still  alive  is this  battery  is  only  man  made  object  that  can  survive  long  enough to deliver fuel to reactor.
13  years ago or so when it was invented.


----------



## ScienceRocks

* Near term Commercial Fusion Power Possible - Laser induced fusion of ultra-dense deuterium with double net energy gain has been produced and gain of 20 times is within reach *







> Researchers at the University of Gothenburg and the University of Iceland are researching a new type of nuclear fusion process. This produces almost no neutrons but instead fast, heavy electrons (muons), since it is based on nuclear reactions in ultra-dense heavy hydrogen (deuterium). The new fusion process can take place in relatively small...


----------



## 30 year chrysler mechanic

Matthew said:


> * Near term Commercial Fusion Power Possible - Laser induced fusion of ultra-dense deuterium with double net energy gain has been produced and gain of 20 times is within reach *
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Researchers at the University of Gothenburg and the University of Iceland are researching a new type of nuclear fusion process. This produces almost no neutrons but instead fast, heavy electrons (muons), since it is based on nuclear reactions in ultra-dense heavy hydrogen (deuterium). The new fusion process can take place in relatively small...
Click to expand...


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## 30 year chrysler mechanic

thorium heat lazer  100,000 mile battery  for  cars. radiation tech. radiation to electricity battery (beta)  every reactor in  country  has spent rods to storage  capacity , why  not use  it in car battery and  put  lead  on  outside  of  battery  instead of  in  it.


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## HenryBHough

Old Rocks said:


> Lithium batteries are here until replaced by something better.



Pack a few in your suitcase when next you fly then get back to about those lithium batteries when you're released.


----------



## ScienceRocks

* SolarCity Unveils World’s Most Efficient Rooftop Solar Panel with 22% efficiency and lower manufacturing cost *





SolarCity has built the world’s most efficient rooftop solar panel, with a module efficiency exceeding 22 percent. The new SolarCity panel generates more power per square foot and harvests more energy over a year than any other rooftop panel in production, and will be the highest volume solar panel manufactured in the Western Hemisphere. SolarCity...
Read more »


----------



## 30 year chrysler mechanic

best  battery you  will  never  get  hands on ( stable  plasma  spiral  electron torid ) by  clint  seward  of  electron power  systems.
read about  it  at  nasa institute  for  advanced concepts under funded studies. cornerstone technology  that  makes  fusion possible.

best  solar  panel  = spectro lab a  boeing company  at 38% efficiency. again space tech = mars rover panel.


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## ninja007

infrastructure, science, r&d.


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## ScienceRocks

ninja007 said:


> infrastructure, science, r&d.




Yes, I know, you want to defund it all and turn our country into a third world shit hole. I get it.


----------



## 30 year chrysler mechanic

Matthew said:


> *ZSW engineers build lithium-ion battery able to last for 27 years*
> 
> 3 hours ago by Bob Yirka report
> 
> 
> 
> 
> (Phys.org) &#8212;Officials at Germany's Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg, (ZSW) have issued a press release describing improvements they've made to lithium-ion batteries. They claim their improvements allow a single battery to be recharged up to 10,000 times while still retaining 85 percent of its charging capacity. Such a battery, if used in an electric car, they note, would allow its owner to recharge the battery every day for 27.4 years.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Read more at: ZSW engineers build lithium-ion battery able to last for 27 years
Click to expand...

believe it when i see it. only battery that  would  have lasted that long in a car was the edison cell nickle iron battery  and it would have started any car built in past 100 years but it lasted too long so never used. glass mats were suppose to last 10 years , i change them out every day haven't seen a 10 year old glass mat yet. i have see  some old lead acid last 10 years. lithium very flammable  and very hard to put out.


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## ScienceRocks

*"Fool's gold" nanocrystals present cheap, abundant alternative to lithium in batteries*

 Colin Jeffrey 
November 15, 2015
 3 PICTURES 



As energy production moves towards solar and wind-powered alternatives, battery systems to store intermittently-produced electricity have never been more important. Unfortunately, many of the materials needed to make high-performance batteries for this purpose are rapidly diminishing and becoming increasingly expensive as a result. Now researchers have created a new type of storage battery that is made from a range of cheap and abundant materials and shows promise for high-efficiency performance.


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## ScienceRocks

*Huawei shows super-fast battery charging at Japan event*
Batteries that charge in minutes, the very concept is an attention-grabber. Huawei believes it has taken a real step forward and has videos to demonstrate its successful experiments with super-fast battery charging.


----------



## ScienceRocks

* Huawei Unveils Lithium-Ion Batteries That Charge ~10 Times Faster *
*Published on* November 16th, 2015 | _by James Ayre_

16 comments Originally published on EV Obsession. New fast-charging lithium-in batteries were recently unveiled by workers from Watt Lab — an arm of the Central Research Institute at Huawei Technology Corporation — at the recent 56th Battery Symposium


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Researchers create sodium battery in industry standard "18650" format*

 Eric Mack 
November 28, 2015
 3 PICTURES 





> A team of researchers in France has taken a major step towards powering our devices with rechargeable batteries based on an element that is far more abundant and cheaper than lithium. For the first time ever, a battery has been developed using sodium ions in the industry standard "18650" format used in laptop batteries, LED flashlights and the Tesla Model S, among other products.



Read More


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Metal makes for a promising alternative to fossil fuels*

 David Szondy 
December 12, 2015






> Clean fuels come in many forms, but burning iron or aluminum seems to be stretching the definition – unless you ask a team of scientists led by McGill University, who see a low-carbon future that runs on metal. The team is studying the combustion characteristics of metal powders to determine whether such powders could provide a cleaner, more viable alternative to fossil fuels than hydrogen, biofuels, or electric batteries.


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## HenryBHough

Lithium batteries apparently represent a major breakthrough in home heating. 

Especially when placed in a toy hoverboard 'neath a dry Christmas tree.

A little tough to control the room temp, though.


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## ScienceRocks

HenryBHough said:


> Lithium batteries apparently represent a major breakthrough in home heating.
> 
> Especially when placed in a toy hoverboard 'neath a dry Christmas tree.
> 
> A little tough to control the room temp, though.




Better then giving your child a 2,000 year old book about a god that burns a city to the ground and demand that they learn nothing else.  Also, it may not be a good idea to bring a dry tree into your home...


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## ScienceRocks

*First plasma from Wendelstein 7-X fusion reactor*

 Nick Lavars 
December 13, 2015
 4 PICTURES 





> Testing of the Wendelstein 7-x stellarator has started with a bang, albeit a very very small one, with researchers switching on the experimental fusion reactor to produce its first helium plasma at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Greifswald, Germany. After almost a decade of construction work and more than a million assembly hours, the first tests have gone according to plan with the researchers to shift focus to producing hydrogen plasma after the new year.


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## Old Rocks

HenryBHough said:


> Lithium batteries apparently represent a major breakthrough in home heating.
> 
> Especially when placed in a toy hoverboard 'neath a dry Christmas tree.
> 
> A little tough to control the room temp, though.


And, of course, one might be smart enough not to buy devices powered by lithium batteries from manufacturers with a bad record.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Are these futuristic high-altitude balloons the brave new world of solar energy?*



> One way to improve the efficiency of solar panels is to place them where clouds can’t interrupt their energy production. Even in the sunniest parts of the world, clouds can still cause fluctuations in energy output. So what better place to put solar panels than above the clouds?
> 
> 
> The idea is not without major hurdles, but some energy scientists think it’s worth trying. Researchers at NextPV—a multinational lab jointly operated by France’s CNRS and the University of Tokyo—are developing solar panels attached to high-altitude balloons that would hypothetically float 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) in the sky. That’s well above where most clouds reside.
> 
> 
> “Anywhere above the planet, there are very few clouds at an altitude of 6 km—and none at all at 20 km,” writes CNRS French director Jean-François Guillemoles, in an article on the lab’s website. “As the sky loses its blue color, direct illumination becomes more intense: the concentration of solar energy results in more effective conversion, and hence higher yields.”


----------



## ScienceRocks

​*New hybrid electrolyte for solid-state lithium batteries*


> Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a novel electrolyte for use in solid-state lithium batteries that overcomes many of the problems that plague ...







​
*New flow battery offers lower-cost energy storage*


> Energy storage system owners could see significant savings from a new flow battery technology that is projected to cost 60 percent less than today's standard flow batteries.


----------



## ScienceRocks

* First Solar Panels Likely To Surpass p-type Crystalline Panels In Performance By 2017 *

*Published on* December 30th, 2015 | _by Saurabh Mahapatra_


> According to Solar Media’s Solar Intelligence, the performance of First Solar’s thin film solar panels is expected to exceed that of the p-type crystalline solar panels by the end of 2017. First Solar is among the [&hellip...


----------



## ScienceRocks

*New battery made of molten metals may offer low-cost, long-lasting storage for the grid*



> A novel rechargeable battery developed at MIT could one day play a critical role in the massive expansion of solar generation needed to mitigate climate change by midcentury. Designed to store energy on the electric grid, ...


*Stable "superoxide" opens the door to a new class of batteries*



> While lithium-ion batteries have transformed our everyday lives, researchers are currently trying to find new chemistries that could offer even better energy possibilities. One of these chemistries, lithium-air, could promise ...





*Battery “kill-switch” prevents overheating and fires*


 John Anderson 
January 13, 2016
 2 PICTURES 





> Researches at Stanford University have developed a lithium-ion battery that automatically shuts off before it overheats, and restarts instantly once it cools down. The simple add-on to existing battery technology could help prevent battery fires in laptops and other electronic devices.


----------



## ScienceRocks

​*Fuel cell breakthrough: Team reports success with low-cost nickel-based catalyst*



> "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" is a popular comedy from the 1980s, but there's nothing funny about the amount of energy consumed by our nation's transportation sector.
> This sector—which includes passenger cars, trucks, buses, and rail, marine, and air transport—accounts for more than 20 percent of America's energy use, mostly in the form of fossil fuels, so the search is on for environmentally friendly alternatives.
> The two most promising current candidates for cars are fuel cells, which convert the chemical energy of hydrogen to electricity, and rechargeable batteries.
> The University of Delaware's Yushan Yan believes that fuel cells will eventually win out.
> 
> 
> Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-01-fuel-cell-breakthrough-team-success.html#jCp



*Lightbridge making progress to improved nuclear fuel that will boost energy production by 17% in existing nuclear reactors*







> Lightbridge Corporation has received final regulatory approval for irradiation testing of its metallic fuel at Norway's Halden research reactor. The company has also entered an agreement with US fabricator BWXT Nuclear Energy to evaluate the possible fabrication of fuel samples at BWXT's US facilities. Reston, Virginia-based Lightbridge...


----------



## ScienceRocks

*New Generation of Solar Cells At One Fifth The Cost*

New Generation of Solar Cells At One Fifth The Cost
By newuniversedaily on January 19, 2016 • ( Leave a comment )
ADVERTISEMENT​*Scientists from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland have developed a solar panel material that is one fifth the cost of the current commercial equivalent.​*


> Results also show that the new material is more efficient – at 20.2% – then its other two, more expensive rivals. And because the composite is easily modified, it will likely be a blueprint for a new generation of low cost solar cells.
> 
> A promising area in photovoltaic solar cell development harnesses films made from _perovskites –  _a material with the same type of _crystal structure_ as calcium titanium oxide. Perovskite-based cells are of huge interest to the academic community because their operational methods are new, and there has been a meteoric rise in power conversion efficiency compared to other technologies in a relatively short time period (as shown in the graph).
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Image credit: ossilla.com


----------



## saveliberty

Matthew said:


> ​*Fuel cell breakthrough: Team reports success with low-cost nickel-based catalyst*
> 
> 
> 
> 
> "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" is a popular comedy from the 1980s, but there's nothing funny about the amount of energy consumed by our nation's transportation sector.
> This sector—which includes passenger cars, trucks, buses, and rail, marine, and air transport—accounts for more than 20 percent of America's energy use, mostly in the form of fossil fuels, so the search is on for environmentally friendly alternatives.
> The two most promising current candidates for cars are fuel cells, which convert the chemical energy of hydrogen to electricity, and rechargeable batteries.
> The University of Delaware's Yushan Yan believes that fuel cells will eventually win out.
> 
> 
> Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-01-fuel-cell-breakthrough-team-success.html#jCp
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *Lightbridge making progress to improved nuclear fuel that will boost energy production by 17% in existing nuclear reactors*
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Lightbridge Corporation has received final regulatory approval for irradiation testing of its metallic fuel at Norway's Halden research reactor. The company has also entered an agreement with US fabricator BWXT Nuclear Energy to evaluate the possible fabrication of fuel samples at BWXT's US facilities. Reston, Virginia-based Lightbridge...
> 
> Click to expand...
Click to expand...


Nickel, now there's a completely safe metal...


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Lithium-oxygen breakthrough clears the air for boosted batteries*


 Nick Lavars 
January 26, 2016






> Boasting an energy density similar to that of gasoline, lithium-air (or lithium-oxygen) batteries may one day prove the panacea for the range-anxiety associated with electric vehicles. But first there are a number of challenges that need to be overcome, one of which is the unwanted buildup of lithium peroxide on the electrode which hampers this type of battery's performance. Scientists have now figured out a way that this mess might be avoided – an advance they say could lead to batteries with five times the energy density of those currently available.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Lithium-ion battery boost could come from "caging" silicon in graphene*

 Eric Mack 
January 30, 2016
 2 PICTURES 





> A team at Stanford claims to have made a battery breakthrough that could boost the performance of lithium-ion batteries and also make them smaller and lighter. The researchers managed to remove two long-standing barriers to these improvements by putting silicon particles in graphene "cages."


----------



## elektra

How come with all your threads you got solar lumped here, it aint like you can install enough solar that you would have an excess to store in obamabatteries.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*China's experimental fusion reactor maintains superheated hydrogen plasma for 102 seconds*

 Nick Lavars 
February 8, 2016
 2 PICTURES 





> A bit of friendly competition never hurt anyone. China's EAST tokamak and Germany's Wendelstein 7-X aren't exactly fusion energy's answer to Messi and Ronaldo, but through their own flashes of individual brilliance the reactors might one day command the world's attention in a much more important way. Wendelstein 7-X made headlines last week after generating a quarter-of-a-second pulse of hydrogen plasma, and now scientists at China's Institute of Physical Science have flexed their fusion muscle to sustain the gas for an impressive 102 seconds.


----------



## ScienceRocks

*Researchers Accidentally Make Batteries Last 400 Times Longer*


> Smartphones, tablets, and most other electronics rely on rechargeable batteries, but after a few thousand uses the batteries start to lose their ability to hold a charge. The batteries of today are mainly lithium, and over time that lithium corrodes inside the battery.
> 
> Instead of lithium, researchers at UC Irvine have used gold nanowires to store electricity, and have found that their system is able to far outlast traditional lithium battery construction. The Irvine team's system cycled through 200,000 recharges without significant corrosion or decline.
> However, they don't exactly know why. The original idea of the experiment was to make a solid-state battery: one that uses an electrolyte gel, rather than liquid, to help hold charge. Liquid batteries, like the common lithium variety, are extremely combustible and sensitive to temperature. The Irvine team was experimenting by substituting a much thicker gel.
> "We started to cycle the devices, and then realized that they weren't going to die," said Reginald Penner, a lead author of the paper. "We don't understand the mechanism of that yet."
> Although you may have never cracked one open (we hope), most of the batteries in your gadgets contain liquid. Liquid is used in part because its conductivity allows flexible and partial charging and discharging. Finding highly conductive electrolyte gels has proven difficult.


----------



## there4eyeM

Always amazing that the naysayers are so virulent. What is gained by propagandizing against solar?


----------



## Old Rocks

elektra said:


> How come with all your threads you got solar lumped here, it aint like you can install enough solar that you would have an excess to store in obamabatteries.


Obama batteries? How fucking dumb can you get, Elektra? It is Tesla batteries, as well as other manufactures. And, yes, a roof top installation of solar would charge those batteries to capacity. No matter how much people like you flap yap, the progress goes on. And the economic independence of a homeowner is starting to become a reality.

As the solar panels increase in efficiency, and continue to come down in price, more and more people will use them to eliminate their dependence on a utility. In fact, those utilities which forego the opportunity to see this as a new form of generation will eventually go the route the coal companies are now going.


----------



## elektra

Old Rocks said:


> elektra said:
> 
> 
> 
> How come with all your threads you got solar lumped here, it aint like you can install enough solar that you would have an excess to store in obamabatteries.
> 
> 
> 
> Obama batteries? How fucking dumb can you get, Elektra? It is Tesla batteries, as well as other manufactures. And, yes, a roof top installation of solar would charge those batteries to capacity. No matter how much people like you flap yap, the progress goes on. And the economic independence of a homeowner is starting to become a reality.
> 
> As the solar panels increase in efficiency, and continue to come down in price, more and more people will use them to eliminate their dependence on a utility. In fact, those utilities which forego the opportunity to see this as a new form of generation will eventually go the route the coal companies are now going.
Click to expand...

Utilities that dont fall in libe will be eliminated? What is shocking is people are so stupid as to propose eliminating utilities leaving us praying for a sunny day in the dead of winter to warm our house, cook our food and pump the water we need to live.

Your last statements says it all, green energy will leave us at times in an extreme state of emergency. Praying for the sun to save our lives.

Old crock, you are really an idiot.


----------



## elektra

ObamaBatteries, research done in our public universities at our expense, at the expense of increasing research on a cure for cancer.


----------



## CultureCitizen

elektra said:


> ObamaBatteries, research done in our public universities at our expense, at the expense of increasing research on a cure for cancer.


Realy? So it's not the 2T war on Iraq , the huge military spending or the actual corporate tax of 10% that are hindering the research on cancer... oh my!!
It is those nasty evil college researchers ...


----------



## elektra

CultureCitizen said:


> elektra said:
> 
> 
> 
> ObamaBatteries, research done in our public universities at our expense, at the expense of increasing research on a cure for cancer.
> 
> 
> 
> Realy? So it's not the 2T war on Iraq , the huge military spending or the actual corporate tax of 10% that are hindering the research on cancer... oh my!!
> It is those nasty evil college researchers ...
Click to expand...

Yes, your post is bullshit. Instead of addressing the waste, instead of addressing the 2T given to Democrat's favorite people, you would rather change the argument to the War on Iraq or Corporate tax.

Fine, War on Iraq, we had already built the military, we already pay the military, we had already spent the money before the war began, building the bombs and jets, it is not like we built a military specifically for Iraq so your 2 trillion dollar figure is hardly representative of the true cost. 

Corporate tax? Only 10%, bullshit, but so what, us hard working americans deserve every penny we earn, that is our labor, our private property, the USA already confiscates enough money, of every single American working for a corporation, on top of what the government confiscates to begin with. 14% of every dollar goes to Social Security, another 10% is paid to workmen compensation.  That is 24% of every dollar, not to mention the 10% you claim ( which is more but no sense in arguing beings how you are wrong by 150%), which adds up to 34% tax on every dollar a corporation makes. Care to get into the government regulations, the lawyers mandated in order to comply with those regulations? How about state tax, you are speaking specifically of a Federal Tax. What about the Sign Tax? Building Permits? City Tax? What about mandatory insurance, another 10% of each dollar? 

Now lets add up all that money wasted on Battery technology in the Universities. How much are we spending on battery technology? How much does it cost us in the hours our congressman spend passing bills and such authorizing the spending? How much do we pay the congressional aids that research the Battery bills? How much is given in grants to universities? How much is being given to Tesla in the form of tax breaks? How much is being spent by the Department of Energy to research and develop the lithium mining technology? Why are we duplicating research that Everyready and Duracell have been researching for years? 

Yes, instead of curing cancer the democrats have given us ObamaBatteries. 

And you think we can live without the military? Foolish you are.


----------



## CultureCitizen

elektra said:


> CultureCitizen said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> elektra said:
> 
> 
> 
> ObamaBatteries, research done in our public universities at our expense, at the expense of increasing research on a cure for cancer.
> 
> 
> 
> Realy? So it's not the 2T war on Iraq , the huge military spending or the actual corporate tax of 10% that are hindering the research on cancer... oh my!!
> It is those nasty evil college researchers ...
> 
> 
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> Yes, your post is bullshit. Instead of addressing the waste, instead of addressing the 2T given to Democrat's favorite people, you would rather change the argument to the War on Iraq or Corporate tax.
> 
> Fine, War on Iraq, we had already built the military, we already pay the military, we had already spent the money before the war began, building the bombs and jets, it is not like we built a military specifically for Iraq so your 2 trillion dollar figure is hardly representative of the true cost.
> 
> Corporate tax? Only 10%, bullshit, but so what, us hard working americans deserve every penny we earn, that is our labor, our private property, the USA already confiscates enough money, of every single American working for a corporation, on top of what the government confiscates to begin with. 14% of every dollar goes to Social Security, another 10% is paid to workmen compensation.  That is 24% of every dollar, not to mention the 10% you claim ( which is more but no sense in arguing beings how you are wrong by 150%), which adds up to 34% tax on every dollar a corporation makes. Care to get into the government regulations, the lawyers mandated in order to comply with those regulations? How about state tax, you are speaking specifically of a Federal Tax. What about the Sign Tax? Building Permits? City Tax? What about mandatory insurance, another 10% of each dollar?
> 
> Now lets add up all that money wasted on Battery technology in the Universities. How much are we spending on battery technology? How much does it cost us in the hours our congressman spend passing bills and such authorizing the spending? How much do we pay the congressional aids that research the Battery bills? How much is given in grants to universities? How much is being given to Tesla in the form of tax breaks? How much is being spent by the Department of Energy to research and develop the lithium mining technology? Why are we duplicating research that Everyready and Duracell have been researching for years?
> 
> Yes, instead of curing cancer the democrats have given us ObamaBatteries.
> 
> And you think we can live without the military? Foolish you are.
Click to expand...

That still means there are loads and loads of money on one purpuse: kicking the living crap out of your fellow human beings. 
The US has the biggest per capita expenditure in the world and until 2013 it was the single greatest expenditure by the US governement. Whatever has been spent on batteries is nothing but pennies by comparison.
Just 40 years ago corporations payed their fair share of taxes, now most of the tax contributions.
Finally, your tax figures would be correct IF 100% of the expenses were the payroll. They are not.


----------



## elektra

CultureCitizen said:


> That still means there are loads and loads of money on one purpuse: kicking the living crap out of your fellow human beings.
> The US has the biggest per capita expenditure in the world and until 2013 it was the single greatest expenditure by the US governement. Whatever has been spent on batteries is nothing but pennies by comparison.
> Just 40 years ago corporations payed their fair share of taxes, now most of the tax contributions.
> Finally, your tax figures would be correct IF 100% of the expenses were the payroll. They are not.


Corporations exist as a entity created by the Government, as defined in the Code of Federal Regulations, CFR's as they are known. Corporations were created by the Lawyers, who make up most of the politicians. The single biggest expense of a Corporation is money paid by the Dictates, Laws, Taxes, Rules, and Regulations of Government. Funny how the Government made Corporations and the biggest expense of a Corporation is the Government? How is that?

There is nothing spent on Batteries? Yet it is not simply spending money on Batteries, first we must brainwash the fools into believing we need Batteries, that propaganda costs billions of dollars over years, decades, and began under Bill Clinton, if not sooner. How much has the Global Warming Marketing cost the U.S. tax payer? How much has the Global Warming Research cost the U.S. tax payer. Your idea that we need a lousy ObamaBattery is one small part of a much larger Con job on the fools and dupes that are known as citizens. 

Most of your reply really made no sense. It reads very poor, it kind of makes your idea look like it came from a person who really has never done any research into what you believe.

There is a lithium battery factory sitting idle in China right now, ready to start up production, once there is a demand, doubtful that the Tesla ObamaBattery with all its subsidies, grants, and free money can compete, but that don't matter, it is not a business model, it is the transfer of tax money, my money, my labor, my hard work, to a government chosen billionaire who has lost money on his Green/Renewable scams, ever since the first day he started tesla motors.

They aint even got the Lithium to supply the ObamaBattery factory, which if fully operational will require 100% of all Lithium in the World, I would go as far to say that that kind of demand will drive up the cost of Lithium in the commodities market, on the stock market, the Tesla factory is designed to make those who invest in Wall Street rich. 

So you think you got a beef with Corporations, well, your support of ObamaBatteries is going to make Wall st. and a whole bunch of Corporations, rich!

Nice idea you got and the funny thing is, you don't even know enough to know your position on both, makes you a hypocrite.


----------



## CultureCitizen

elektra said:


> CultureCitizen said:
> 
> 
> 
> That still means there are loads and loads of money on one purpuse: kicking the living crap out of your fellow human beings.
> The US has the biggest per capita expenditure in the world and until 2013 it was the single greatest expenditure by the US governement. Whatever has been spent on batteries is nothing but pennies by comparison.
> Just 40 years ago corporations payed their fair share of taxes, now most of the tax contributions.
> Finally, your tax figures would be correct IF 100% of the expenses were the payroll. They are not.
> 
> 
> 
> Corporations exist as a entity created by the Government, as defined in the Code of Federal Regulations, CFR's as they are known. Corporations were created by the Lawyers, who make up most of the politicians. The single biggest expense of a Corporation is money paid by the Dictates, Laws, Taxes, Rules, and Regulations of Government. Funny how the Government made Corporations and the biggest expense of a Corporation is the Government? How is that?
> 
> There is nothing spent on Batteries? Yet it is not simply spending money on Batteries, first we must brainwash the fools into believing we need Batteries, that propaganda costs billions of dollars over years, decades, and began under Bill Clinton, if not sooner. How much has the Global Warming Marketing cost the U.S. tax payer? How much has the Global Warming Research cost the U.S. tax payer. Your idea that we need a lousy ObamaBattery is one small part of a much larger Con job on the fools and dupes that are known as citizens.
> 
> Most of your reply really made no sense. It reads very poor, it kind of makes your idea look like it came from a person who really has never done any research into what you believe.
> 
> There is a lithium battery factory sitting idle in China right now, ready to start up production, once there is a demand, doubtful that the Tesla ObamaBattery with all its subsidies, grants, and free money can compete, but that don't matter, it is not a business model, it is the transfer of tax money, my money, my labor, my hard work, to a government chosen billionaire who has lost money on his Green/Renewable scams, ever since the first day he started tesla motors.
> 
> They aint even got the Lithium to supply the ObamaBattery factory, which if fully operational will require 100% of all Lithium in the World, I would go as far to say that that kind of demand will drive up the cost of Lithium in the commodities market, on the stock market, the Tesla factory is designed to make those who invest in Wall Street rich.
> 
> So you think you got a beef with Corporations, well, your support of ObamaBatteries is going to make Wall st. and a whole bunch of Corporations, rich!
> 
> Nice idea you got and the funny thing is, you don't even know enough to know your position on both, makes you a hypocrite.
Click to expand...


Well, if my reply made no sense, at least it was concise.
Your rant goes from corporations ( which by the by , predate the creation of the US ), then you go and talk about China, come back to the US and your taxes and subsides. And then assume I support subsidies ( which I don't) I said I supported research funding , not industrial subsidies .
And I am fine with corporations getting rich, as far as they pay their fair share of taxes.

Now dear, we both know you are a nucrear energy supporter, and that's why you seem to have a grudge with batteries and renewables.

Now put in context the total amount spent in R&D by the US $473 million vs the military spending  $ 800,000 million.
It's the fracking 0.06% !!!
Do I think it is better to reduce military spending by 3% and have 5 times more spent in R&D? 
Yes, hell yes!!


----------



## elektra

CultureCitizen said:


> Well, if my reply made no sense, at least it was concise.
> Your rant goes from corporations ( which by the by , predate the creation of the US ), then you go and talk about China, come back to the US and your taxes and subsides. And then assume I support subsidies ( which I don't) I said I supported research funding , not industrial subsidies .
> And I am fine with corporations getting rich, as far as they pay their fair share of taxes.
> 
> Now dear, we both know you are a nucrear energy supporter, and that's why you seem to have a grudge with batteries and renewables.
> 
> Now put in context the total amount spent in R&D by the US $473 million vs the military spending  $ 800,000 million.
> It's the fracking 0.06% !!!
> Do I think it is better to reduce military spending by 3% and have 5 times more spent in R&D?
> Yes, hell yes!!


Concise? You brought up corporations? And how will ObamaBatteries compete with the China/Panasonic Batteries? 

Research Funding, that is part of the subsidy.

Now your last sentence is one big strawman, if I support Nuclear energy then I have a "grudge" against batteries? Well, at least everyone can see you will not discuss the little technical details or that lack of a market or need for ObamaBatteries, now we can see your only argument is, against individuals, ignoring a discussion about the ObamaBatteries. 

Green Energy can not ever supply the energy we need at peak power, let alone the rest of the day, so what exactly do we need a battery for?

ObamaBatteries will be cheaper than Duracell's? How? 

ObamaBatteries, researchers can invent something that somehow Duracell has missed in all its years of research and development?

And where will all the lithium come from, currently Eon Musk has plans to use all the lithium in the World, who profits from that? Eon Musk and the ObamaBattery is simply a way for Wall Street to make a fortune on Lithium. 

All the Lithium in the World must be given to Eon Musk. 

Al the Lithium in the World will be given to Eon Musk, that is a lot of buying and trading on Wall Street.


----------



## Moonglow

elektra said:


> CultureCitizen said:
> 
> 
> 
> That still means there are loads and loads of money on one purpuse: kicking the living crap out of your fellow human beings.
> The US has the biggest per capita expenditure in the world and until 2013 it was the single greatest expenditure by the US governement. Whatever has been spent on batteries is nothing but pennies by comparison.
> Just 40 years ago corporations payed their fair share of taxes, now most of the tax contributions.
> Finally, your tax figures would be correct IF 100% of the expenses were the payroll. They are not.
> 
> 
> 
> Corporations exist as a entity created by the Government, as defined in the Code of Federal Regulations, CFR's as they are known. Corporations were created by the Lawyers, who make up most of the politicians. The single biggest expense of a Corporation is money paid by the Dictates, Laws, Taxes, Rules, and Regulations of Government. Funny how the Government made Corporations and the biggest expense of a Corporation is the Government? How is that?
> 
> There is nothing spent on Batteries? Yet it is not simply spending money on Batteries, first we must brainwash the fools into believing we need Batteries, that propaganda costs billions of dollars over years, decades, and began under Bill Clinton, if not sooner. How much has the Global Warming Marketing cost the U.S. tax payer? How much has the Global Warming Research cost the U.S. tax payer. Your idea that we need a lousy ObamaBattery is one small part of a much larger Con job on the fools and dupes that are known as citizens.
> 
> Most of your reply really made no sense. It reads very poor, it kind of makes your idea look like it came from a person who really has never done any research into what you believe.
> 
> There is a lithium battery factory sitting idle in China right now, ready to start up production, once there is a demand, doubtful that the Tesla ObamaBattery with all its subsidies, grants, and free money can compete, but that don't matter, it is not a business model, it is the transfer of tax money, my money, my labor, my hard work, to a government chosen billionaire who has lost money on his Green/Renewable scams, ever since the first day he started tesla motors.
> 
> They aint even got the Lithium to supply the ObamaBattery factory, which if fully operational will require 100% of all Lithium in the World, I would go as far to say that that kind of demand will drive up the cost of Lithium in the commodities market, on the stock market, the Tesla factory is designed to make those who invest in Wall Street rich.
> 
> So you think you got a beef with Corporations, well, your support of ObamaBatteries is going to make Wall st. and a whole bunch of Corporations, rich!
> 
> Nice idea you got and the funny thing is, you don't even know enough to know your position on both, makes you a hypocrite.
Click to expand...

So you have a plug in vibrator?


----------



## elektra

Moonglow said:


> So you have a plug in vibrator?


Can you say that when your avatar is cartoon porn of a child?


----------



## Moonglow

elektra said:


> Moonglow said:
> 
> 
> 
> So you have a plug in vibrator?
> 
> 
> 
> Can you say that when your avatar is cartoon porn of a child?
Click to expand...

So mooning is now porn, you have such a dirty mind..


----------



## elektra

Moonglow said:


> So you have a plug in vibrator?
> 
> So mooning is now porn, you have such a dirty mind..


Moonglow, you have been chasing my skirt for some time, this time asking if I have a "plug in vibrator", what was that last sexual comment you made to me? Care to go back and revisit all the sexual comments you make? Everything is in context, the dirty mind is yours, I did not pick your avatar and include a post next to with a vibrator, you did. 

So what is your game, it is simply to hard, intellectually to add content to the OP or you got something about me and sex or as you mentioned in one of your last posts, banishment from the boards?


----------



## CultureCitizen

elektra said:


> CultureCitizen said:
> 
> 
> 
> Well, if my reply made no sense, at least it was concise.
> Your rant goes from corporations ( which by the by , predate the creation of the US ), then you go and talk about China, come back to the US and your taxes and subsides. And then assume I support subsidies ( which I don't) I said I supported research funding , not industrial subsidies .
> And I am fine with corporations getting rich, as far as they pay their fair share of taxes.
> 
> Now dear, we both know you are a nucrear energy supporter, and that's why you seem to have a grudge with batteries and renewables.
> 
> Now put in context the total amount spent in R&D by the US $473 million vs the military spending  $ 800,000 million.
> It's the fracking 0.06% !!!
> Do I think it is better to reduce military spending by 3% and have 5 times more spent in R&D?
> Yes, hell yes!!
> 
> 
> 
> Concise? You brought up corporations? And how will ObamaBatteries compete with the China/Panasonic Batteries?
> 
> Research Funding, that is part of the subsidy.
> 
> Now your last sentence is one big strawman, if I support Nuclear energy then I have a "grudge" against batteries? Well, at least everyone can see you will not discuss the little technical details or that lack of a market or need for ObamaBatteries, now we can see your only argument is, against individuals, ignoring a discussion about the ObamaBatteries.
> 
> Green Energy can not ever supply the energy we need at peak power, let alone the rest of the day, so what exactly do we need a battery for?
> 
> ObamaBatteries will be cheaper than Duracell's? How?
> 
> ObamaBatteries, researchers can invent something that somehow Duracell has missed in all its years of research and development?
> 
> And where will all the lithium come from, currently Eon Musk has plans to use all the lithium in the World, who profits from that? Eon Musk and the ObamaBattery is simply a way for Wall Street to make a fortune on Lithium.
> 
> All the Lithium in the World must be given to Eon Musk.
> 
> Al the Lithium in the World will be given to Eon Musk, that is a lot of buying and trading on Wall Street.
Click to expand...


*Now your last sentence is one big strawman, if I support Nuclear energy then I have a "grudge" against batteries? *
Indeed you have a grudge against renewables and batteries. 

*Green Energy can not ever supply the energy we need at peak power, let alone the rest of the day, so what exactly do we need a battery for?*
Electric cars. And no one is thinking in replacing all fosil fuels , just in keeping their usage frozen at 2012 levels. 

*ObamaBatteries, researchers can invent something that somehow Duracell has missed in all its years of research and development?*

Indeed:
Graphene batteries and supercapacitors to power our world

*Al the Lithium in the World will be given to Eon Musk, that is a lot of buying and trading on Wall Street*
Lithium  is not the only option, but more research has to be done.


----------



## elektra

CultureCitizen said:


> *Now your last sentence is one big strawman, if I support Nuclear energy then I have a "grudge" against batteries? *
> Indeed you have a grudge against renewables and batteries.
> 
> *Green Energy can not ever supply the energy we need at peak power, let alone the rest of the day, so what exactly do we need a battery for?*
> Electric cars. And no one is thinking in replacing all fosil fuels , just in keeping their usage frozen at 2012 levels.
> 
> *ObamaBatteries, researchers can invent something that somehow Duracell has missed in all its years of research and development?*
> 
> Indeed:
> Graphene batteries and supercapacitors to power our world
> 
> *Al the Lithium in the World will be given to Eon Musk, that is a lot of buying and trading on Wall Street*
> Lithium  is not the only option, but more research has to be done.


Your ObamaBattery does not exist yet, so I at best can only have a grudge against the idea of it. As far as Renewables goes, sure I have a grudge against being forced to pay for something that does not work and uses a 10,000 times more coal and hydrocarbons than natural gas or nuclear power. 

Electric Cars? 100% failure since the Tesla began business in which year? 2009? They must be refueled every night, which takes power, power that is made from what? Coal? Natural Gas? They also require a charge once you get to work, so instead of 10's of thousands of people using one filling station, each car owner requires a filling station, and that to you is progress? Where does that energy come from? A battery that does not exist? You believe Solar will charge the battery if it is ever invented and then that battery can keep a ObamaTesla electric powered?

Yes, invent something we do not need, batteries and supercapacitors? And charge them with Fossil or Nuclear power? While completely rebuilding our entire electrical grid? Ignoring all the coal and hydrocarbons, ignoring all the natural resources being used, to fail at replacing fossil fuels? To freeze the level we use fossil fuels. 

Your idea fails to take into account that you must use fossil fuels to build that progressive utopia. The 50$ Trillion Dollar Scam, making the Banks, Wall st., and Corporations even richer. 50$ Trillion dollars spent building is a massive rise in CO2. 

Yes, throw out the propaganda all you want, you have no substance behind it.


----------



## CultureCitizen

elektra said:


> Your ObamaBattery does not exist yet, so I at best can only have a grudge against the idea of it. As far as Renewables goes, sure I have a grudge against being forced to pay for something that does not work and uses a 10,000 times more coal and hydrocarbons than natural gas or nuclear power.


 Eighty years ago nuclear reactors didn't exist. In fact they sounded like a pipe dream. What changed that ? Research. In fact government funded research. Renewables don't use 10,000 times more coal and hydrocarbons, that would just be solar.


----------



## CultureCitizen

elektra said:


> Your idea fails to take into account that you must use fossil fuels to build that progressive utopia. The 50$ Trillion Dollar Scam, making the Banks, Wall st., and Corporations even richer. 50$ Trillion dollars spent building is a massive rise in CO2.


No I am not, as I said the idea is to keep the use of fosil fuels frozen at certain level. So , I am aware that fosil fuels will continue to be used at least during the next 50 years ( with some luck will have fusion by that time ) .
50 trillion ? where do you get that figure from ? 
And again , if corporations get rich fine ... as far as they pay their fair share of taxes and not the current effective tax rate of 10% .


----------



## elektra

CultureCitizen said:


> Eighty years ago nuclear reactors didn't exist. In fact they sounded like a pipe dream. What changed that ? Research. In fact government funded research. Renewables don't use 10,000 times more coal and hydrocarbons, that would just be solar.



Renewables do use 10,000 more hydrocarbons, How much Coal do you figure is used to build a Wind Mill, A Wind Farm equivalent to a Nuclear Power plant? And for the sake of argument we can forget the fact that no amount of Wind Mills, or Wind Turbines will ever replace the power of 1 nuclear power plant.

So lets pretend you could replace a Nuclear Power plant with Wind Mills (2000 year old technology), how many would it take and how much Coal and Hydrocarbons would it take to build them. 

I bet you won't even try to answer that question, nobody ever does, and if you can not account for the materials you use, your argument has no basis in reality.

So go ahead, you stated they don't use 10,000 times more, so show us how much they do use, or show us you know nothing.


----------



## elektra

CultureCitizen said:


> elektra said:
> 
> 
> 
> Your idea fails to take into account that you must use fossil fuels to build that progressive utopia. The 50$ Trillion Dollar Scam, making the Banks, Wall st., and Corporations even richer. 50$ Trillion dollars spent building is a massive rise in CO2.
> 
> 
> 
> No I am not, as I said the idea is to keep the use of fosil fuels frozen at certain level. So , I am aware that fosil fuels will continue to be used at least during the next 50 years ( with some luck will have fusion by that time ) .
> 50 trillion ? where do you get that figure from ?
> And again , if corporations get rich fine ... as far as they pay their fair share of taxes and not the current effective tax rate of 10% .
Click to expand...

right, show us the effective rate of tax, how about a link to that.

How do you keep fossil fuels frozen at a certain level when you must increase the use of fossil fuels to build Solar and Wind? 50$ trillion dollars is proposed to be spent on renewables, that is a helluva a lot of fossil fuel, coal, hydrocarbons used in manufacture. Production actually never ends, it is continuous, forever. Renewables is the largest source of new pollution in the world.


----------



## CultureCitizen

elektra said:


> And for the sake of argument we can forget the fact that no amount of Wind Mills, or Wind Turbines will ever replace the power of 1 nuclear power plant.


Really? 
  A nuclear plant produces between 4,000 MW and 502 MW

"U.S. wind power installed capacity in 2012 exceeded 51,630 MW and supplies 3% of the nation's electricity"
So , there you go the US already has the equivalent of 12 large nuclear plants . 

Wind farm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


----------



## CultureCitizen

elektra said:


> So lets pretend you could replace a Nuclear Power plant with Wind Mills (2000 year old technology), how many would it take and how much Coal and Hydrocarbons would it take to build them.



"The costs for a utility scale wind turbine range from about $1.3 million to $2.2 million per MW of nameplate capacity installed"
Taking the average price we get the 1.75 Million figure per MW of capacity. 
Assumen 66% of that cost comes from energy and the rest from raw materials and labour.we get roughly 1,155,000 USD of energy. Since 82% of that comes from non renewables we adjust the figure to $947,000 of non renewable energy. This equals to 7,892,000 kwh. This will be roughle equal to burning 240,000 gallons of gasoline. 

Now , assuming a net capacity of 30% which is probably too low, a 1MW turbine will generate about 8,000 kwh per day, so it will recover its carbon expenditure in 1,000 days. 
Oh, and by the by constructing a nucler plant also requires a lot of energy ... those things don't grow on trees. 

There you go Elektra

Wind Turbine Net Capacity Factor — 50% the New Normal?
How much do wind turbines cost?


----------



## CultureCitizen

elektra said:


> CultureCitizen said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> elektra said:
> 
> 
> 
> Your idea fails to take into account that you must use fossil fuels to build that progressive utopia. The 50$ Trillion Dollar Scam, making the Banks, Wall st., and Corporations even richer. 50$ Trillion dollars spent building is a massive rise in CO2.
> 
> 
> 
> No I am not, as I said the idea is to keep the use of fosil fuels frozen at certain level. So , I am aware that fosil fuels will continue to be used at least during the next 50 years ( with some luck will have fusion by that time ) .
> 50 trillion ? where do you get that figure from ?
> And again , if corporations get rich fine ... as far as they pay their fair share of taxes and not the current effective tax rate of 10% .
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> right, show us the effective rate of tax, how about a link to that.
> 
> How do you keep fossil fuels frozen at a certain level when you must increase the use of fossil fuels to build Solar and Wind? 50$ trillion dollars is proposed to be spent on renewables, that is a helluva a lot of fossil fuel, coal, hydrocarbons used in manufacture. Production actually never ends, it is continuous, forever. Renewables is the largest source of new pollution in the world.
Click to expand...


There you go 
GAO: U.S. corporations pay average effective tax rate of 12.6%

Regarding fosil fuel levels: obviously there will be a slight increase first but after that there will be  continuous decrease until 2012 levels are reached.


----------



## ScienceRocks

CultureCitizen said:


> elektra said:
> 
> 
> 
> Your ObamaBattery does not exist yet, so I at best can only have a grudge against the idea of it. As far as Renewables goes, sure I have a grudge against being forced to pay for something that does not work and uses a 10,000 times more coal and hydrocarbons than natural gas or nuclear power.
> 
> 
> 
> Eighty years ago nuclear reactors didn't exist. In fact they sounded like a pipe dream. What changed that ? Research. In fact government funded research. Renewables don't use 10,000 times more coal and hydrocarbons, that would just be solar.
Click to expand...



The fact that the republican party has become anti-investment and research is one of the reasons why I will be voting democrat. 40 years ago the republican party would of been in agreement that it was necessary.


----------



## elektra

Matthew said:


> The fact that the republican party has become anti-investment and research is one of the reasons why I will be voting democrat. 40 years ago the republican party would of been in agreement that it was necessary.


Anit-investment and Research, you mean like when you Democrats shut down the Super Particle Accelerator? Anti-investment? Is that what you call Ivanpah, or Soylndra, or SunEdison, or Abongea which are all bankrupt, failed Green, Clean, Renewable energy companies.

Investment is one thing, but throwing money at failed companies simply because they give campaign money and donations to your favorite political party is another. 

Diverting all the money in the world and more, over 50$ Trillion dollars to Solar and Wind, leaves little to none for proven technologies.


----------



## elektra

CultureCitizen said:


> elektra said:
> 
> 
> 
> And for the sake of argument we can forget the fact that no amount of Wind Mills, or Wind Turbines will ever replace the power of 1 nuclear power plant.
> 
> 
> 
> Really?
> A nuclear plant produces between 4,000 MW and 502 MW
> 
> "U.S. wind power installed capacity in 2012 exceeded 51,630 MW and supplies 3% of the nation's electricity"
> So , there you go the US already has the equivalent of 12 large nuclear plants .
> 
> Wind farm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Click to expand...

From Wikipedia? 51,630 mwh of Installed Capacity is not the same as Electricity delivered to the grid.

Ever here of "Available Capacity", or "Capacity Factor". both are significant when it comes to Wind Power. The available capacity is simply a technical term stating they do not produce electricity if the wind is not blowing. The capacity factor is what a wind turbine produces in real conditions. 

A 32% capacity factor is generous, now at best your Wind Mills equal 4 nuclear power plants. 4 nuclear power plants produce power for an easy 400 days straight, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

A Wind Mill will produce power when the wind blows, tell me, 3 months from now, how much will the wind blow? Or better yet, how much will the Wind Blow at noon tomorrow? Or at noon a week from now?

A nuclear plant produces 4,000 MW? You mean mwh? Technically speaking, you are wrong, by a long shot. You should come back with some real numbers and link for that gross error.


----------



## elektra

CultureCitizen said:


> elektra said:
> 
> 
> 
> So lets pretend you could replace a Nuclear Power plant with Wind Mills (2000 year old technology), how many would it take and how much Coal and Hydrocarbons would it take to build them.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> "The costs for a utility scale wind turbine range from about $1.3 million to $2.2 million per MW of nameplate capacity installed"
> Taking the average price we get the 1.75 Million figure per MW of capacity.
> Assumen 66% of that cost comes from energy and the rest from raw materials and labour.we get roughly 1,155,000 USD of energy. Since 82% of that comes from non renewables we adjust the figure to $947,000 of non renewable energy. This equals to 7,892,000 kwh. This will be roughle equal to burning 240,000 gallons of gasoline.
> 
> Now , assuming a net capacity of 30% which is probably too low, a 1MW turbine will generate about 8,000 kwh per day, so it will recover its carbon expenditure in 1,000 days.
> Oh, and by the by constructing a nucler plant also requires a lot of energy ... those things don't grow on trees.
> 
> There you go Elektra
> 
> Wind Turbine Net Capacity Factor — 50% the New Normal?
> How much do wind turbines cost?
Click to expand...

A nuclear power plant will give us power tomorrow at noon, a Wind Turbine will not, we actually never know, when the wind will blow. 

A nuclear power plant is paid for by private corporations because it makes economic sense. 

A wind turbine is only built with free money, grants, subsidies, I have watched Wind Turbine companies go bankrupt over and over in California. Wind Turbines only exist as a function of a government that breaks the law and dictates that they will be built, the expense is forced onto the public. 

All your figures are a useless comparison, everybody knows Wind Turbines are random, intermittent power sources at best.

Your figures do not include the lubrication a Wind Turbine requires, 300 gallons of oil a year, multiplied by 1,000,000 wind turbines equals how much increased oil consumption by the Wind Turbine sector?


----------



## elektra

CultureCitizen said:


> There you go
> GAO: U.S. corporations pay average effective tax rate of 12.6%
> 
> Regarding fosil fuel levels: obviously there will be a slight increase first but after that there will be  continuous decrease until 2012 levels are reached.


From your link, which is an article, not a report or study, hardly is an article a source for a serious discussion of taxes. How about state tax, local tax, property tax, workman's comp, health insurance (which the supreme court calls a tax), social securtiy tax, medicare tax, mandatory liability insurance. 

Either way, an article is highly subjective, especially an article from CNN. Let us see the report.



> The federal corporate tax rate stands at 35%, and jumps to 39.2% when state rates are taken into account.


----------



## CultureCitizen

elektra said:


> CultureCitizen said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> elektra said:
> 
> 
> 
> And for the sake of argument we can forget the fact that no amount of Wind Mills, or Wind Turbines will ever replace the power of 1 nuclear power plant.
> 
> 
> 
> Really?
> A nuclear plant produces between 4,000 MW and 502 MW
> 
> "U.S. wind power installed capacity in 2012 exceeded 51,630 MW and supplies 3% of the nation's electricity"
> So , there you go the US already has the equivalent of 12 large nuclear plants .
> 
> Wind farm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> From Wikipedia? 51,630 mwh of Installed Capacity is not the same as Electricity delivered to the grid.
> 
> Ever here of "Available Capacity", or "Capacity Factor". both are significant when it comes to Wind Power. The available capacity is simply a technical term stating they do not produce electricity if the wind is not blowing. The capacity factor is what a wind turbine produces in real conditions.
> 
> A 32% capacity factor is generous, now at best your Wind Mills equal 4 nuclear power plants. 4 nuclear power plants produce power for an easy 400 days straight, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
> 
> A Wind Mill will produce power when the wind blows, tell me, 3 months from now, how much will the wind blow? Or better yet, how much will the Wind Blow at noon tomorrow? Or at noon a week from now?
> 
> A nuclear plant produces 4,000 MW? You mean mwh? Technically speaking, you are wrong, by a long shot. You should come back with some real numbers and link for that gross error.
Click to expand...

No , that's was just supposed to be the installed capacity of a nuclear plant : 4,000 to 502 MW. I am not talking about the energy production. 
Also, the capacity factor for a nuclear plant is not 100%, but about 90%,


----------



## CultureCitizen

elektra said:


> CultureCitizen said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> elektra said:
> 
> 
> 
> So lets pretend you could replace a Nuclear Power plant with Wind Mills (2000 year old technology), how many would it take and how much Coal and Hydrocarbons would it take to build them.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> "The costs for a utility scale wind turbine range from about $1.3 million to $2.2 million per MW of nameplate capacity installed"
> Taking the average price we get the 1.75 Million figure per MW of capacity.
> Assumen 66% of that cost comes from energy and the rest from raw materials and labour.we get roughly 1,155,000 USD of energy. Since 82% of that comes from non renewables we adjust the figure to $947,000 of non renewable energy. This equals to 7,892,000 kwh. This will be roughle equal to burning 240,000 gallons of gasoline.
> 
> Now , assuming a net capacity of 30% which is probably too low, a 1MW turbine will generate about 8,000 kwh per day, so it will recover its carbon expenditure in 1,000 days.
> Oh, and by the by constructing a nucler plant also requires a lot of energy ... those things don't grow on trees.
> 
> There you go Elektra
> 
> Wind Turbine Net Capacity Factor — 50% the New Normal?
> How much do wind turbines cost?
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> A nuclear power plant will give us power tomorrow at noon, a Wind Turbine will not, we actually never know, when the wind will blow.
> 
> A nuclear power plant is paid for by private corporations because it makes economic sense.
> 
> A wind turbine is only built with free money, grants, subsidies, I have watched Wind Turbine companies go bankrupt over and over in California. Wind Turbines only exist as a function of a government that breaks the law and dictates that they will be built, the expense is forced onto the public.
> 
> All your figures are a useless comparison, everybody knows Wind Turbines are random, intermittent power sources at best.
> 
> Your figures do not include the lubrication a Wind Turbine requires, 300 gallons of oil a year, multiplied by 1,000,000 wind turbines equals how much increased oil consumption by the Wind Turbine sector?
Click to expand...

300 gallons of oil is a negligible figure compared to the amount of energy produced by a 1MW wind turbine:
1 gallon equals = 33kwh
1 MW turbine produces 8,000 wkh per day . 33/8000 = 0.0041. So that means an adjustment of 0.4% to my previous figure. In many places you can use pumped hydro to store energy. Also the compressed air technology of LightSail Energy seems quite promissing. I'm quite confident storage will not be a problem in the near future.
Edit : 2017 which is the year in which LightSail is planning to release its product.


----------



## elektra

CultureCitizen said:


> elektra said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> CultureCitizen said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> elektra said:
> 
> 
> 
> And for the sake of argument we can forget the fact that no amount of Wind Mills, or Wind Turbines will ever replace the power of 1 nuclear power plant.
> 
> 
> 
> Really?
> A nuclear plant produces between 4,000 MW and 502 MW
> 
> "U.S. wind power installed capacity in 2012 exceeded 51,630 MW and supplies 3% of the nation's electricity"
> So , there you go the US already has the equivalent of 12 large nuclear plants .
> 
> Wind farm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> From Wikipedia? 51,630 mwh of Installed Capacity is not the same as Electricity delivered to the grid.
> 
> Ever here of "Available Capacity", or "Capacity Factor". both are significant when it comes to Wind Power. The available capacity is simply a technical term stating they do not produce electricity if the wind is not blowing. The capacity factor is what a wind turbine produces in real conditions.
> 
> A 32% capacity factor is generous, now at best your Wind Mills equal 4 nuclear power plants. 4 nuclear power plants produce power for an easy 400 days straight, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
> 
> A Wind Mill will produce power when the wind blows, tell me, 3 months from now, how much will the wind blow? Or better yet, how much will the Wind Blow at noon tomorrow? Or at noon a week from now?
> 
> A nuclear plant produces 4,000 MW? You mean mwh? Technically speaking, you are wrong, by a long shot. You should come back with some real numbers and link for that gross error.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> No , that's was just supposed to be the installed capacity of a nuclear plant : 4,000 to 502 MW. I am not talking about the energy production.
> Also, the capacity factor for a nuclear plant is not 100%, but about 90%,
Click to expand...

No nuclear plant has an installed capacity of what you state, link if you like but it is obvious you do not kniw anything beyond your latestest google search.


----------



## elektra

CultureCitizen said:


> elektra said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> CultureCitizen said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> elektra said:
> 
> 
> 
> So lets pretend you could replace a Nuclear Power plant with Wind Mills (2000 year old technology), how many would it take and how much Coal and Hydrocarbons would it take to build them.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> "The costs for a utility scale wind turbine range from about $1.3 million to $2.2 million per MW of nameplate capacity installed"
> Taking the average price we get the 1.75 Million figure per MW of capacity.
> Assumen 66% of that cost comes from energy and the rest from raw materials and labour.we get roughly 1,155,000 USD of energy. Since 82% of that comes from non renewables we adjust the figure to $947,000 of non renewable energy. This equals to 7,892,000 kwh. This will be roughle equal to burning 240,000 gallons of gasoline.
> 
> Now , assuming a net capacity of 30% which is probably too low, a 1MW turbine will generate about 8,000 kwh per day, so it will recover its carbon expenditure in 1,000 days.
> Oh, and by the by constructing a nucler plant also requires a lot of energy ... those things don't grow on trees.
> 
> There you go Elektra
> 
> Wind Turbine Net Capacity Factor — 50% the New Normal?
> How much do wind turbines cost?
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> A nuclear power plant will give us power tomorrow at noon, a Wind Turbine will not, we actually never know, when the wind will blow.
> 
> A nuclear power plant is paid for by private corporations because it makes economic sense.
> 
> A wind turbine is only built with free money, grants, subsidies, I have watched Wind Turbine companies go bankrupt over and over in California. Wind Turbines only exist as a function of a government that breaks the law and dictates that they will be built, the expense is forced onto the public.
> 
> All your figures are a useless comparison, everybody knows Wind Turbines are random, intermittent power sources at best.
> 
> Your figures do not include the lubrication a Wind Turbine requires, 300 gallons of oil a year, multiplied by 1,000,000 wind turbines equals how much increased oil consumption by the Wind Turbine sector?
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 300 gallons of oil is a negligible figure compared to the amount of energy produced by a 1MW wind turbine:
> 1 gallon equals = 33kwh
> 1 MW turbine produces 8,000 wkh per day . 33/8000 = 0.0041. So that means an adjustment of 0.4% to my previous figure. In many places you can use pumped hydro to store energy. Also the compressed air technology of LightSail Energy seems quite promissing. I'm quite confident storage will not be a problem in the near future.
> Edit : 2017 which is the year in which LightSail is planning to release its product.
Click to expand...

Your Wind Turbine produced no electricity today, there was no wind, and it is not simply one turbine, it is a million? Yes? That amount of Oil is significant, given that most Wind Turbines sit idle waiting for a breeze.

What an incredible waste of natural resources, an idle wind turbine, 1400 tons of waste, muliplied by a million?


----------



## CultureCitizen

elektra said:


> CultureCitizen said:
> 
> 
> 
> There you go
> GAO: U.S. corporations pay average effective tax rate of 12.6%
> 
> Regarding fosil fuel levels: obviously there will be a slight increase first but after that there will be  continuous decrease until 2012 levels are reached.
> 
> 
> 
> From your link, which is an article, not a report or study, hardly is an article a source for a serious discussion of taxes. How about state tax, local tax, property tax, workman's comp, health insurance (which the supreme court calls a tax), social securtiy tax, medicare tax, mandatory liability insurance.
> 
> Either way, an article is highly subjective, especially an article from CNN. Let us see the report.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The federal corporate tax rate stands at 35%, and jumps to 39.2% when state rates are taken into account.
> 
> Click to expand...
Click to expand...

You just had to click in the appropiate link to get the report.  

http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/654957.pdf


----------



## CultureCitizen

elektra said:


> CultureCitizen said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> elektra said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> CultureCitizen said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> elektra said:
> 
> 
> 
> And for the sake of argument we can forget the fact that no amount of Wind Mills, or Wind Turbines will ever replace the power of 1 nuclear power plant.
> 
> 
> 
> Really?
> A nuclear plant produces between 4,000 MW and 502 MW
> 
> "U.S. wind power installed capacity in 2012 exceeded 51,630 MW and supplies 3% of the nation's electricity"
> So , there you go the US already has the equivalent of 12 large nuclear plants .
> 
> Wind farm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> From Wikipedia? 51,630 mwh of Installed Capacity is not the same as Electricity delivered to the grid.
> 
> Ever here of "Available Capacity", or "Capacity Factor". both are significant when it comes to Wind Power. The available capacity is simply a technical term stating they do not produce electricity if the wind is not blowing. The capacity factor is what a wind turbine produces in real conditions.
> 
> A 32% capacity factor is generous, now at best your Wind Mills equal 4 nuclear power plants. 4 nuclear power plants produce power for an easy 400 days straight, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
> 
> A Wind Mill will produce power when the wind blows, tell me, 3 months from now, how much will the wind blow? Or better yet, how much will the Wind Blow at noon tomorrow? Or at noon a week from now?
> 
> A nuclear plant produces 4,000 MW? You mean mwh? Technically speaking, you are wrong, by a long shot. You should come back with some real numbers and link for that gross error.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> No , that's was just supposed to be the installed capacity of a nuclear plant : 4,000 to 502 MW. I am not talking about the energy production.
> Also, the capacity factor for a nuclear plant is not 100%, but about 90%,
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> No nuclear plant has an installed capacity of what you state, link if you like but it is obvious you do not kniw anything beyond your latestest google search.
Click to expand...


On the contrary : link if you like . I stand by my figures, unless you provide a link that prooves the opposite.


----------



## elektra

CultureCitizen said:


> You just had to click in the appropiate link to get the report.
> 
> http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/654957.pdf



Go fish!
Deficient GAO Report Hurts Tax Reform Efforts

*Deficient GAO Report Hurts Tax Reform Efforts *


GAO Compares Apples to Oranges to Find Low Corporate Effective Tax Rate



While this is still considerably lower than the statutory federal corporate tax rate of 35 percent, nearly all of the difference comes from the fact that U.S. corporations by law are given a tax credit against their U.S. tax liability for foreign corporate taxes paid. This is to prevent double taxation of foreign income. When the foreign tax credit is accounted for, and these foreign corporate taxes are counted, the overall effective corporate tax rate on the worldwide income of U.S. corporations is about32 to 33 percent


----------



## elektra

GAO Compares Apples to Oranges to Find Low Corporate Effective Tax Rate

We can’t check the numbers since the GAO report does not include all the data used in their main calculations


 GAO's 12.6 percent figure comes from dividing U.S. federal corporate tax by worldwide income. It does not count foreign taxes at all or the foreign tax credit against U.S. tax liablity. In a 2008 report, the GAO did properly account for these things, by separating domestic and foreign income as well as domestic and foreign taxes. They found that federal corporate tax as a share of corporate domestic income was 25.2


----------



## elektra

Sounds like politicians are big fat liars

GAO Compares Apples to Oranges to Find Low Corporate Effective Tax Rate

Another big problem, as mentioned, is using a measure of income that has little to no relationship to the tax base to which the corporate tax applies. GAO uses income as reported on financial statements, which is different from taxable income reported on tax returns for many legitimate reasons that GAO describes. The big differences are timing differences in the treatment of cost recovery, losses, and other items. Researchers who use financial statement data generally get around these differences by averaging multiple years of data, but the GAO says they have insufficient data to do such an average. That means the 12.6 percent figure is completely unrepresentative, and should not have been published.


----------

