TechBlog

In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn’t shine.

Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is prohibitively expensive and grossly inefficient. With this announcement, MIT researchers have hit upon a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy.

Continue reading ‘Major Discovery - From MIT Primed To Unleash Solar Revolution’ »

The recent energy crisis and soaring oil prices have compelled the human race to look for alternate energy sources, such solar, wind, geothermal, nuclear and bio fuels. Harnessing of nuclear power is getting new impetus.

Continue reading ‘Solar Cell Growth Flaring’ »

The world is almost certainly going to remain hooked on fossil fuels—oil, coal, natural gas—for decades to come, despite our best efforts to cut back, the chief scientist for British Petroleum said during a recent campus talk.

Physicist Steven Koonin spoke to a crowd gathered at the Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center to hear the annual Drell Lecture. The event was hosted by the Center for International Security and Cooperation in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.

Koonin used a slide show, à la Al Gore, to make his points. The lines on his chart representing worldwide energy demands in coming decades went on a steady upward trajectory, the same years the world needs to cut back on carbon dioxide emissions to lessen the effects of global warming.

Continue reading ‘The need for fossil fuels will last for decades, according to BP’s chief scientist’ »

A national team of scientists led by experts at Durham University are embarking on one of the UK’s largest ever research projects into photovoltaic (PV) solar energy.

The £6.3million PV-21 programme will focus on making thin-film light absorbing cells for solar panels from sustainable and affordable materials.

The four-year project, which begins in April (2008), is being funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) under the SUPERGEN initiative.

Eight UK universities, led by Durham and including Bangor, Bath, Cranfield, Edinburgh, Imperial College London, Northumbria and Southampton, are involved in the project.

Continue reading ‘Durham University Leads UK Research Project Into Cheaper Solar Energy’ »

Berkeley, CA — As structures made of metal get smaller — as their dimensions approach the micrometer scale (millionths of a meter) or less — they get stronger. Scientists discovered this phenomenon 50 years ago while measuring the strength of tin “whiskers” a few micrometers in diameter and a few millimeters in length. Many theories have been proposed to explain why smaller is stronger, but only recently has it become possible to see and record what’s actually happening in tiny structures under stress.Andrew Minor, of the Materials Sciences Division in the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, with colleagues from Hysitron Incorporated and the General Motors Research and Development Center, used the In Situ Microscope at the National Center for Electron Microscopy (NCEM) to record what happens when pillars of nickel with diameters between 150 and 400 nanometers (billionths of a meter) are compressed under a flat punch made of diamond. The transmission electron microscope is equipped so that samples can be stressed, measured, and videotaped while being observed under the electron beam.

“What controls the deformation of a metal object is the way that defects, called dislocations, move along planes in its crystal structure,” Minor says. “The result of dislocation slip is plastic deformation. For example, bending a paper clip causes its trillions of dislocations per square centimeter to tangle up and multiply as they run into one another and slide along numerous slip planes.”

In general, mechanical deformation tends to increase the number of dislocations in a material. But for small-scale structures, with a much greater proportion of surface area to volume, the process can be very different. The videotaped images from the electron microscope helped the researchers understand why nanoscale nickel pillars are so strong by allowing them to observe changes in the microstructure of the pillars during deformation — including a never-before-seen process the researchers dubbed “mechanical annealing.” (In bulk materials, annealing, a treatment that reduces the density of defects, is usually accomplished by heating.)

Continue reading ‘Smaller Is Stronger — Now Scientists Know Why’ »

New York — Applied Materials, Inc. recently announced it was named Green Energy Innovator of the Year for its pioneering work on the Applied SunFab Thin Film Line, at a gala presenting the prestigious 9th Annual Platts Global Energy Awards.

“Applied Materials is focused on lowering the cost of solar photovoltaic generated energy through the application of nanomanufacturing technologies,” said Mark Pinto, Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Officer and General Manager Energy and Environmental Solutions. “The nominees in the category of Green Energy Innovator were international in breadth and included leading global green energy innovators. Amongst such competition, I am pleased to receive this acknowledgement and proud of the great work our teams around the world are doing to help make solar energy an affordable solution to the world’s power needs.”

The award highlighted the revolutionary SunFab, the world’s first and only integrated production line for manufacturing thin film silicon solar modules using 5.7 square meter (m2) glass panels. These ultra-large substrates, sized at 2.2m x 2.6m, are four times bigger than today’s typical thin film solar modules. Key to the SunFab’s success is that it can be replicated by customers around the globe to rapidly establish solar panel manufacturing capacity and achieve lower production cost per watt to drive down the cost of solar electricity.

Continue reading ‘Applied Materials Named Green Energy Innovator Of The Year’ »

Redondo Beach, CA — Northrop Grumman Corporation has achieved two milestones that helped prepare the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) Airborne Laser (ABL) aircraft for integration of the Northrop Grumman-developed high-energy laser. Both accomplishments contributed to MDA’s success in meeting its fifth and final “Knowledge Point” or milestone for 2007 covering high-power systems integration readiness, continuing recent program progress.

Northrop Grumman’s Space Technology sector completed inspection and refurbishment of the components and parts that compose the Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL), a megawatt-class laser the company designed and built for the ABL program. In conjunction with The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA), ABL’s prime contractor, Northrop Grumman also completed extensive engineering drawings for the installation of the laser. The drawings incorporate streamlined processes and other improvements learned during ground tests concluded in 2005.

“These achievements represent outstanding progress toward providing our nation with a mobile, speed-of-light capability to attack ballistic missiles during their boost phase,” said Alexis Livanos, corporate vice president and president of the company’s Space Technology sector.

Continue reading ‘Northrop Grumman Achieves Two Milestones Toward Integrating High-Energy Laser With Missile Defense Agency’s Airborne Laser Aircraft’ »

In the race to make solar cells cheaper and more efficient, many researchers and start-up companies are betting on new designs that exploit nanostructures — materials engineered on the scale of a billionth of a meter. Using nanotechnology, researchers can experiment with and control how a material generates, captures, transports, and stores free electrons — properties that are important for the conversion of sunlight into electricity.Two nanotech methods for engineering solar cell materials have shown particular promise. One uses thin films of metal oxide nanoparticles, such as titanium dioxide, doped with other elements, such as nitrogen. Another strategy employs quantum dots — nanosize crystals — that strongly absorb visible light. These tiny semiconductors inject electrons into a metal oxide film, or “sensitize” it, to increase solar energy conversion. Both doping and quantum dot sensitization extend the visible light absorption of the metal oxide materials.Combining these two approaches appears to yield better solar cell materials than either one alone does, according to Jin Zhang, professor of chemistry at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Zhang led a team of researchers from California, Mexico, and China that created a thin film doped with nitrogen and sensitized with quantum dots. When tested, the new nanocomposite material performed better than predicted — as if the functioning of the whole material was greater than the sum of its two individual components.

“We have discovered a new strategy that could be very useful for enhancing the photo response and conversion efficiency of solar cells based on nanomaterials,” said Zhang. “We initially thought that the best we might do is get results as good as the sum of the two, and maybe if we didn’t make this right, we’d get something worse. But surprisingly, these materials were much better.”

The group’s findings were reported in the Journal of Physical Chemistry in a paper posted online on January 4. Lead author of the paper was Tzarara Lopez-Luke, a graduate student visiting in Zheng’s lab who is now at the Instituto de Investigaciones Metalurgicas, UMSNH, Morelia, Mexico.

Continue reading ‘New Nanostructured Thin Film Shows Promise For Efficient Solar Energy Conversion’ »