Archive for July, 2007
New record – 42.8% solar cell efficiency achieved
Tuesday, July 31st, 2007A consortium of researchers led by the University of Delaware has achieved a record breaking combined solar cell efficiency of 42.8% from sunlight at standard conditions.
The previous record of 40.7% set in December by Boeing-Spectrolab was broken by the new solar cells that use a new lateral optical concentraing system that splits the sunlight into [...]
NJ man fights to save his backyard windmill
Sunday, July 29th, 2007You can check out a short piece that CNN did on a New Jersey man who installed a windmill in his backyard and solar panels on his roof and cut his electricity bill from $300-$400 per month down to about ten bucks. But now his neighbors want him to shut down his windmill [...]
Toyota’s plug-in hybrid gets the OK for road tests in Japan
Wednesday, July 25th, 2007AP is reporting that Toyota has developed a new plug-in hybrid and has received government approval to run tests on public roads in Japan. Toyota is also planning tests in the US and Europe.
However, Toyota still is not willing to say when they will bring a plug-in hybrid to market. [...]
Make your own solar cells
Thursday, July 19th, 2007Science Daily reports that researchers at the New Jersey Institute of Technology have developed a new cheap solar cell that can just be painted or printed on flexible plastic sheets. These new cells will very possibly give homeowners the ability to print out sheets of these solar cells with their inkjet printer. [...]
Science Daily – Higher efficiency organic solar cell created
Monday, July 16th, 2007Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara and the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in Gwangju Korea have created a new “tandem” organic solar cell that yields 6.5% efficiency, which is the highest level yet for solar cells made from organic materials. Nobel laureate Alan Heeger, professor of physics at UC Santa [...]
PA man envisions small turbines taking wind power to the people
Wednesday, July 11th, 2007While we’ve seen articles about residential turbines before, this Lancaster Pennsylvania man has created his own company, Airevolution Wind Energy Systems (www.airevolutionllc.com) to specifically develop and market small wind turbines to residents, farmers, and small business owners in the Lancaster, PA region.
Roy Heisey, a former nuclear power engineer, studied wind maps prepared by the [...]
California to build ‘world’s largest’ solar farm
Tuesday, July 10th, 2007From CNN.com: Cleantech America LLC, a privately held two year old company announced that it will be building the worlds largest solar power farm near Fresno, California.
When built, the solar panel farm will occupy about 640 acres and will generate about 80 megawatts. Completion date is set for 2011. [...]
Google shows hybrid cars that return juice to the grid
Wednesday, July 4th, 2007Last month, Google held a press event to show off some modified Toyota Prius’ that return power to the electrical grid. The RechargeIT project, is part of the climate change and energy program going on at Google. Google wants their entire company to be carbon neutral by 2008.
The RechargeIt initiative [...]
Want to build your own wind turbine?
Wednesday, July 4th, 2007If you’re interested in building your very own DIY wind turbine, or just want to know the details about how wind turbines are put together, then you definitely want to check out today’s article in the Green Options Blog
Vancouver Sun – Wind Power the latest energy darling at the green debutantes’ ball
Wednesday, July 4th, 2007The Vancouver Sun describes eight major wind power projects that are currently before Canada’s provincial environmental assessment office and are either in the preliminary or subsequent stages of review and approval.
“North Coast Wind Energy is proposing a giant wind farm — more than 200 turbines spread over 7,000 hectares — on Banks Island, south of [...]