Archive for August, 2008
JC Penney adding solar and wind projects to its stores
Friday, August 15th, 2008Retailer JC Penney announced this week that they would be adding solar and wind power projects to 10 of their stores and one of their distribution centers. They also announced plans to obtain Energy Star certification for at least 200 of their stores.
The company has asked SunPower Corporation to install solar power systems on 10 [...]
Will Nanoantennas replace PV Solar Cells?
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008Researchers at the DoE’s Idaho National Laboratory have come up with an inexpensive way to use “nanoantennas” to collect heat energy produced by the sun and other sources. Flexible plastic sheets containing the nanoantennas could then be mass produced to creat flexible lightweight “skins” that could power everything from iPods to hybrid [...]
Blue H USA eyes Maine coast for wind power
Sunday, August 10th, 2008Blue H USA, one of the companies developing wind turbines for deep water wind farms, has been meeting with Maine state leaders about placing a large wind project off the coast of Maine.
Blue H USA is looking for a site that will not have any impact on local fisheries and the environment and is far [...]
Review of the 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid SUV
Wednesday, August 6th, 2008The Gainesville Guardian got to test drive the brand new 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid SUV, and it sounds like they liked what they drove. It has more horsepower this year, but is still rated 34 mpg city / 30 highway like the 2008. A friend of mine has the 2008 Escape [...]
Laser textured solar cells will reflect less light and be more efficient
Wednesday, August 6th, 2008A University of Virginia team has been working on creating tiny nanoscale surface textures on solar cells that may reduce energy loss to less than 1 percent, compared to 30 percent or so that current solar cell non-reflecting coatings provide. By using lasers to create ‘nanospikes’ on the surface of the cell, the added [...]
Gore-tex based new cheaper fuel cell breakthrough eliminates need for platinum
Monday, August 4th, 2008Monash University researchers have come up with a new Goretex fuel cell design that could make hybrid cars much cheaper and more reliable. The researchers have developed an air electrode conisisting of an extremely thin layer (0.4 of a micron) of highly conductive plastic is deposited on Gore-tex, the popular outdoor and sporting goods clothing [...]
Science Daily: MIT researchers develop new way to store solar power
Saturday, August 2nd, 2008One of the drawbacks of solar cells is that they only work when the sun is shining, and current methods to store the power produced by the cells for non-sunny periods are extremely expensive and very inefficient. Now, MIT researchers are claiming a breakthrough in power storage that will allow for inexpensive and efficient [...]
EEStor Update: 3rd party certification of key production milestones and chemical purity
Saturday, August 2nd, 2008EEStor has announced that they have achieved 3rd party certification of production milestones and the enhancement of its chemical purification. EEStor, who have been developing an ultracapacitor that they say will be much longer lasting and more powerful than current batteries, are saying that the 3rd party certification shows that they are well on [...]