Archive for December, 2009
« Previous EntriesUS hybrid sales up 21% in November 2009 – 2.7% of new vehicles sold
Wednesday, December 30th, 2009Green Car Congress reports that US sales of hybrids were 21% higher in November of 2009 compared to 2008, and represented 2.7% of all new vehicles sold. In November 2008, the hybrid percent of all new vehicles sold was 2.2%.
The article breaks down all the facts and figures, along with some nifty graphs comparing [...]
Glitter sized solar cells produce big sized power
Monday, December 28th, 2009 glitter sized solar cells – picture by Murat Okandan of Sandia National Labs
Microscopic sized solar cells are being made by researchers at the Sandia National Laboratories in Alburquerque, NM, and these cells are expected to be much cheaper to make and more efficient than current silicon photovoltaic solar cells. The new hexagonal shaped cells, [...]
Toyota planning a new smaller and cheaper hybrid
Saturday, December 26th, 2009Word is that Toyota is planning on coming out with a new hybrid model that will be smaller and cheaper than the Prius. According to the DetroitNews.com, Toyota will be showing off a concept version of the new hybrid at the Jan 11th North American International Auto Show. There’s no details (and no [...]
Hybrid motorcycle heading to India
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 Eko Vehicles ET-120 hybrid
Eko Vehicles, a well known Bengladore based company that has been making electric scooters for years, is working with U.S. based Emerging Technologies, Inc, and coming out with a hybrid motorcycle aimed at the mass market in India. While its hardly a powerhouse (it’s top speed is about 40 mph), its [...]
Hot electrons can double solar cell efficiency
Saturday, December 19th, 2009 Solar cell that captures hot electrons – Michael Naughton
“Hot electrons” are created when a high energy photon (i.e. sunlight) hits a solar cell. In most solar cells, however, these hot electrons lose most of their energy as heat before it passes through the cell and generates electricity, so much of the energy is lost. [...]
Sapphire Energy gets federal funding to build its algae to oil biofuel plant
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009Earlier this month, the US Department of Energy announced almost $600 million in federal funding for advanced biofuel projects. This federal grant money is intended to push forward the next generation of biofuels, since corn based ethanol plants have come under fire for increasing food costs. One of the beneficiaries of the [...]
Caithness Energy and General Electric to build largest U.S. wind farm in Oregon
Sunday, December 13th, 2009General Electric announced this week that it had landed a contract to help build an 845 megawatt wind farm in Gilliam and Morrow counties in north-central Oregon. The new Shepherds Flat wind farm, which is being built by Caithness Energy, is planned for completion in 2012, and will consist of 338 GE wind turbines [...]
Paper batteries using nanotubes and ink
Friday, December 11th, 2009Researchers at Stanford University have come up with a way to make ultra lightweight and flexible batteries and supercapacitors out of paper. All they had to do was coat a sheet of paper with special ink made out of carbon nanotubes and silver wires. The result is a highly conductive storage device that [...]
US Dept of Energy invests $979m in carbon capture projects
Monday, December 7th, 2009The US Department of Energy will be providing almost $1B ($979m) towards three large scale carbon sequestration projects. The total cost of the projects is expected to be $3B – the remainder of the money will come from industry. Currently, there aren’t any large scale projects in the works, only a small number [...]
Solarmer Energy hits 7.9% efficiency with plastic organic photovoltaic solar cell – breaks record
Sunday, December 6th, 2009 Solarmer’s flexible plastic solar cell
Solarmer Energy has just announced that they have achieved a new certified by the NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) record for efficiency of 7.9% with their plastic organic photovoltaic (OPV) solar cells. Solarmer feels that their plastic solar cells represent the next generation of solar cells, since they are flexible, transparent [...]