Tag: cleantech
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GE Demonstrates Prototype Hybrid-Battery Bus
GE Global Research, the technology development arm of General Electric Company, says it demonstrated a prototype transit bus with a hybrid battery — “hybrid” in this case means two different battery technologies to optimize power and storage. The company says the new type of battery can help electrify other larger, heavy-duty vehicles such as delivery…
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Grant Boosts Research Commercialization Group
The Maryland Proof of Concept Alliance — a consortium of Maryland university research institutions and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory — has received a $5.1 million federal grant to support its work moving research findings from the lab to the marketplace. The Alliance helps researchers through the often tricky and (to the researchers) unfamiliar process…
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Student, Company Produce Nanotech for Solar Cells
A collaboration between a University of Copenhagen Ph.D. candidate in Denmark and nearby solar technology company SunFlake A/S produced a discovery of using nanotechnology to improve the efficiency of solar cells and other nanoscale electronics. Nanowires are chains of single crystals a few nanometers across (1 nanometer = 1 billionth of a meter) with unique…
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Life-Cycle Analysis Shows CFL Bulbs Most Enviro Friendly
Researchers from Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research in Duebendorf, studied the full lifetime of four lighting technologies, and found compact fluorescent lighting (CFL) to inflict the least environmental damage. The analysis includes consideration of CFL’s mercury content, since exposure to elemental mercury when absorbed through the lungs can cause neurological…
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University Designs Small-Scale Low-Impact Hydro Plant
Researchers at Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) in Germany have developed a small-scale hydroelectric power plant that solves some of the problems often encountered when building these facilities: high cost, environmental degradation, and impact on fish. The developers believe this design can make hydroelectric power more feasible in more places. Hydroelectric power, while consuming no fossil…
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California Funds Solar Cogeneration, Winery Demo Project
Cogenra Solar, a developer of solar cogeneration systems in Mountain View, California, has received a $1.5 million research grant from the California Solar Initiative Research, Development, Deployment and Demonstration Program. The funding will support accelerated development and commercial deployment of Cogenra’s solar cogeneration technology, including a demonstration project at the Sonoma Wine Company in Graton,…
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First Wave Energy Device Connected to Power Grid
Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) in Pennington, New Jersey, says it has completed the first-ever grid connection of a wave energy device in the United States at Marine Corps Base Hawaii on Oahu. The grid connection uses OPT’s PowerBuoy systems to produce what the company calls utility-grade, renewable energy that can be delivered compliant with national…
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Korea Boosts R&D Budget, Targets Economic Growth
The Korea Herald newspaper reports today that the Korean government plans to increase the budget for its Ministry of Knowledge Economy by 7 percent in 2011 to KRW 4.5 trillion (USD 3.9 billion), with most of the funds going to research and development that benefits sustainable economic growth. The plans released today show substantial increases…
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Flywheel Developer Awarded ARPA-E Contract
Beacon Power Corporation, a developer of energy storage systems and services in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, signed a contract with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) to develop components of a more advanced flywheel energy storage system over a two-year period. Beacon Power says the contract is valued at $2.8 million.…
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ABB, GM to Research Spent Car Batteries for Grid Storage
ABB, a developer of power and automation technologies in Cary, North Carolina, and General Motors will collaborate in a research and development project focused on uses for electric vehicle batteries once their useful life in the vehicle is over. The project will examine the reuse of spent lithium-ion battery packs from GM’s Chevy Volt, as…