Tag: energy
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Engineers Calculate, Write Software for Solar Fluctuations
A faculty-student engineering team at University of California, San Diego has developed a computer model to calculate fluctuations in the solar power grid caused by changes in cloud cover. The team of professor Jan Kleissl and Ph.D. student Matthew Lave have also written software to help power grid managers predict fluctuations in the solar grid…
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Solar Wafer Process Developer Earns DoE Loan Guarantee
The U.S. Department of Energy will offer a conditional commitment for a $150 million loan guarantee to 1366 Technologies in Lexington, Massachusetts. The company has developed a new manufacturing process for silicon wafers used in solar panels that promises to slash the costs and time needed to make. The loan guarantee will support 1366 Techologies’…
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Netherlands to Open Bio-Solar Research, Production Center
The Netherlands begins on 17 June its BioSolar Cells research program to strengthen the science behind the sustainable production of bio-energy and food through photosynthesis. Also on 17 June, Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands opens its Algae Production and Research Centre (AlgaePARC), a production-scale lab to raise the output from algae bio-reactors…
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Oak Ridge Lab Develops Web 2.0 System for HazMat Tracking
Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee is developing a system for tracking hazardous materials that lets stakeholders use their own technology and protocols for keeping track of these shipments. The Tracking 2.0 system, that employs a Web-based social media approach to HazMat tracking, was funded by the Office of Science in the Department of Energy…
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University Lighting Research Center Gains Industry Backers
The Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center (ERC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York has drawn 21 industrial partners to help guide the center’s research programs and move its findings from the lab bench to the marketplace. ERC began in 2008 with funding from National Science Foundation, and is led by Rensselaer. The center’s…
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Pavement Affects Weather, Aids Build Up of Urban Pollutants
A team from the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado found the intense commercial development in Houston, Texas can change weather patterns in that city, which makes it easier for pollutants to accumulate during warm summer weather instead of being blown out to sea. Their findings will appear in an upcoming issue of…
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GE Technology Selected for First Gas/Wind/Solar Power Plant
GE says it will provide the basic technology for a power plant in Turkey that generates electricity with a combination of natural gas, wind, and solar power. The plant, to be built by MetCap Energy Investments, a Turkish development company, is expected to provide power for more than 600,000 homes when it goes online in…
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Grant to Fund Research on Ice-Resistant Coatings
University of Illinois at Chicago engineering professor Constantine Megaridis recently received a $320,000 National Science Foundation grant to investigate coatings that can resist the build up of ice. Megaridis’s research is expected to continue his previous research on coatings that are both superhydrophobic — have the ability to repel water — and self-cleaning. At UIC,…
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Hybrid Construction Vehicles in Development Cut Fuel Use
Engineers at Aalto University in Finland are developing hybrid combustion/electric versions of heavy off-road work vehicles that can cut the amount of fuel they consume by half. This new technology, says the university, captures energy, which up to now has been lost by the machinery when working, and uses it instead of fuel. The engineering…
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Programming Protocol Cuts Computer Energy Use
Researchers at University of Washington in Seattle have created a software programming protocol called EnerJ that reduces energy consumption in simulations by up to 50 percent. The computer scientists and engineers will present their research next week in San Jose, California at the Programming Language Design and Implementation annual meeting. The team led by UW…