Tag: energy

Cold Sparks & Black HolesThis is an excerpt from Cosmic Journeys "Cold Sparks & Black Holes." It's the start of a journey through the incredible continuum of cosmic energy that produced us.
Today, energy is very much on our minds, as we search for ways to power our civilization and serve the needs of our citizens.

Samsung Galaxy Ace MobileBurn.com - Our first look at the Samsung Galaxy Ace Android smartphone, with its 3.5-inch HVGA capacitive touchscreen display, 5 megapixel camera, and Swype text input. The Samsung Galaxy Ace runs on the Android Froyo 2.2 operating system and is powered by an 800MHz processor.

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ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2011) Professor Richard Watt and his chemistry students suspected that a common protein could potentially react with sunlight and harvest its energy -- similar to what chlorophyll does during photosynthesis.

The story of how they proved it sounds as colorful as the legend of the leprechaun who hid his pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

ScienceDaily (Nov. 9, 2009) By taking advantage of the vagaries of the natural world, Duke University engineers have developed a novel approach that they believe can more efficiently harvest electricity from the motions of everyday life.

Energy harvesting is the process of converting one form of energy, such as motion, into another form of energy, in this case electricity. Strategies range from the development of massive wind farms to produce large amounts of electricity to using the vibrations of walking to power small electronic devices.

A government-funded start-up claims it can make ionic liquid energy storage feasible.

A spinoff from Arizona State University says it can develop a metal-air battery that dramatically outperforms the best lithium-ion batteries on the market, and now it has the funding it needs to prove it.

Rechargeable zinc-air batteries can store three times the energy of a lithium-ion battery.

A Swiss company says it has developed rechargeable zinc-air batteries that can store three times the energy of lithium ion batteries, by volume, while costing only half as much. ReVolt, of Staefa, Switzerland, plans to sell small "button cell" batteries for hearing aids starting next year and to incorporate its technology into ever larger batteries, introducing cell-phone and electric bicycle batteries in the next few years. It is also starting to develop large-format batteries for electric vehicles.

Vast amounts of the clean-burning fossil fuel have been discovered in shale deposits, setting off a gas rush. But how it will affect our energy use is still uncertain.

The first sign that there's something unusual about the flat black rocks strewn across the shore of Lake Erie comes when Gary Lash smashes two of them together. They break easily and fall into shards that give off the faint odor of hydrocarbons, similar to the smell of kerosene. But for Lash, a geologist and professor at nearby SUNY Fredonia, smashing the rocks is a simple trick designed to catch the attention of a visitor. The black outcroppings that protrude from the nearby bluff onto the narrow beach are what really interest him.

There are only about 50 public geothermal plants right now, with 90% of the energy coming from California. In addition many individual businesses are building their own plants. A Reno gambling hall just agreed to build its own $8 million power plant. Other local businesses are also looking to this investment.

There wasn't much consensus about the most promising energy technologies, but everyone at a panel on the future of energy at the EmTech conference at MIT this morning seemed to agree that three energy-related technologies won't make money, at least not in the current economic and regulatory environment.

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In the context of sustainable housing Allen Associates has developed projects with renewable energy systems including wood heating. The Toronto winning design of the CMHC (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation) Healthy House Competition highlighted the need for a wood fired integrated appliance which combines space and domestic water heating, cooking and electricity production. This device will service reduced thermal and electrical end uses and complement photovoltaic electricity generation and solar thermal water heating.

This paper discusses environmentally sustainable housing principles and illustrates their application with three built projects. All projects used a major wood heating appliance with integrated domestic water heating.