Feb 7 2012
We have just launched a new web site for Irish farmers farmelectricity.com
It is to introduce our solar and wind power systems to farmers that need power in slatted sheds or out buildings.
Work is ongoing on the site at the moment but we will be adding details of systems soon.
Dec 22 2011
Atomic force microscope cantilever tips with integrated heaters are widely used to characterize polymer films in electronics and optical devices, pharmaceuticals, paints, and coatings. These heated tips are also used in research labs to explore new ideas in nanolithography and data storage, and to study fundamentals of nanometer-scale heat flow. Until now, however, no one has used a heated nano-tip for electronic measurements.
“We have developed a new kind of electro-thermal nanoprobe,” according to William King, a College of Engineering Bliss Professor in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at Illinois. “Our electro-thermal nanoprobe can independently control voltage and temperature at a nanometer-scale point contact. It can also measure the temperature-dependent voltage at a nanometer-scale point contact.”
“Our goal is to perform electro-thermal measurements at the nanometer scale,” according to Patrick Fletcher, first author of the paper, “Thermoelectric voltage at a nanometer-scale heated tip point contact,” published in the journal Nanotechnology. “Our electro-thermal nanoprobe can be used to measure the nanometer-scale properties of materials such as semiconductors, thermoelectrics, and ferroelectrics.”
The electro-thermal probes are different than thermal nanoprobes typically used in King’s group and elsewhere. They have three electrical paths to the cantilever tip. Two of the paths carry heating current, while the third allows the nanometer-scale electrical measurement. The two electrical paths are separated by a diode junction fabricated into the tip. While the cantilever design is complex, the probes can be used in any atomic force microscope.
In addition to Fletcher, co-authors of the paper include Byeonghee Lee, and William King. The research was performed in the Nanoengineering laboratory as well as the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory and the Materials Research Laboratory at Illinois.
Story Source: University of Illinois College of Engineering.
Dec 22 2011
Kyocera has recently delivered an additional 10 megawatts (MW) of solar modules to an existing 6MW installation near Turin, Italy. Kyocera anticipates continued growth in the solar industry in Italy, as high levels of energy production from favorable sunlight conditions and an attractive feed-in tariff promote the expansion of solar energy.
The additional 10MW is distributed equally between the “Lotti” and “Petiva” sites — with 20,640 Kyocera modules installed at each of the two plants. Owing to its high efficiency and ability to reduce the amount of time and materials required for installation, the 60-cell module used for these two new plants is particularly suitable for industrial and utility-scale solar projects.
Recently completed, these new plants supplement an existing 6MW solar plant located in the Piedmont region, which is operated by Kyocera’s partner ENERMILL Energie Rinnovabili s.r.l.. With a total output of 16MW, the Enermill solar park is the largest project to use Kyocera modules in Italy. The overall solar park is comprised of 68,100 Kyocera modules — producing approximately 20GWh per year of electricity, which is the equivalent energy requirement of roughly 4,500 local households, and off-setting 18,000 tons of CO2 annually.
Sunny future for the solar energy sector in Italy
Italy is one of the most important markets for solar energy in Europe. According to the GSE — an authority founded by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance for the promotion of renewable energies — in this year alone additional solar installations with an output of 6.5GW have been completed as of September. Furthermore, the sustainable production of electricity using solar energy is promoted by the Italian government with a feed-in tariff, for which the rates are considerably attractive in comparison to other European countries.
High quality solar modules with exceptional performance
Kyocera has notably shipped more than 50MW of modules for three large-scale power plants in Spain, and agreed to supply modules for a 204MW project in Thailand. Furthermore, data collected from three of these plants in Spain (Dulcinea: 28.8MW; Salamanca: 13.8MW) and Thailand (Korat: 6MW) show that the company’s modules are exceeding the installers’ own original power output estimates — demonstrating the high performance and reliability of Kyocera’s products.
Dec 22 2011
Researchers at Aalto University in Finland have developed a new and significantly cheaper method of manufacturing fuel cells. A noble metal nanoparticle catalyst for fuel cells is prepared using atomic layer deposition (ALD).
This ALD method for manufacturing fuel cells requires 60 per cent less of the costly catalyst than current methods.
“This is a significant discovery, because researchers have not been able to achieve savings of this magnitude before with materials that are commercially available,” says Docent Tanja Kallio of Aalto University.
Fuel cells could replace polluting combustion engines that are presently in use. However, in a fuel cell, chemical processes must be sped up by using a catalyst. The high price of catalysts is one of the biggest hurdles to the wide adoption of fuel cells at the moment.
The most commonly used fuel cells cover anode with expensive noble metal powder which reacts well with the fuel. By using the Aalto University researchers’ ALD method, this cover can be much thinner and more even than before which lowers costs and increases quality.
With this study, researchers are developing better alcohol fuel cells using methanol or ethanol as their fuel. It is easier to handle and store alcohols than commonly used hydrogen. In alcohol fuel cells, it is also possible to use palladium as a catalyst.
The most common catalyst for hydrogen fuel cells is platinum, which is twice as expensive as palladium. This means that alcohol fuel cells and palladium will bring a more economical product to the market.
Fuel cells can create electricity that produces very little or even no pollution. They are highly efficient, making more energy and requiring less fuel than other devices of equal size. They are also quiet and require low maintenance, because there are no moving parts.
In the future, when production costs can be lowered, fuel cells are expected to power electric vehicles and replace batteries, among other things. Despite their high price, fuel cells have already been used for a long time to produce energy in isolated environments, such as space crafts. These results are based on preliminary testing with fuel cell anodes using a palladium catalyst. Commercial production could start in 5-10 years.
This study was published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C. The research has been funded by Aalto University’s MIDE research program and the Academy of Finland.
Story Source: Aalto University.
Dec 21 2011
Computing solution giant IBM spends billions of dollars in advertising each year to try and make investors and the general public believe that its engineers are hard at work trying to come up with technology that would make things better for the humankind. And while the company has contributed immensely to modern technology, some of its claims seem to be more science fiction than anything else. Take, for example, their claim that developments in the next five years will allow folks to harvest energy from their own movements and from the movement of water through household plumbing. Though the idea is novel, it is IBM’s claim that the energy harvested from movement of water through pipes and human motion alone would be sufficient to power entire households that surprises us.
The claim is a part of ‘IBM 5 in 5′ which is a prestigious list of technological developments that the computing giant predicts would be realized in the next five years. The concept is wonderful and though several technological precedences for this stream of thought exist already and have been proven to be effective, alas, the laws of thermodynamics do not agree with IBM’s distinguished engineers.
Even in theory, the notion that the electricity generated from regular human movement such as walking can power a whole home is absurd. And not in the least because the technology doesn’t exist. The technology that enables people to harvest their own movement by drawing energy from vibration via piezoelectric materials has already been produced, studied and proven effective. Sadly, it hasn’t been proven to be able to generate enough power for our needs. This means that though a special pair of sneakers fitted with piezoelectric sensors can produce electricity; it won’t be enough to juice up your iPod given the current state of technology.
And that is why IBM’s claim falls flat on its face. There aren’t any studies to back this up just yet, but consider the amount of power a normal, mid-income family home needs to remain functional through a single day, and then compare it to the miniscule amounts of electricity that walking all day in a special pair of electricity would generate. Even without statistical data, the difference is huge and without a real hardcore study to back it, there is no way parasitic power collection that can power real homes within the next five years. Perhaps in the next fifty years when power collection technologies would advance by leaps and bounds, but definitely not in the next five years. Maybe its time IBM actually spent a little more moolah on trying to develop these technology and come up with actual stats and studies to back such claims rather than paying marketing whiz kids to come up with sensationalist catch phrases.
Via: CNET
Dec 21 2011
At a tender age of 17, when most of us are just sitting back and admiring the marvels of the latest in automotive design, Sasha Kazlou, a native of Hrodna has built an all electric car from scratch. Two of his friends helped him to buy some of the parts and to construct it. With a little budget of 1000 dollars or some 8 million Belarusian Roubles, Sasha first set up a garage to make the car. Then he procured the lead acid battery from Germany. After scouting around for other small parts in second hand sales or dumps, the boys set about making it. The exterior shell of the car is made with fiber glass and painted white.
All the parts are very original with no brand names for any of them. A simple 220V socket is sufficient to charge the car. It reaches a speed of 35kph and can cover a distance of 100km when fully charged. The interior is the same as any other car with two pedals, a lockable steering wheel, a handbrake and a pedal for reversing. There is even a safety belt to keep the driver secure.
Making an electric car is an engineering challenge used as a competition for school children. Since the pollution problems are increasing, there is a great demand for well engineered electric cars and cars using alternate fuels. Sasha was very interested in radio electronics and that spurred him onto making radio controlled small cars. This gave him the confidence to make bigger electric cars. So with the help of two of his friends, he constructed a three wheel electric car in a span of two years. Sasha has already started his next project. This time it is an electric motorbike. He is designing it to reach a top speed of 80 kph. With more such vehicles, Sasha hopes to reduce the pollution created from petrol based vehicles and make the environment healthier.
Via: Euro Radio
Dec 21 2011
UK Government plans to cut financial incentives for solar electricity have created “huge economic uncertainty” and are “manifestly unlawful”, the High Court has been told.
The accusations were made by environmental pressure group Friends of the Earth (FoE) and two solar companies – Solarcentury and HomeSun – as they jointly launched an application for judicial review.
They say Energy Secretary Chris Huhne is proposing “retrospectively” to cut feed-in tariff subsidies (FITs) – payments made to households and communities that generate green electricity through solar panels – on any installations completed after December 12 this year.
FoE and the companies say the “premature and unlawful” December deadline fell 11 days before a consultation into feed-in tariffs ends and has already led to unfinished or planned projects being abandoned.
Sam Grodzinski QC, appearing for HomeSun Holdings Ltd, told Mr Justice Mitting at London’s High Court: “This challenge is to action taken by the Government that has thrown the small-scale solar industry, as well as voluntary organisations and housing associations and other people who want to install solar panels, into a state of huge economic uncertainty and which is manifestly unlawful.
“The (Energy Secretary’s) desire to curtail the FITs scheme as quickly as possible led him to act in a way both beyond the objects of the enabling legislation and unlawfully as a matter of basic common law fairness.”
Government lawyers are arguing there is no legal basis for the application for judicial review and its proposals are not “retrospective” in any meaningful sense.
A recent report commissioned by FoE and an alliance of solar firms and consumer and environmental organisations known as “Cut Don’t Kill” estimated the cuts could cost up to 29,000 jobs and lose the Treasury up to £230 million a year in tax income. Construction firm Carillion has warned 4,500 workers their jobs are at risk.
FoE’s executive director Andy Atkins said before the hearing: “The Government’s rushed plans to slash solar subsidies have pulled the plug on countless clean energy schemes and threatened thousands of jobs – we believe this is not just unfair, it’s unlawful.
“We agree falling installation costs mean solar payments should fall, but the speed and scale of these proposals will have a devastating impact on a thriving industry. The Government must think again and take steps to safeguard UK solar jobs and help cash-strapped families and businesses to free themselves from expensive fossil fuels.”
Source: Google News
Dec 21 2011
When one tiny circuit within an integrated chip cracks or fails, the whole chip — or even the whole device — is a loss. But what if it could fix itself, and fix itself so fast that the user never knew there was a problem?
A team of University of Illinois engineers has developed a self-healing system that restores electrical conductivity to a cracked circuit in less time than it takes to blink. Led by aerospace engineering professor Scott White and materials science and engineering professor Nancy Sottos, the researchers published their results in the journal Advanced Materials.
“It simplifies the system,” said chemistry professor Jeffrey Moore, a co-author of the paper. “Rather than having to build in redundancies or to build in a sensory diagnostics system, this material is designed to take care of the problem itself.”
As electronic devices are evolving to perform more sophisticated tasks, manufacturers are packing as much density onto a chip as possible. However, such density compounds reliability problems, such as failure stemming from fluctuating temperature cycles as the device operates or fatigue. A failure at any point in the circuit can shut down the whole device.
“In general there’s not much avenue for manual repair,” Sottos said. “Sometimes you just can’t get to the inside. In a multilayer integrated circuit, there’s no opening it up. Normally you just replace the whole chip. It’s true for a battery too. You can’t pull a battery apart and try to find the source of the failure.”
Most consumer devices are meant to be replaced with some frequency, adding to electronic waste issues, but in many important applications — such as instruments or vehicles for space or military functions — electrical failures cannot be replaced or repaired.
The Illinois team previously developed a system for self-healing polymer materials and decided to adapt their technique for conductive systems. They dispersed tiny microcapsules, as small as 10 microns in diameter, on top of a gold line functioning as a circuit. As a crack propagates, the microcapsules break open and release the liquid metal contained inside. The liquid metal fills in the gap in the circuit, restoring electrical flow.
“What’s really cool about this paper is it’s the first example of taking the microcapsule-based healing approach and applying it to a new function,” White said. “Everything prior to this has been on structural repair. This is on conductivity restoration. It shows the concept translates to other things as well.”
A failure interrupts current for mere microseconds as the liquid metal immediately fills the crack. The researchers demonstrated that 90 percent of their samples healed to 99 percent of original conductivity, even with a small amount of microcapsules.
The self-healing system also has the advantages of being localized and autonomous. Only the microcapsules that a crack intercepts are opened, so repair only takes place at the point of damage. Furthermore, it requires no human intervention or diagnostics, a boon for applications where accessing a break for repair is impossible, such as a battery, or finding the source of a failure is difficult, such as an air- or spacecraft.
“In an aircraft, especially a defense-based aircraft, there are miles and miles of conductive wire,” Sottos said. “You don’t often know where the break occurs. The autonomous part is nice — it knows where it broke, even if we don’t.”
Next, the researchers plan to further refine their system and explore other possibilities for using microcapsules to control conductivity. They are particularly interested in applying the microcapsule-based self-healing system to batteries, improving their safety and longevity.
Story Source: University of Illinois.
Dec 20 2011
Nowadays, everything is about renewable energy sources and greener lifestyles. People are looking out for homes in eco friendly neighborhoods that have facilities which contribute towards greener lifestyles. There are some housing community projects that are yet to be implemented, but are designed for the purpose of greener communities. These designs have been made for the comfort of all the economic and social levels within the society and have also incorporated community centers like hospitals, schools, libraries, office buildings and so on. Here is a list of five such designs which have been planned.
1. Tian Yi Town Master Plan
It is very difficult to plan a housing community in the wetlands. But, the town of Tian Yi makes it look like living in wetlands is very comfortable. It has been designed by Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects. The housing community plan integrates a self-sustenance hub that includes natural vegetation, a wetland design and a canal system. The plan includes three zones, which gives the design sustenance and the required shape. The three zones consist of outer ring, which has dense vegetation and wetlands, inner ring, which consists of place for social activities and community services and the central zone, has a great garden for all relaxation activities. The buildings within the community are designed in a zigzag manner in order to make the best use of natural ventilation and heat. On these wet lands, the design also includes schools, hospitals, library and any other facility that is required for people to live in the community. Since this is going to be constructed on wetlands, there will be provisions for rainwater harvesting. As per the plan, people from all the levels of income will be able to enjoy residing at the Tian Ti Town.
2. Kubota & Bachmann Architects unveil sustainable masterplan for Niderfeld, Switzerland
This is a state owned under-developed area that is about to under go the process of urban and social development. Kubota and Bachman Architects have designed a plan called Europan-10 that helps in exploring the greener possibilities of the area and also to harness the resources available. The entire design that includes the volume of the area, the pattern, housing, public utility space and landscaping has been planned in order to advocate greener lifestyle. The main idea here is to have people from all diverse backgrounds, cultures, economic and socioeconomic backgrounds unified. The common areas will include park and a playground, a lawn and a fountain suitable for all the levels of the society. In order to make every home unique, the buildings are going to be designed by other architects based on the owner’s choice.The proposal is to make all the buildings of the urban composition in wood. The roof will be designed to have solar panels and also organic garden which supports green eco-system. In order to keep the crowd away from the residential areas, the proposed idea is to make organic gardens of around 25-30 m size and also to demarcate them from the roads.
3. Masterplan for Nanjing, China by CK Designworks
Although it is an ambitious proposal, CK Designworks have designed a grand plan of a 20 sqkm city in the Pukou district in Nanjing. It plans to house a population of two million and also include industrial and commercial areas. The design will include the Chinese cultural elements and plans to showcase a Chinese way of life. The design has ten very important structures which includes a 5-star hotel that will achieve the highest certifications of LEED.
4. Masterplan for Penglai
This is one of the hottest destination for domestic tourism in China. So, in order to cash on the new interest, Penglai is being planned to allocate the reserve lands and also develop it for holiday homes. The firm that has designed this idea is the Arcas Europe. They have planned to have a golf course, a tennis complex and also adopt the ECC approach. By designing the city through ECC model, the firm is making an attempt to balance the economic and social sustainability of Penglai. The green architectural design for the city is to keep the Marina town as the center and have many small neighborhoods all around it. This will have around 60,000 housing units that includes cottages, flats, courtyard homes and terrace homes.
5. Dongxin St. Conceptual Master Plan
The master design is for the re-development of the Central Business District of Kunshun by Dongxin St. The site will mainly be responsible for protecting and promoting the key canal systems and also enhancing it. It will also make use of renewable energy sources. This site will mainly be dedicated to activities relating to leisure. In order to make this site a redeveloped and sustainable one and also a river front site, Boyd designed a plan where, one-third of the river front will be used for recreational purposes and the remaining for economic and financial purposes like office and commercial buildings. The entire site will sustain on renewable energy resources.
Via: EcoFriend
Dec 19 2011
Photosynthesis is considered the “Holy Grail” in the field of sustainable energy generation because it directly converts solar energy into storable fuel using nothing but water and carbon dioxide (CO2). Scientists have long tried to mimic the underlying natural processes and to optimize them for energy device applications such as photo-electrochemical cells (PEC), which use sunlight to electrochemically split water — and thus directly generate hydrogen, cutting short the more conventional approach using photovoltaic cells for the electrolysis of water.
Traditionally, PEC electrodes are made of semiconducting materials such as metal oxides, some of which are also known for their photocatalytic properties. For quite some time, researchers at Empa’s Laboratory for High Performance Ceramics (LHPC) have been investigating nanoparticles of these materials, for instance titanium dioxide (TiO2), for the neutralization of organic pollutants in air and water. Collaborating with colleagues at the University of Basel and at Argonne National Laboratory in the US, they now succeeded in making a nano-bio PEC electrode, consisting of iron oxide conjugated with a protein from blue-green algae (also known as cyanobacteria), which is twice as efficient in water splitting as iron oxide alone.
Inspired by photosynthesis
Iron oxide, in particular hematite (a-Fe2O3), is a promising electrode material for PEC because it is susceptible to visible wavelengths and thus uses sunlight more efficiently than photocatalysts like TiO2, which can only use the UV part of solar radiation. What’s more, hematite is a low-cost and abundant material.
The second ingredient in the novel electrode “recipe” is phycocyanin, a protein from blue-green algae. “I was inspired by the natural photosynthetic machinery of cyanobacteria where phycocyanin acts as a major light-harvesting component. I wanted to make artificial photosynthesis using ceramics and proteins,” recalls Debajeet K. Bora who designed the new electrode during his PhD thesis at Empa. “The concept of hematite surface functionalization with proteins was completely novel in PEC research.”
After Bora covalently cross-coupled phycocyanin to hematite nanoparticles that had been immobilized as a thin film, the conjugated hematite absorbed many more photons than without the algal protein. In fact, the induced photocurrent of the hybrid electrode was doubled compared to a “normal” iron oxide electrode.
One tough cookie
Somewhat surprisingly, the light harvesting protein complex does not get destroyed while in contact with a photocatalyst in an alkaline environment under strong illumination. Chemists would have predicted the complete denaturation of biomolecules under such corrosive and aggressive conditions. “Photocatalysts are designed to destroy organic pollutants, which are a burden to the environment. But here we have a different situation,” says Artur Braun, group leader at Empa’s LHPC and principal investigator of the study. “There seems to be a delicate balance where organic molecules not only survive harsh photocatalytic conditions, but even convey an additional benefit to ceramic photocatalysts: They double the photocurrent. This is a big step forward.”
The project was fully funded by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE). Bora who will soon have completed his PhD thesis says he will continue what he started at Empa during a postdoc at the University of California, Berkeley, which he will assume early next year.
Story Source: Empa.
