As we were accustomed, the state of California has a new project regarding solar energy. We are very happy to say that California is doing a great job in order to achieve their goal of using renewable energy to produce 20 percent of their power by 2010.

Their latest project is also a Southern California Edison development and it consists of power tower solar thermal technology which is a first in the US. SCE in partnership with eSolar will introduce this technique that will provide an extra 245 MW of solar energy.

eSolar’s technology consists of pre-fabricated towers and mirros which use the short towers and the small mirrors to achieve high efficiency and cost effectiveness. As of 2011, the power tower technology will produce about 105 MW and by 2013 it will reach those 245 MW that California needs. The entire footprint of the plant will cover about 1,000 acres.

via DeviceDaily

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Xtreme Energetics, a solar energy systems developer from Livermore, California have just reached an agreement with HP to build a system which will generate twice the efficiency of the solar energy and will cost half as much.

According to the agreement, HP will license its transparent transistor technology to Xtreme Energetics in return for a share from the profits it will generate. The technology is based upon thin-film transparent transistors made from readily available and low-cost materials such as zinc and tin. The transistors will have a better chemical stability, a higher mobility and will be easier to manufacture.

The first solar system using this technology is set to be completed within twelve months, and roof panels integrated with HP’s technology will be released another 12 months after that. Colin Williams, CEO of Xtreme Energetics, says that the panels will be twice as efficient, will deliver a higher energy density, and  the customers will have options in choosing a color for them.

via Deviceinn

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A new energy source was successfully tested by BlackLight Power and is seen as a major breakthrough in the energy industry. America is very likely to be revolutionized by this new method, and be released from the record-setting prices of gas.

The prototype power system is generating on demand 50,000 watts of thermal power and the company is already starting to work on the design and engineering of central power plants that will use this method. Independent scientists replicated the process and have all obtained the same positive results.

Power plants utilizing the thermal power generator are estimated to be ready within the next 12 to 18 months and interest is growing with each passing day, because more and more scientists are becoming convinced that this is the process to get our electricity from in the near future.

Another possible application of it are the automobiles, which we know that can be made to function with hydrogen, but the expenses for getting such a fuel were considered too high, until now. Providing a way to obtain cheap hydrogen, this method could also open a path to new eco-friendly, hydrogen-fueled cars. For now, we’ll just have to wait for it to generate power for our homes.

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Although London will host the Olympic Games in four years from now, preparations for the event have already started. Among several projects, they are planning to design a solar powered shuttle for transportation along the Thames River.

The shuttle is viewed as the perfect transportation alternative because Thames is the ideal place in London for capturing sunlight, and many clues lead us to believe that the ship will be able to provide all the energy required to function, so there will be no money spent on fuel.

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There is no point to remind you of the fact that fossil fuels are harming our planet and we need new and efficient ways to produce clean energy. A great way to generate energy is to use the force of the wind, but conventional wind turbines are big and expensive, without mentioning that wind farms are the same - the size of small cities and the costs are huge.

Everything is too big therefore Doug Selsam decided to think small and came up with the Sky Serpant which is based on small rotors that use the wind power to generate energy. He says that “the wind-turbine design out there right now is a thousand years old” and his multi-rotor approach is much better.

He started his work back in the ’80s because he read in a textbook, while he was a student at the University of California at Irvine, that “this single-rotor turbine design is the most power you can get” and he didn’t agree because “more rotors equals more power”. Probably because he didn’t like what he read, he never graduate from Irvine and he started to develop designs for wind power systems and by 1999 he dedicated his only for these wind designs.

In 2003, his efforts were rewarded and he was granted $75,000 from the California Energy Commission and he was assigned to design a 3,000-watt turbine. He completed his work and so far, he sold 20 dual-rotor turbines that produce 2,000 watts. All of these wind power system were developed in the garage of his home.

Doug Selsam’s idea was appreciated by Brent Scheibel, a former turbine tester for General Electric, who said that “the laws of physics take most of them out of the equation very early. Doug’s idea is one of the very, very few that I’ve seen that actually has a strong chance of making strides into the commercial world”. Selsam appreciates these words but he says that he can “make turbines using this technique that are way more powerful than anything in GE’s wildest imagination”. It remains to see if he can really do this. Hopefully, he will.

Fuel, actually green fuel, has been a problem ever since the humanity realized that Earth is being destroyed by pollution and all kind of waste. Many researchers are trying to come up with new ways to produce renewable energy and substitutes for petroleum. Now a group of scientists from the Amyris Biotechnologies in Emeryville have created organisms that can turn sugar into oil.

These genetically modified organisms are called E. coli. and the Amyris company believes that they are an alternative solution for fuel. Jack Newman, biologist and one of the founders of Amyris, and his team genetically modified the organisms in order to turn sugar in gasoline hoping that for the future they will be able to take them into industrial production.

The technology behind E. coli. is based on the implantation of genes from various organisms into microbes which leads to a new form of bacteria that turns sugar in fuel. The sugar can already can be transformed to a fuel called ethanol through fermentation and the problem is that is very hard to convert it into hydrocarbons. Although ethanol is here to replace gasoline, it can’t do that because it’s highly corrosive, is not energy dense and it would replace only a small percentage of gasoline.

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A team of scientists from the Jülich Research Centre and from Emory University in Atlanta have made an important step in the process of artificially simulating photosynthesis. They announced that a stable inorganic metal oxide cluster that makes possible an effective oxidation of water to hydrogen was synthesized.

Climate and energy problems could be solved by artificial photosynthesis, because, in fact, researchers will have found an efficient way to obtaining hydrogen using solar energy. Hydrogen is viewed as the next critical factor in producing future energy.

For instance, the automobile industry is increasing efforts to use fuel cell technology by 2010. And the fuel cell drive system could be entirely friendly to the environment if the scientists manage to get hydrogen from renewable sources, like solar energy.

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Nuclear fusion could become a reliable, safe and almost unlimited source of energy after a new fusion rector in which magnets levitate. The project, started in 1998, is called the Levitated Dipole Experiment, or LDX and achieved fully levitation operations last November.

In the first stage, the magnet was sustained by a support structure that caused important losses to the electrically charged gas in the middle of which the fusion takes place, called plasma. A test performed on March 21th gave proof that plasma confinement had significantly improved, thus an important step towards obtaining a fusion reaction had been made.

Fusion occurs when two different types of atoms fuse, resulting a third element, which is helium in most cases. For a sustained fusion to take place, specific genres of materials must be put under great temperature, pressure and density. Scientists often use a mix of deuterium and tritium for this process, but until now they have been unable to build a stable reactor that produces more energy than it consumes, and so, making it a source of power.

If this reactor will develop even more, and become practical, we will have a limitless source of energy, as its ‘fuel’ (deuterium) would be obtained from sea water. Above this, it would be also ecological, because no carbon would result from the reaction.

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With the set price of 100 USD, this would mean Greenland has $5 trillion fortune worth of oil. Greenland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Finance, Aleqa Hammond said that ‘This is an epoch-making time, and how we handle it will be of colossal significance’. And you can’t argue with that, if you consider what sort of economy Greenland will develop with a $5 trillion stimulus.

Chevron, Husky Energy and Exxon Mobil were awarded exploration licenses last October, and they are currently collecting seismic data to choose the best drilling sites. Global warming is helping the entire process, because the icebergs are melting and, therefore, facilitating oil extraction. It is estimated that a barrel of oil will cost $46 to get from these sort of areas, so the companies will have a profit of around $54 per barrel.

This might be the perfect example to prove the expression that ‘the first million is the most difficult to obtain’. The more money you have, the more simple ways to multiply them  become. So, if by any chance you have enough funds to build a few oil extraction stations in Greenland go ahead; it would be one of the safest and most profitable investments in the world.

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Two new hybrid boats have been announced by CraigCat as their new products with zero water pollution. The non-hybrid CraigCat boats used the same quantity of fuel in just one hour. The new crafts are powered both by gas and electrical energy and they are named CraigCat Hybrid and CraigCat E2 Hybrid.

The models include 2 deluxe seats, a convertible bimini top for sun protection, and a powerful 55-pound thrust electric motor that doesn’t pollute the water. They have great stability, are non-sinkable,  and the E2 Hybrid differs from the other by having twin 55 Watt halogen docking lights, anchor light, two NAV lights, and a fishing rod holder for four rods.

Craig Catamaran has been creating CraigCats since 1990 in Orlando, Florida, and based his designs on providing small stable and comfortable boats. The two models presented above cost between $5684 and $6000.

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