January 02 2009 / by Garry Golden
Category: Science Year: 2014 Rating: 2 New
We are not going to 'consume' ourselves into a future global economy driven by clean energy technologies.
We have to build it using new scientific knowledge based on nanoscale interactions of light and molecules mostly- carbon, hydrogen, oxygen reacting to metals and enzymes.
Energy = Interactions
Creating 'clean energy' means using materials that make these molecular interactions that capture and release energy more efficient and less wasteful.
While consumers might be the ones who get the credit for changing behavior, the real heros of our cleantech energy future will be people involved in chemistry, biology, physics and materials engineering.
And the good news is that these scientists are increasingly turning to advanced computers and simulation software to accelerate the development of energy related materials!
Computational Power & Materials Science - Recent Examples for Materials Science
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December 16 2008 / by joelg
Category: Energy Year: 2008 Rating: 1
By Joel Greenberg
Putting a face to energy happened in a big way in 2008. From T-Boone Pickens' full court press promoting his Picken's Plan for wind energy and natural gas to Shai Agassi coming of age with his Wired cover story promoting his electric vehicle infrastructure company Better Place, energy technology became humanized. And what do you do for an encore once you've cracked the Human Genome? Ask scientist Craig Venter and he'll tell you it's using algae to create bio fuels that replace oil. He's hoping to have something on the market in five years.
Could personality be the thing that takes a vital, but dry industry from infrastructure to top of mind in the eyes of customers?
Continue with Top Energy Stories of 2008
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December 29 2008 / by Garry Golden
Category: Energy Year: Beyond Rating: 3 New
"Whether you think you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right." - Henry Ford
The worst thing we can do when thinking about the future of energy is to look at possible solutions and simply extrapolate today's technologies and scientific assumptions forward about what 'is' or 'isn't possible'.
There is still a lot we do not know about the basics of energy systems dealing with photons, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, enzymes and metals. Our current first phase efforts to design nanoscale materials used in energy production, conversion and storage are certain to yield systems that will change how we live in the world in the decades ahead.
Remember, only a century ago, coal and wood were king, magical 'electric' light intimidated the general public, only a few could see the potential of oil, rockets and nuclear science were beyond our imagination, and the vision of a tens of millions of 'horseless carriages' reshaping the urban landscape was a ridiculous proposition.
So what seemingly novel ideas could shape the next century?
List of 10+ Novel Energy Stories from 2008:
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December 27 2008 / by Garry Golden
Category: Energy Year: 2009 Rating: 1
How do you build an 'sustainable' economy for 9 billion people?
Reinvent how we make, recycle and re-use metals, wood, glass, plastic and biomaterials that go into everyday products.
Who can enable the 'new energy economy'? Our bet is on the Scientist, not the Consumer.
While some get excited over 'green products' like solar powered backpacks, better lightbulbs and organic cotton yoga mats, most notions of 'eco-friendly' products fall drastically short of what will be needed to meet the demands of adding another 3 billion people to the planet by 2050.
We need to reinvent the whole concept of 'Industrialism' to create new methods for producing materials using less energy and 'resources' in fundamentally new ways.
List of 2008 Stories in Energy Materials Science
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December 24 2008 / by Garry Golden
Category: Energy Year: Beyond Rating: 7 Hot
Let's think beyond simply trying to find new ways to produce more energy, and focus on ways of storing energy. Why? Because this expands ways for us to produce more energy! Confused?
Solar and wind alone are a hard sell to utility providers because of intermittent production when the sun isn't shining or wind doesn't blow. Add utility scale storage to solar and wind farms, and you have a more valuable proposition.
Battery powered cars sound great, but not if we have to plug in our vehicles every 50 or 100 miles. Or what about a new iPhone with a battery that cannot last the entire day.
We have written dozens of posts on energy storage and believe it deserves much more attention from the media and policy leaders. 2009 could be a turning point for awareness around the importance of enabling next generation batteries, fuel cells and capacitors.
List of 20+ Energy Breakthroughs in Batteries, Fuel cells, and Capacitors
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December 24 2008 / by John Heylin
Category: Energy Year: 2008 Rating: 2
Japan's largest shipping company, Nippon Yusen, has unveiled a cargo ship outfitted with enough solar panels to produce 40 Kilowatts of power. Named the Auriga Leader, the energy comes from 328 solar panels outfitted on top of the ship which set the company back about $1.7 million dollars. While 40 Kilowatts is a huge sum house-wise, it really only produces enough energy to power about 7% of the lighting systems on board. But when one considers the size of the ship (frickin' HUGE) it should save them quite bit down the road. When combined with Nippon's gel-like paint, it promises to save them hundreds of thousands down the road with this ship alone.
Honestly, it's surprising this kind of tech has waited this long in this market. Transportation eats up a huge amount of oil, especially things like ships, trains, tractor trailers and planes. And to be honest, any help is much needed help for these behemoths. Japan has its solar panels, China is working on solar sails for its cargo ships, and tons of people in America are calling for more efficient big rigs. Now we just need to press innovation ahead faster.
via Crunch Gear
Many people will say that pursuing a space-based solar power energy campaign is too ambitious, that there are more immediate solutions to get us through our economic/energy crisis until a time when spaced-aged, science fiction-inspired future tech can be safely explored further. They might say that we already have a head start with nuclear, oil and coal, as well as other greener alternatives like wind, water and Earthbound solar. They would be dead wrong. The truth is...
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December 18 2008 / by smarteconomy
Category: Energy Year: 2008 Rating: 3
When I was growing up, Dufferin Street in Toronto was lined with factories producing incandescent light bulbs by GE. Those factories are long abandoned or turned into lofts or condos. The city and the federal government should be looking at attracting the next wave of lighting manufacturers ie the ones that will be producing smart lighting with light emitting diodes (LED) and organic light emitting diode (OLED) systems. (Link)
Consumers are already getting their first taste of LED technology...those outdoor solar-powered Christmas lights
The figure above compares the luminous efficacy (source efficacy) of conventional lighting technologies with the potential of light-emitting diode technology. (N.B. Log scale)
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December 22 2008 / by Garry Golden
Category: Energy Year: Beyond Rating: 2
2008 was a big year for science breakthroughs on next generation bioenergy solutions. And that is a good thing for the future of energy.
The modern economy runs on ancient bioenergy. Coal is ancient biomass, oil is likely ancient microbes.
So why not tap the power of biology to ‘grow energy’ resources.
Forget about corn ethanol, the future taps the power of microorganisms not plants.
Next generation solutions such as algae and bacteria ‘eat’ carbon to produce biofuels, or use sunlight to produce hydrogen. Looking beyond 2015, we can imagine real breakthroughs in the field of Synthetic Biology that could change how we look at energy and carbon solutions.
List of Bioenergy Science Breakthroughs in 2008
