The technique works by adding a series of enzymes to the cockroach’s food. The enzymes break down complex molecules which the cockroach produces when it eats, and oxidizing the resulting sugars to release electrons. The current flows as electrons are drawn to the cathode, where oxygen from air takes up the electrons and is reduced to water.

This way the cockroach can be turned into a walking lightweight rechargeable bio battery. The researchers see the possibility of creating a big energy insect farm. The scale of such farm needs to be big, the maximum power density of the fuel cell reached nearly 100 microwatts per square centimeter at 0.2 volts, with a maximum current density of about 450 microamps per square centimeter. The cockroaches suffered no long-term damage.

Via: blog.case.edu/think/2012/01/09/implanted_biofuel_cell_converts_bugas_chemistry_into_electricity

This hybrid installation would increase efficiency of the solar panels due to the reflection of sunlight beaming off the water, according to Pauley enabling the panels to capture 20% more solar power. The concept, called Marine Solar Cells, can function as off-shore energy batteries or power plants.

The design could be largely constructed from recycled materials. There are no plans as yet for the Marine Solar Cells to be used in a commercial application.

Pauley is not the first Brit that is working on hybrid forms of energy generation. British scientists are currently working on the developement of a generator that captures energy from the wind, rain and sun.

Watch the Youtube video of the Marine Solar Cells

Source: www.ubergizmo.com/2012/01/marine-solar-cells/

Scientists from a handful of universities across the United States are working on this project called ‘green routing’. Among them are scientists from the University of Buffalo. The project is essentially about how worthwhile it would be to choose the route of least emissions. The researchers believe that if a large amount of drivers alternate their routes it could make a huge difference to the environment. The method would not take as long to implement as for instance, replacing all vehicles with hybrid cars. Not everybody can afford these relatively expensive changes.

Allthough the greenest route is not always the fastest one, it would save fuel and reduce emissions. According to the Buffalo scientists the green route in the Buffalo region is only about 11% longer on average than the fastest route.

The Buffalo reseachers found that green routing could reduce overall emissions of carbon monoxide by 27% for area drivers. Funneling cars along surface streets instead of freeways helped for instance to limit fuel consumption. Intelligently targeting travelers was another strategy that worked: Rerouting just one fifth of drivers (those who would benefit most from a new path) reduced regional emissions by about 20%. This was because if everybody would start taking the green path, it would not in fact be the green path anymore.

For all of this to work, designers need to take into account the entire system of a city’s moving traffic, so that at any given moment, cars would be in some kind of green-routing equilibrium. Live data on route emissions and traffic patterns is only now enabling researchers to figure out how all this might come together in an application in your car.

Source www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2011/12/coming-soon-your-gps-green-routing/733/

These days a lot of technology companies have moved their work to data centers with tens of thousands of servers. These servers, all placed together, give off a lot of heat, which is lost to the environment. The additional power needed for cooling the servers — up to half of the power used to run them — is the steep environmental price we have paid to move data to the so-called cloud.

The paper proposes to disperse these servers among homes and businesses and use the substantial heat generated to warm them up during the winter. The authors call the concept the “data furnace”.

There are three advantages which data furnaces have over traditional data centers. They have a smaller carbon footprint; there is a reduced total cost of ownership per server, and they can reside in closer proximity to users.

If a home has a broadband Internet connection, it can serve as a micro data center. One, two or three cabinets filled with servers could be installed where the furnace sits and connected with the existing circulation fan and ductwork. Each cabinet could have slots for, say, 40 motherboards — each one counting as a server. In the coldest climate, about 110 motherboards could keep a home as warm as a conventional furnace can. In the summer the heat gets vented outside. Only when temperatures rise above 95 degrees would the server need to be temporarily shut down.

The electricity for the data furnaces would be paid by the corporations that own them. Those companies can cut their costs per server by reducing the costs of real estate and physical data centers. The most likely place for a data furnace would be an office building or appartment complex, that which is capable of housing midsize data centers (in the hundreds of kilowatts range) and are seeking ways to drive better energy efficiency.

HyperSolar, based in Santa Barbara, California, was inspired by nature i.e. the technology to make natural gas is similar to the process of photosynthesis, that which plants use to create energy. The company is developing a solar-powered nanoparticle system that mimics photosynthesis to separate hydrogen from water. The hydrogen is then reacted with carbon dioxide to produce the methane, which is the primary component of natural gas. Hypersolar said that the resulting methane gas can be used as a direct replacement within existing systems that use natural gas.

Tim Young, CEO of Hypersolar adds; “For almost a century, scientists have tried and failed to ‘split water’ cost effectively to produce hydrogen and oxygen. Our process does not produce oxygen (O2), which has no significant value and is an expensive and slow reaction. Unlike conventional electrolysis, where hydrogen and oxygen atoms are completely disassociated using a large voltage, we designed our reactions to use a very small voltage and only produce hydrogen (H2).”

Young noted, that there has already been hundreds of billions of dollars invested in natural gas infrastructure. He believes a renewable natural gas fuel is a reality. However he says, the environmental risks associated with the extraction and usage of conventional natural gas is also a reality. The HyperSolar technology would create natural gas above ground, without drilling or mining.

The company intends to be competitive in future natural gas prices, and will lower its cost of production by solving wastewater and CO2 disposal problems.

Via: www.cleanenergyauthority.com/solar-energy-news/hypersolar-photochemical-natural-gas-technology-111811/

Portable electronics and electric cars both need a steady supply of lithium. It is expected that lithium demand goes up to as much as 320,000 tons by 2020, mostly because of increased electric-vehicle use. A study by the American Physical Society in February identified lithium and zinc as likely to be very important in the new energy economy of the future.

But lithium isn’t rare. Quite the opposite.  It’s the 25th most abundant element on earth, close to nickel and lead.  Bolivia has 35% of the world’s lithium resources, but Chile and Australia dominate the worlds lithium production.  Hardly any lithium is produced in the U.S, only 5 %. At the moment, lithium producers pump mineral-rich brine from the beneath the earth’s surface into giant pools. Then the brine evaporates in the sun for up to two years, leaving lithium chloride behind. From there on the lithium is taken away to be processed elsewhere.

Simbol Materials  aims to use brine from a existing 50-megawatt geothermal plant near California’s Salton Sea.  The plant makes electricity by pumping hot water from deep underground and using its heat to make steam to drive a turbine. The plant currently injects the brine, which contains 30 percent dissolved solids, including lithium, manganese, and zinc, back into the ground after the steam is produced.  Simbol’s will now extract the elements before pumping it back into the ground. This process only takes two hours instead of two years. A major improvement, so it seems.  Simbol Materials expects to compete with the lowest-cost Chilean lithium producers, which produce lithium at $1,500 a ton while keeping it as environmentally-friendly as possible.

Via: www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/geothermal-power-plants-could-be-massive-source-lithium-batteries.html

The Desertec Industrial Initiative (DII), a coalition of over a dozen major companies including E.ON, Siemens, Munich Re and Deutsche Bank are behind the €400 billion carbon-free project, announced in Cairo last Wednesday that “all systems are go in Morocco.” They will start building the first power plant next year, a 500 megawatt (MW) facility in Morocco costing up to 2 billion euros.

DII’s goal is to analyze how to develop clean energy in the North Africa deserts that could supply up to 15% of Europe’s power demand by 2050. Due to North Africa’s sunlight being much more intense than the sunlight in Europe, solar photovoltaic panels used by the Desertec project could generate up to three times the electricity that similar projects in northern Europe might produce.

The first phase of the project is a 150MW, 12km2 solar facility that will cost about €600 million and will take 2-4 years to complete. Electricity production is planned to begin in 2016 at the latest.

Read more: www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/nov/02/morocco-solar-farm-renewables

PaveGen, a UK-based company that makes the electricity-generating slabs, will be making their first big commercial appearance during the Olympics in 2012. The tiles are expected to generate enough electricity to power at least half of the malls outdoor lighting needs.

The waterproof tiles are made from 100 percent recycled rubber and marine grade stainless steel. Each tile is reported to have a life span of 5 years or 20 million steps. When the tile is stepped on, a central light illuminates as a friendly reminder to the pedestrian that they are helping generate 2.1 watts of electricity per hour. The technology was demonstrated at the Bestival on the Isle of Wight where it was part of a dance floor that generated electricity as 50,000 people were dancing over a four-day run.

Via: www.geekosystem.com/pavegen-sidewalk-tiles

Image by Dean Kamen

According to the patent, the inflatable wind turbine structure is made out of plastic fabric. They will be very light and easy to move around, meaning that they can be put on roofs that would otherwise be unable to support the weight of a wind turbine, or easily carried on trucks, to wherever the next hurricane or tornado is supposed to occur. Even positioned on electric cars the wind could power up the car. Currently wind turbines need ten times as much steel and concrete as a nuclear reactor to generate the same amount of power.

Previous inflatable wind turbines are designed to float at high altitudes to take advantage of faster wind speeds. But Kamen’s turbines would be more down-to-earth — mostly for use on top of buildings or on roadsides, Kamen said — so they can be used as advertising billboards. Powered by the turbine they’re embedded in, the lights could display content like images, messages, advertising, weather advisories and traffic delays.

Wind farm turbines typically produce more than 1.5 megawatts, or 1,500 kilowatts of electricity. In contrast, turbines for individual and commercial applications typically range from 1 kilowatt to 100 kilowatts, these are the small wind turbines. The use of wind turbines, great and small, has grown in recent years as energy prices and interest in green energy have also risen.

The report artibutes the expected growth of the sector in the coming years to the fact that small wind is currently more efficient and therefore, cheaper on a cost-per-watt basis than solar photovoltaic cells. Also, government incentives play a role. In Britain, a ‘feed-in tariff’ introduced last year promises operators of small wind turbines above-market rates for the power they produce. In the United States, the federal government provides a 30 percent tax credit for wind turbines. In addition, farms, ranches and small businesses can claim advanced depreciation on the value of the turbine, which allows the customer to claim 100 percent of the turbine’s depreciation in the first year.

Small wind turbines have an expected life span of 30 to 50 years.The payback time of a small wind turbine can be 5 to 10 years depending on the wind available in the located area, which makes it a good option to be used for any commercial or residential purpose, according to the report. It adds, however, that despite their benefits, small wind turbines have not enjoyed the same level of innovation when it comes to unique financing and business models, particularly when compared with distributed solar energy.

Currently the U.S. is dominating the small wind turbine market. That is projected to continue in the coming years.

Read more:
www.nytimes.com/2011/10/03/business/global/homeowners-and-businesses-embracing-small-wind-turbines.html?pagewanted=all