Jan
17
Nuclear Reactors to Produce Oil
January 17, 2013 | 6 Comments
Al Fin found news in Japan at The Daily Yomiuri that an as yet unnamed Canadian oil sands production firm is working with the huge firm Toshiba’s nuclear reactor section to build, get approvals for and install reactors to produce steam to heat the underground oil sand’s bitumen for extraction and oil production. The plan, […]
Jan
16
Thermal Energy Storage Could Make Money
January 16, 2013 | 4 Comments
The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has released a study that suggests Thermal Energy Storage (TES) can make money for utilities. The study relies on Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) for the energy source. Keep in mind the study is coming from a government entity. The report, “Simulating the Value of Concentrating […]
Jan
15
A New Fusion Reactor Design
January 15, 2013 | 1 Comment
Professor José Luis González Díez from the Higher Technical School of Naval Engineering at the Universidad politécnica de Madrid (UPM) has patented a nuclear fusion reactor of the inertial confinement type. The design is proposed for use both to generate electric power for utilities, as well as applied to ship propulsion. The design appears to […]
Jan
14
At the Threshold of a Nuclear Fission Renaissance
January 14, 2013 | 1 Comment
M. Mitchell Waldrop offers a marvelous, compact and easily read overview of where the fission nuclear energy field is today. With a history and review of the options, the article “Nuclear Energy: Radical Reactors” has been published by Nature. It’s a medium length article well worth the time. Meanwhile, here’s a quick overview for the […]
Jan
11
Discovery of an Efficient Solar Cell
January 11, 2013 | Leave a Comment
An international team of scientists working at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source (ALS), a premier source of X-ray and ultraviolet light beams for research, found that for highly efficient polymer/organic photovoltaic cells, size matters. Organic polymer-based photovoltaic cells are far less expensive to manufacture than silicon-based solar cells. Scientists have long believed that the key […]