Apr

12

Raising the Energy Value of Natural Gas by 25%

April 12, 2013 | 2 Comments

The Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has announced a system that converts natural gas using sunlight into the more energy-rich fuel called syngas.  The new system offers a 25% increase in available energy. Making the syngas uses concentrated solar power. Solar energy comes to a reflecting surface that concentrates the sun’s rays [...]

Jan

16

Thermal Energy Storage Could Make Money

January 16, 2013 | 2 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 [...]

Nov

10

Absorbing All the Light and its Energy

November 10, 2011 | Leave a Comment

NASA engineers have developed a super black material that absorbs light across multiple wavelength bands.  The material absorbs on average more than 99 percent of the ultraviolet, visible, infrared, and far-infrared light that hits it — a development that promises to open new frontiers in space technology.  It also has implication for those seeking to [...]

Nov

7

Hybrid Design Comes to Power Plants

November 7, 2011 | 1 Comment

Prof. Avi Kribus of Tel Aviv University’s School of Mechanical Engineering and its innovative new Renewable Energy Center is applying the term “hybrid” to power plants. Prof. Kribus has developed a new technology that combines the use of conventional fuel with the lower pressures and temperatures of steam produced by solar thermal power, allowing plants [...]

Sep

6

The Best Thermal Solar Panel Might Be the Cheapest

September 6, 2011 | 3 Comments

The MSRP is $2749.00 Canadian.  One panel per 1000 square feet, more north than Maine’s northern tip.  The basic collector is made using recycled soda pop cans. Amazing.  This thermal panel works astonishingly well.  Note – don’t test the thermal conductivity of an aluminum can with a heat source that can burn skin – the [...]

May

10

Collecting Solar Heat to Make Electricity

May 10, 2011 | 2 Comments

Rice University researchers are describing a new way to harvest solar energy with a new paper this week in the journal Science. Naomi Halas, Rice’s Stanley C. Moore Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, the paper’s lead researcher explains,  “We’re merging the optics of nanoscale antennas with the electronics of semiconductors. There’s no practical way [...]

Feb

19

Progress in the Solar Cell Two Step Method

February 19, 2009 | 10 Comments

Robert DiMatteo, the CEO of a startup based in Boston named MTPV has a new approach to converting heat into electricity using solar cells could make a technology called thermal photovoltaics more practical. Thermal photovoltaics are solar cells that convert the light that radiates from a hot surface into electricity. The first applications will be [...]

Sep

17

Checking Up On Low Temperature Geothermal By Raser and United Technologies

September 17, 2008 | 4 Comments

Raser Technologies, a publicly traded (NYSE Arca: RZ) Utah company involved in low temperature geothermal installations and alternating current electric motors is back in the press release business. With a stock price of about $5.50 ranging from $4 to over $18 in the past year the company has the volatility to be interesting. Barely a [...]

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