Sustainable Energy, USA and worldwide

Hydraulic fracturing linked to earthquakes in Ohio

Collapsible wings help birds cope with turbulence

What goes up must come down

Storing greenhouse gas underground—for a million years

NASA study finds 1934 had worst North American drought of last thousand years

Researchers develop world's thinnest electric generator

Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works claims to have come up with a new, workable nuclear fusion reactor design.

Sounds promising, but I'm somewhat cautious thanks to the F-35.

I'm very much of the 'fingers crossed and lets hope'

Compact nuclear fusion would be... well awesome and possibly a game changer.

Well they wanted the F-35 to do everything. That's never worked in the history of ever. This thing could be big.

Kenya opens world’s largest geothermal plant

Swiss firm says it can make near invisible solar modules

New solar power material converts 90 percent of captured light into heat

Dual-purpose film for energy storage, hydrogen catalysis: Chemists gain edge in next-gen energy

Jet-fueled electricity at room temperature: New fuel cell can run without high heat

I wonder what the political implications of last night are for sustainable energy in the US. Half wondering if we might see restrictions/bans on alternative energy.

edited 5th Nov '14 11:22:04 AM by PotatoesRock

How exactly is last night an issue?

Last night there was the midterm election in the USA. The strongly pro-business/anti-environmental Republican Party made significant gains.

2 Wikipedia indicates that the republicans now hold the Senate, so I guess that's what he's referring to?

edited 5th Nov '14 11:27:30 AM by Meklar

Senate, and more state legislatures and gubernatorial seats than they were 3 days ago. The pro-business/anti-enviornment/doesn't-believe-in-climate-change rightist party basically had a landslide killing. The same party is also venomously anti-any energy that doesn't come from going "Drill Baby Drill".

edited 5th Nov '14 11:43:39 AM by PotatoesRock

SolaRoad: World's first solar cycle path to open in the Netherlands

So, 'solar cloth' is apparently a thing now.

If it works well, it would certainly be a game-changer for solar tech, more solar panels on places that wouldn't normally be able to support panels, and probably easier to install and replace.

'Green' data center option makes efficient use of server heat: "Say what? Cloud computing servers installed in our homes? On Thursday, Evan Ackerman in IEEE Spectrum recalled a bold idea from Microsoft Research and University of Virginia authors in their paper "The Data Furnace: Heating Up with Cloud Computing," exploring the use of cloud computing servers installed in homes and offices to provide heat and hot water, inexpensively and efficiently."

Wasn't Wikileaks heating a small church or something from their servers at one point?

Battery support for renewable sources announced by Aquion: "Aquion evokes two words, aqueous and ion—fittingly, since the Pennsylvania-based company, Aquion Energy, is known for Aqueous Hybrid Ion (AHI) battery systems. They are designed for long-duration cycling applications. Last month, they announced they were taking their AHI technology to a next level, providing energy gains without increasing the size or weight of their two product lines, the S-Line stack and the M-Line module. Translation: The Aquion's long-duration battery technology has got better. AHI batteries are now optimized for long charge and discharge cycles for solar and other renewable energy storage applications."

Revolutionary solar-friendly form of silicon shines: "Silicon is the second most-abundant element in the earth's crust. When purified, it takes on a diamond structure, which is essential to modern electronic devices—carbon is to biology as silicon is to technology. A team of Carnegie scientists led by Timothy Strobel has synthesized an entirely new form of silicon, one that promises even greater future applications. Their work is published in Nature Materials.

In order for silicon to be more attractive for use in new technology, its indirect band gap needed to be altered. Strobel and his team—Carnegie's Duck Young Kim, Stevce Stefanoski and Oleksandr Kurakevych (now at Sorbonne) —were able to synthesize a new form of silicon with a quasi-direct band gap that falls within the desired range for solar absorption, something that has never before been achieved."

Huge US solar plant lags in early production: "The largest solar power plant of its type in the world—once promoted as a turning point in green energy—isn't producing as much energy as planned.

One of the reasons is as basic as it gets: The sun isn't shining as much as expected."

Clean energy 'bio batteries' a step closer: "A report published today shows how electrons hop across otherwise electrically insulating areas of bacterial proteins, and that the rate of electrical transfer is dependent on the orientation and proximity of electrically conductive 'stepping stones'.

It is hoped that this natural process can be used to improve 'bio batteries' which could produce energy for portable technology such as mobile phones, tablets and laptops - powered by human or animal waste."

Electrochemical cell converts waste heat into electricity: "Picture a device that can produce electricity using nothing but the ambient heat around it. Thanks to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science today, this scenario is a step closer – a team from MIT has created an electrochemical cell which uses different temperatures to convert heat to electricity.

The cell only needs low-grade waste heat – less than 100C – to charge batteries, and is a significant step forward compared to similar devices which either require an external circuit for charging or high temperature heat sources (300C)."

SM North Edsa is world's biggest solar-powered shopping mall

After nuclear phase-out, Germany debates scrapping coal: "After deciding to scrap nuclear power, Germany is pondering saying goodbye to coal, its biggest energy source but also its top polluter and main threat to ambitious climate goals."