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Archive for the ‘energy’ category: Page 120

Apr 4, 2021

New water vapor condenser takes cues from darkling beetle

Posted by in category: energy

Access to clean water is a huge issue across the globe. Even in areas with water resources, a lack of infrastructure or reliable energy means purifying that water is sometimes extremely difficult.

That’s why a vapor designed by University at Buffalo and University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers could be revolutionary. Unlike other radiative vapor condensers which can only operate at night, the new design works in direct sunlight and requires no energy input.

“We have worked on solar-driven water evaporation technologies in the past years,” says Qiaoqiang Gan, Ph.D., professor of electrical engineering at UB and a leading corresponding author. “We are now addressing the second half of the water cycle, condensation.”

Apr 2, 2021

Breaking ultrawide-bandgap semiconductor records is just like baking bread

Posted by in categories: energy, materials

Researchers have made unparalleled ultrawide-bandgap semiconductors through temperature and timing, just like baking bread.

Alloying, the process of mixing metals in different ratios, has been a known method for creating materials with enhanced properties for thousands of years, ever since copper and tin were combined to form the much harder bronze. Despite its age, this technology remains at the heart of modern electronics and optics industries. Semiconducting alloys, for instance, can be engineered to optimize a device’s electrical, mechanical and optical properties.

Alloys of oxygen with group III elements, such as aluminum, gallium, and indium, are important semiconductor materials with vast applications in high-power electronics, solar-blind photodetectors and transparent devices. The defining property of a semiconductor is its bandgap, a barrier over which only electrons with the required energy can pass. Beta-phase aluminum gallium oxides are notable because of their relatively large bandgap, but most III-O alloys are expensive to make and of unsatisfactory quality.

Apr 2, 2021

US fossil-fuel companies took billions in tax breaks – and then laid off thousands

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, economics, energy

“Last year’s stimulus was about keeping the economy going, but these companies didn’t use these resources to retain their workers. These are companies that are polluting the environment, increasing the deadliness of the pandemic and letting go of their workers.”


Figures show 77 companies received $8.2bn under tax changes related to Covid relief and yet almost every one let workers go.

Apr 1, 2021

Self Contained Ion Powered Aircraft Charlene Model Outdoors

Posted by in categories: energy, transportation

This is the only solely ion propelled series of aircrafts that can lift their power supplies against earth’s gravity. These prototypes were patented specifically for lifting their onboard power supplies and the widely published patent has been in effect since 2014.

While the craft wasn’t working at full power for this test footage since their was a power loss, the safety tether still went completely loose when the craft was energized, and it is also shown flying outdoors. There is an indoor flight that lasted for almost 2 minutes continually when it was flying at its best. There is a video of that and other sustained flights on this YouTube channel.

Continue reading “Self Contained Ion Powered Aircraft Charlene Model Outdoors” »

Mar 30, 2021

The Jackery Explorer 1500 Solar Generator Enables Exciting New Possibilities

Posted by in category: energy

The renewable energy experts at Jackery are up to their usual tricks and announced a new line of solar generator products on Jackery Day that open up a completely new range of possibilities.

They sent us their Solar Generator 1500 with two of their slick 100 watt folding Solar Saga panels to run through the paces. On paper, the new Jackery Explorer 1500 Portable Power Station battery was impressive, with its massive 1.5kWh capacity and increased power output capabilities.

Mar 30, 2021

The U.S. is finally looking to unlock the potential of wave energy

Posted by in category: energy

After decades of false starts, the federal approval of a new testing site off the coast of Oregon could give wave energy a much-needed jolt.

Mar 29, 2021

Where Electric Car Batteries Go When They Die

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability, transportation

Global battery recycling industries are a new beginning for old energy storage.


When your kid looks at you with those big, innocent eyeballs and asks, “Where do lithium ion electric car batteries go when they die?” Without hesitation—because kids that age still believe you know everything—you read them this article:

Continue reading “Where Electric Car Batteries Go When They Die” »

Mar 29, 2021

The U.S. Leads The Way in Citywide Fossil Fuel Bans

Posted by in category: energy

California, it seems, is leading the world here: the report counts at least 35 Californian cities with such a ban at the end of 2020.


In a cool and rare moment for the U.S., it’s a leader in something that may actually do some good for the planet. A new report shows that the U.S. currently has the most cities in the world that have enacted some sort of ban on fossil fuels at the local level.

Mar 26, 2021

PowerLight is hitting its targets with a power beaming system that uses lasers

Posted by in category: energy

PowerLight Technologies is turning wireless power transmission from science fiction into science fact… with frickin’ laser beams.


Wireless power transmission has been the stuff of science fiction for more than a century, but now PowerLight Technologies is turning it into science fact … with frickin’ laser beams.

Continue reading “PowerLight is hitting its targets with a power beaming system that uses lasers” »

Mar 26, 2021

Leveraging the 5G network to wirelessly power IoT devices

Posted by in categories: energy, internet, surveillance

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have uncovered an innovative way to tap into the over-capacity of 5G networks, turning them into “a wireless power grid” for powering Internet of Things (IoT) devices that today need batteries to operate.

The Georgia Tech inventors have developed a flexible Rotman lens-based rectifying antenna (rectenna) system capable, for the first time, of millimeter-wave harvesting in the 28-GHz band. (The Rotman lens is key for beamforming networks and is frequently used in radar surveillance systems to see targets in multiple directions without physically moving the antenna system.)

But to harvest enough power to supply low-power devices at long ranges, large aperture antennas are required. The problem with large antennas is they have a narrowing field of view. This limitation prevents their operation if the antenna is widely dispersed from a 5G base station.