Lifeboat Foundation

A German power firm will launch demonstrations of a one-of-a-kind, triple-threat power generating platform off Iraklio, Greece, later this year.

SINN Power has been testing wave energy converter modules for five years. Buoys attached to steel frame components generate energy as waves push them up and down. The modular nature of the platform is unique in the industry.

“The modular design has been a key element since we started developing maritime technologies that allow flexibility and a wide variety of applications,” according to SINN Power CEO Philipp Sinn. “The floating platform can supply renewable energy to islands across the world … and contribute to the worldwide implementation of offshore wind farms.”

Researchers have created a device called a ‘shadow-effect energy generator’ that makes use of the contrast in illumination between lit and shadowed areas to generate electricity. This novel concept opens up new approaches in harnessing indoor lighting conditions to power electronics.

Shadows are often associated with darkness and uncertainty. Now, researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) are giving shadows a positive spin by demonstrating a way to harness this common but often overlooked optical effect to generate electricity.

“Shadows are omnipresent, and we often take them for granted. In conventional photovoltaic or optoelectronic applications where a steady source of light is used to power devices, the presence of shadows is undesirable, since it degrades the performance of devices. In this work, we capitalised on the illumination contrast caused by shadows as an indirect source of power. The contrast in illumination induces a voltage difference between the shadowed and illuminated sections, resulting in an electric current. This novel concept of harvesting energy in the presence of shadows is unprecedented,” explained research team leader Assistant Professor Tan Swee Ching, who is from the NUS Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

The startup claims to be “the world’s top supplier of graphene” and plans to release a non-flammable, environmentally friendly lithium battery that can charge “18 times faster than anything that is currently available on the market” — within the next year.

Can be used for a force field: 3.

Power and energy are essential parts of our everyday life. Every time you turn on a light, you’re using power. If you’re reading this online, you’re using energy. If you’re watching a video — you guessed it — you need energy. So that means that with so many people needing power and energy, we’re brought into a world that’s demanding more and more power. What’s more, getting this power is the hard part.

“Pavegen creates high engagement with citizens by converting their footsteps into energy, data and rewards.

As pedestrians walk across the Pavegen system, the weight from their footsteps compresses electromagnetic generators below, producing 2 to 4 watt seconds of off-grid electrical energy per step.”

Continue reading “Global leader in harvesting energy and data from footfall” »

A German startup has developed a modular marine platform able to simultaneously generate energy from three different renewable sources.

Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) and IBM Research Europe recently demonstrated the laser cooling of a nanomechanical oscillator down to its zero-point energy (i.e., the point at which it contains a minimum amount of energy). Their successful demonstration, featured in Physical Review Letters, could have important implications for the development quantum technologies.

Pew pew :3.

The successful test of the powerful laser is a major step forward for the Navy’s directed energy weapons ambitions.

Continue reading “The Amphibious Warship USS Portland Has Shot Down A Drone With Its New High-Power Laser” »

EMP weapons, streams of microwaves, electromagnetic railguns, and high-power lasers offer new ways to bring down swarming drones, sink ships without explosives, and disperse formations of soldiers.

J.R. Wilson