Up to 50% of the energy absorbed by a solar cell is lost as heat. Scientists are now developing a third generation of “hot carrier” solar cells that take advantage of this heat, potentially breaking the Shockley-Queisser limit of silicon-based PV.
Category: sustainability – Page 346
Honey might be the key to cooler, more efficient, biodegradable chips
These chips might be the future of neuromorphic computing.
Honey could be the next material used to create brain-like computer chips. Its proven practicality marks another step toward creating efficient, renewable processors for neuromorphic computing systems, using biodegradable products.
Research engineers from WSU’s School of Engineering and Computer Science, Feng Zhao and Brandon Sueoka, first processed honey into a solid. Then they jammed it between two electrodes, using a structure design similar to that of a human synapse. They’re known as ‘memristors,’ and are proficient at learning and retaining information just like human neurons.
West Virginia’s largest solar farm will sit on a former coal mining site
West Virginia’s largest solar farm will sit on the site of the 5,800-acre Hobet Mine, one of the state’s largest former coal mines, which went bankrupt in 2015.
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The solar farm will be situated on 3,000 acres of the site, which straddles Boone and Lincoln counties in the southwestern part of the state, near Charleston. It will power an adjacent 2,800-acre site that will host industry, lodging, hospitality, and recreation, and the whole site will be known as SunPark. The solar farm is the first phase of the project.
Materials come alive
The dissemination of synthetic biology into materials science is creating an evolving class of functional, engineered living materials that can grow, sense and adapt similar to biological organisms.
Nature has long served as inspiration for the design of materials with improved properties and advanced functionalities. Nonetheless, thus far, no synthetic material has been able to fully recapitulate the complexity of living materials. Living organisms are unique due to their multifunctionality and ability to grow, self-repair, sense and adapt to the environment in an autonomous and sustainable manner. The field of engineered living materials capitalizes on these features to create biological materials with programmable functionalities using engineering tools borrowed from synthetic biology. In this focus issue we feature a Perspective and an Article to highlight how synergies between synthetic biology and biomaterial sciences are providing next-generation engineered living materials with tailored functionalities.
Tesla providing job and education opportunities to Central Texans
Ahead of the Tesla Gigafactory unveil party Thursday, the company’s large presence in Austin has opened doors to new education and job opportunities for locals.
Taiwan’s New Solar Panel ‘Sun Rock’ Will Deliver 1 Million kWh Per Year
Get in, we’re going to the threshold. Solar power is undoubtfully one of the most preferred renewable energy sources of the day. As the need for energy rises with the improving technology and the rising population, companies try to come up with the most efficient solutions that promise to meet the energy demand of the world.
Taiwan’s forthcoming Sun Rock could supply excess energy to the power grid
Taiwan’s government-owned power company, called Taipower, commissioned Sun Rock, with plans to use it as a visitor facility, in addition to a storage and maintenance center for renewable energy devices. But the most obvious and impressive feature of the forthcoming project is the facade, which will be almost totally smothered in solar panels (don’t worry, there will also be vents and windows to promote the natural exchange of light and air). But 1 million kWh is a lot — the U.S. government has found that an average household uses roughly 11,000 kWh annually, which will rise (because of course it will) before the Sun Rock is finished.
“The site for Taipower’s new facility receives a significant amount of solar exposure throughout the year, and so the rounded shape of Sun Rock is designed to maximize how much of that sunlight can be harnessed for energy,” said MVRDV in a New Atlas report. “The facade maximizes this solar potential with a series of pleats, which support photovoltaic panels (mixed in with windows, where required) on their upper surface. The angle of these pleats is adjusted on all parts of the facade to maximize the energy-generating potential of the solar panels.”
Hyundai outlines its hydrogen aviation plans, including regional eSTOLs
And they could enter service by 2030.The automotive world is transforming to meet the needs of the future.
Hyundai has already made it very clear that it’s making a serious play at next-gen electric aviation, establishing its own eVTOL subsidiary Supernal late last year and promising to flex its automotive-grade manufacturing muscle to get air taxis built in bulk. Now, the company has made a presentation at the Vertical Flight Society’s H2 Aero workshop to confirm that it’s also bringing its hydrogen expertise into the aviation world.
Hyundai/Kia and Toyota, of course, have been the two main hydrogen fuel cell stalwarts in the automotive industry. Batteries make more sense for most passenger car applications globally, but Japan and Korea are committed to building a “hydrogen economy” powering much more than personal transport, so these companies in particular have persisted with building and selling relatively small numbers of fuel cell-electric cars like the Nexo and Mirai.
That means they’ve got full hydrogen powertrains designed, manufactured in the tens of thousands of units, and fully crash tested to meet automotive safety certification standards in multiple countries – an excellent head start, you might say, if you’re interested in rolling that expertise out into the aviation market. And that’s definitely an avenue Hyundai is looking to work through Supernal.
Harvesting Energy at Night: Solar Cell Keeps Working Long After Sun Sets
Need to get 24/7 solar panels up and running.
Inspired by the cognitive science theory, we explicitly model an agent with.
Both semantic and episodic memory systems, and show that it is better than.
having just one of the two memory systems. In order to show this, we have.
designed and released our own challenging environment, “the Room”, compatible.
With OpenAI Gym, where an agent has to properly learn how to encode, store, and.
Retrieve memories to maximize its rewards. The Room environment allows for a.
hybrid intelligence setup where machines and humans can collaborate. We show.
That two agents collaborating with each other results in better performance.
The Fall of Reality Privilege
Consider life in farm-country Nebraska versus NYC. What opportunities will there be for a potential startup founder or an ambitious young writer?
Shit, even the difference between living in New Jersey and NYC is huge.
