The road to zero emissions shipping

A great article from Wired about various technologies that people are working on with the goal of making international shipping a zero emissions business. I've posted about the resurgence of sails in shipping and here's more in that vein. I find this idea really interesting because one of the assumptions of many local food advocates is that international shipping will always be less environmentally friendly that buying local and I just think the situation is more complex than that. I'll be keeping an eye on this.

Totally pie-in-the-sky plan for the Sahara

I'm skeptical that this plan for using solar power to create greenhouses in the Sahara will come to reality (although some of the creators have had successes elsewhere), but it's still neat to think about. Very Dune in some ways.

Cool!

Appropriate tech solar power, nifty!

New developments in solar tech

I wasn't going to post about this because there's been some skepticism from the scientific community but I haven't seen an outright refutation of the science yet so I might as well post. From MIT a "major" new development in solar energy storage.

Environmentalists get excited

Mr. Williams-Derry seems to be a little bit over-excited about this new solar low interest loan program to California residents. Nonetheless it might help encourage more solar power.

Solar Power Gathering momentum (again)?

In a new post on Yale's blog Jon Luoma goes over the recent rapid expansion of solar power. My reasons for supporting solar power over other forms are somewhat complex (an not completely developed) so I may post in more detail later but suffice to say I'm glad to hear this. Although it should be said that we've heard this story before.

*sigh* Brings back good memories

This solar collector is really neat, I remember working on a very similar project in college

Solar Windows, Neat!

Interesting work from some people at MIT who are developing a way to make your standard everyday window collect solar energy.

Watercooling Silicon

Interesting article from The Economist on the move to water cooled chips. I'm not actually as facinated by that as by the last two paragraphs that focus on cooling the silicon in solar cells. Quote:

"Water-cooling of this sort may also make a more direct contribution to the reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions, by promoting the use of solar energy. Solar cells are also made of silicon, and the latest fashion is to concentrate sunlight on them using mirrors. That means you need less silicon to make a given amount of electricity, but it also makes the silicon very hot—as hot as a commercial microprocessor.

By cooling such devices with liquids, IBM reckons it can increase the amount of sunlight that can be focused on them without destroying them, thus increasing the amount of electrical energy they produce. Supratik Guha, a researcher at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Centre in Yorktown Heights, New York, has put this to the test and found that he can concentrate 2,300 times more sunlight on a cell than nature would provide, while maintaining that cell at a (relatively) cool 85°C. Without the cooling system, its temperature would rapidly exceed 1,500º, causing it to melt. With cooling, the cells can manage an output of 70 watts a square centimetre—a record, according to IBM, and a demonstration that plumbing, too, can be a high-tech form of engineering."

Interesting...

I have ULTIMATE power

Didn't you know that the BoLM reads my blog????? I see they're following my advice (at least it appears that way).

Developments in Solar

Organic solar: I think this could be an interesting development in solar energy. Not sure how exactly but I'll be following this.

Facinating Solar Technology

I'm not sure how successful this will be, but it seems intriguing. Most large scale solars designs focus on solar thermal but this product concentrates light (using mirrors etc) on solar cells (sort of) to generate electricity more directly. This could be interesting....

US Gov. Freezes New Solar Energy Projects Citing Need for Environmental Assesments

*bangs head against wall...repeatedly*

ARRRRRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!! This is insane!.

I'll be the first to say that solar power plants need environmental assessments. It's not something a ton of people know, but solar power plants can have serious environmental impacts (destroying habitat, hazardous waste etc). However, what was the BoLM thinking??? Isn't there a better way to do this than to stop solar power plants altogether???