OUT OF OIL

Quoted from Triple Pundit

Nanoantennas: Solar arrays that absorb energy even in the dark!!

A collaboration of physicists, scientists and businesses have teamed up to create cheap and highly effective solar cells on a nanoscopic scale. Spearheaded by the Idaho National Laboratory, this team is onto a fresh way of producing solar panels that can continue to absorb energy even after the sun has set. The technology, not only efficient at nearly 80%, will also be cheap to manufacture, at estimated pennies a yard.

A specialized manufacturing process will stamp tiny square spirals of a conducting metal onto a think sheet of plastic that have been coined “nanoantennas.” At the slight width on the order of 1/25 the diameter of a human hair, these nanoantennas can absorb energy produced through the infrared spectrum. Infrared energy is produced in massive quantities by the sun, a portion of which is absorbed by the earth only to be released as radiation after the sun has set. These nanoantennas can absorb energy from both the rays of the daylight sun and the heat radiated from the earth at a higher efficiency than modern solar cells.

Steven Novak, a physicist at the Idaho National Laboratory spoke on this technology he is working on at the National Nano Engineering Conference in Boston. He said, “I think these antennas really have the potential to replace traditional solar panels.”

Read the original post here.

One of the reasons solar energy still isn’t mainstream yet is the volume the panels usually have and the high costs involved in purchasing and installing the damn heavy things. Wouldn’t it be much better if thin and flexible solar sheets could be produced? Well that’s been done already, many companies produce solar panels that can be rolled up and folded, for instance for outdoor sports. But still these sheets are rather thick and by no means cheap. A solar panel as thin as a sheet of paper would be ideal, a solar panel that could be produced on the roll, in a mass production system to lower the costs. Roll it of, cut off the length you need and simply paste it on the roof or wherever you need it, now thát would be some innovation, wouldn’t it?

Well, whatever you may think, the jury of the innovation contest 2007 by Popular Science Magazine thought it was innovative enough to deserve the first price. The California based firm of Nanosolar managed to develop a thin layer or coating of some kind of solar absorbing ink that simply can be printed on an metallic foil base using newspaper printing techniques. With this technique they are able to create very light solar panels or foils that cost only about a tenth of the traditional panels and still be as efficient. This sounds quite promising so maybe you are thinking about investing in the company? You are by no means the first, the founders of Google did already invest more than a fistful of dollars in Nanosolar. By the way, another plus is that for the production of these nanosolar cells no silicon is needed like for all other type of solar panels. And since there happens to be a global silicon shortage this comes in handy.  Solar ink might actually prove to be the future. 

More about this at Celsias.

Sometimes all it takes is one person with a vision, an idea and last but not least a good deal of stubborness and initiative. Down Under this man could be Roger Davey, Executive Chairman of Enviro Mission ltd and his dream, his passion or better, his obsession is the Solar Tower Project. Australia is known for it’s sunny climate, however this energy potential is not yet taken advantage of at a large scale on the continent. If this project will prove to be a success, this might change in the near future.

The first tower (the plan is to add four more later on) will appear south of Sidney at Buronga, in the Wentworth Shire of New South Wales. This area is chosen because of low land-prices and lots of sunshine - Buronga is nicknamed Sunraysia for over 300 sunny days are counted each year. Originally the tower would point 1000 meters into the air. The latest plans however speak of a height of 600 meter, still quite a stalk. The technique is actually quite simple; the air is heated under an extensive collection zone made of glass panels. Hot air rises, in this case seeking it’s way out through the chimney, thus powering the turbines. Each tower should generate about 200 megawatt, enough for roughly 200.000 households. Discovery Channel made this item about it.

The idea is as old as humanity, if you want to be closer to heaven you climb a mountain. If there are no mountains around you simply built a high tower. They did so in Babylon a few thousand years ago. they do so now, just about everywhere. And if you spent an awful lot of money in building a monumental tower why not put some of the latest high tech into it in order to make the whole thing friendly to the environment ? That’s what they did designing these skyscrapers.

In Miami the building of this one started in July 2007 and it should be completed somewhere in 2010.  The energy used by the future residents of this COR building will be generated partly by wind-turbines on the roof and via photovoltaic arrays, their hot water will be heated by solar power too. In the ’sunny state’ it seems no less then logical that the sun is used as a major power source, yet so far it is not. Now that the energy prices are rising, maybe this will change soon, I guess it should.

On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean in not so sunny London another eco-tower will rise downtown.  Wind will be the main source for the building’s hunger for power. Three nine meter windmills on the roof should take care of it.

Another couple of thousand kilometers to the southwest the sun is in charge once again. The hot and dry Arabian desert has always been a hostile place for humans to live, yet they have for many ages. To make live less harsh over there cooling is needed and -oh paradox- the sun can provide it. The twentieth century was the oil age for the Arabian peninsula. Now that the wells are getting empty the ever shining sun might very well be the new gold for the coming ages. Some sheiks are already anticipating on this by using their oil-dollars to put up big but sustainable towers. 

This energy-wise fully self supplying skyscraper, the Bur al-Taqa, exists only in the computer of its designer, the German architect Eckhard Gerber. He hopes to sell it in the Middle East, both Dubai and Riyadh may be interested. The tower uses a mix of systems to generate power. Photovoltaic systems off course but also wind energy for ventilation and cooling, Building in the Middle East usually means that the sea is not far away so a floating array will be used to take in energy from the waves. And if there is a surplus of energy this will be used to extract hydrogen from the seawater, filling fuel-cells for use during the dark and less windy hours. Interesting detail is that the wind catcher on the roof is actually based on a traditional Iranian cooling system.

The Nuna 1, 2,and 3 won the last three editions of the race and now the Nuna 4 will try to win the World Solar Challenge for the fouth consecutive time. The Dutch team of students from the Delft University of Technology created another shiny racing car, naturally powered completely by solar energy. The match starts in Darwin and the finish will be in Adelaide, a journey of 3000 km. On the Dutch version of their site they keep a blog (only in Dutch) during the week of the match (October 21 - 28 2007). Check out the Dutch site too for a cool Google-maps application.

UPDATE: October 28 - Yes they did it again…. .

America always seems to be at war, now thát’s a waste of energy. I guess they need an enemy like all scenario’s need conflict to create drama. I fight therefore I am. The instrument to keep the fighting going on is the Pentagon and believe it or not but every now and then something good comes out of these fortified walls. Like so many great inventions have been abused by the war industry, this one probably will too it’s in the human nature, but still it looks like a promising idea. Okay, it will cost a lot of energy before it even starts to be productive, but once it’s there it will continue providing energy for a long time. The idea is not exactly new, it dates back to the late sixties, but since then technology has improved quite a bit and energy is getting more expensive so now the project can be cost effective and off course being independent from the Oil industry is interesting for the Pentagon too.

The idea is simple; the atmosphere absorbs a lot of the sunlight aimed at the earth. So why not bring a satellite into space with a giant solar sail that catches this pure light turning it into energy. This can be sent to earth in the form of microwaves and then it is used to provide the power for a couple of microwave ovens down here. Renewable energy from space, zero emission. A bit expensive and energy consuming to get it started, but the intention is to make it a ten year project, giving it a billion dollar a year. And what’s a billion dollar nowadays? So, if you like to fight, why not fight against the destruction of the environment. Let’s roll.

 This beauty and others can be found here.

They also offer a cool jelly fish.

(Sorry, lost the rest of the text due to a mistake. Mea Culpa, that was my fault. But never mind, I’m sure you can think of a good purpose for the ideas as presented on the inventors site yourself.)

The end is near.

It’s not happening tomorrow, nor next week, not even in the following decade, but earth is running out of it rather soon. We probably have used up most of it already and the demand increases day by day. Let’s face it, we are running

OUT OF OIL

In a way this might be a blessing for oil is not considered an environment friendly source of energy, as it is playing a main role in the global warming. Now that the end of the oil era is in view we are forced to search for alternatives, preferably clean sustainable energy sources for the future. This blog wants to investigate the developments in this search for ‘new energy’.