Energy

Subwavelength Plasmonic Cavity: Metallic Sandwich May Make Solar Power Delicious

 A nanostructured 'sandwich' of metal and plastic may be a way to nearly triple the efficiency of organic solar cells, those cheap and flexible plastic energy devices that could be the future of solar power. The researchers were able to increase ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 9 2012 - 5:30am

Efficient Markets And Sustainable Housing

Current global conditions provide numerous challenges for future generations. The United States has a mind-boggling federal deficit. Developing countries have rapid population growth that will lead to increasing energy demands and a larger carbon footprint ...

Article - Randall Mayes - Jan 7 2013 - 8:28pm

Synthetic Biology Future: Fuels From Ice Cream?

A future without fossil fuels is ideal but impractical in the short term.  However, for people not afraid of science, a PNAS paper showing that synthetic biology can be used to manipulate hydrocarbon chemicals, found in soaps and shampoos, in cells is som ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 19 2012 - 10:42am

The Solar Power Backlash

In Europe, Spain and Germany, whose populations bought into the 'subsidize legacy technology now and it will be cheaper later' myth, there is a backlash against solar power. Politicians are seeing the financial numbers through a prism of reality ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Dec 20 2012 - 11:42am

Biofuels: First Enzyme Linked To Galactan Synthesis Identified

Galactan is a polymer of galactose, a six-carbon sugar that can be readily fermented by yeast into ethanol and is a target of interest for those researching advanced biofuels produced from cellulosic biomass. Galactans are polysaccharide components of pect ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 1 2013 - 1:13pm

The Swedish Dream

These days Sweden is better known for its design exports than its blonde bombshells. IKEA, the world’s largest furniture retailer, has developed a brand using a business philosophy that incorporates economics, society and the environment. Through mass prod ...

Article - Randall Mayes - Jan 4 2013 - 3:14pm

Perennial Biofuel Crops Reduce Nitrogen Losses

While corn ethanol was always a bad idea, biofuels themselves have a potential. Perennial biofuel crops miscanthus, switchgrass, and mixed prairie species have shown high yields in producing ethanol, and a 4-year University of Illinois study has found ano ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 17 2013 - 4:45pm

Converting Solar Power To Car Miles- Which Is Better, Photovoltaic Or Biofuels?

In 2005, a decade and a half of environmental lobbying convinced President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress that corn ethanol was a promising fossil fuel substitute which would reduce both American dependence on foreign oil and greenhouse gas emission ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 17 2013 - 11:30am

New Material May Make LEDs Less Creepy

In America, the government banned incandescent light bulbs, convinced that if they banned them, the free market would replace it with something affordable, effective and efficient. In reality, since there was no good alternative, people just horded light ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 18 2013 - 10:37am

Germany's Decentralization Problem

Decentralization is the greatest challenge facing energy companies in Germany- directing energy efficiently has become more important than how much to produce.  "Distribution System Operators (DSO) and energy companies are working feverishly on vario ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 26 2013 - 6:30am