Startup Gridco wants to build a next-gen power grid that looks like the Internet Will tomorrow’s power grid look much more like the Internet than it does today with decentralized and distributed networking? That’s the idea behind Gridco Systems, a startup founded by Naimish Patel, a serial entrepreneur who previously was the co-founding CTO of optical networking company Sycamore Networks. Patel and his team are using digital solid state transformers and software that ingests data in real time to create a new type of distributed control and power electronics networking product for utilities that looks far more like an Internet network product than a utility tool. Three-year-old Gridco is selling this networking gear and software to utilities to enable them to have greater control over their networks and to be able to maintain a greater degree of reliability, more similar to the reliability that Internet companies currently have, and utilities rarely have.
World's lightest solid material, known as 'frozen smoke', gets even lighter Frozen smoke is the world's lightest solid material Image Gallery (2 images) Researchers have created a new aerogel that boasts amazing strength and an incredibly large surface area. Although aerogels have been fabricated from silica, metal oxides, polymers, and carbon-based materials and are already used in thermal insulation in windows and buildings, tennis racquets, sponges to clean up oil spills, and other products, few scientists have succeeded in making aerogels from carbon nanotubes. The researchers were able to succeed where so many before them had failed using a wet gel of well-dispersed pristine MWCNTs. MWCNT aerogels infused with a plastic material are flexible, like a spring that can be stretched thousands of times, and if the nanotubes in a one-ounce cube were unraveled and placed side-to-side and end-to-end, they would carpet three football fields. A report describing the process for making MWCNT aerogels and tests to determine their properties appears in ACS Nano.
Former NRC Chairman Says U.S. Nuclear Industry is "Going Away" Gregory Jaczko, who was chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at the time of the Fukushima Daiichi accident, didn't mince words in an interview with IEEE Spectrum. The United States is turning away from nuclear power, he said, and he expects the rest of the world to eventually do the same. "I’ve never seen a movie that’s set 200 years in the future and the planet is being powered by fission reactors—that’s nobody’s vision of the future," he said. Jaczko bases his assessment of the U.S. nuclear industry on a simple reading of the calendar. "The industry is going away," he said bluntly. Jaczko spoke to IEEE Spectrum following his participation in an anti-nuclear event in New York City at which speakers discussed the lessons that could be learned from the Fukushima Daiichi accident.
NRG Energy Deploying Dean Kamen’s Solar-Smart In-Home Generator Few executives are more outspoken about the threat that distributed energy poses to utilities than NRG Energy CEO David Crane, so it’s not surprising that NRG Energy plans to sell a product that is disruptive to the centralized power business model. The company is working with Deka Research on an on-site “energy appliance,” according to NRG Energy’s corporate sustainability report. In an interview last week with The Atlantic, Crane said the device, called Beacon 10, can generate electricity from natural gas, work with a battery and rooftop solar, and provide backup in the case of a grid outage. “When there’s not enough solar, you turn on the Beacon 10. Then, ideally, the grid itself would just be the ultimate backup. It’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,” he said. Deka Research is headed by Dean Kamen, a renowned inventor best known for creating the Segway transporter who has worked extensively with Stirling engines. As a product concept, the Beacon 10 generator is not entirely new.
Récupérer l'énergie infra rouge des panneaux solaires Des physiciens de l'école de Harvard de l'ingénierie et des sciences appliquées (SEAS) envisagent un dispositif qui utilise l'énergie des émissions infrarouges de la Terre vers l'espace à partir des fermes de panneaux solaires. Chauffée par le soleil (Le Soleil (Sol en latin, Helios ou Ήλιος en grec) est l'étoile centrale du système solaire. Dans la classification astronomique, c'est une étoile de type naine jaune, et composée...), la terre (La Terre est la troisième planète du Système solaire par ordre de distance croissante au Soleil, et la quatrième par taille et par masse croissantes....) se réchauffe le jour (Le jour ou la journée est l'intervalle qui sépare le lever du coucher du Soleil ; c'est la période entre deux nuits, pendant laquelle les rayons du Soleil...) et la nuit renvoie la chaleur (Dans le langage courant, les mots chaleur et température ont souvent un sens équivalent : Quelle chaleur !) accumulée. Les chercheurs Federico Capasso, le professeur Robert L.
US Navy Technology To Turn Seawater Into Fuel The development of a liquid hydrocarbon fuel could one day relieve the military’s dependence on oil-based fuels and is being heralded as a “game changer” because it could allow military ships to develop their own fuel and stay operational 100 percent of the time, rather than having to refuel at sea. The new fuel is initially expected to cost around $3 to $6 per gallon, according to the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, which has already flown a model aircraft on it. The Navy’s 289 vessels all rely on oil-based fuel, with the exception of some aircraft carriers and 72 submarines that rely on nuclear propulsion. Moving away from that reliance would free the military from fuel shortages and fluctuations in price. "It's a huge milestone for us," said Vice Adm. The breakthrough came after scientists developed a way to extract carbon dioxide and hydrogen gas from seawater. "For us in the military, in the Navy, we have some pretty unusual and different kinds of challenges," said Cullom.
Making Ethanol from Waste Gas and Water Today, nearly all ethanol fuel is made from corn or sugarcane, which requires vast tracts of land and huge quantities of water and fertilizer. Researchers at Stanford University have now developed an electrochemical process that could be far cheaper and better for the environment. The work is still experimental, but it’s significant because the group was able to synthesize ethanol and other desired products with so little energy input. “The levels of activity for CO reported here are unprecedented and a large step toward the realization of a practical system for converting CO to ethanol,” says Clifford Kubiak, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego. The scientists created a copper-based catalyst that is very effective at producing ethanol and other carbon compounds from carbon monoxide and water in a simple chemical reaction. The key to the new catalyst is preparing the copper in a novel way that changes its molecular structure.
Découverte fabrication d'éthanol en abondance et bon marché Des scientifiques de Stanford ont créé un catalyseur à base de cuivre qui produit de grandes quantités d'éthanol à partir de gaz de monoxyde de carbone à la température ambiante sans maïs ou autres plantes. Les scientifiques de l'Université (Une université est un établissement d'enseignement supérieur dont l'objectif est la production du savoir (recherche), sa conservation et sa transmission (études supérieures). Aux États-Unis, au moment...) de Stanford ont trouvé une nouvelle façon, très efficace pour produire de l'éthanol liquide (La phase liquide est un état de la matière. Sous cette forme, la matière est facilement déformable mais difficilement compressible.) à partir de de monoxyde de carbone (Le monoxyde de carbone est un des oxydes du carbone. Les scientifiques ont créé un catalyseur à base de cuivre qui est très efficace pour produire de l'éthanol et d'autres composés du carbone à partir de monoxyde de carbone et de l'eau dans une simple réaction chimique. Nouvelles Électrodes
DE VENT ET D’EAU FRAÎCHE – Dans l’Atlantique, la première île 100 % énergies renouvelables Des éoliennes et un réservoir de la station électrique de Gorona, sur l'île d'El Hierro, aux Canaries. AFP PHOTO / DÉSIRÉE MARTIN Ce sera bientôt une première dans le champ des énergies renouvelables : l'île d'El Hierro, plus petite terre des Canaries espagnoles, est sur le point de satisfaire 100 % de ses besoins en électricité grâce à l'eau et au vent, rapporte le site ThinkProgress.org. Située au large du Maroc, l'île de 10 000 habitants comptera donc désormais sur ses deux principales ressources : le vent et la mer. « Quand le vent ne souffle pas, l'hydroélectricité prend le relais », note ThinkProgress. Selon le site Phys.org, ce système va permettre à El Hierro de réduire ses émissions de CO2 de 18 700 tonnes par an, et de mettre un terme à sa consommation annuelle de 40 000 barils de pétrole – sa centrale au fioul restant à disposition seulement pour dépanner. Voitures électriques sur l'île d'El Hierro, aux Canaries, à la fin de mars. Signaler ce contenu comme inapproprié
- Home Ryden : une batterie double carbone moins chère et plus rapide à charger La société japonaise Power Japan Plus vient de dévoiler sa technologie de batterie Ryden où l’anode et la cathode sont faites de carbone, ce qui permet notamment d’éviter les surchauffes, d’améliorer les temps de charge et de limiter les variations thermiques pour plus de sécurité. Plus d’autonomie, une recharge plus rapide, pour un prix plus raisonnable : tel est ce qui manque aujourd’hui (entre autres) aux batteries utilisées dans les véhicules hybrides et électriques. Et c’est essentiellement ce sur quoi portent les recherches entreprises par les spécialistes du domaine, à l’image de Power Japan Plus qui touche peut-être du doigt la solution avec sa technologie Ryden. Dans cette batterie pour le moment cantonnée à l’état de prototype, l’anode et la cathode ne sont plus composées d’oxyde de métal ou de graphite mais de carbone. Plus exactement d’un dérivé organique du carbone tiré du coton organique et baptisé Carbon Complex, mis au point dans les laboratoires de Power Japan Plus.
Iron-Chromium Flow Battery Aims to Replace Gas Plants The four round structures pictured above may look like grain silos but they're actually giant flow batteries. They're part of a demonstration plant going online this week, and proponents say it could represent the future of long-duration energy storage on the electric grid. Startup EnerVault will unveil tomorrow what it says is the largest iron-chromium flow battery ever made. Installed in Turlock, Calif., the four-hour, 250-kilowatt battery will be charged by a solar array and power an irrigation system. If this technology demonstration performs well, it will be a step towards much larger flow batteries that could replace natural gas plants or provide round-the-clock power from wind and solar farms. Flow batteries store and release energy by circulating two electrolyte solutions through a cell (conventional batteries typically use two solid electrodes). One of the advantages of a flow battery is that the energy capacity can be expanded by installing larger tanks of the active material.