A kid from New York studied leaf placement on trees, and how they relate to Fibonacci sequences, in order to make more efficient solar panel arrays. Very cool.

http://www.amnh.org/nationalcenter/youngnaturalistawards/2011/aidan.html

Two new solar photovoltaic technologies. New and exciting, but not on the market yet. Underground solar panels, and Fiber Optic Photovoltaics.  Read the article here.

Those crazy scientists!  I’m telling ya.

Researchers at Oregon State University have developed a nanostructure film that may help solar panels reach new levels of efficiency by trapping more photons and letting less energy escape from reflection.  This could be a big deal.  Any gain in effieciency matters, and if we string enough of them together we could have some great solar panels in no time.

Check out the story here.

That’s right, a new record was recently set for solar cell efficiency.  Maybe all the green economy stimulus money is starting to get us somewhere.   Unfortunately this technology is not practical for everyday use, but I’ll take progress anywhere I can get it.

Check out the full article here.

This month’s Make magazine is all about remaking America, and there are a number of articles on DIY energy projects.  There is everything from a very nice homemade solar water heater, to a hybrid recumbent taxi, or using rainwater to flush your toilet.  If you’re at all handy and want to do some of this stuff your self, check it out.  It’s a great magazine in general if you like to make things.

The company that makes a new type of solar cell that is cylindrical, instead of the classic flat-panel, has received the first Federal Loan Guarantee for an alternative energy company. These new solar panels are expected to produce 20% more electricity than flat panels, and offer better performance on overcast days.

Read the article here.

I’ve been adding articles to this site from time to time and I think I ought to make a plug for the company I work for, which is working on making renewable energy available to everyone. Hey, Mark okayed it, so plugging your company must be cool! ; )

Shameless Plug for BeUtilityFree

Take the idea of energy sustainability and apply it to what are probably your largest energy uses: your home and car. That’s the approach of BeUtilityFree. Take a look at what we do at www.beutilityfree.com. (I’m the webmaster as well as a renewable energy installer, so I’d love to hear feedback on what you think of the site at brett_s AT BeUtilityFree.com.)

The grand plan is to start out by reducing the amount of energy you use through replacing your current fixtures and appliances with more efficient ones, or designing your new home with efficiency built right in. Then you can buy a much more affordable renewable energy system that will cover your modest needs.

Once you own your means of production, you start getting paid back through avoiding the ever-rising cost of fuel, selling renewable energy credits for your production, taking tax breaks and utility incentives and maybe even selling excess energy.

We sell energy-efficient appliances and lighting and renewable energy systems like solar electric, solar hot water, wind power, hydrogen cogeneration and ethanol stills. We’ll design renewable energy systems, install them or just sell the components to those who have the skills to set them up themselves.

Our special, can’t-find-them-anywhere-else items are Nickel-Iron batteries, the Superior Solar Storage Tank and our 3″ and 4″ column Ethanol Stills.

We are hoping to unveil a few exciting things in the near future. Among them are:

• A turn-key ethanol plant. Just put feedstock, water, enzymes and yeast in one end and watch the fuel pour out the other. We’re currently testing enzymes for cellulosic production so that making ethanol can be as inexpensive and sustainable as possible.
• A Purchase Power Agreement plan that lets anyone get solar energy from their rooftop without any up-front investment. We’d retain ownership of the solar system and sell you the energy at a rate lower than the utility company’s.

If we can get everyone to pump renewable energy into the grid or unplug and make their own energy sustainably, we’ll have taken a huge step toward getting this climate problem licked. And if everyone owns the source of their energy, we can all get out from under the thumb of the utility company and the US Oil War Machine and get back to making a poistive difference in the world.

Brett

One of the most surprising things about this new invention is that it was (in a roundabout way) inspired by the SuperSoaker. Lonnie Johnson, the man who made “squirt gun” synonymous with inadequacy, is currently working on a prototype heat engine which would use heat from the sun to force hydrogen ions through a molecular membrane from a lower-pressure hydrogen chamber to a high-pressure one. If that made total sense to you, then you clearly have a lot more engineering under your belt than I do! For a more detailed explanation try this page.

The engine will be more efficient as the difference in temperature between the heat source and the heat sink goes up, reaching 60% at about a 600-degree-to-room-temperature differential. Achieving such a temperature is no problem for parabolic mirror solar thermal collectors, which can easily reach 800 degrees.

Johnson is hoping that a variation of his heat engine could generate electricity from the heat of an internal combustion engine or even from human body heat! Sounds like The Matrix could come true!

Nanolsolar Inc. has been talking big lately about making a leap in solar panel technology that will drop the cost to under $1 a watt. The current standard for solar panels has been hovering around $4 a watt (wholesale cost) for a while.

Well, on December 18th Nanosolar announced their first shipment of solar panels that are profitably produced at $.99 a watt. Batch 1 went to a solar electricity utility in Germany and residential panels won’t be available for at least 12 months.

The big jump down in price was due to their new no-silicon method of printing a copper-indium-gallium-diselenide nanoparticle ink onto a metallic film substrate with inkjet technology. And, fortunately for us, this new type of panel will maintain the current 15%-20% standard of efficiency found in crystalline silicon panels!

Because of their ease of production and short-circuiting the current silicon shortage, I think this announcement will herald in the age of a flood of cheap solar power for everyone. And with the advent of new batteries for home energy storage like the nanosilicon wire lithium-ion cell (technical paper for the true geek here) in development now, the power grid may just become one more way to date films and old photos.

In late November, Google announced that it plans to spend somewhere in the tens of millions of dollars to support the development of renewable energy infrastructure in 2008 and hundreds of millions in the near future. Their plan is to spur the development of high-altitude wind generation (a technology as yet untested), solar thermal electricity generation and geothermal power first, then other technologies later, with the final goal of making renewable energy cheaper than coal. Take a look at TheDailyGreen.com article for more.  And here’s Google’s webpage on the project.
I can’t wait to see where this goes, especially what with being employed in the solar industry. Now, if only the federal government would follow suit…