Drs. Gleason and Bulovic (ChemE and EE departments of MIT), along with 7 other researchers (ChemE, EE, and Materials Science of MIT) have made a tremendous breakthrough in solar “panels”. Why is “panels” in quotes? These panels can be “printed” on copy paper, tracing paper, tissue, and newsprint. They can even be folded into different shapes. (These results were published in Advanced Materials.)
Continue reading Solar Panels on Paper- really! And, more!
The end of an era. The news claims it started 30 years ago. The era of shuttle flights. But, really, the first shuttle’s genesis started when I entered college in 1968, or when President Nixon signed the bill approving its development and construction in 1971. And, the water system development happened in mid-70s. But, this discussion really isn’t about the space shuttle.
Continue reading The end of an era? What it really means!
A new solar thermoelectric device is in the offing- and what’s cool is that it can be retrofit into existing solar water heaters to gain the benefits. This means the payback for adding the device is amplified. Dr. Gang Chen and ZhiFeng Ren and twelve colleagues and doctoral students (MIT, Boston College, GMZ Energy (founded by the primary authors), and Masdar Institute of Abu Dhabi), published these results in Nature Materials.
Continue reading A (much) Better Solar Hot Water Heater
FIRST: AN ASIDE. (2 May 2011) Until last night at 11:00, I had no idea how profoundly my (then) 10 year old son was affected by 9-11. Or, how in the middle of 10th inning (to go onto 14 innings) game filled with Mets and Phillies fans could coalesce to declaim with gusto: “USA! USA”! while their two teams were dueling it out on the field to win a game (4:45 minutes by the time it ended unfortunately)… To the tenacious, steadfast efforts of the (guessing) 12 Navy Seals who carried out a mission, unsure they could make it home (due to the destruction of their personal transportation): We salute you!
Continue reading Read all about it! (Oh, damned, the headline wasn’t really the truth!)
Converting Honest to Goodness Solid Waste to Methane. Been there and done that-in the 70s. Pyrolysis of waste. Been there and done that too. Both of those were large scale designs, not for use in our homes. Continue reading Coming soon to a home near you…
NASA’s budget has been cut. The last space shuttle has yet to take off (boy, is IT late). But, we still hope to send exploratory vessels to other planets. The problem is getting the probes to their destination reliably- when the distance is long. One possibility relies upon Friedrich Zander’s proposition (1924) that we can use the thrust from photons (light energy) and no other fuel. His hypothesis was based upon Einstein’s theory (which was confirmed by Peter Lebedev’s experiments) that photons have momentum, so that when absorbed by or reflected from a surface, there would be “radiation pressure”. A large sail may have very little acceleration, but given long time periods, the sail would generate reasonable speeds; as these sails are further from gravitational fields, their acceleration capability becomes viable.
Continue reading “Lightfoil” developed by RIT technologists
Drs. Haile (CalTech) and Steinfeld (ETH, Zurich) led a small international team that developed a new solar energy machine. Their results, published in Science, employ cerium oxide to break down carbon dioxide and/or water into fuels.
Continue reading Prototype Uses Solar Energy to Produce Hydrogen
What is going on? Companies for whom we had great respect are being felled like rotten timber. Toyota, Johnson & Johnson, Genzyme. These firms had stellar reputations. Their sales were robust. How could they screw up like this? One way would be surround oneself with yes-men. Another way is to believe your own hype and never examine your processes. I personally think that is was more than a little of both.
Continue reading We do not get to “Great” by being complacent
