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Kirigami-inspired solar cells can track the sun without motors
Researchers at the University of Michigan announced on Wednesday that they have developed a method of keeping solar cells turned toward the sun without the need for heavy and energy-hungry motors. Their method is based on the Japanese art of Kirigami -- like origami but with cuts in addition to folds. The team's panel is printed on a flexible kapton substrate which has dash-like cuts running across its surface. When stretched, the panel forms a mesh with each section twisting slightly. The degree of twist, which will allow the panel to follow the path of the sun, depends on how much the panel is stretched. "The design takes what a large tracking solar panel does and condenses it into something that is essentially flat," Aaron Lamoureux, lead author on the paper published in Nature Communications, said in a release.
The Big Picture: It's always sunny in Brooklyn
Google isn't the only company looking to map out urban skylines ahead of the solar revolution. The folks at MapDwell create surveys similar to Sunroof using technologies developed at MIT, and for more cities to boot. The company has already mapped out New York City, as you can see above, as well as Boulder, Colorado(for growing solar-powered hydroponic kush, obvs), all of the confusingly-named Washington County, Oregon and now San Francisco. "We range irradiation (energy that falls onto the surface) for each city," MapDwell wrote to Engadget. "From zero (dark brown) to maximum or ideal (bright yellow), we call this Solar Access Index or SAI." As such, the southern tip of Manhattan probably isn't the best place for a solar installation. And unfortunately, the service does not also extend to solar-powered food carts.
UW-Madison researchers invent a metal-free fuel cell
The development of fuel cell technology has been hamstrung by the need for expensive and difficult-to-manufacture catalysts like platinum, rhodium or palladium. But a team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison believe they've found an ingenious alternative that employs a molecular, rather than solid, catalyst.
Solar Impulse delay may end dreams of cross-Atlantic flight in 2015
It's no longer safe to say that the Solar Impulse 2 aircraft will make it around the world before 2015 draws to a close. The crew is now warning that its sun-powered machine won't fly the next leg of its journey (from Hawaii to Arizona) for at least two to three weeks due to severe heat-related battery damage. While that's not the biggest setback the team could face, it could trigger a domino effect. If SI2 doesn't get to the Eastern side of the US in time, it may miss the weather window it needs to get across the Atlantic this year. You'll find out more about the extent of the problem in the next few days, so it should soon be clear whether this is just a momentary obstacle or a serious showstopper.
Light-based battery makes its own power
Sure, you can make solar-powered devices that store their excess energy in a battery, but what about the battery itself? Unfortunately, it's still behind the times -- the lithium-ion cells you see today have to be connected to another device to charge, and they're occasionally very dangerous thanks to their chemical makeup. A team of Indian researchers may have just licked those problems, though. They've developed a battery whose titanium nitrate anode (where current flows into the device) is driven by light, both natural and artificial. In a well-lit area, a prototype can recharge itself without using either an external source or unstable chemicals.
UK government pulls support for new onshore wind farms
In the future, there's a good chance you'll see fewer wind farms being erected in the British countryside. That's because the UK government is killing a subsidy scheme that gives onshore wind farms a helping hand when they sell their electricity to energy suppliers. Under the Renewables Obligation (RO) order, Ofgem currently awards wind farms special certificates based on the amount of electricity they generate. They then sell these to the UK's energy providers, earning a premium on top of their normal wholesale prices.
Batteries that stretch are perfect for smart watches and clothes
Used to be that the only time your lithium-ion batteries changed their shape was when they were about to explode in an airliner cargo hold. But thanks to the ingenuity of an Arizona State University research team, future power packs could not only bend but stretch up to 150 percent of their original size while providing an uninterrupted stream of power. Their secret: the ancient Japanese art form of Kirigami. It's an offshoot of the more well-known Origami form that involves both folding and cutting the working material.
Nissan turns old electric car batteries into fixed energy storage
Mercedes and Tesla aren't the only electric car makers giving their batteries something to do besides getting you from A to B. Nissan is teaming up with Green Charge Networks to repurpose "second-life" (read: used) batteries from Leaf EVs as commercial energy storage. Much like the batteries you can buy for your home, the lithium-ion packs will help offices save money (and ideally, the environment) by storing cheap energy. Companies can charge up overnight to avoid painful peak electricity rates, for instance, or reserve power from solar and wind farms that would otherwise go to waste. The Leaf-based tech will see its first use at one of Nissan's own facilities this summer, but we'd expect it to spread to other businesses in short order.
Amazon hopes to mend its image by backing a giant solar farm
Amazon has a reputation problem. While fellow tech giants like Apple and Yahoo are considered champions of clean energy, Greenpeace and other advocacy groups regularly knock Amazon for running its servers on dirty power (like coal) and saying little about its renewable energy plans. The company is about to burnish its image in a big way, however -- it just announced that it will support the construction of an 80MW solar farm in Virginia, the largest ever in the state. The eco-friendly plant will supply Amazon Web Services data centers (both present and future) on top of the local grid, so your favorite app or website might run on pollution-free computing when the farm is ready around October 2016.
Mercedes-Benz takes on Tesla with a home battery of its own
Guess what, Tesla: you're not the only car maker getting into the home battery game. Mercedes-Benz has unveiled a personal energy cell that, like Tesla's Powerwall, uses giant batteries to store surplus power from your home's solar panels and keep you off the conventional energy grid. The German firm is taking a more modular approach than its American counterpart, though. Each pack only holds 2.5kWh of electricity, but you can combine up to eight of them to hold 20kWh, or twice as much as a Powerwall. That potentially suits it to certain businesses, not just your own abode. Whatever you think of Mercedes' pack, it may be your best hope of getting some clean energy storage in the near future. With Tesla's unit already sold out through mid-2016, you may have little choice but to register for the Mercedes equivalent and wait until it ships in September.
GE's big-nosed wind turbine generates more power
Despite their giant blades, most wind turbines waste a lot of energy -- gusts around the rotor don't really generate electricity at all. GE thinks it can do better, however. Its experimental ecoROTR turbine touts a big, rotating aluminum nose that sends wind directly toward the blades, where it's more effective. The current design boosts the power output by a modest 3 percent, but that could matter a lot in a large wind farm. The big deal may be what comes next. EcoROTR allows for bigger rotors without having to use larger, harder-to-transport blades. If it ventures beyond the prototype stage, you could see more wind farms in remote locations that both produce more power and keep giant, noisy towers away from your neighborhood.
Solar Impulse begins its sun-powered flight across the Pacific (update: bad weather)
Solar Impulse has already shown the potential for sun-based aviation in its attempt to fly around the world, but it just embarked on its most ambitious trip yet. Pilot Andre Borschberg has taken off from Nanjing, China on a cross-Pacific flight whose first leg ends in Kalaeloa, Hawaii -- 5,061 miles away. That's about 120 hours in the air, and should set records for both the longest single-seat flight ever as well as the first transpacific flight by a solar-powered aircraft. And did we mention that this leg is even more dangerous than previous parts of the journey? After a certain point, Borschberg's only choice in an emergency will be to bail over the Pacific and hope that his rescue goes smoothly.
Super-efficient solar cells can power homes in unforgiving areas
Scientists have long talked about black silicon (that is, silicon with nano-sized structures) having the potential to trump conventional solar power, and there's now some proof that this is happening. Aalto University researchers have developed black silicon solar cells that achieve a record 22.1 percent efficiency when turning the Sun's rays into usable energy. That's a 4 percent absolute boost over the previous best in black silicon, and good enough that the technology could finally be ready to reach the market and replace existing solar panels. Black silicon is far better suited to collecting sunlight at low angles, which is common in northern regions -- you wouldn't have to live in a sunny, forgiving part of the world to get the most out of clean energy. It should be cheaper, too. So long as these black cells translate well to mass production, you may have an easier time ditching the conventional power grid.
Americans are using more energy, but green tech is softening the blow
It may be tough to satisfy the US' seemingly never-ending thirst for energy, but clean power sources are at least helping to soften the impact. Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have determined that Americans' energy use climbed 1 percent year-over-year in 2014, but its carbon emissions hardly budged at all. In fact, they were down significantly for coal and petroleum-based power. While some of that decline is due to industry using less-than-clean natural gas, it's also helped by big jumps in solar and wind energy, which respectively grew by 33 and 8 percent.
The first solar bike path is producing more energy than expected
Back in November, SolaRoad launched a test bike path that generates energy through solar cells embedded in the concrete. It sounds like an outlandish idea, but it's apparently paying off very quickly. The company has revealed that its road has generated much more energy than expected -- it produced 3,000kWh of electricity in the space of just six months, or enough to power a single person's home for a year. That doesn't sound like much, but SolaRoad notes that its path only covers a 230-foot stretch in a Dutch village. You'd get a lot more energy from longer, wider roads.
Tesla will reveal a battery for your home at its April event
You don't have to wonder any longer as to what Tesla will unveil at its April 30th event -- the company just spoiled things in advance. In an email to investors, the company states that its shindig will reveal both a previously-teased battery for your home and a "very large," utility-oriented battery. Details aren't forthcoming (those are for the big show!), but there's a good chance that the hardware will build on the concepts behind existing home batteries, which are often used to store excess solar power and provide backups during outages. The real questions are whether or not Tesla can improve on personal powerplants like it did electric cars, and how much you'll pay versus the competition. You'll likely get the answers to both riddles in just over a week.
Goodyear's working on an energy-harvesting tire
It's a fundamental principle of physics that when you use energy, say to run an electric car, some of it is lost. Companies have tried to overcome this by installing hardware that harvests this lost heat, most famously in regenerative braking. Goodyear is hoping to do a similar thing with tyres, dreaming up a product that could, theoretically, convert the heat generated from the friction of movement back into power for the battery.
Wankband charges gizmos with a flick of the wrist
Pornhub thinks it has a sexier solution for the age old problem of a gadget running out of juice prematurely, and the secret is in the (hairy) palm of your hand. Say hello to the Wankband: a wearable that straps on to your forearm, capturing the energy from a spot of self-love and using it to charge basically anything via USB. You see, inside the band resides a weighted ball that travels up and down in a tube with a flick of the wrist, and from there the kinetic energy's stored until your gizmo -- or sex toy -- of choice needs a charge.
The Apple Watch has a low-power mode that only tells the time
If you're jonesing for an Apple Watch, you probably want to do a lot with it. But what if you're headed out to a party and would rather not risk staring at a dead screen when you're wondering how late it is? Don't worry, you're covered. The New York Times understands that the Watch has an unannounced Power Reserve option that limits the device to telling time. While it's not a completely unique feature (other watches do similar things), it's definitely helpful -- and it's a departure for Apple, whose mobile devices haven't had these kinds of extreme energy-saving modes until now. Tim Cook and crew aren't likely to make a big deal of Power Reserve at Apple's March 9th event, assuming it shows up, but it could be one of the Watch's most important real-world features.
Apple invests in a solar farm that can power 60,000 homes
Apple makes much ado about using clean energy sources to power its buildings these days, and it just put its money where its mouth is... a lot of money. The company is investing a whopping $848 million in a First Solar plant in California's Monterey County that, according to Apple chief Tim Cook, should generate enough electricity to power 60,000 homes. Apple will get a 130-megawatt supply from the solar farm to light up buildings such as its future spaceship-like campus, while the remaining 150 megawatts will go to Pacific Gas & Energy's grid. Reportedly, this is the largest commercial deal to date in the solar industry -- it certainly eclipses many of the other green energy initiatives we've seen in tech, which tend to "only" require tens of megawatts.