A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience
The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, the world’s largest solar power plant, takes 300,000 computer-controlled mirrors, each 7 feet high and 10 feet wide and controls them with computers to focus the Sun’s light to the top of 459-foot towers where water is turned into steam to power turbines. (Photos)
Continue reading… “World’s largest solar plant is now creating electricity”
In the United States a solar system is installed every four minutes. The solar industry is adding a lot of new jobs in the process. There are 142,698 jobs throughout the industry, according to the Solar Foundation. That’s a 20 percent increase since 2012 — a jump driven both by growth in installations and new categories for academic and research jobs.
Continue reading… “Top 5 facts about the solar jobs market”
China has “outstripped even the most optimistic forecasts” to install a record 12 GW of photovoltaic projects.
There were predictions all through 2013 that suggested Japan would walk away the dominant solar PV market. Bloomberg New Energy Finance has revealed that despite those predictions China has “outstripped even the most optimistic forecasts” to install a record 12 GW of photovoltaic projects in 2013.
Continue reading… “China installed more solar power than any other country in 2013”
America is on track to install more solar capacity this year than world leader Germany.
In the U.S., the outlook for solar power is bright and sunny. The solar industry in America has recorded its second largest quarter ever in the third quarter of 2013, and the largest quarter ever for residential installations. (Infographic)
Continue reading… “2013 has been a record breaking year for solar power in the U.S.”
Hundreds of companies are investing in electricity transferred through magnetic fields.
Nikola Tesla, the inventor and rival to Thomas Edison, in the early 1900’s built the Wardenclyffe Tower, a 187-foot-high structure on Long Island, which he said could transmit electricity wirelessly. Financier J.Morgan backed the Wardenclyffe Tower. The project failed, and Tesla ended up broke. (In an earlier experiment in Colorado, Tesla had wirelessly lit up 200 lamps over a distance of 25 miles, but pedestrians witnessed sparks jumping between their feet and the ground, and electricity flowed from faucets when turned on. Oops.)
Continue reading… “Electric power without transmission lines”
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Gartner Research released a report in 2008 in which it identified the number one IT grand challenge as “Never having to manually recharge devices.” Physicist Hatem Zeine has invented what he believes to be the answer to this challenge. The Cota wireless power transmission system uses intelligently steered phased array antennas to focus a beam of microwaves on a receiver module – and only on that module. The inherently safe technology can deliver electrical power up to 30 feet from a central transmitter without any line-of-sight requirement and without interfering with other devices. The system is projected to hit the market in 2015.
Continue reading… “Cota charging system transmits power wirelessly at up to 30 feet”
A breakdown of power usage at Facebook’s data centers during 2012, from the company’s annual sustainability report.
In 2012, Facebook’s data center energy use grew 33 percent, as the company installed tens of thousands of servers in its new company-built data centers. The growth of the company’s power usage is disclosed in the company’s latest sustainability report, which also documents the company’s move to reduce its computing footprint in Silicon Valley, even as it boosts its reliance on leased space in northern Virginia.
Continue reading… “Facebook’s power footprint growing and moving east”
World Bank president Dr. Jim Yong Kim has called for action on climate change.
Last week, the World Bank announced that is largely turning away from providing funding for coal-fired power plants, except in rare situations where there is no feasible alternative.
Continue reading… “World bank turns away from coal-fired power”
X-Wind’s vertical axis wind turbine.
Electrified railways in Britain could be powered by up to 70% by wind turbines placed alongside the tracks, if a trial getting underway is successful.
Continue reading… “The future of railways could run on wind power”
Photovoltaic solar panels
The drop in cost of solar panel prices will help make solar affordable to more people and it will increase the size of the solar market. But this ongoing cost reduction means much more than that.
Continue reading… “Cost of photovoltaic solar panels to drop $0.36/watt by 2017”
Algaebulb
Designer Gyula Bodonyi has harnessed the power of green algae in a light bulb. Algae projects have already been seen powering power entire buildings, but Bodonyi’s concept brings green power to the public on a more user-friendly scale. With the Algaebulb, algae powers a single LED activated by a tiny air pump and hydrophobic material able to create a teeny-tiny power house for light. (photos)
Continue reading… “AlgaeBulb lights up with green algae”
An innovator in high-performance, cost-efficient wind energy technology is SheerWind. Initial field-testing results have been announced which compares INVELOX commercial-grade wind energy generation with the same turbine on a traditional tower-mounted system.
Continue reading… “SheerWind wind turbine can generate 600% more energy than conventional turbines”
