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Efficiency

ECOGIZMO

Harnessing waste heat to produce electricity

By Darren Quick

21:13 November 19, 2009 PST

A laptop generating a little too much waste heat (Photo: secumem via Wikipedia Commons)

That heat emanating from your computer as you sit reading this article amounts to nothing more than wasted energy. And your computer is not alone. More than half of the energy consumed worldwide is wasted, most of it in the form of excess heat. But new research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) indicates it might be possible to harvest much of the wasted heat produced by everything from computer processors to car engines and electric powerplants, and convert it into usable electricity. This kind of waste-energy harvesting might lead to mobile phones with double the talk time, laptop computers that can operate twice as long before needing to be plugged in to mains power, or energy plants that produce more electricity for a given amount of fuel. Read More

ECOGIZMO

The solar-powered school on stilts

By Jeff Salton

01:19 November 19, 2009 PST

The Forest School features up-cycled, recycled and low-impact architecture and design

It's almost as good as going to school in a treehouse. The recently opened Elleray Preparatory School in the Lake District National Park has three class pods standing on stilts connected by a center platform made from recycled materials, such as plastic milk bottles and wood shavings. Nestled amongst the trees, the complex is built to have a low environmental impact and therefore makes excellent use of solar power, rainwater collection, and has an energy-efficient heat pump. Read More

RESEARCH WATCH

New spintronics breakthrough paves the way to faster computing

By Dario Borghino

19:30 October 29, 2009 PDT

Researchers have achieved all-electric control of the spin of electrons in a major breakth...

A team of researchers from the University of Cincinnati have achieved control of the spin of electrons traveling on a wire by simply regulating an electrical voltage. This is a major milestone in the brief history of spintronics, the emerging technology that uses the spin of electrons to store and manipulate digital information with much higher speeds and efficiency. Read More

ECOGIZMO

Sharp sets highest solar cell efficiency

By Paul Ridden

05:39 October 27, 2009 PDT

Sharp's 35.8% efficiency triple-junction compound solar cell

The Sharp Corporation has developed a compound solar cell that has achieved a conversion efficiency of 35.8 percent. Developing a new base layer for its triple-junction compound solar cell has improved on Sharp's previous conversion efficiency by almost four percent. Read More

 
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