Electricity

One of the biggest hurdles facing the developers of biological implants is coming up with a power source to keep the implanted devices ticking. We've seen various technologies that could be used instead of traditional batteries (which require the patient to go under the knife so they can be replaced) such as wireless transmission of power from outside the body, biological fuel cells that generate electricity from a person's blood sugar, and piezoelectric devices that generate electricity from body movements or the beating of the heart. Now researchers have developed a device that could be used to generate electricity from a patient's breathing.  Read More

The advantages of wireless sensors to monitor equipment and structures in remote locales are obvious, but are lessened significantly if their batteries need to be regularly changed. We’ve seen a number of microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS, that harvest energy from the environment, such as ambient light and radio waves and vibrations. Now MIT News is reporting the development of a new piezoelectric device that is about the size of a U.S. quarter and can generate 100 times as much power as similarly sized devices.  Read More

One of the limitations of traditional copper electrical wiring is the fact that the metal’s resistance causes the wire to heat up, and some of the energy being carried through the wire is lost in the form of that heat. Wires made from superconducting materials, however, would have no resistance, so could transfer much more energy. While previous attempts at the technology have proven too fragile or expensive, researchers from Tel Aviv University have now developed a new type of cost-effective superconductive wire, that they claim can carry 40 times more electricity than copper wiring of the same size.  Read More

In the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, tens of thousands of German citizens took to the streets calling for the phase out of atomic energy. In May, the German government bowed to public pressure and unveiled its plan to shut down the country's 17 nuclear power plants by 2021 - with the possibility that three will continue operating until 2022 if the transition to renewable energy doesn't go as quickly as hoped. Providing some hope that Germany will achieve its ambitious goals, Spiegel Online International has quoted a newly released German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) report that says, for the first time, renewable sources accounted for more than 20 percent of the country's electricity generation in the first half of 2011.  Read More

Nissan has unveiled a new power supply system that allows electricity stored in the lithium-ion batteries of the all-electric Nissan LEAF to be supplied to a house. With the LEAF’s batteries able to store up to 24 kWh of electricity, Nissan says the system could supply the average Japanese household with electricity for about two days. This would be enough to provide a stable electricity supply in the event of power outages or to allow consumers to store cheaper off-peak power for use in high demand periods.  Read More

The United States’ copper-based electric grid is estimated to leak electricity at an estimated five percent per 100 miles (161 km) of transmission. With power plants usually located far from where the electricity they produce will actually be consumed, this can add up to a lot of wasted power. A weave of metallic nanotubes known as armchair quantum wire (AQW) is seen as an ideal solution as it can carry electricity over long distances with negligible loss, but manufacturing the massive amounts of metallic single walled carbon nanotubes required for the development of this “miracle cable” has proven difficult. Now researchers have made a pivotal breakthrough that could make the development of such a cable possible.  Read More

We've been following MIT's progress on creating solar cell-coated paper since 2010, and we're excited to report the current findings of the project. What looks and feels like an ordinary sheet of paper with a fine layer of colored rectangles, is no ordinary piece of paper at all – once connected to a couple of wires, it instantly generates solar electricity. Additionally, the technology is almost as cheap and easy as printing a family snapshot from an inkjet printer. You can even fold it up, slip it in your pocket, then unfold it again for later use.  Read More

The Gemasolar Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant near Seville, Spain, has achieved a full 24 hours of solar power production one month after starting commercial operation. The 19.9 MW plant uses a huge array of mirrors to heat a molten salt storage system in the central tower which is then used to run steam turbines, resulting in the ability to continue energy production after the sun goes down.  Read More

The heat given off by electronics, automobile engines, factories and other sources is a potentially huge source of energy, and various technologies are being developed in order to capture that heat, and then convert it into electricity. Thanks to an alloy that was recently developed at the University of Minnesota, however, a step in that process could be saved – the new material is able to convert heat directly into electricity.  Read More