What if generating solar energy at home required little more than mixing some grass clippings with inexpensive chemicals? That’s exactly what MIT researcher Andreas Mershinhas found to be the case. The scientist says creating a solar cell could be as easy as mixing any green organic material (grass clippings, agricultural waste) with a bag of custom chemicals and painting the mixture on a roof. Once the efficiency of Mershin’s system is improved, this type of solar technology could make cheap energy available in rural places and developing countries where people don’t have access to affordable energy. Read on to see a video of Mershin’s findings
Stanford researches may have solved the problem of range anxiety by wireless charging technology that could one day create an electric highway.
Wireless recharging already is used by some electric vehicle charging stations to fill up batteries without cords or plugging into an outlet. MIT helped pioneer this technology and spun it off into a wireless charging startup, WiTricity. However, Stanford researchers improved on this concept and devised a way to transmit 10 kilowatts of electric power across a 6.5-foot distance with minimal energy loss. By overcoming transmitting electricity across a significant distance, researchers will make it possible to pave a highway with wireless conduits that can provide addition power to EVs and let them operate indefinitely.
In a mashup of biology and electronics, researchers said they’ve made progress in making low-cost solar cell from plants.
A paper published in Scientific Reports today describes an improved method for making electricity-producing “biophotovoltaics” without the sophisticated laboratory equipment previously needed. Researchers said custom-designed chemicals could be mixed with green plants, even grass clippings, to create a photovoltaic material by harnessing photosynthesis.
Compact cars take on a new meaning when they can literally fold themselves.
Spain will begin producing an electric car next year that’s about the same size as a Smart, but can collapse itself into an even smaller footprint when parked. The Hiriko, which means “urban car” in Basque, is the brainchild of researchers at the MIT Media Lab, and is designed to meet the needs of increasingly congested and parking challenged urban centers.
Solar power: Green but inefficient
While green energy like solar power can be the answer to our power needs, there are certain hindrances to its success. First, it is expensive building the necessary equipment for harvesting the sun’s power. Next, sufficient land needs to be made available to set up a solar energy systems. Lastly, modern methods don’t allow for maximum harvesting of sunlight, which is why a lot of it goes to waste. These drawbacks pose a huge problem in attempts to replacing conventional energy with green sources. Considering solar energy systems cost about $45,000 each, most towns can’t afford to invest in them, as maximum benefits of this green energy source will be reaped only when several such systems will be installed. This is why the world still relies on conventional power even though fuel supplies are fast depleting.
Scientists at MIT and RWTH Aachen University may have revolutionized the effectiveness of concentrated solar plants – by emulating the pattern found on a sunflower, otherwise known in science as Fermat’s spiral. By rearranging the CSP’s massive heliostats, or mirrors, to resemble the yellow flower’s petals, the solar power harvester can take up 20% less space. Making the system more compact increases the CSP’s efficacy, giving it a higher potential for energy generation.
Probably the most efficient way of harnessing solar power is by using Concentrated Solar Power plants, or CSPs. Their design, however, is based on large mirrors (heliostats) placed in rows around a central tower, onto which they reflect the sun’s energy.
People all over the world are taking their own initiative in what the protection of the environment is concerned and try to come up with their own “green” ideas. Take Stephan Boyer for example, an inventive MIT student who has built “The Bullet”: an electric unicycle, semi self-balanced and reaching up to 15 miles per hour.
Liquid Metal Battery Corporation (LMBC) is a Boston-area startup pursuing an liquid metal battery technology. According to this Greentech Media piece, Don Sadoway of MIT is the inventor of LMBC’s core technology.
Sadoway is a named co-inventor on two related patent applications, U.S. Application Publication Nos. 2011/0014503 (’503 Application) and 2011/0014505 (’505 Application) describing and claiming batteries having liquid metal electrodes.
The ’503 Application is entitled “Alkaline earth metal ion battery” and is directed to an alkaline earth metal ion energy storage cell (10) which contains three liquid constituents: two liquid electrodes and a liquid electrolyte.