Green Options

A major new survey has revealed that nearly 50% of all US consumers would consider buying a ‘green’ cell phone, but only if key factors such as the price, features, and performance were equivalent to other phones.

According to the poll of 1,000 American adults carried out by ABI Research, just 7% would be willing to pay a premium to go green, a figure that may cause cell phone companies to think deeply before investing heavily in environmentally friendlier models.

Speaking about the findings, industry analyst Michael Morgan said, “These survey results mean that almost half of those surveyed were at least committed in principle to use of a green handset. However the public is largely uninformed about their availability: only 4% said they were ‘very familiar’ with green handsets.”

A team of Japanese scientists have developed a new type of lithium-air battery cell with an ultra-large capacity, and say that it holds great potential for the next-generation of electric cars.

Researchers at the country’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) predict that at a filling station, the driver of a vehicle equipped with the new battery could make use of a revolutionary new cassette refill system, and then continue driving without waiting for batteries to be recharged.

A new piece of thin film manufacturing equipment with the unlikely name of Viper (TM) could help bring solar energy to the masses.  Viper (TM) was developed by Sencera, a North Carolina company that got its start supplying thin film hardware for manufacturing transistors and integrated circuits.

According to a new study conducted by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, The average installed costs for photovoltaic cells (in real 2007 dollars) went down from $10.50-per-watt in 1998, to $7.60-per-watt in 2007.

What’s most amazing about this report is that it appears to validate a whole slew of state and local solar initiatives. The researchers found that—despite the many, many reported advances to solar cell efficiency—most of the savings during this nine year period came from reductions to installation and external hardware costs.

Sun Well Solar—a subsidiary of the notoriously poor CD and DVD manufacturer, CMC Magnetics—has announced today that it is one month ahead of schedule in the ramp-up of its new photovoltaic production line.

Attention, farmers: New Holland introduced the world’s first fuel cell tractor today in Turin, Italy, and it looks like a fun ride. The tractor’s fuel cell generates 106hp, and its hydrogen tank can hold enough to power the tractor for 1.5 to 2 hours.

Solar collectors found on butterfly wings are being investigated as a means to improve the efficiency of a type of thin-film solar cells.

US chemical engineers have built the world’s smallest fuel cell, clocking in at only 9 cubic millimeters. While the hydrogen-fueled cell is currently a prototype, it could one day replace batteries in portable electronics.

Last week, Famous DC was the first to report on New York’s recently elected congressman Eric Massa’s poorly-conceived environmental publicity stunt.  Massa’s plan was to drive from his congressional district in New York to Washington DC in a hydrogen fuel-cell powered car.  In other words:  an efficient, leisurely, and environmentally responsible drive across 300 miles of the American Northeast.

“What,” you may be asking, ”could possibly go wrong?”

Plenty.

More on why we should never, Never, NEVER elect public officials who are bad at math after the jump.

Solar PV manufacturer Oerlikon Solar has pioneered a new thin film solar technology process, which it claims has made its solar cells 7 per cent efficient - a 16 per cent energy improvement over its previous technology. The advance has led to a 50 per cent increase in the capacity of its thin film solar fabrication plant.

So, why is this important? Well, thin film cells are typically a lot cheaper to produce than more common silicon solar cells, but often suffer from significantly lower conversion efficiencies. Oerlikon’s breakthrough moves us a lot closer to the day when thin film becomes more cost-effective than silicon-based panels - which could mean a dramatic rise in the adoption of solar power in homes and businesses.

Scientists at the University of New South Wales have set a new world record by creating the first silicon solar cell to achieve 25% efficiency.

Team leader, Prof. Martin Green of the university’s ARC Photovoltaic Centre of Excellence, says their world-beating solar cell is now a massive six percent more efficient than the next best technology. The record edges the current generation of solar cell technology closer to the theoretical limit of 29% efficiency.