By Andrew Williams •
November 10, 2009
The Japanese space agency has unveiled an incredible new plan to start collecting solar power in space, and zap it down to Earth via microwaves or laser beams.
Under the plan, known as the Space Solar Power System (SSPS), floating photovoltaic dishes several square miles across would hover in geostationary orbit outside the Earth’s atmosphere as soon as 2030.
According to a researcher at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, one of the project participants, “Since solar power is a clean and inexhaustible energy source, we believe that this system will be able to help solve the problems of energy shortage and global warming. The sun’s rays abound in space.” (Another picture after the jump).
By Ariel Schwartz •
July 31, 2009
Our race to find alternative fuels is critical not only because gasoline-powered vehicles emit lots of CO2–it’s also important because we’re running out of the sticky stuff. But what if the Earth could produce fossil fuels without the fossils?
By Eva Pratesi •
July 17, 2009
An Italian research team has developed a technique that could be used to make clean fuel from water. The method discovered by researcher Roberto Bini and his team from the European
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By Dave Tyler •
June 2, 2009
Could a regular light bulb end up being an energy efficient competitor to a compact fluorescent bulb? Researchers at the University of Rochester say yes.
A team of optics researchers at the school say they’ve
developed a process that makes a 100-watt incandescent bulb use less electricity than a 60-watt bulb. The process, they say, would keep the cost of a traditional light bulb well under that of its fluorescent counterpart while maintaining the more pleasant light an incandescent bulb gives off.
Professor Chunlei Guo (pictured above) and his team developed a laser process that treats the tungsten filament in a traditional bulb. The process creates nano- and micro- level structures on the filament that dramatically improve its efficiency.
By Ariel Schwartz •
November 7, 2008
Virginia-based Catch the Wind has an innovative solution for improving wind turbine efficiency— laser beams. The company’s fiber-optic laser system gives turbines up to 20 extra seconds to adjust to changes in gusts and wind direction. That may not sound like much, but Catch the Wind claims that its system can improve turbine output by 10 percent.
