By Susan Kraemer •
November 16, 2009
As part of developing new energy resources that don’t emit carbon dioxide, the DOE is funding 9 trials that use supercritical CO2 to extract more geothermal energy.
The idea started in 2000 at Los Alamos National Laboratory; when physicist Donald Brown thought of pumping geothermal fluid using supercritical CO2 - a pressurized form that is part gas, part liquid; instead of water. Theoretically this should flow more freely through rock than water, because it is less viscous than water.
Then, six years later; in modeling the technology Lawrence Berkeley hydro-geologist Karsten Pruess projected that not only should it perform as expected but that it would also yield a 50% hotter geothermal resource.
Now the DOE is funding this promising research with $16 million in nine trials to see if this will work in the real world.
By Tina Casey •
November 14, 2009
A team of researchers from UC Berkeley and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley Lab have discovered a new lead-free material that produces an electrical current when exposed to stress. The phenomenon, called piezoelectricity, sounds exotic but it could some day become as common as backyard grills.
Piezoelectricity is a sustainable way to generate energy. It works by applying pressure or stress to certain crystalline materials, including certain ceramics and even bone, so it’s a green alternative to burning fossil fuels. Up to now, though, the most popular piezoelectric materials contain lead, a notorious neurotoxin. The discovery of a lead-free material could open the door to a piezoelectric energy future in which people generate significant amounts of electricity just by moving through the civic infrastructure, from highways to flooring and revolving doors.
By Lisa Wojnovich •
June 19, 2009
In the constant push for ever newer and greener technology and energy, we sometimes forget that it is often both simpler and cheaper to revisit old techniques in new ways. And that’s exactly what a group of researchers in California has done.
By Matthew Phelan •
February 20, 2009
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.
By Andrew Williams •
January 16, 2009
Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California have suggested a plan to drastically reduce global warming, by painting the world white. If implemented successfully, it would be the equivalent of taking the world’s 600 million cars off the road for 18 years.
Hashem Akbari and Surabi Meno, along with Art Rosenfeld, California Energy Commissioner and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, are so convinced that their idea will work, that they have proposed a “Cool World” plan that would use white roofs, and solar-reflective roofs of other colors, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help delay atmospheric heating effects.
By Reenita Malhotra •
December 12, 2008
the President-elect has appointement his Energy and Climate cabinet members: Steven Chu as Secretary of Energy, Carol Browner as “Energy Czar,” Lisa Jackson as Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Nancy Sutley as the head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
