mdsolar writes with this bit of news from Green Tech Media “The German government has responded to the next big challenge in its energy transition – storing the output from the solar boom it has created — by doing exactly what it has successfully done to date: greasing the wheels of finance to bring down the cost of new technology. … Now it is looking at bringing down the cost of the next piece in the puzzle of its energy transition — battery storage. … KfW’s aim, according to Axel Nawrath, a member of the KfW Bankengruppe executive board, is to ensure that the output of wind and solar must be ‘more decoupled’ from the grid. … This is seen as critical as the level of renewable penetration rises to around 40 per cent — a level expected in Germany within the next 10 years. … According to Papenfuss, households participating in the scheme will spend between €20, 000 and €28, 000 on solar and storage, depending on the size of the system (the average size is expected to be around 7kW for the solar array and around 4kWh for the battery).” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Germany Finances Major Push Into Home Battery Storage For Solar
Organovo’s 3D-printed mini-liver just shattered its own record, carrying out the same cellular functions as a natural human liver for 40 days in the lab. That may not seem like a lot — human liver cells are replaced about every 300 to 500 days — but the company’s previous millimeter-sized liver slivers only managed five days. The trick: Organovo uses the same mix of hepatocytes (the cells that carry out liver functions) and endothelial cells (which form the liver’s architectural support) found in nature, leading cells to develop more naturally than other experiments that used only the functional cells. It’s a small but significant step for the more than 120, 000 people on organ transplant waiting lists worldwide. Read more…