Tag: green

This Printer Spits Out 10 Meters of Solar Panel Every Minute

Australia is on the cusp of a solar energy revolution. First, a recent study suggests that the country could power its entire national domestic infrastructure using only solar (while slashing the price of home electricity by 70 percent). Now, the University of Melbourne has introduced a new organic PV cell printer that rolls out a functional binder page-sized sheet of solar panel every two seconds, making the production of all those cells cheaper and a whole lot faster . Read more…        

See original article:
This Printer Spits Out 10 Meters of Solar Panel Every Minute

New ‘smart skin’ so sensitive it rivals the real thing

Researchers say their experimental arrays sense pressure in the same range as the human fingertip, which could result in better bots and prosthetics. [Read more]        

View original post here:
New ‘smart skin’ so sensitive it rivals the real thing

IBM’s solar tech is 80% efficient thanks to supercomputer know-how

IBM Research’s prototype HCPVT system in Zurich. By borrowing cooling systems used in its supercomputers, IBM Research claims it can dramatically increase the overall efficiency of concentrated photovoltaic solar power from 30 to 80 percent. Like other concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) collectors, IBM’s system at its Zurich laboratory uses a mirrored parabolic dish to concentrate incoming solar radiation onto PV cells. The dish uses a tracking system to move with the sun, concentrating the collected radiation by a factor of 2,000 onto a sensor containing triple-junction PV cells. During daylight hours, each 1-sq cm PV chip generates on average between 200 and 250 watts of electrical power, harnessing up to 30 percent of the incoming solar energy. Ordinarily, the remaining 70 percent of energy would be lost as heat. But by capturing most of that heat with water, IBM Research says it is able to reduce system heat losses to around 20 percent of the total incoming energy. This results in a bottom-line efficiency of 80 percent for its CPV collector, dubbed HCPVT for High Concentration Photovoltaic Thermal. Unlike a regular CPV system, HCPVT delivers its energy in two forms: electricity and hot water. Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Read the original post:
IBM’s solar tech is 80% efficient thanks to supercomputer know-how

Behold the cursed ring that may have inspired Tolkien’s One Ring

Is this the ring that helped inspire J.R.R. Tolkien to write about the One Ring of Middle Earth? This Roman ring, which is associated with a divine curse, is part of a new exhibition at the Vyne in Hampshire, England, investigating its links to Tolkien and its possible influence on his work. Read more…

View original post here:
Behold the cursed ring that may have inspired Tolkien’s One Ring

A Quarter of Sun-Like Stars Host Earth-Size Worlds

astroengine writes “Although there appears to be a mysterious dearth of exoplanets smaller than Earth, astronomers using data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope have estimated that nearly a quarter of all sun-like stars in our galaxy play host to worlds 1-3 times the size of our planet. These astonishing results were discussed by Geoff Marcy, professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, during a talk the W. M. Keck Observatory 20th Anniversary Science Meeting on Thursday. ’23 percent of sun-like stars have a planet within (1-2.8 Earth radii) just within Mercury’s orbit,’ said Marcy. ‘I’ll say that again, because that number really surprised me: 23 percent of sun-like stars have a nearly-Earth-sized planet orbiting in tight orbits within 0.25 AU of the host stars.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Continue Reading:
A Quarter of Sun-Like Stars Host Earth-Size Worlds