A novel genetic modification to plants could make advanced biofuels more competitive with fossil fuels, according to a study published this week in the journal Science. The modification could achieve this by rendering an expensive step in making such biofuels unnecessary.
Currently almost all ethanol production comes from the sugar and starch in sugarcane and corn grain. Producing biofuels from biomass remains too expensive to be competitive, partly because the current method for freeing up the cellulose from lignin, the substance that gives plants woody properties, is to treat biomass with hot acid. This step is expensive in part because it requires specialized equipment that can withstand the acid.
A series of cellulosic-biofuel plants are finally starting to come on line after years of delay. But the new wave of plant openings, good news as it is for the emerging industry, also shows just how far it still has to go.
A new type of solar cell, made from a material that is dramatically cheaper to obtain and use than silicon, could generate as much power as today’s commodity solar cells.
Although the potential of the material is just starting to be understood, it has caught the attention of the world’s leading solar researchers, and several companies are already working to commercialize it.
Researchers developing the technology say that it could lead to solar panels that cost just 10 to 20 cents per watt. Solar panels now typically cost about 75 cents a watt, and the U.S. Department of Energy says 50 cents per watt will allow solar power to compete with fossil fuel.
Backed by EU financing, a Spanish water company this week produced its first crop of algae that will be used to manufacture biofuel as an alternative to the more controversial crop-based transport fuels.
The "All-gas" project will cultivate fast-growing micro-algae by using the nutrients in wastewater and then by further processes generate biomethane which can be captured and used in transport fuel.
The biomass obtained from the algae crop showed high energy potential with a methane production capacity of 200-300 litres of gas per kilogramme of biomass processed, water company FCC Aqualia said.
Combining the strengths of two different solar technologies could yield “hybrid solar power” that works even at night or when it’s cloudy.
The Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy is devoting $30 million to several demonstration projects that will attempt to combine photovoltaics with solar thermal. Early-stage work being conducted by researchers around the U.S. hints at how the combined technology might work.
If you use a credit card or a cell phone, chances are you get a monthly statement detailing each purchase or call. This may soon expand to your utility bills, too: a project in the works at electronics company Belkin makes it possible to see how much electricity you’re spending on everything from the TV in your living room to the washing machine in your basement.
A trial of the largest battery in Europe, which proponents hope will transform the UK electricity grid and boost renewable energy is due to start in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire.
The trial of cutting-edge energy storage technology will test new methods of capturing electricity for release over long periods, evening out the bumps and troughs of supply and demand that plague the electricity grid. Finding ways of storing power from wind and solar generation is key to maintaining a constant source of energy.
t’s hard to save electricity when you don’t know where it’s going. Qualisteo’s Wattseeker reads the fingerprints of electrical systems to make monitoring energy use easier and less costly.
When it comes to saving energy across an industrial or commercial site, the first step is figuring out how much is being used – and where. But monitoring the energy consumption of every appliance or system across such sites is no small feat. Qualisteo, winner of the ACES Energy & Environment Award, set out to simplify that task by developing a device that could measure and control electricity use from a single location.
Hydrogen-powered vehicles have been pitched as a greener alternative to gas-powered vehicles, but one problem with this is that the hydrogen is typically produced from a fossil fuel—natural gas—in a process that releases a lot of carbon dioxide.
Buoyant wind farms situated in deep seas could employ 318,000 people and provide 145 million households with electricity by 2030, says a new report by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA).
The paper, Deep Water, argues that new floating turbine designs are cost-competitive with fixed-bottom designs in deep seas, and could be market-ready by 2017 – with massive electricity-generating potential.
