More Good News About The Scientific Accident That May Change The World

by Chris Clarke

on February 21, 2013 2:51 PM

Graphene supercapacitors | Photo: UCLA

That battery life video that had gone viral due to a recent post on UpWorthy (and which we told you about Tuesday) now has an update. We told you that researchers at Ric Kaner's lab at UCLA had found a way to make a non-toxic, highly efficient energy storage medium out of pure carbon using absurdly simple technology. Today, we can report that the same team may well have found a way to make that process scale up to mass-production levels.

The recap: Graphene, a very simple carbon polymer, can be used as the basic component of a "supercapacitor" -- an electrical power storage device that charges far more rapidly than chemical batteries. Unlike other supercapacitors, though, graphene's structure also offers a high "energy density," -- it can hold a lot of electrons, meaning that it could conceivably rival or outperform batteries in the amount of charge it can hold...

Read the full story More Good News About The 'Scientific Accident That May Change The World' | Science | ReWire | KCET

ELN - Can frozen air help store energy?

Could U.S. Get 20% of Electricity from Solar Under Power Lines? | john-farrell-ilsr

Let's go a step further... Use the towers themselves as hybrid vibration, wind, solar and gravity power and storage framework. Definitely a step in the right direction though... | cindy s martin

Could U.S. Get 20% of Electricity from Solar Under Power Lines? | john-farrell-ilsr

What if the U.S. could get 20 percent of its power from solar near transmission lines without covering virgin desert?

It could. Transmission right-of-way corridors, vast swaths of vegetation-free landscape to protect high-voltage power lines, could provide enough space for over 600,000 megawatts of solar PV. These arrays could provide enough electricity to meet 20 percent of the country's electric needs. (Note: There may not be good interconnection opportunities for solar under these huge towers, so this should be read as a land use discussion rather than technical analysis of interconnection to the grid.)

It starts with the federal Government Accountability Office, which estimates there are 155,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines in the United States (defined as lines 230 kilovolts and higher). According to at least two major utilities (Duke Energy and theTennessee Valley Authority), such power lines require a minimum of 150 feet of right-of-way — land generally cleared of all significant vegetation that might come in contact with the power lines...

Read the Full Story: Could U.S. Get 20% of Electricity from Solar Under Power Lines? | john-farrell-ilsr

Energy Storage for Solar Power - Technology Review

Stored sunlight: A rendering shows BrightSource’s new thermal storage design. The two large tanks will store molten salt, which can be used to generate steam to drive a turbine.
Credit: BrightSource

Energy Storage for Solar Power
by Kevin Bullis

Startup BrightSource announces a new system that could allow future solar plants to run at night.

BrightSource Energy has become the latest solar thermal power company to develop a system for generating power when the sun isn't shining. The company says the technology can lower the cost of solar power and make it more reliable, helping it compete with conventional sources of electricity.

The company, based in Oakland, California, is building one of the world's largest solar thermal power plants. The 392-megawatt solar plant in Ivanpah, California, however, will not include the storage technology. Instead, BrightSource is working with utilities to determine which future projects could best benefit from storage.

Read the full story: Energy Storage for Solar Power - Technology Review

Storing solar energy indefinitely now possible thanks to carbon nanotubes | RobAid

By Damir B.

The idea of reversibly storing solar energy in chemical bonds is gaining a lot of attention these days. A group of researchers from MIT have developed a novel application of carbon nanotubes which shows potential as an effective approach to store solar energy for use whenever it’s needed. The method simplifies the process by combining energy harvesting and storage into a single step.

Previously, the chemicals used to achieve this type of conversion and storage either degraded within a few cycles, or included the element ruthenium, which is rare and expensive. Jeffrey Grossman, the Carl Richard Soderberg Associate Professor of Power Engineering at MIT, and postdoc Alexie Kolpak have created a new material which is a combination of carbon nanotubes and a compound called azobenzene.

...read the full story Storing solar energy indefinitely now possible thanks to carbon nanotubes | RobAid