Recent battery and photovoltaic news from Technology Review: An MIT Enterprise
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Friday, July 2006
Special Reports
Energy: Facing Global Warming
technologyreview.com
Readily available energy technologies could be put in use today to forestall global warming. Technology Review examines some of these technologies and argues that they require not further refinement but a considered, long-term deployment strategy. [Several reports – link to one follows]
Special Report: Energy: Facing Global Warming
Beyond the Solar Panel By Lamont Wood
The U.S. government plans to produce a buyer's guide to power-converting roofing materials.
Friday, July 07, 2006
technologyreview.com
Excerpts: “The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is evaluating nine of these [latest generation PV panels that “look and act much like ordinary roofing tiles or shingles.”] commercial PV roofing products in hopes of providing an easy way for consumers to judge the panels' power potential.”
Pic of United Solar Ovonic Photovoltaic shingles with quote from Subhendu Guha, president and COO.
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Wednesday, August 02, 2006
A Sharper Focus for Photovoltaics by Peter Fairley
A California startup, with strong venture backing, says it can slash the cost of solar power with its concentrator technology.
technologyreview.com
Excerpts: “Whereas silicon solar panels today cost close to $3 per watt to produce, Conley says SolFocus will manufacture solar systems at $2 per watt when it opens its first concentrator plant next year; and he says gigawatt-scale production will cut the cost per watt to just 50 cents. The second generation should cut costs further, says Conley, to as low as 32 cents per watt. ….. toughest competition could come from the world's largest photovoltaic manufacturer, Japan-based Sharp, which has developed a concentrator using Fresnel lenses.”
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Wednesday, August 30, 2006
How Future Batteries Will Be Longer-Lasting and Safer by Kevin Bullis
An MIT battery expert says advances in materials and engineering can realistically double capacities in the next 10 years, without sacrificing safety.
technologyreview.com
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Friday, September 01, 2006
Hybrid Power Swap by Peter Fairley
GM and partners vow to beat Toyota with mechanical engineering.
technologyreview.com
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Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Solar Cells for Cheap By Kevin Bullis
Not everyone gets a solar cell named after them: but Michael Gratzel did. He says his novel technology, which promises electricity-generating windows and low manufacturing costs, is ready for the market.
technologyreview.com
Excerpts: “Michael Grätzel, chemistry professor at the Ecoles Polytechniques Fédérales de Lausanne in Switzerland, is most famous for inventing a new type of solar cell that could cost much less than conventional photovoltaics. Now, 15 years after the first prototypes, what he calls the dye-sensitized cell (and everyone else calls the Grätzel cell) is in limited production by Konarka, a company based in Lowell, MA, and will soon be more widely available. … Grätzel is now working on taking advantage of the ability of nanocrystals to dramatically increase the efficiency of solar cells.”
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Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Safer, Longer-Lasting Batteries by Kevin Bullis
Thin-film technology is still expensive, but it could soon run remote sensors and medical implants--and one day electric vehicles.
technologyreview.com
Excerpts: “In addition to being safer, this solid material allows developers to use electrodes of pure lithium metal, which has the potential to significantly increase storage capacity. The batteries can survive extremes of cold and heat, which means, for example, they could be built into rubber tires to power air pressure sensors, says John Bates, chief technical officer at Oak Ridge Micro-Energy in Tennessee. …. Thin-film cells also can be stored for decades and retain almost all their charge, developers say--and deliver a powerful burst of energy when finally needed. And, in many applications, they can be actively used for decades, since they can be charged and discharged tens of thousands of times. ……. In spite of the current drawbacks to thin-film batteries, Donald Sadoway, professor of materials chemistry at MIT, says some versions of them will power laptops--and electric vehicles--in the future.
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Friday, September 22, 2006
BMW's Hydrogen Hopes by David Talbot
Hydrogen may never be feasible as a fuel for vehicles, but BMW is pushing ahead anyway with an advanced hydrogen-gas combustion hybrid.
technologyreview.com
Excerpts: “The vehicle has a super-insulated tank that stores liquid hydrogen at minus-480 degrees F, and a special fuel-injection system that can switch between gasoline and hydrogen. The engine can pack a 260-horsepower wallop while burning hydrogen--something that an electric car powered by a hydrogen fuel cell cannot now do in such a large car, BMW says.”
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Thursday, September 28, 2006
Powerful Batteries That Assemble Themselves by Kevin Bullis
MIT researchers are developing low-cost manufacturing methods based on the rapid reproduction of viruses.
technologyreview.com
Excerpts: “Biology may be the key to producing light-weight, inexpensive, and high-performance batteries that could transform military uniforms into power sources and, eventually, improve electric and hybrid vehicles. …. Through a combination of genetic design and directed evolution, Belcher has created viruses that coat themselves with inorganic materials they wouldn't touch in nature, forming crystalline materials, which are doped at regular intervals with gold to enhance their conductivity. Then the coated viruses line up on top of a polymer sheet that serves as the electrolyte, to form one of the battery's electrodes (see "Virus-Assembled Batteries"). The device looks like a thin sheet of cellophane.”
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Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Safer, Higher-Capacity Batteries by Kevin Bullis
Silver-zinc battery chemistry could replace lithium ion in laptops and other electronics--if such batteries can be made cheaply enough.
technologyreview.com
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Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Printing Fuel Cells by Kevin Bullis
A new printing process could cheaply make complex fuel-cell reformers, and other microscale devices.
technologyreview.com
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Thursday, October 19, 2006
BP Solar Sticks with Silicon by Kate Greene
An industry giant says a tweak to silicon manufacturing could beat more exotic materials approaches over the next decade.
technologyreview.com
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