QUICK NEWS, January 20: ON THE ENERGY-ECONOMY LINK; SOLAR STORAGE BREAKTHROUGH; TINY WIND TO CHARGE A PHONE
ON THE ENERGY-ECONOMY LINK Can we sever the link between energy and economic growth?
Brad Plumer, January 17, 2014 (Washington Post)
“Ever since the 1970s, the world appears to be using less and less energy to produce a given unit of economic activity…There's some debate among economists, however, as to whether it's actually possible to significantly reduce the amount of energy used per unit of economic activity…[W]hy does this debate matter? Well, it matters a lot for climate-change policy. The growth rate of heat-trapping carbon-dioxide emissions in the future will depend on three things: 1) The growth rate of the global economy, 2) the energy-intensity of the economy (i.e., how much energy we need to sustain a given level of economic activity), and 3) the carbon-intensity of our energy supply (basically, the cleanliness of the fuels we use)…Right now, BP is predicting that the world's biggest countries will…get more energy-efficient and use cleaner fuels…But, the report notes, this also won't be enough to curtail carbon-dioxide emissions…BP thinks we won't even get close…There are three broad ways to cut emissions…” click here for more
SOLAR STORAGE BREAKTHROUGH Triangle researchers find way to store solar power
Jay Price, January 14, 2014 (NewsObserver)
“…[Researchers have] discovered a potential solution to one of the fundamental problems of generating large amounts of energy from the sun’s rays: how to store some of the power so it’s available at night…The scientists [from UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State University] found a new way to use solar energy to split molecules of water into its atomic-level components: oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen can then be burned for fuel, generating only water as waste, which can then be recycled to be split again…The process currently generates hydrogen equal to about 1 percent of the energy in the sunlight received. But now that it’s clear the concept works, the researchers think there’s little doubt that they can improve the efficiency…[to] at least 15 percent, which is similar to the efficiency of current commercial solar cells…” click here for more
TINY WIND TO CHARGE A PHONE The mobiles powered by WIND TURBINES: 'Micro-windmills' smaller than a grain of rice could one day be fitted to our phones
Victoria Woollaston, 13 January 2014 (UK Daily Mail)
“Each windmill is 1.8mm wide and ten of them can fit on a grain of rice…[Researchers from Texas] claim hundreds of the nickel devices could fitted into a phone case…Users could then wave the windmills in the air [and as the tiny blades spin they turn a shaft connected to a miniature generator that can be connected to a phone’s battery, or other devices that require energy]…This case could also be placed out of a window, or in front of a fan, to increase the amount of energy generated...[According to the researchers,] hundreds of windmills could recharge a phone in 'a few minutes'…” click here for more
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home