QUICK NEWS, January 11: SUPERTREES TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE; OPEN SOURCE WIND; A NEW WAY TO STORE SOLAR
SUPERTREES TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE The Quest to Hack Trees and Beat Climate Change
Matt McFarland, January 6, 2016 (Washington Post)
“…[Trees suck] in carbon dioxide, reducing the harmful greenhouses gases in our air. But…[they] can’t absorb enough of the carbon dioxide humanity is throwing at them…[W]hat if trees — or machines modeled after them — had superpowers? Artificial trees…[might be able] to capture the excess carbon and store it or convert it into something useful such as fuel…[The cost of the technology is] not to a point where it’s affordable to install ‘forests’ of these systems…The Center for Negative Carbon Emissions is developing technology that it says is 1,000 times as effective as trees, per unit of biomass…Once the technology is fully built out, they expect to remove a ton of carbon dioxide for about $100 a ton. Their long-term estimate is less than $30 per ton…[Bill Gates] is one of the investors…” click here for more
Andrew Kusiak, 4 January 2016 (Nature)
“The energy industry has long met demand by varying the rate at which it consumes fuel…But the wind cannot be turned up or down. Smart software can make wind farms more efficient and responsive. Computer models can predict wind speed and control the number and capacity of turbines in operation to meet energy demand…Optimizing renewables requires data: on device performance, energy output and weather predictions, seconds to days in advance. Vast quantities of information are collected by turbine manufacturers, operators and utility companies…[but] prohibitively difficult for anyone outside to access…The lack of data sharing in the renewable-energy industry is hindering technical progress and squandering opportunities for improving the efficiency of energy markets…There is money to be made…Controlling wind turbines with data-driven software could, models show, increase energy production by at least 10%, and gains of 14–16% are possible…” click here for more
A NEW WAY TO STORE SOLAR New material stores solar energy, releases it on demand as heat energy
January 8, 2016 (Dispatch Tribunal)
“…[A new material capable of storing solar energy and releasing it on demand as heat energy] can be used for a number of applications including electric cars…[The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) created material] can be produced as a transparent polymer film…[T]he key to storing solar energy for longer time is to store it in some form of energy other than heat [that dissipates. Chemical storage can be longer term] and can be released through a trigger in the form of small jolt of heat (or light or electricity). The key is to have a material or a system that can retain the solar energy in a stable molecular configuration and then release it…[Solar thermal fuels (STF) have that characteristic but] were designed to be used in liquid solutions…[Scientists have now developed the polymer film material with an increased energy density] called azobenzenes…[T]he system as it exists now might be a significant boon for electric cars…” click here for more
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