This is the hybrid system schematic. (Credit: Nico Hotz)

Instead of systems based on standard solar panels, Duke engineer Nico Hotz proposes a hybrid option in which sunlight heats a combination of water and methanol in a maze of glass tubes on a rooftop. After two catalytic reactions, the system produces hydrogen much more efficiently than current technology without significant impurities. The resulting hydrogen can be stored and used on demand in fuel cells.

For his analysis, Hotz compared the hybrid system to three different technologies in terms of their exergetic performance. Exergy is a way of describing how much of a given quantity of energy can theoretically be converted to useful work.

“The hybrid system achieved exergetic efficiencies of 28.5 percent in the summer and 18.5 percent in the winter, compared to 5 to 15 percent for the conventional systems in the summer, and 2.5 to 5 percent in the winter,” said Hotz, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering.

The paper describing the results of Hotz’s analysis was named the top paper during the ASME Energy Sustainability Fuel Cell 2011 conference in Washington, D.C. Hotz recently joined the Duke faculty after completing post-graduate work at the University of California-Berkeley, where he analyzed a model of the new system. He is currently constructing one of the systems at Duke to test whether or not the theoretical efficiencies are born out experimentally.

Hotz’s comparisons took place during the months of July and February in order to measure each system’s performance during summer and winter months.

Like other solar-based systems, the hybrid system begins with the collection of sunlight. Then things get different. While the hybrid device might look like a traditional solar collector from the distance, it is actually a series of copper tubes coated with a thin layer of aluminum and aluminum oxide and partly filled with catalytic nanoparticles. A combination of water and methanol flows through the tubes, which are sealed in a vacuum.

“This set-up allows up to 95 percent of the sunlight to be absorbed with very little being lost as heat to the surroundings,” Hotz said. “This is crucial because it permits us to achieve temperatures of well over 200 degrees Celsius within the tubes. By comparison, a standard solar collector can only heat water between 60 and 70 degrees Celsius.”

Once the evaporated liquid achieves these higher temperatures, tiny amounts of a catalyst are added, which produces hydrogen. This combination of high temperature and added catalysts produces hydrogen very efficiently, Hotz said. The resulting hydrogen can then be immediately directed to a fuel cell to provide electricity to a building during the day, or compressed and stored in a tank to provide power later.

The three systems examined in the analysis were the standard photovoltaic cell which converts sunlight directly into electricity to then split water electrolytically into hydrogen and oxygen; a photocatalytic system producing hydrogen similar to Hotz’s system, but simpler and not mature yet; and a system in which photovoltaic cells turn sunlight into electricity which is then stored in different types of batteries (with lithium ion being the most efficient).

“We performed a cost analysis and found that the hybrid solar-methanol is the least expensive solution, considering the total installation costs of $7,900 if designed to fulfill the requirements in summer, although this is still much more expensive than a conventional fossil fuel-fed generator,” Hotz said.

Costs and efficiencies of systems can vary widely depending on location — since the roof-mounted collectors that could provide all the building’s needs in summer might not be enough for winter. A rooftop system large enough to supply all of a winter’s electrical needs would produce more energy than needed in summer, so the owner could decide to shut down portions of the rooftop structure or, if possible, sell excess energy back to the grid.

“The installation costs per year including the fuel costs, and the price per amount of electricity produced, however showed that the (hybrid) solar scenarios can compete with the fossil fuel-based system to some degree,” Hotz said. ‘In summer, the first and third scenarios, as well as the hybrid system, are cheaper than a propane- or diesel-combusting generator.”

This could be an important consideration, especially if a structure is to be located in a remote area where traditional forms of energy would be too difficult or expensive to obtain.

Hotz’s research was supported by the Swiss National Science Fund. Joining him in the study were UC-Berkeley’s Heng Pan and Costas Grigoropoulos, as well as Seung H. Ko of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejon.

Duke University. Hybrid solar system makes rooftop hydrogen. ScienceDaily http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2011/08/110809132232.htm

The Original Post is Located Here: Hybrid Solar System Makes Rooftop Hydrogen

A North-Sea wind farm has few negative effects on fauna. Most birds avoided the wind turbines, although rotating blades can have a significant disruptive effect on some species of birds. It turns out that a wind farm also provides a new habitat for organisms living on the sea bed such as mussels, anemones, and crabs, thereby potentially contributing to increased biodiversity. For fish and marine mammals, it provides an oasis of calm in a relatively busy coastal area, according to researcher Prof. Han Lindeboom at IMARES, part of Wageningen UR, and several of his colleagues and fellow scientists at Bureau Waardenburg and Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ).

A North-Sea wind farm has hardly any negative effects on fauna. At most, a few bird species will avoid such a wind farm. (Credit: Image courtesy of Wageningen University and Research CentreImage courtesy of Wageningen University and Research Centre)

The team of researchers focused on the short-term ecological effects of a wind farm in the North Sea. To do so, they analysed the effects of the offshore wind farm near Egmond aan Zee (OWEZ) on benthic organisms, fish, birds and marine mammals. The researchers described their findings in an article that was recently published on the scientific website, Environmental Research Letters online, in which they summarised the results of the first two years of their research.

The research carried out within the OWEZ wind farm revealed little effect during the first few years on the benthic organisms in the sandy areas between the wind turbines. New species establish themselves, and communities of animals arise on the wind turbine piles and the rocks piled around the columns, leading to a local increase in biodiversity. The fish fauna turns out to be very variable, and some minor positive effects have been observed so far. For example, the wind farm seems to provide shelter to cod. Porpoises were also heard more often inside the wind farm than outside it. A striking feature is that various bird species, including the gannet, avoid the wind farm, whereas others, such as seagulls, do not seem to be bothered by the wind turbines. Cormorants were even observed in greater numbers. The number of birds that collided with the turbines was not determined but was estimated to be quite low on the basis of observations and model calculations.

After the construction of a wind farm, whereby the driving of piles into the sea bed can have a disruptive influence, potential effects were expected from the presence of new hard substrate in the form of piles and protective rocks. Effects might also result from the presence of rotating wind turbine blades, possible underwater noise and the absence of other human activities such as commercial fishing.

Overall, the OWEZ wind farm functions as a new type of habitat with more species of benthic organisms and a possibly increased use of the area by fish, marine mammals and some bird species, whereas the presence of other bird species is reduced.

On the basis of comparisons with results found elsewhere, the scientists conclude that the impact of a wind farm depends on the location of the wind farm and the depth of the surrounding sea. The location of the OWEZ wind farm is favourable due to the relatively low numbers of birds that fly through the area at this distance from the coast. The presence of various habitat types and the intensity with which the area is used by others also play a role. In the busy Dutch coastal zone, the wind farm seems to offer a relative oasis of calm, according to the researchers. In the Anthropocene era, the present era during which humans have an impact on almost everything on earth, the effects of intensive fishing, pollution, gas oil and sand extraction, and intensive shipping have already resulted in changes to the ecosystem. Against such a background, a wind farm can contribute to a more diverse habitat and even help nature to recover.

However, the rotating blades can also have a significant disruptive effect on some species of birds. The researchers therefore suggest that, for the purpose of generating energy, special areas be designated in the sea for wind farms. Unavoidable effects, such as a local reduction in the numbers of some bird species would then have to be accepted, but by choosing the location appropriately, these effects can be minimised.

The research was funded by NoordzeeWind, a joint venture of Nuon and Shell Wind Energy, and was carried out by a consortium consisting of IMARES, Koninklijk NIOZ and Bureau Waardenburg.

Wageningen University and Research Centre. North Sea wind farm has positive net impact on fauna, researchers say. ScienceDaily http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2011/08/110808105949.htm

The Original Post is Located Here: North Sea Wind Farm Has Positive Net Impact On Fauna

A satellite-derived image, looking down on a layer of the Sun's atmosphere, or corona, at which the temperature is 1 million degrees kelvin (1MK, or 1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit). In this cropped, still image from Movie 1, the curved lines are coronal loops, most likely composed of hot plasma flowing along magnetic field lines. Some coronal loops are so long that their tops extend beyond the field of view. (Visualization by Scott McIntosh, NCAR, of data from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly, a package of instruments aboard NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. (Credit: ©UCAR)

The study uses satellite observations to reveal that magnetic oscillations carrying energy from the Sun’s surface into its corona are far more vigorous than previously thought. These waves are energetic enough to heat the corona and drive the solar wind, a stream of charged particles ejected from the Sun that affects the entire solar system.

“We now understand how hot mass can shoot upward from the solar interior, providing enough energy to maintain the corona at a million degrees and fire off particles into the high-speed solar wind,” says Scott McIntosh, the study’s lead author and a scientist in NCAR’s High Altitude Observatory. “This new research will help us solve essential mysteries about how energy gets out of the Sun and into the solar system.”

The study, published this week in the journal Nature, was conducted by a team of scientists from NCAR, Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Lab, Norway’s University of Oslo, and Belgium’s Catholic University of Leuven. It was funded by NASA. NCAR is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

Jets and waves
The flow of mass and energy from the corona influences how much ultraviolet radiation reaches Earth. It also drives upper-atmospheric disturbances known as geomagnetic storms, which can disrupt technologies ranging from telecommunications to electrical transmission.

The new study focuses on the role of oscillations in the corona, known as Alfven waves, in moving energy through the corona.

Alfven waves were directly observed for the first time in 2007. Scientists recognized them as a mechanism for transporting energy upward along the Sun’s magnetic field into the corona. But the 2007 observations showed amplitudes on the order of about 1,600 feet (0.5 kilometers) per second, far too small to heat the corona to its high levels or to drive the solar wind.

The new satellite observations used in the current study reveal Alfven waves that are over a hundred times stronger than previously measured, with amplitudes on the order of 12 miles (20 km) per second — enough to heat the Sun’s outer atmosphere to millions of degrees and drive the solar wind. The waves are easily seen in high-resolution images of the outer atmosphere as they cause high-speed jets of hot material, called spicules, to sway.

“The new satellite observations are giving us a close look for the first time at how energy and mass move through the Sun’s outer atmosphere,” McIntosh says.

The research builds on ongoing efforts to study the connection between spicules and Alfven waves. Scientists have known about spicules for decades but were unable to determine if their mass got hot enough to provide heat for the corona until earlier this year, when McIntosh and colleagues published research in the journal Science that used satellite observations to reveal that a new class of the phenomenon, dubbed “Type II” spicules, moves much faster and reaches coronal temperatures.

The new study reveals the role of Alfven waves. These oscillations play a critical role in transporting heat from the Sun by riding on the spicules and carrying energy into the corona.

Photographing our nearest star
The critical satellite observations described in the study come from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly, a package of instruments aboard NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which was launched in 2010. The instruments boast high spatial and temporal resolution, enough to detect structures and motions across regions of the Sun as small as 310 miles (500 km) and generate images every 12 seconds at different wavelengths.

“It’s like getting a microscope to study the Sun’s corona, giving us the spatial and temperature coverage to focus in on the way mass and energy circulate.” McIntosh says.

Now that the real power of the waves has been revealed in the corona, the next step in unraveling the mystery of its extreme heat is to study how the waves lose their energy, which is transferred to plasma. To do that, scientists will need to develop computer models that are fine enough in detail to capture how the jets and waves work together to power the atmosphere. By studying the Sun’s underlying physics with these tools, scientists could better understand the Sun’s 11-year sunspot cycle and its impacts on Earth.

National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Wave power can drive sun’s intense heat. ScienceDaily http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2011/07/110727131404.htm

The Original Post is Located Here: Wave Power Can Drive Sun’s Intense Heat

Research at the Caltech Field Laboratory for Optimized Wind Energy, directed by John Dabiri, suggests that arrays of closely spaced vertical-axis wind turbines produce significantly more power than conventional wind farms with propeller-style turbines. (Credit: John Dabiri, Caltech)

Conventional wisdom suggests that because we’re approaching the theoretical limit on individual wind turbine efficiency, wind energy is now a mature technology. But California Institute of Technology researchers revisited some of the fundamental assumptions that guided the wind industry for the past 30 years, and now believe that a new approach to wind farm design — one that places wind turbines close together instead of far apart — may provide significant efficiency gains.

This challenges the school of thought that the only remaining advances to come are in developing larger turbines, putting them offshore, and lobbying for government policies favorable to the further penetration of wind power in energy markets.

“What has been overlooked to date is that, not withstanding the tremendous advances in wind turbine technology, wind ‘farms’ are still rather inefficient when taken as a whole,” explains John Dabiri, professor of Engineering and Applied Science, and director of the Center for Bioinspired Engineering at Caltech. “Because conventional, propeller-style wind turbines must be spaced far apart to avoid interfering with one another aerodynamically, much of the wind energy that enters a wind farm is never tapped. In effect, modern wind farms are the equivalent of ‘sloppy eaters.’ To compensate, they’re built taller and larger to access better winds.”

But this increase in height and size leads to frequently cited issues such as increased cost and difficulty of engineering and maintaining the larger structures, other visual, acoustic, and radar signatures problems, as well as more bat and bird impacts.

Dabiri is focusing on a more efficient form of wind ‘farm’ design, relegating individual wind turbine efficiency to the back seat. He describes this new design in the American Institute of Physics’ Journal of Renewable & Sustainable Energy.

“The available wind energy at 30 feet is much less abundant than that found at the heights of modern wind turbines, but if near-ground wind can be harnessed more efficiently there’s no need to access the higher altitude winds,” he says. “The global wind power available at 30 feet exceeds global electricity usage several times over. The challenge? Capturing that power.”

The Caltech design targets that power by relying on vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) in arrangements that place the turbines much closer together than is possible with horizontal-axis propeller-style turbines.

VAWTs provide several immediate benefits, according to Dabiri, including effective operation in turbulent winds like those occurring near the ground, a simple design (no gearbox or yaw drive) that can lower costs of operation and maintenance, and a lower profile that reduces environmental impacts.

Two of the primary reasons VAWTs aren’t more prominently used today are because they tend to be less efficient individually, and the previous generation of VAWTs suffered from structural failures related to fatigue.

“With respect to efficiency issues, our approach doesn’t rely on high individual turbine efficiency as much as close turbine spacing. As far as failures, advances in materials and in predicting aerodynamic loads have led to new designs that are better equipped to withstand fatigue loads,” says Dabiri.

Field data collected by the researchers last summer suggests that they’re on the right track, but this is by no means ‘mission accomplished.’ The next steps involve scaling up their field demonstration and improving upon off-the-shelf wind turbine designs used for the pilot study.

Ultimately, the goal of this research is to reduce the cost of wind energy. “Our results are a compelling call for further research on alternatives to the wind energy status quo,” Dabiri notes. “Since the basic unit of power generation in this approach is smaller, the scaling of the physical forces involved predicts that turbines in our wind farms can be built using less expensive materials, manufacturing processes, and maintenance than is possible with current wind turbines.”

A parallel effort is underway by the researchers to demonstrate a proof-of-concept of this aspect as well.

American Institute of Physics (2011, July 20). Bold new approach to wind ‘farm’ design may provide efficiency gains. ScienceDaily http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2011/07/110713131644.htm

The Original Post is Located Here: A New Approach to Wind ‘Farm’ Design

TU Delft student of Sustainable Energy Technology Stefan Roest developed a new type of hybrid solar collector with a higher efficiency and a longer lifespan than the current hybrid systems for his graduation project.

Solar collector. (Credit: Stefan Roest, TU Delft)

A hybrid solar collector is a combination of a photovoltaic solar panel and a thermal solar collector. The residual heat from the PV solar panel is used to heat water. The water flows through a system of pipes on a copper sheet. A great deal of heat is needed to heat the water in the pipes. That is why the solar collector has been fitted with a transparent cover that helps to retain the heat. Unfortunately, the material used in the PV solar cell degrades quickly under temperatures of around 120 degrees. As a result, its efficiency is reduced by around 20 per cent and it has a lifespan of between five and ten years.

Roest built a prototype and also built an actual solar simulator that he used to test the efficiency of his prototype. There was considerable commercial interest in this solar simulator, which motivated Roest and a partner to start the TU Delft spin-off company Eternal Sun, so that they could bring the solar simulator to the market. Eternal Sun further enhanced its reputation by coming out on top at the European finals of the BE.Project, a competition for student-entrepreneurs.

Roest’s solar collector does not require a transparent cover – the water flows through a large number of small aluminium channels directly under the solar panel instead of through copper tubing and a copper sheet. Consequently, less heat is required to heat the water sufficiently for household use. Roest also chose not to use a crystalline silicon PV solar panel, opting for a thin film solar panel instead. It is easier to draw heat from this type of solar cell. Getting rid of the cover meant that the heat of the solar panel could be limited to around 80 degrees.

An additional benefit of thin film solar panels is that these perform relatively well at high temperatures. At a temperature of 80 degrees, an efficiency loss of around 10 per cent occurs, instead of the 20 per cent in the case of crystalline silicon solar panels. Roest’s hybrid solar collector has an estimated lifespan of 15 to 20 years.

Roest developed the new solar collector under the supervision of the professor of Photovoltaic Materials and Devices, Miro Zeman, who comments: “This innovative design could play an important role in the development of affordable and efficient hybrid systems for household use.”

Roest also developed a special solar simulator to measure the efficiency of his prototype. Almost immediately, there was commercial interest in this simulator and the relevant technology was quickly patented by TU Delft. Roest and his partner Chokri Mousaoui have since introduced the simulator onto the market via their TU Delft spin-off company Eternal Sun. Eternal Sun recently came out on top in the European finals of the BE.Project competition for students from top universities with an innovative business case, which was organised by the technology consulting company BearingPoint. The Eternal Sun team has now grown to include six students and recent graduates, and five solar simulators have already been sold since January.

Roest’s affinity with solar energy goes back quite a while. In 2007, he was the team leader of the Nuon Solar Team that won the World Solar Challenge in Australia with the solar car Nuna4.

The Original Post is Located Here: Higher Efficiency Hybrid Solar Collector

Jim Faulds, geologist and research professor at the University of Nevada, Reno's Bureau of Mines and Geology, lectures his geothermal exploration class in April at the Fly Ranch Geyser north of Gerlach, Nev. (Credit: Photo courtesy of the University of Nevada, Reno.)

An ambitious University of Nevada, Reno project to understand and characterize geothermal potential at nearly 500 sites throughout the Great Basin is yielding a bounty of information for the geothermal industry to use in developing resources in Nevada, according to a report to the U.S. Department of Energy.

The research aims to deliver a catalogue of positive structural elements, such as the pattern of faulting and models for geothermal systems and site-specific targeting using inventive approaches for fault analysis. The project will improve exploration strategies and minimize the risk of drilling nonproductive wells. The project has been going for one year and is now entering phase two, when five or six of the 250 geothermal sites identified as being potentially viable will be analyzed in more detail. Some of the sites studied will even have 3-D imaging to help those in the industry better understand geothermal processes and identify where to drill for the hot fluids.

Jim Faulds, a geologist and research professor at the University of Nevada, Reno is the principal investigator for the project and has a team of six researchers and several graduate students working with him on various aspects of the project.

“Of the 463 geothermal sites to study, we’ve studied and characterized more than 250 in the past year, either using existing records or on-site analyses,” Faulds said. “We’ll continue to study more of the sites so we can develop better methods and tools for geothermal exploration. Most, about two-thirds, of the geothermal resources in the Great Basin are blind — that is, there are no surface expressions, such as hot springs, to indicate what’s perhaps 1,500 feet below the surface.”

Better characterization of known geothermal systems is critical for new discoveries, targeting drilling sites and development, Faulds said. The success of modeling sites for exploration is limited without basic knowledge of which fault and fracture patterns, stress conditions, and stratigraphic intervals are most conducive to hosting geothermal reservoirs.

“The geothermal industry doesn’t have the same depth of knowledge for geothermal exploration as the mineral and oil industries,” he said. “Mineral and oil companies conducted extensive research years ago that helps them to characterize favorable settings and determine where to drill. With geothermal, it’s studies like this that will enhance understanding of what controls hot fluids in the Earth’s crust and thus provide an exploration basis for industry to use in discovering and developing resources.”

Faulds and his team have defined a spectrum of favorable structural settings for geothermal systems in the Great Basin and completed a preliminary catalogue that interprets the structural setting of most its geothermal systems. “This is the first attempt to broadly characterize and catalogue Great Basin geothermal systems in this way,” he said.

Faulds has developed and taught geothermal exploration classes, published many papers on his work and presented his work at many conferences, including the World Geothermal Congress in Bali, Indonesia and the GEONZ2010 Geoscience-Geothermal Conference in Auckland, New Zealand. He also presented information from his study at a session of the National Geothermal Academy at the University of Nevada, Reno.

The project, based in the University’s Bureau of Mines and Geology in the College of Science, is funded by a $1 million DOE grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

“We want to help the industry achieve acceptable levels of site-selection risk ahead of expensive drilling,” he said. “This study costs only $1 million, but it could cost a company several million dollars for drilling at a single prospect in the hopes that they hit a good hot well. Our research will provide the baseline studies that are absolutely needed if Nevada is going to become the Saudi Arabia of geothermal.”

The Original Post is Located Here: Geothermal Industry to Get Boost from New Research

The research, published in the journal Advanced Energy Materials, makes way for new solar cell production techniques and the promise of advancements in renewable solar energy. Scientists from the Universities of Sheffield and Cambridge used the ISIS Neutron Source and Diamond Light Source at STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire to conduct the research.

Plastic (polymer) solar cells are much cheaper to create than traditional silicon solar cells and have the potential to be manufactured in large quantities. The research demonstrated that when complex mixtures of molecules in solution are spread onto a surface, like varnishing a table-top, the different molecules separate to the top and bottom of the layer in a way that maximises the efficiency of the resulting solar cell.

A polymer solar cell ready for testing. (Credit: Andrew Parnell)

Dr Andrew Parnell of the University of Sheffield said, “Our results give important insights into how ultra-cheap solar energy panels for domestic and industrial use can be manufactured on a large scale. Rather than using complex and expensive fabrication methods to create a specific semiconductor nanostructure, high volume printing could be used to produce nano-scale (60 nano-meters) films of solar cells that are over a thousand times thinner than the width of a human hair. These films could then be used to make cost-effective, light and easily transportable plastic solar cell devices such as solar panels.”

Dr. Robert Dalgliesh, one of the ISIS scientists involved in the research, said, “This work clearly illustrates the importance of the combined use of neutron and X-ray scattering sources such as ISIS and Diamond in solving modern challenges for society. Using neutron beams at ISIS and Diamond’s bright X-rays, we were able to probe the internal structure and properties of the solar cell materials non-destructively. By studying the layers in the materials which convert sunlight into electricity, we are learning how different processing steps change the overall efficiency and affect the overall polymer solar cell performance. ”

“Over the next fifty years society is going to need to supply the growing energy demands of the world’s population without using fossil fuels, and the only renewable energy source that can do this is the Sun,” said Professor Richard Jones of the University of Sheffield. ” In a couple of hours enough energy from sunlight falls on the Earth to satisfy the energy needs of the Earth for a whole year, but we need to be able to harness this on a much bigger scale than we can do now. Cheap and efficient polymer solar cells that can cover huge areas could help move us into a new age of renewable energy.”

The Original Post is Located Here: ‘Cling-Film’ Solar Cells Could Lead to Advance in Renewable Energy

Engineering researchers in the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota have recently discovered a new alloy material that converts heat directly into electricity. This revolutionary new energy conversion method is in the early stages of development, but it could have a wide-sweeping impact on the process of creating environmentally friendly electricity from waste heat sources.

Researchers stated that the material could potentially be utilized to capture waste heat from a car’s exhaust that would heat the material and produce electricity for charging the battery in a hybrid car. Other potential future uses include capturing rejected heat from industrial and power plants or temperature variations in the ocean to create electricity. The research team is looking into the possible commercialization of the technology.

“This research is very encouraging as it provides a totally new method of energy conversion that has never been performed before,” said University of Minnesota aerospace engineering and mechanics professor Richard James, who led the research team.”It’s also the ultimate ‘green’ way to create electricity because it uses waste heat to create electricity with no carbon dioxide.”

The research team combined elements at the atomic level in order to generate a new multiferroic alloy, Ni45Co5Mn40Sn10. Multiferroic materials combine unusual elastic, magnetic and electric attributes. The alloy Ni45Co5Mn40Sn10 attains multiferroism by experiencing a highly reversible phase transformation where one solid transforms into another solid. During this phase transformation the alloy experiences alterations to its magnetic properties that are utilized in the energy conversion device.

During a small-scale demonstration in the lab, University of Minnesota researchers showed how their new material can spontaneously produce electricity when the temperature is raised a small amount. Pictured (from left) are aerospace engineering and mechanics professor Richard James, Ph.D. student Yintao Song and post-doctoral researchers Kanwal Bhatti and Vijay Srivastava. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Minnesota)

In the course of a small-scale demonstration in a University of Minnesota lab, the new material created by the researchers starts as a non-magnetic material, then abruptly becomes strongly magnetic when the temperature is increased by a small amount. When this occurs, the material absorbs heat and automatically generates electricity in a surrounding coil. Some of this heat energy is dissipated in a process called hysteresis. A significant discovery of the team is a systematic method to minimize hysteresis in phase transformations. The team’s research was recently published in the first issue of the new scientific journal Advanced Energy Materials.

In addition to Professor James, fellow members of the research team include University of Minnesota aerospace engineering and mechanics post-doctoral researchers Vijay Srivastava and Kanwal Bhatti, and Ph.D. student Yintao Song. The team is also working together with University of Minnesota chemical engineering and materials science professor Christopher Leighton to produce a thin film of the material that could be used, for example, to convert some of the waste heat from computers into electricity.

“This research crosses all boundaries of science and engineering,” James said. “It includes engineering, physics, materials, chemistry, mathematics and more. It has required all of us within the university’s College of Science and Engineering to work together to think in new ways.”

Funding for early research on the alloy came from a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) grant from the U.S. Office of Naval Research (involving other universities including the California Institute of Technology, Rutgers University, University of Washington and University of Maryland), and research grants from the U.S. Air Force and the National Science Foundation. The research is also tentatively financed by a small seed grant from the University of Minnesota’s Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment.

The Original Post is Located Here: Waste Heat Converted to Electricity Using New Alloy

Whether or not you’re ready to heat your entire house using solar energy, there are some simple ways you can start going solar. Imagine how much you would save each month simply by using the sun for all your cooking needs? What you will want to look for are sun ovens, and they can satisfy all your cooking needs if so desired. You can purchase a solar cooking device for approximately one hundred dollars, and just give it about an hour or so and it is ready to go. As you can see, this is just one example of what you can do to take care of your cooking needs and save money.

If you want the luxury of a swimming pool or hot tub, you can have one that’s environmentally friendly if it’s solar powered. The traditional approach here has been with gas units or those powered by electricity. Accomplishing this is not terribly involved, and in fact you can purchase a kit to make the change from electric/gas to solar. So it is very clear that you can take advantage of the benefits of solar power to heat your pool or anything else.

Solar energy can easily be used with greenhouses to help your plants stay healthy and grow better. What you can also do is buy material that will protect the plants from extremes of outside weather changes. That approach will make it possible to grow the plants you like regardless of how low the temps drop.

A solar powered greenhouse can maintain an environment that’s warm all year round. You could even visit local nurseries to find out what they use. Growing food is another option that we are sure somebody does, and you will save even more with that.

Solar energy truly is your friend, and it is available for anyone with motivation to use it. Some people only decide to have a few solar power devices in and around their home, and that is fine too. There are also other means of alternative and renewable energy sources, so do not limit yourself in any way.

When you really look at it, solar energy and alternative energy are more popular because people are genuinely concerned about making a difference. It really does seem practical to use solar power because all the efforts are geared to making it more affordable rather than more costly. If you have been sitting on the fence with solar energy, then maybe you should take a closer look.

The Original Post is Located Here: Why Solar Energy Makes Good Sense

“Completing the testing and stow of solar panels is always a big pre-launch milestone, and with Juno, you could say really big because our panels are really big,” said Jan Chodas, Juno’s project manager from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “The next time these three massive solar arrays are extended to their full length, Juno will be climbing away from the Earth at about seven miles per second.”

This is the first time in history a spacecraft has used solar power so far out in space (Jupiter is five times farther from the sun than Earth). To operate on the sun’s light that far out requires solar panels about the size of the cargo section of a typical tractor-trailer you’d see on the interstate highway. Even with all that surface area pointed sunward, all three panels, which are 2.7 meters wide (9 feet), by 8.9 meters long (29 feet), will only generate about enough juice to power five standard light bulbs — about 450 watts of electricity. If the arrays were optimized to operate at Earth, they would be capable of producing 12 to 14 kilowatts of power.

The 106-foot-long (32-meter-long), 12.5-foot-wide (3.8-meter-wide) first stage of the United Launch Alliance Atlas V launch vehicle that will carry Juno into space arrived at the Skid Strip at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on May 24. The two-stage Atlas V, along with the five solid rocket boosters that ring the first stage, will be assembled and tested on site at Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral this summer.

Technicians at Astrotech's payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla. stow solar array #2 against the body of NASA's Juno spacecraft. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/KSC)

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. The Juno mission is part of the New Frontiers Program managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft. Launch management for the mission is the responsibility of NASA’s Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

More information about Juno is online at http://www.nasa.gov/juno .

Note: You can learn more about the Juno mission to Jupiter by logging on to the mission’s new website. The new site was created by Juno Principal Investigator Scott Bolton in conjunction with Radical Media of New York. “It is one-stop shopping for anyone who wants to be entertained as much as informed about space science and the upcoming Juno mission,” said Bolton. This Juno website can be found at: http://missionjuno.swri.edu.

The Original Post is Located Here: Solar Panels for NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Complete Testing