Lab demonstration of the group’s new lithium-polysulfide flow battery contained in a simple flask.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University scientists have developed a relatively cheap, long-life “flow” battery that can be used to mitigate power fluctuations from solar and wind energy plants, therefore enabling them to become major suppliers to the electrical grid.
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Solar Impulse
The goal of Solar Impulse is to fly around the world using no fuel other than sunlight. But before the solar plane circumnavigates the globe they will fly across the U.S. Solar Impulse took off on May 3 proving that airplanes can fly long distances on nothing more than sunshine. (Photos)
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Wave Glider SV3
Liquid Robotics has announced the Wave Glider SV3, what it calls the worldʼs first hybrid wave and solar propelled unmanned ocean robot. These super-smart robots have been revamped with Wi-Fi and cellular communications and are primed to compete in a series of industries, and might eventually create a couple new ones while they’re at it. (Pics)
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Solar wins again.
If you like the idea of getting free energy from the sun, but don’t want to deal with the complications of installing a solar array on your roof, Umbrosa has created a lovely backyard sun shade that does double-duty—turning those rays into electricity.
As umbrellas go the Eclipse’s design is striking, but it isn’t really an umbrella at all…
Cosmic changes are coming.
When it comes to terraforming, the Universe makes man’s puny efforts to be king of the hill look pretty pathetic. Not only are we completely at the mercy of a constantly changing planet, but we’re careening through space totally vulnerable to a sea of objects and cosmic influences beyond our wildest imagination.
Yet intuitively we have the peace that all is under control in some magnificent way.
The decades long assertion that our solar system would soon enter an electrically charged life altering photon belt around the Sirius star system has been regularly dismissed as pseudo science–NASA speak for “conspiracy theory”. Despite periodical scientific validation it has been continually pushed aside by mainstream science.
Until now…
Researchers have generated isobutanol from CO2 using a genetically engineered microorganism with solar electricity the sole energy input.
Electric vehicles have come a long way in the past decade, but they still have many disadvantages when compared to internal combustion engine-driven vehicles. The lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles have a much lower energy storage density when compared to liquid fuel, they take longer to “refuel,” and they lack the supporting infrastructure that has built up around conventional vehicles over the past century. Now researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have developed a process that could allow liquid fuel to be produced using solar generated electricity.
An interesting project called “Starlight” seems to have made use of thin film solar cell technology and advancements in lightweight materials technologies to create a perfect low cost solution for high altitude services, which engineers have been trying to achieve for long time.
An “intensitygram” from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the double-barreled sunspot active region 1416.
As solar activity builds toward an expected peak in 2013, a double-barreled sunspot has been doubling in size over the past couple of days and now has the potential to shoot significant eruptions in our direction. (video)
Photosynthesizing Solar Cells
Andreas Mershin, a researcher at MIT, has created solar panels from agricultural waste such as cut grass and dead leaves. Mershin says in a few years it will be possible to stir some grass clippings into a bag of cheap chemicals, paint the mixture on your roof, and immediately start producing electricity.
The Rodnik Band’s urinal dress took three weeks of sequin applying and embroidering to make.
Potty dress, glass bikinis, eyelash jewelry, hair necklaces: The list of 2011′s wackiest fashions runs on and on. Whether you liked them or not, or were even brave enough to try them, these styles certainly gave us our money’s worth in entertainment value. (pics)
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