Tag: Energy

GeoLaB: Future with Geothermal Energy

sarah JonasFeature

Locally available, emission-free and baseload-capable: geothermal energy is an essential component of the energy transition. With GeoLaB, a new and unique underground research infrastructure, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) are looking to expedite research and prepare the technology for broad application. The facility is to be built in the Black Forest or the Odenwald range, with the Helmholtz Association providing 35 million euros in funding.

$2.3 million NIH grant to fund research on ’smart’ knee replacements

sarah JonasAnnouncement

A researcher at Binghamton University, State University of New York has received a five-year, $2,326,521 grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases to further her research into smart knee replacements.

Uncovering a novel way to bring to Earth the energy that powers the sun and stars

sarah JonasResearch Results

PPPL scientists have uncovered critical new details about fusion facilities that use lasers to compress the fuel that produces fusion energy. The new data could help lead to the improved design of future laser facilities that harness the fusion process that drives the sun and stars.

UCI scientists observe effects of heat in materials with atomic resolution

sarah JonasResearch Results

As electronic, thermoelectric and computer technologies have been miniaturized to nanometer scale, engineers have faced a challenge studying fundamental properties of the materials involved; in many cases, targets are too small to be observed with optical instruments. Using cutting-edge electron microscopes and novel techniques, a team of researchers at the University of California, Irvine, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other institutions has found a way to map phonons – vibrations in crystal lattices – in atomic resolution, enabling deeper understanding of the way heat travels through quantum dots, engineered nanostructures in electronic components.

Frontier supercomputer debuts as world’s fastest, breaking exascale barrier

sarah JonasAnnouncement

The Frontier supercomputer at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory earned the top ranking today as the world’s fastest on the 59th TOP500 list, with 1.1 exaflops of performance. The system is the first to achieve an unprecedented level of computing performance known as exascale, a threshold of a quintillion calculations per second.

Desperate for change, island nations explore suing polluters

sarah JonasExpert Pitch

Facing an increasing amount of extreme weather and ever-rising sea levels, two island nations raised the possibility of claiming damages from major polluting countries through judicial means. The Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda and the Pacific nation of Tuvalu…

100% Renewable Energy Using Building Science

sarah JonasResearch Results

In the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy National Renewable Energy Laboratory describe results from a techno-economic analysis aimed at identifying pathways to 100% renewable power systems. By analyzing readily available supply and demand strategies within specific U.S. regions, the team found a combination of resource diversification, excess generation, building efficiency, and demand flexibility improvements could reduce or even eliminate the need for long-duration energy storage in some regions.

UCI becomes two-time recipient of STARS Platinum rating for sustainability efforts

sarah JonasAnnouncement

For a second time, the University of California, Irvine has achieved a rare platinum rating through the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System, maintaining its status as one of the environmentally outstanding universities in the world.

Agricultural decarbonization gets new emphasis at ORNL

sarah JonasResearch Results

Finding a way to reduce metric tons of carbon dioxide while sustaining food products to feed the country and the world is becoming an area of increased focus in national decarbonization efforts and is attracting increased attention at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The Lab in the living room: Summer interns delve into plasma and fusion research from their homes

sarah JonasFeature

Summer interns working for PPPL did hands-on research from their computers in their bedrooms or on their dining room tables all over the U.S. They worked closely with PPPL physicists and engineers on research aimed at understanding ionized gases called plasmas.

UCI is No. 2 in Sierra magazine’s 2021 ‘Cool Schools’ ranking of sustainability leaders

sarah JonasAnnouncement

Irvine, Calif., Sept. 9, 2021 — The green streak continues! Sierra magazine has named the University of California, Irvine No. 2 overall in its annual “Cool Schools” ranking of sustainability leaders among U.S. and Canadian universities and colleges, marking the 12th time in a row that UCI has placed in the top 10 of the widely acclaimed list.

LED Material Shines Under Strain

sarah JonasResearch Results

A team led by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley has demonstrated an approach for achieving LEDs with near 100% light-emission efficiency at all brightness levels.

First sort, then refurbish

sarah JonasResearch Results

Switzerland’s building stock is quite impressive. There are around 1.8 million buildings in the country, but only one percent of this building stock is renovated each year. In other words, it will take 100 years for the entire building stock in the country to be renovated – which would be too slow to achieve the energy transition. But before politicians decide on stimulating subsidies, this daunting task must first be structured: Which measures make sense for which buildings? And where to start?

Key Improvements to Efficiency and Safety Will Enable Expansion of Nuclear Energy

sarah JonasAnnouncement

Nuclear power plants produce about 20% of the United States’ electricity. In order to increase the amount of carbon dioxide-free energy these plants can yield, improvements in efficiency and safety must be made. With support from $1.5 million in grants from the Department of Energy (DOE), researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will lead projects aimed at upgrading nuclear power plants with those goals in mind. The grants are part of more than $61 million in awards recently announced by the DOE to support nuclear energy research.

Hydrogen Technologies Take Leading Role Toward Net Zero

sarah JonasResearch Results

Achieving Net Zero energy, where the total amount of energy used is equal to the amount of renewable energy created, is closer than ever before, and hydrogen technologies will play an important role in achieving that goal, but needs and gaps need to be addressed before a true hydrogen-powered future can take form. There are many opportunities in the global public and private sectors for research, development, and deployment collaboration.

Powering Navigational Buoys With Help of Ocean Waves

sarah JonasResearch Results

Traditionally used energy harvesting technologies, like photovoltaic panels or wind turbines, suffer from several limitations. In the absence of daylight and wind, neither of the two can supply any power. In the case of ocean buoys, a potential solution is omnipresent: wave energy. Abundant, predictable, and consistent, the ocean’s waves can be used to power navigation buoys. Researchers have developed sphere-based triboelectric nanogenerators that can be incorporated directly into navigational buoys to provide electricity from ocean waves.

Measuring Photovoltaic Performance Indoors

sarah JonasResearch Results

As photovoltaic technology continues to progress, PV devices’ applications in harvesting energy from indoor ambient light have become more realistic. Some combinations of PV material and light source can be more efficient in converting power than the same material under solar illumination, and a better understanding of these relationships is needed to fully characterize the behavior of solar cells under very low illumination conditions.

MEDIA ADVISORY: AIP Publishing Hosts Expert Sessions on Energy Storage and Conversion at Virtual Conference

sarah JonasFeature

Twelve distinguished speakers will be covering critical topics impacting energy storage and conversion at the upcoming AIP Publishing Horizons Virtual Conference on Aug. 4-6. The three-day event is organized by the journal Applied Physics Reviews and brings together leaders in the field of energy science to present their latest research in six sessions

UC San Diego Receives $35 Million in State Funding for New California Coastal Research Vessel

sarah JonasAnnouncement

California legislators have allocated UC San Diego $35 million to design and build a new coastal research vessel with a first-of-its-kind hydrogen-hybrid propulsion system.

The new vessel, which will be operated by Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, will serve as a platform for essential education and research dedicated to understanding the California coast and climate change impacts to the coastal ecosystem.

Sensor Data Identifies Turbine Wake Clustering, Improves Wind Farm Productivity Via Yaw Control

sarah JonasResearch Results

In the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, researchers describe a real-time method for potentially helping turbine farms realize additional power from the clustering of their turbines. Their method requires no new sensors to identify which turbines at any given time could increase power production if yaw control is applied, and validation studies showed an increase of 1%-3% in overall power gain.

Baylor Study Evaluates Biodiversity Impacts of Alternative Energy Strategies

sarah JonasResearch Results

Climate change mitigation efforts have led to shifts from fossil-fuel dependence to large-scale renewable energy. However, renewable energy sources require significant land and could come at a cost to ecosystems. A new study led by Ryan McManamay, Ph.D., assistant professor of environmental science at Baylor University, evaluates potential conflicts between alternative energy strategies and biodiversity conservation.

Calling all couch potatoes: this finger wrap can let you power electronics while you sleep

sarah JonasResearch Results

A new wearable device turns the touch of a finger into a source of power for small electronics and sensors. Engineers at the University of California San Diego developed a thin, flexible strip that can be worn on a fingertip and generate small amounts of electricity when a person’s finger sweats or presses on it. What’s special about this sweat-fueled device is that it generates power even while the wearer is asleep or sitting still.

Save The Date: AIP Publishing Horizons Meeting Examines Energy Storage and Conversion

sarah JonasResearch Results

Energy conversion and storage is a critical part of modern society as applications continue to develop at a rapid pace. At the 2021 AIP Publishing Horizons Virtual Conference, researchers will unveil and discuss the latest advances in energy science and how the field will change over the next decades. In addition to speaker sessions, a poster program will provide a wide view of the exciting research going on now by scientists around the world.

Alex Harris Named Energy Sciences Director at Brookhaven Lab

sarah JonasAnnouncement

UPTON, NY—The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory has named Alex Harris as Director of the Lab’s Energy Sciences Department, effective May 1, 2021. In his new position, Harris will manage several divisions of the Laboratory, including the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, the Chemistry Division, and the Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Division.

Changing a 2D Material’s Symmetry Can Unlock Its Promise

sarah JonasResearch Results

In research published today in Nature Nanotechnology, a team of materials scientists and engineers, led by Jian Shi, an associate professor of materials science and engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, used a strain gradient in order to break inversion symmetry, creating a novel optoelectronic phenomenon in the promising material molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) — for the first time.