Renewables
Driverless buses launch in Estonia with no major incidents
In celebration of Estonia’s presidency of the Council of the European Union, two driverless buses have been introduced on a limited route in Tallinn. While the city authorities claim the twin buses have not been involved in any ‘major incidents’, there have been many reports of near misses. One close call took place on 31st July when an eyewitnesses claimed that one of the buses failed to give way to a police car with ...
Fuel cell technology to power clean energy hub
Elcogen will supply its technology for a new project demonstrating how reversible solid oxide cells can be used in innovative clean energy storage systems. Elcogen’s market-leading solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology will be used in the upcoming REFLEX project, which will operate an energy hub coupled to solar and mini-hydro renewable sources to provide both electricity and heat to the nearby technology park.
'AquaCharge' offers strategies for aquifer replenishment
The federal government reports that 40 states expect water shortages by 2024 and water worries already plague some cities across the United States. Underground aquifers that were over-tapped for years now cry out to be replenished. The problem is that the two main strategies for increasing water supplies – collecting stormwater runoff and recycling treated wastewater – are usually separate processes that can create costly and underuse...
Formula E technology partnership moves into top gear
Last weekend’s race in Montreal marked the end of an exciting season of the world’s first electric racing series. The hard battle has been won; Lucas di Grassi (pictured) is the new Formula E world champion. The ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport Formula E racing team celebrated second place in the team classification, with Daniel Abt finishing the season in eighth place in the world rankings.
Solar glasses can generate solar power
Organic solar cells are flexible, transparent, and light-weight - and can be manufactured in arbitrary shapes or colours. Thus, they are suitable for a variety of applications that cannot be realised with conventional silicon solar cells. In the Energy Technology journal, researchers from KIT now present sunglasses with coloured, semitransparent solar cells applied onto lenses that supply a microprocessor and two displays with...
Graphene creates transparent and flexible solar cells
Can you imagine a future in which solar cells are all around us - on windows and walls, cell phones or laptops? A new flexible, transparent solar cell developed at MIT is bringing that future one step closer. The device combines low-cost organic (carbon-containing) materials with electrodes of graphene, a flexible, transparent material made from inexpensive and abundant carbon sources. This advance in solar technology was enabled by a novel ...
Individual beats Tesla and Fiat with EV world record
Technology expert and environmentalist, Eric Lundgren, has disrupted the electric vehicle industry by travelling 748 miles on a single charge in an electric car he built himself out of recycled materials, setting a new world record. Dubbed ‘The Phoenix’, this car cost less than $14,000 (£10,593) to build and beat the Tesla P100Dm, Nissan Leaf, Chevy Bold and Fiat 500e cars combined mileage. It breaks the world record as the...
Added features increase connectivity for E-bikes
Additional connectivity solutions have been integrated into the BMZ Drive System from BMZ. A smartphone is used to link the E-bike to an intelligent network. This brings new features to the vehicle like social media community interactions.
Explaining the high efficiency of perovskite solar cells
In recent years, perovskites have taken the solar cell industry by storm. They are cheap, easy to produce and very flexible in their applications. Their efficiency at converting light into electricity has grown faster than that of any other material – from under 4% in 2009 to over 20% in 2017 – and some experts believe that perovskites could eventually outperform the most common solar cell material, silicon. But despite thei...
Further growth in Australian solar infrastructure
Renewable energy developer, wholesaler and energy solutions provider, BayWa r.e, has sold the 20MWp Hughenden solar plant to Australian infrastructure investment specialists, Lighthouse Infrastructure.