Technology

Physicists from the University of Sheffield have discovered that when two atomically thin graphene-like materials are placed on top of each other their properties change, and a material with novel hybrid properties emerges, paving the way for design of new materials and nano-devices. This happens without physically mixing the two atomic layers, nor through a […]

Siemens is to team up with three US energy labs to test new technologies to bolster electricity supply, options and resiliency. Siemens Corporate Technology, the company’s central research and development unit located in Princeton, New Jersey, has signed a memorandum of understanding with three US Department of Energy R&D facilities: The National Renewable Energy Laboratory […]

Sodium sulfur (NAS) batteries produced by Japan’s NGK Insulators are being put into use on a massive scale in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The company’s battery systems have been deployed across 10 locations – 15 systems in total – adding up to 108MW / 648MWh in total, with each system […]

Developing a perfectly energy-efficient building is relatively easy to do—if you don’t give the building’s occupants any control over their environment. Since nobody wants that kind of building, Professor Christoph Reinhart has focused his career on finding ways to make buildings more energy-efficient while keeping user needs in mind. “At this point in designing buildings, […]

In any office, home or other shared space, there’s almost always someone who’s too cold, someone who’s too hot – and someone who doesn’t know what the fuss around the thermostat is all about. Most often, building owners and operators find out how their heating and cooling systems are doing by asking occupants if they’re […]

The strange class of materials known as quasicrystals has a new member. In a paper published on Thursday, Dec. 20, in Science, researchers from Brown University describe a quasicrystalline superlattice that self-assembles from a single type of nanoparticle building blocks. This is the first definitive observation of a quasicrystalline superlattice formed from a single component, […]

Two news items about Sunnyvale, California-based Alta Devices drew attention recently. Alta Devices, first of all, has set a solar efficiency record for its single junction solar cell. Actually, this is the seventh time the company achieved such a distinction. As optics.org said, this was “the latest in a long series of cell or module […]

In 1967 one gigabyte of hard drive storage space cost US$ 1m. Today it’s around two US cents. Computer processing power has also increased exponentially: it doubles every two years. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to technological progress in the 21st century. There have also been tremendous advances in […]

This is due to balanced ‘electrochemical’ reduction and oxidation processes occurring inside the brick at the two faces. As long as electrodes at these faces are at different temperatures, the electrochemical reactions occur and electricity is generated. The compounds inside are not consumed, do not run out and can never be overcharged. As long as […]

New National Science Foundation and Department of Energy-funded research highlights a previously unexplored consequence of the global proliferation of wind energy facilities: a wake effect from upwind facilities that can reduce the energy production of their downwind neighbors. In collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), faculty at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU) […]