Summaries | Headlines

Students Prepare For Annual Solar House Contest (October 11, 2007) -- For any passive solar home, the challenge is keeping the heat. The Solar7 team built a south-facing light wall made of 1-foot-thick square tiles. Each looks like a sandwich: Two opaque plastic ... > full story

Laser Joining Of Solar Cells (October 10, 2007) -- A single solar cell produces a relatively low output -- it's a case of strength in numbers. Tiny strips of metal are used to link cells together. If the laser soldering temperature is too high, the ... > full story

Nanotubes And Nano-rods Show Promise As Catalysts, Sunscreen (September 17, 2007) -- Scientists have developed new ways to make or modify nanorods and nanotubes of titanium oxide, a material used in a variety of industrial and medical applications. The methods and new titanium oxide ... > full story

Thin-layer Solar Cells May Bring Cheaper Green Power (August 24, 2007) -- Scientists are researching new ways of harnessing the sun's rays which could eventually make it cheaper for people to use solar energy to power their homes. The experts at Durham University are ... > full story

Silicon Nanoparticles Enhance Performance Of Solar Cells (August 21, 2007) -- Placing a film of silicon nanoparticles onto a silicon solar cell can boost power, reduce heat and prolong the cell's life, researchers now ... > full story

Cheap And Easy Technique To Produce Hydrogen From Visible Light Is Almost Ready (August 20, 2007) -- There is a revolution in solar hydrogen on the horizon. The prospect for the wide spread use of hydrogen as a portable energy carrier is dependent on finding a clean, renewable method of production. ... > full story

Go Solar, Wind Or Geothermal If You Want Renewable Energy With Life-cycle Efficiency (August 18, 2007) -- Do the overall efficiencies of renewable energy sources add up in terms of their complete life cycle from materials sourcing, manufacture, running, and decommissioning? Using these criteria, ... > full story

Quantum Analog Of Ulam's Conjecture Can Guide Molecules, Reactions (August 14, 2007) -- Like navigating spacecraft through the solar system by means of gravity and small propulsive bursts, researchers can guide atoms, molecules and chemical reactions by utilizing the forces that bind ... > full story

Researchers Think Pink To Produce 'Green' Solar Energy (August 1, 2007) -- When it comes to producing earth-friendly solar energy, pink may be the new green. Scientists here have developed new dye-sensitized solar cells, that get their pink color from a mixture of red dye ... > full story

University Of Delaware-led Team Sets Solar Cell Record (July 30, 2007) -- A University of Delaware-led consortium has achieved a record-breaking combined solar cell efficiency of 42.8 percent from sunlight at standard terrestrial conditions, and will team with DuPont in a ... > full story

Unique Quantum Effect Found In Silicon Nanocrystals (July 27, 2007) -- Researchers have shown that a new and important effect called multiple exciton generation (MEG) occurs efficiently in silicon nanocrystals. MEG results in the formation of more than one electron per ... > full story

Renewable Energy Wrecks Environment, According To Researcher (July 25, 2007) -- Renewable does not mean green. That is the claim of Jesse Ausubel of the Rockefeller University in New York. He explains that building enough wind farms, damming enough rivers, and growing enough ... > full story

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Biomass -- Biomass is organic non-fossil material, collectively. In other words, 'biomass' describes the mass of all biological organisms, dead or alive, excluding biological mass that has been transformed by ... > full article

Solar panel -- Solar panels are devices for capturing the energy in sunlight. The term solar panel can be applied to either solar hot water panels (usually used for providing domestic hot water) or solar ... > full article

Electricity generation -- Electricity generation is the first process in the delivery of electricity to consumers. The other three processes are electric power transmission, electricity distribution and electricity retailing. ... > full article

Power station -- A power station or power plant is a facility for the generation of electric power. At the centre of nearly all power stations is a generator, a rotating machine that converts mechanical energy into ... > full article

Distributed generation -- Distributed generation is a new trend in the generation of heat and electrical power. The concept permits the "consumer", who is generating heat or electricity for their own needs, to send their ... > full article

Renewable energy -- Renewable energy (sources) or RES capture their energy from existing flows of energy, from on-going natural processes, such as sunshine, wind, flowing water, biological processes, and geothermal heat ... > full article

Solar cell -- A solar cell (or a "photovoltaic" cell) is a device that converts photons from the sun (solar light) into electricity. In general, a solar cell that includes both solar and nonsolar sources of light ... > full article

Geothermal power -- Geothermal power is the use of geothermal heat for electricity generation. It is often referred to as a form of renewable energy, but because the heat at any location can eventually be depleted it ... > full article

Radiant energy -- Radiant energy is the energy of electromagnetic waves. The term is most commonly used in the fields of radiometry, solar energy, heating and lighting, but is also used less frequently in other fields ... > full article

Solar wind -- A solar wind is a stream of charged particles (i.e., a plasma) which are ejected from the upper atmosphere of a star. When originating from stars other than the Earth's Sun, it is sometimes called a ... > full article

Water turbine -- A water turbine is a rotary engine that takes energy from moving water. Water turbines were developed in the nineteenth century and were widely used for industrial power prior to electrical grids. ... > full article

Solar power --

Solar power (also knows as solar radiation or insolation) is energy from the sun. This energy, in the form of heat and light, supports all life on Earth, drives the Earth's climate and weather and ... > full article

Isotope -- Isotopes are forms of an element whose nuclei have the same atomic number–-the number of protons in the nucleus--but different mass numbers because they contain different numbers of ... > full article

Liquid nitrogen economy -- A liquid nitrogen economy is a hypothetical proposal for a future economy in which the primary form of energy storage and transport is liquid nitrogen. It is proposed as an alternative to liquid ... > full article

Quantum dot -- A quantum dot is a semiconductor nanostructure that confines the motion of conduction band electrons, valence band holes, or excitons (bound pairs of conduction band electrons and valence band holes) ... > full article

Fuel cell -- A fuel cell is an electrochemical device similar to a battery, but differing from the latter in that it is designed for continuous replenishment of the reactants consumed; i.e. it produces ... > full article

Luminosity -- In general physics, luminosity (more properly called luminance) is the density of luminous intensity in a given ... > full article

Electric power -- Electric power is the amount of work done by an electric current in a unit time. When a current flows in a circuit with resistance, it does work. Devices can be made that convert this work into heat ... > full article

Hydroelectricity -- Hydroelectricity is electricity obtained from hydropower. Most hydroelectric power comes from the potential energy of dammed water driving a water turbine and generator. Less common variations make ... > full article

Photoelectric effect -- The photoelectric effect is the emission of electrons from matter upon the absorption of electromagnetic radiation, such as ultraviolet radiation or x-rays. Upon exposing a metallic surface to ... > full article