FOTOTHERM

The work led by Matthew Escarra, associate professor of physics and engineering physics at Tulane, and Daniel Codd, associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of San Diego, is the culmination of a U.S. Department of Energy ARPA-E project that began in 2014 with $3.3 million in funding and involved years of prototype development at Tulane and field testing in San Diego. The research is detailed this month in the science journal  Cell Reports Physical Science . Researchers from San Diego State University, Boeing-Spectrolab and Otherlab were also part of the project. "Thermal energy consumption is a huge piece of the global energy economy -- much larger than electricity use. There has been a rising interest in solar combined heat and power systems to deliver both electricity and process heat for zero-net-energy and greenhouse-gas-free development," said Escarra. The hybrid converter utilizes an approach that more fully captures the whole spectrum of s...

Advisers to the UK’s Swale Borough Council have concluded that no legal grounds exist on challenging the government’s recent approval of the up to 350-MW Cleve Hill subsidy-free solar-plus-storage complex in England. Solar farm. Image by Wirsol (wirsol.com). The council said on Friday that it has obtained legal advice on initiating a potential judicial review process that would seek to overturn the consent issued to Cleve Hill Solar Park Ltd -- a joint venture of Hive Energy and Wirsol Energy Ltd. The Cleve Hill solar and battery complex will see around 800,000 photovoltaic (PV) panels installed near Faversham and Whitstable on the North Kent Coast in South East England. The green light for the development was granted by the UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Alok Sharma at the end of May. The Swale Borough Council was considering a judicial review to protect wildlife habitats. The overall investment in the scheme is estimated at GBP 450 mi...

Avista is seeking proposals from renewable energy project developers who are capable of constructing, owning and operating projects up to 120 MW AC,  whether through one or multiple proposals with a minimum net annual output of 20 MW AC . Avista’s intent is to secure the output from renewable generation resources, including electricity, capacity and associated environmental attributes. Avista’s interest in acquiring new renewable energy resources is to offset market purchases and fossil-fuel thermal generation. This interest is consistent with Avista’s  2020 Integrated Resource Plan  which identifies that the utility will consider acquiring additional resources if such resources have lower long-term cost than electric market alternatives. “This renewable energy resource RFP reinforces the goal we established last year to serve our customers with 100% clean electricity by 2045 and 100% carbon neutral resources by 2027,” said Jason Thackston, Avista’s senior VP of ener...

Researchers have made use of carbon dioxide in the production of a battery protective coating. In the future, the coating could multiply the battery life and enable the use of new, more efficient materials. When batteries are charged and used, a complex SEI (solid electrolyte interphase) layer is formed. Its structure resembles a mosaic consisting of organic and inorganic parts assembled from several blocks. Researchers have noticed that if an artificial layer is applied to the electrode surface of a battery, the batteries can be recharged and used longer. The actual electrode material is saved when the separately added layer reacts and forms a protective SEI layer. The surface of an artificially produced SEI is also more even and of a higher quality than that of a naturally developed layer. Inorganic materials, i.e. materials that do not contain carbon, have been used in the atomic layer deposition. Now, Aalto University's researchers have been the first in the world to...

The energy supply for the buildings of this floating solar settlement in Amsterdam is based on a joint energy management system. This enables the entire neighbourhood to act as one integrated system. [...]  Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics (ITWM) have developed a new energy management system. This allows photovoltaic systems, battery storage systems, heat pumps and electric vehicles to be linked together. This makes it possible to supply individual households or entire energy districts with their own regenerative energy as far as possible, even in the face of the variability in current caused by the fluctuating generation of electricity by solar systems. Energy management for the entire community The basis is a common energy management system, as it is already used in many individual buildings. "We have developed this into an energy management system for entire energy communities," says Matthias Klein, describing the approa...

Flessibile e con un costo di produzione tra i 30 e i 50 dollari, è capace di alimentare un orologio, ma si punta allo sviluppo di una batteria "ad ombra" per smartwatch e smartphone. La ricerca di un gruppo di scienziati dell' Università Nazionale di Singapore (NUS)  ha portato allo sviluppo di un generatore che ricava energia dall'ombra, il cosiddetto   Shadow-effect energy generator (SEG) . Piccolo e flessibile, con un costo di produzione di poche decine di dollari, potrà servire per alimentare quei dispositivi che si utilizzano in condizioni di sotto-illuminazione. Lo studio è stato pubblicato dalla rivista  Energy & Environmental Science . "L’ombra è onnipresente e spesso viene data per scontata. Nelle applicazioni fotovoltaiche la presenza di ombra rappresenta un problema, perché diminuisce la performance del dispositivo. Nel nostro lavoro abbiamo invece cercato di sfruttare il contrasto di illuminazione causato dalle ombre come fonte indiretta d...

The country’s Ministry of Electricity and Energy is seeking proposals for 30 large-scale solar plants. The selected developers will be awarded 20-year power purchase agreements. [...] Source: https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/05/19/myanmar-launches-1-gw-solar-tender/ (www.fototherm.com)