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MOST POPULAR
- Man-made reasons for Uttarakhand disaster 1
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- Gujarat pollution board gets a makeover in efficiency 33
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- Rains over past three days extreme weather event: scientists 1
- Monsoon arrives early; kills over 30 people in Uttarakhand
- Rush of hydropower projects on Ganga, tributaries
- Out of turn
- Don’t just cash in on tigers 18
- Pedestrian questions 14
- Weather dice is loaded 13
- “Come elections, our forests are looted” 10
- Odisha's waterman 6
- Kudankulam meltdown 5
- Contaminating millets 4
- Risk of corruption clouds Andhra Pradesh solar bids 4
- Waging war on state 4
- Is Ganga losing its resilience? 4
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Energy Technology
Powering ahead
Issue Date: May 31, 2001
The long-standing record for electricity produced by solar cells made from cadmium telluride has been broken by researchers working at the US department of energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Cadmium telluride is used in one of the most promising technologies, called the 'thin film solar cells'. In the thin film manufacturing process, layers of differing electricity-producing materials are applied sequentially to a glass, plastic or steel backing.
The three musketeers
Issue Date: May 31, 2001
Exxon Mobil has agreed to collaborate with Toyota and General Motors, creating the world's biggest alliance of car makers and fuel providers working to get fuel cell-powered vehicles into their product range within three years. Exxon is an important partner, as both carmakers want to generate hydrogen for the fuel cell from petrol. While Ford, DaimlerChrysler and Honda have all committed themselves to building small fleets of fuel cell cars by 2004, this trio promises to come out with a fuel cell-based model by 2003 ( Green Futures , No 27, March/April 2001).
Renewed interest
Issue Date: May 31, 2001
vast windswept desert lands of Rajasthan make an ideal location for setting up wind power generation projects. The state government woke up to the fact in 1999 and came out with its new policy for the wind energy sector, opening the sector to private participation. The move is beginning to pay dividend. Private investors are moving in and Indore-based Kalani Industries Limited leads the pack.
Small is efficient
Issue Date: May 15, 2001
Hollow, pure carbon cylinders, one-billionth of a metre in diameter -- 1/50,000 the diameter of a human hair -- with a wall thickness of only one carbon atom, called buckytubes, are being produced under the guidance of Richard Smalley, nobel laureate for chemistry at Carbon Nanotechnologies Inc, USA. The balls, made from carbon dioxide, have the electrical conductivity of copper, the thermal conductivity of diamond and the tensile strength (the effort needed to stretch them) 10-times that of steel.
Solar mobile phones
Issue Date: May 15, 2001
A small hydrogen cell recharged by a miniature super efficient solar cell could soon replace the rechargeable batteries used in mobile phones. Developed by Fraunhofer Institute, in Germany, the technology is being adopted by many cell phone manufacturers who are busy building prototype devices using the new power cells. The phone will be able to run on solar power even under low lighting levels. Researchers have reduced the total number of process steps by 80 percent, making the solar cells commercially viable.
An eyewash
Issue Date: May 15, 2001
it 's been more than seven years since the authorities decided to set up a solar power project in Mathania, Rajasthan. Nothing has come of it, yet. The bidding process for the project continues. Allocated funds and precious aid lies unused. It was supposed to be a unique demonstration project.
Suffering from myopia
Issue Date: Apr 30, 2001
Energy intensive business
Issue Date: Mar 15, 2001
An analysis carried out by the Environmental Energy Technologies Division of the Lawrence Berkley national Laboratory, based in US, shows that in the US office equipment used by the commercial sector consumes more than 70 per cent of the total electrical energy consumed. Use of electricity in residences has been estimated in the analysis to be just above 10 per cent of the total (Environmental Energy Technologies Division News , Vol 2, No 2).
Better biogas plants
Issue Date: Mar 15, 2001
MONEYMAKERS
Issue Date: Oct 15, 2000
safe fuel: Norwegian researchers have started testing a new type of fuel designed to burn plutonium without breeding it. If successful, it could help rid the world of its stockplies of plutonium waste from nuclear weapons and power stations. Before it is irradiated in reactors, plutonium is mixed with uranium oxide, some of which is changed into more plutonium by the radiation. In the "inert matrix fuel" being tested at the Halden research reactor in Norway, the uranium is replaced by a compound called yttrium-stabilised zirconium oxide.
