This topic covers issues related to energy generation, conversion, transportation and consumption and how the industry is addressing the challenge of energy efficiency in general.
innovations-report provides in-depth and informative reports and articles on subjects ranging from wind energy, fuel cell technology, solar energy, geothermal energy, petroleum, gas, nuclear engineering, alternative energy and energy efficiency to fusion, hydrogen and superconductor technologies.
By bombarding very thin slices of several copper/oxygen compounds, called cuprates, with very bright, short-lived pulses of light, Ivan Bozovic, a physicist at the U.S. Department of Energys Brookhaven National Laboratory, and his collaborators have discovered an unusual property of the materials: After absorbing the light energy, they emit it as long-lived sound waves, as opposed to heat energy. This result may open up a new field of study on cuprates — materials already used in wireless comm
A scientist at the U.S. Department of Energys Brookhaven National Laboratory, working with colleagues at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, has caused an individual carbon nanotube to emit light for the first time. This step in research on carbon nanotubes may help to materialize many of the proposed applications for carbon nanotubes, such as in electronics and photonics development.
The light emission is the result of a process called “electron-hole recombination.” By running an el
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered an interesting type of electronic behavior in a recently discovered class of superconductors known as cobalt oxides, or cobaltates. These materials operate quite differently from other oxide superconductors, namely the copper oxides (or cuprates), which are commonly referred to as high-temperature superconductors.
When traditional superconductors are cooled to nearly absolute zero (0 Kelvin or –452
Today at the “Solar platform” test site in Almeria (Spain) the European Commission presented the state of play on its research programmes in alternative energy sources, including solar thermal, wave and geothermal energy. World energy consumption will double over the next 50 years, with Europe currently depending heavily on foreign energy sources. Currently, 41% of EU energy consumption is based on oil, followed by gas (23%), coal (15%), nuclear (15%) and only 6% is based on renewable energies. The t
A power plant that generates energy from used nuclear waste and destroys it as well. Could this become a reality? A three-year research project involving 23 European partners coordinated by KTH is being launched to investigate the matter.
In the last few years great strides have been taken in research into so-called transmutation (see footnote) of nuclear waste. Therefore, the EU is now committing €4 million in Project Red Impact. The objective of the project is to present several alternati
Nanophotonics could well revolutionise the fields of telecommunications, computing and sensing, according to Professor Clivia Sotomayor Torres. But why is research into nanophotonics important?
It has the potential to provide ultra-small optoelectronic components, high speed and greater bandwidth. Professor Sotomayor Torres believes current research into fabricating nano-electronics could open the way for new methods of making nanophotonic devices, i.e. mass producing light handling devices