Lifeboat Foundation

Solar panels are a cornerstone of the clean energy revolution. And yet, they have one great flaw: when the clouds roll in their productivity dives.

Now, a new type of solar panel has been developed by an electrical engineering student at Mapua University that harvests the unseen ultraviolet light from the sun that makes it through even dense cloud coverage. Maigue, who won the James Dyson Sustainability Award for his creation, hopes it will soon be used on the windows and walls of large buildings, turning them into constant sources of energy.

Continue reading “These New Solar Panels Don’t Need Sunlight to Produce Energy” »

Turlock Irrigation District (TID) has announced Project Nexus, a pilot project to build solar panel canopies over a portion of TID’s existing canals to operate and research how water-plus-energy can meet California’s needs for climate resiliency.

The Project Nexus could contribute to a more water resilient future for California and position the State to meet its ambitious clean energy goals. The Project will assess the reduction of water evaporation resulting from mid-day shade and wind mitigation; improvements to water quality through reduced vegetative growth; reduction in canal maintenance through reduced vegetative growth; and generation of renewable electricity.

The inspiration for Project Nexus comes from the concept presented in a recent study conducted by researchers at the University of California, Merced, and UC Santa Cruz, which found many advantages to mounting solar panels over open water canals. The study showed that covering the approximately 4,000 miles of California canals could save 63 billion gallons of water annually. This amount of water could be used to irrigate 50,000 acres of farmland or meet the residential water needs of more than 2 million people.

Most energy-producing technologies used today are unsustainable, as they cause significant damage to our planet’s natural environment. In recent years, scientists worldwide have thus been trying to devise alternative energy solutions that take advantage of abundant and natural resources.

In addition to solar energy, wind energy and seawater energy solutions, some physicists and engineers have been exploring the possibility of sourcing energy from nuclear fusion reactions. This is the process through which two atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus and an energetic neutron.

Two research teams working at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) National Ignition Facility (NIF) demonstrated new approaches to increase nuclear energy production via a laser-driven fusion reaction. Their findings, published in recent Nature and Nature Physics papers, open new exciting possibilities for one day using self-heating plasmas as sustainable energy sources.

A quasiparticle that forms in semiconductors can now be moved around at room temperature, a University of Michigan-led study has shown. The finding could cool down computers, enabling faster speeds and higher efficiencies, and potentially make LEDs and solar panels more efficient.

Today’s electronic devices rely on electrons to move both energy and information around, but about half of that energy is wasted as heat due to electrical resistance. Excitons, which escape traditional electrical losses, are one potential alternative.

“If you think of the past almost two decades, the computers have always been at two to three gigahertz—they never increase the speed. And that’s the reason. It just gets too hot,” said Parag Deotare, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science and corresponding author of the study.

The Dominican Republic is home to the largest solar park in the Caribbean. It was built by F&S Solar. The company based in Euskirchen, Germany, has relied exclusively on Lapp for many years.

Poor value of long-delayed biomass project leads Tory peer to say ‘the Government is backing a dead horse’ in sustainability drive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRvbSIVjkhM

Professor Stephen Hawking might have died before the James Webb Space Telescope finally launched. Still, due to the vast space legacy of the late physicist, many hours of the new space telescope will be dedicated to proving some of his theories! One of such theories is the very last one Hawking worked on before his death, in which he argued about a multiverse theory that implies an exact copy of you existed in a parallel universe! What is the multiverse theory, and will the James Webb Space Telescope finally prove Stephen Hawking’s multiverse theory?
Stephen Hawking died in 2018, missing the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope by more than three and a half years. That was thanks to multiple delays that pushed the launch date from between 2007 and 2011. It also gulped about 10 billion dollars, about ten times the initial budget. However, following a successful launch and deployment of its components, this powerful space telescope will undergo several months of calibrating and testing before settling down to work.
Thanks to the large 6.5 meter giant mirror that had to be folded during launch, the telescope will be able to peer into the atmospheres of planets outside our Solar System and peek through massive clouds of dust to watch the birth of new stars and planetary systems. JWST will be able to gather and reflect light from the early Universe. The Universe is thought to be around 13.8 billion years old, and JWST will be able to observe light from the earliest stars and galaxies, close to the Big Bang!
The JWST is an infrared telescope, meaning it uses infrared radiation to detect objects in space. It is able to observe celestial bodies, such as stars, nebulae, and planets that are too cool or too faint to be observed in visible light, that is, what is visible to the human eye. According to NASA, infrared radiation can also pass through gas and dust, which appear opaque to the human eye. This is different from the world-famous Hubble Telescope, which sees visible light, ultraviolet radiation, and near-infrared radiation. In order for the instruments aboard to work, they need to be kept at extremely cold temperatures,-370 degrees Fahrenheit or lower. The large sunshield protects the telescope from the heat of the sun and keeps the instruments cold.
According to a report conducted by an independent review board in 2018, there were 344 “single-point failures,” or steps that needed to work for the mission to succeed! However, the telescope was tucked inside the nose of an Ariane 5 rocket and launched safely from the European Space Agency’s Spaceport in French Guiana in December last year! It separated from the rocket after the launch and began unfolding. According to NASA, about 30 minutes after the launch, the first deployment took place as the solar panels unfolded so the telescope could get power from the sun!
Because of JWST’s capabilities, many astronomers are vying for time with the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute, which oversees science operations on Hubble and JWST, had sent out a call to astronomers for proposals on how they’d like to use James Webb, with 6,000 hours of observation time up for grabs! The lucky ones have now received approvals for their projects, and we look forward to the wealth of knowledge they will enrich us with! There is plenty of time for the JWST to unlock the deep secrets of the Universe, with about 20 years of operation guaranteed by the amount of fuel aboard the space telescope.
With the JWST safely delivered to its location about one million miles away from the earth, is it time to confirm one of Hawking’s most intriguing theories, the multiverse concept? The theory is special because it was the last one published by the professor! In fact, that final research from the sharp mind was submitted for publication just ten days before his death!
In the paper, titled “A smooth exit from eternal inflation?” which he co-authored with Thomas Hertog, a physicist at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, Hawking laid out a theory on the origin of the Universe that might settle a few lingering questions. However, despite being his last work, the paper was actually a final look at one of his earliest theories. In fact, if the JWST eventually helps prove the existence of the multiverse, it will make the scientists behind it likely candidates for a Nobel Prize! However, since Nobel Prizes cannot be awarded posthumously, Hawking would be ineligible to receive it.

By Helen O’Shea

On a windy, bright day in Lemoore, California another 250 megawatts of clean power was added to California’s energy mix with the dedication of the Aquamarine Solar Project. There are many new solar projects coming online across the country these days, but the Aquamarine project is notable for its innovative development model — it’s part of a 20,000-acre master-planned solar park on fallowed and salt-contaminated agricultural lands in the Westlands Water District in California’s Central Valley.

Disturbed lands farmed for years with no residual habitat value are the perfect place to locate utility-scale solar projects. In 2016 these lands, among many others, were identified as suitable for development by a diverse group of stakeholders through the San Joaquin Valley Least Conflict Solar Planning exercise.