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The latest effort to store clean power from wind and solar energy resources comes from California, where a leading utility is hoping to put emerging technology to work.

A report in the San Francisco Chronicle describes how Pacific Gas and Electric is working on a facility that would transform the energy from clean power resources into compressed air that would be stored in underground porous rock and then used later to power turbines.

The utility has reportedly applied for a $25 million federal grant to develop the technology, which has also been tested in places, such as Alabama and Germany. According to the newspaper, the utility envisions using windmills to produce about 300 megawatts of energy for as long as 10 hours during nighttime hours when wind levels are at their strongest. During daylight hours or during any lull in wind activity, the stored compressed air could be tapped for supplemental power.

As noted in the story, because the system relies on a naturally occurring geological phenomenon, location is a factor:

If it proves economical, it could be replicated anyplace with appropriate rock formations underground as well as strong sunlight or strong wind.

“You need the right geology, but it’s not a really rare geology,” said PG&E spokesman Jonathan Marshall. “If we can move this forward, it can be done around the country.”

Some solar thermal facilities in California and elsewhere also use molten salt to maintain heat levels and keep turbines running, in off peak-production hours.

By increasing the storage capacity and time for solar energy and wind power, it will resolve one issue that the industry has long been working to improve upon.

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Photovoltaic tiles are installed alongside traditional clay tiles. (Credit: SRS Energy)

With this August heat we have solar on the mind! Here is another interesting advancement in solar cell technology, brought to us from Re-Nest.com.

SRS Energy claims to have the first building-integrated photovoltaic roofing product designed for curved roofing systems. The Solé Power Tile is an electricity-generating tile that can be installed alongside traditional clay tile roofing (but only those made by US Tile). The company claims they can generate up to 500 watts per 100 square-feet — comparable with that of traditional solar panel installations. According to the manufacturer, about 20-25 percent of an average roof would feature the solar tiles and the rest would use traditional, matching ceramic tiles.

The molded-plastic body is fused with a sheet of flexible solar chips that give it its distinctive blue color. And although its noncrystalline silicon cells gather less energy than conventional tilt-up panels with stiff crystalline cells, they react to a broader spectrum of light even on foggy, cloudy days.

The roofing system produces a natural air flow beneath the tiles to reduce cooling requirements of the home by 5-20 percent. (Credit: SRS Energy)

The roofing system produces a natural air flow beneath the tiles to reduce cooling requirements of the home by 5-20 percent.

What about the energy footprint of manufacturing process, itself, used to make these solar tiles? According to SRS, the tiles take less time than conventional solar panels to generate the same amount of energy required to produce them.

What does a system like this run? 1,000 square feet of solar tile would cost about $25,000-$30,000 installed, but you can knock 30% off that cost after government energy rebates, plus state and local government incentives may be available to cut the cost.

SRS Energy and US Tile are currently launching the Solé Power Tile system in select West Coast markets, and will begin a nationwide rollout of the product in spring of 2010.

Not everyone, however, is convinced that these tiles will live up to their billing. Some observers (see comments here) raise important questions about whether, for example, the curvature of the tiles will decrease the theoretical energy output of the tiles.

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Credit: Desert Star Systems

Desert Star Systems is developing a special self-powered “archival tag” – the SeaTag-GEO - to track fish under a NOAA funded project. The idea behind these tags is that researchers would tag a fish and release it. Later, hopefully, someone catches the fish, sees the tag and returns it to the researchers (there is a reward tied to returning the tag).

Unlike other tagging systems that just provide the single fact of where the fish was caught, the Desert Star tag creates daily logs of where the fish has swum. This information can be downloaded from the tag and used to reconstruct a fish’s location over time. With enough data, scientists can piece together the species’ migratory patterns.

Suffice it to say, creating such a tag is no easy feat. Using light to determine location is a problem, especially at certain depths and locations (e.g., what happens during the all-night and all-day periods close to the Earth’s poles?). And, how do you keep a GPS device powered?

Desert Star says it has the solution(s). The company claims that the SeaTag-GEO archival tag is the first to be solar powered and to use geomagnetics for positioning. Power-wise, the SeaTag-GEO uses a little solar cell to keep a 3v aerogel capacitor charged and provide longitudinal data. There is no external connector for the tag. Information is uploaded to the tag via the solar cell, and downloaded using an RF antenna.

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Here is a chance to get, first-hand, a business report from one of the United State’s most successful ceramic products company. Ceradyne Corporation’s founder and CEO, Joel Moskowitz, describes the history and ceramic technology behind the ceramic armor products his company is best known for. But, interestingly, he also describes some the the company’s strategy to expand into non-armor areas such as specialty crucibles for preparing solar-grade polysilicon, cosmetics raw materials and ceramic replacements for carbon cathodes used in smelting aluminum. He says Ceradyne should be known as an advance technical ceramic company and not just a defense company. “Next year they may call us a solar company and in five years maybe they will call us an aluminum company.” He talks about the current economic environment and we learn how, even in a recession, Moskowitz has kept Ceradyne cash-rich and in a good position to make acquistions for the Ceradyne portfolio at discount prices. 16 minutes.

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Carbo Ceramics relocates its headquarters

The company’s new offices are located at Energy Center II, 575 N. Dairy Ashford, Suite 300, Houston, Texas 77079. The company’s new phone number is (281) 921-6400. Sales and technical staff will remain in Irving, Texas to address the needs of locally based clients.

Heason wins order for French synchrotron nanoscale manipulator,

Heason Technology has won a £250,000 order from Synchrotron Soleil, the French national synchrotron facility and research laboratory, to design and manufacture a 14-axis nanoscale manipulator to position samples. The manipulator will position samples for soft X-ray scanning. This is part of a scanning photoemission microscope project called ANTARES that is designed to provide the global scientific community with the means to examine structures at the atomic level and will be of benefit to pioneering research in soft condensed matter in areas of interest, such as microelectronics and nanotechnology.

FEI offers new transmission electron microscope

FEI today announced the release of the Tecnai Osiris™ scanning/transmission electron microscope (S/TEM), delivering revolutionary analytical speed and performance. It includes FEI’s new ChemiSTEM technology, which reduces the time for large field-of-view elemental mapping from hours to minutes. The Tecnai Osiris is designed to combine this breakthrough analytical throughput with exceptional ease-of-use to meet the requirements for both high-volume industrial and multi-user research laboratories.

MV Products offers vacuum pump inlet traps for solar cell and LED manufacturing

A line of vacuum pump inlet traps for processes that create large volumes of solid byproducts such as those used in manufacturing solar cells and LEDs is available from MV Products of No. Billerica, Mass. MV Multi-Trap Vacuum Inlet Traps feature a knock-down stage with two stages of user-selectable filter elements including stainless steel gauze, 2-, 5-, and 20-micron polypropylene and polyester. Ideally suited for MOCVD, HVPE, PECVD or PVC processes used in manufacturing solar cells and LEDs, which generate high solids, these traps help reduce vacuum pump failures.

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