Energy

Band excitation scanning probe microscopy innovation earns award for ORNL, Asylum

By / August 17, 2010

A 15 X 15 micron BE acoustic force microscopy scan of a polymer blend from which the Q-factor has been extracted.Contrast can be seen between the different constituent materials. The…

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TWiB will plug you in to advanced battery science and materials

By / August 14, 2010

Got some time? Venkat Srinivasan’s “This Week in Batteries” blog is definitely worth poking around if you want a lot of detailed, well-written info on battery science and, gee, a…

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Materials stories that missed the cut this week

By / August 13, 2010

At the end of each week, I end up with a list of a bunch of stories I started to write about, or started to investigate or didn’t even get…

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DOE brings Secretary of Energy Advisory Board back to life

By / August 10, 2010

Deep-sixed four years ago by the Bush administration, the DOE’s Secretary of Energy Advisory Board will soon surface again after the agency today announced the formation of a new panel…

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GE’s $200 million ‘Ecomagination Challenge’ interesting combination of innovation farming, social media

By / August 10, 2010

Not quite a month ago, General Electric, along with partners Emerald Technology Ventures, Foundation Capital, KPCB and Rockport Capital, launched a project (see video), called the Ecomagination Challenge, which would…

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Three-in-one diesel honeycomb ultra-high acicular mullite could slash costs for emission systems

By / August 10, 2010

Schematic of a typical, bulky and costly three-part diesel engine aftertreatment system. Credit: Pyzik, Ziebarth, Han and Yang; ACT. Mostly through sheer coincidence, I have been running across several articles…

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NASCAR goes green, racetrack powered by solar

By / August 9, 2010

Sure, it’s kind of an oxymoron: The gas-guzzling motor circuit goes green. But a solar-powered sport racing facility in Pennsylvania might help offset that footprint. According to a Newswire press…

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Materials stories that missed the cut this week

By / August 6, 2010

At the end of each week, I end up with a list of a bunch of stories I started to write about, or started to investigate or didn’t even get…

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Volt to sell for $41K, lease $350 a month

By / August 5, 2010

CNN reported that General Motors announced its Chevrolet Volt electric car will cost $41,000 when it goes on sale in November. While the price is about $8,000 more than the…

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AES Energy Storage scores $17.1M loan guarantee for grid-scale A123 batteries

By / August 2, 2010

The DOE announced today that it would provide AES Energy Storage a $17.1 million loan guarantee for a 20 megawatt energy storage–energy conditioning system built around an a A123 lithium-ion…

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