Environment

Local temperatures affected by wind farms

By / October 6, 2010

A new story in Scientific American reports that wind farms cropping up along the landscape are changing local temperatures. According to a study, the giant turbine blades chop up the…

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Inexpensive radial ZnO nanowire brushes ‘scrub’ toxic compounds from water

By / September 30, 2010

Low-magnification SEM image of the hierarchical nanostructure consisting of radially aligned ZnO nanowires grown on electrospun poly-l-lactide nanofibers. Inset: schematic representation of the hierarchical nanostructure. Credit: JACerS. In a story…

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Sandia research to forecast solar plant output

By / September 27, 2010

Sandia National Lab researchers have developed a new system that provides a way for utility companies to predict and prepare for fluctuations in power output due to changes in weather.…

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Scientists look to nature to develop carbide materials

By / September 23, 2010

A simple chemical process converts a leaf skeleton into iron carbide, which is magnetic and conducts electricity. (Image: Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces via Nanowerk.) Via Nanowerk, researchers…

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Carbon nanotube solar funnel as powerful solar array

By / September 13, 2010

This filament containing about 30 million carbon nanotubes absorbs energy from the sun as photons and then re-emits photons of lower energy, creating the fluorescence seen here. The red regions…

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Ceramists shed new light on amorphous calcium carbonate changes, effects of CO2 storage

By / September 9, 2010

Schematic of proposed CO2 underground storage by Spectra Energy in western Canada. With several proposals related to the conversion of sequestered CO2 to carbonates being considered by the science community,…

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DOE awards millions for carbon capture, storage and for solar grid integration

By / September 7, 2010

The Department of Energy made two major funding announcements today. One regards $575 million going to 22 advanced carbon-capture R&D projects. The other announcement is of $8.5 million for projects…

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Lux predicts winners, losers among CIGS and concentrated solar photovoltaics, and peak-energy demand solutions

By / September 7, 2010

SMA solar energy inverter Lux Research has a couple of interesting reports out regarding who the winners and losers are likely to be in several key energy-related categories. Lux, it…

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Materials stories that also may be of interest

By / September 3, 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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Missouri S&T researchers question need for silver additive to ceramic water filter

By / September 2, 2010

Pot-shaped filters, like those above, are used to remove bacteria from water in Guatemala. The filters are typically made out of native sawdust and clay, and imported colloidal silver. (Credit:…

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