Researchers from New Mexico State University and Wake Forest University achieve 5.2 percent energy conversion with organic solar development. This means less expensive more durable solar panels available in four to five years. Conventional electronics could in the future tap into the computational power of ultrahigh-density nanowire circuits via novel linking devices under development at university and corporate labs across the nation, experts told UPI’s Nano World.
New unidirectional molecular rotor may lead to tiny sensors, pumps, switches
A University of Colorado at Boulder team has developed the first computer-generated model of a tiny, waterwheel-like molecular rotor that has been harnessed to rotate in one direction at different speeds in response to changes in the strength of an electrical field applied from the outside, physorg.com said.
Imagine being able to paint your roof with enough alternative energy to heat and cool your home. What if soldiers in the field could carry an energy source in a roll of plastic wrap in their backpacks?
Those ideas sound like science fiction, particularly in the wake of the rising costs of fossil fuel.
But both are on the way to becoming reality because of a breakthrough in solar research by a team of scientists from New Mexico State University and Wake Forest University.
While traditional solar panels are made of silicon, which is expensive, brittle and shatters like glass, organic solar cells being developed by this team are made of plastic that is relatively inexpensive, flexible, can be wrapped around structures or even applied like paint, said physicist Seamus Curran, head of the nanotechnology laboratory at NMSU. Nanotechnology, or molecular manufacturing, refers to the ability to build things one atom at a time.
The relatively low energy efficiency levels produced by organic solar cells have been a drawback. To be effective producers of energy, they must be able to convert 10 percent of the energy in sunlight to electricity. Typical silicon panels are about 12 percent energy conversion efficient.
That level of energy conversion has been a difficult reach for researchers on organic solar technology, with many of them hitting about 3 to 4 percent. But the NMSU/Wake Forest team has achieved a solar energy efficiency level of 5.2 percent. The announcement was made at the Santa Fe Workshop on Nanoengineered Materials and Macro-Molecular Technologies.
“This means we are closer to making organic solar cells that are available on the market,“ Curran said.
Conventional thinking has been that that landmark was at least a decade away. With this group’s research, it may be only four or five years before plastic solar cells are a reality for consumers, Curran added.
The importance of the breakthrough cannot be underestimated, Curran said.
“We need to look into alternative energy sources if the United States is to reduce its dependence on foreign sources,“ the NMSU physics professor said.
New Mexico Economic Development Department Secretary Rick Homans added, “This breakthrough pushes the state of New Mexico further ahead in the development of usable solar energy, a vital national resource. It combines two of the important clusters on which the state is focused: renewable energy and micro nano systems, and underlines the strong research base of our state universities.“
A cheap, flexible plastic made of a polymer blend would revolutionize the solar market, Curran said.
“Our expectation is to get beyond 10 percent in the next five years,“ Curran said. “Our current mix is using polymer and carbon buckyballs (fullerenes) and good engineering from Wake Forest and unique NSOM imaging from NMSU to get to that point.“
NSOM or near-field scanning optical microscopy allows them to scan objects too small for regular microscopes.
The development is an outgrowth of the collaborative’s work developing high-tech coatings for military aircraft, a program supported by Sens. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., Curran said.

Icebergs make it difficult to operate in the Arctic.

Prince of Wales deems climate change the “greatest challenge to face man“, and according to a warning this week global warming is making the world’s poor even worse off. But can it also help to create fresh wealth?
Climate change--whether manmade or natural--is seen by some as a boon to business in the Arctic region, where adventurous capitalists are desperate to obtain access to resources that are uncovered as the ice retreats.
“For decades, this was a frozen region, literally and politically,“ says Norwegian foreign minister Jonas Gahr Stoere--referring both to the Cold War and to the thawing of the polar ice in the Barents Sea.
“In the years to come, it may be from this High North that both continental Europe and the United States will be looking for additional supplies of oil and gas.“
Currently, Europe and the US make up for more than half the world’s gas and oil consumption, but demand from other countries is rising.
“Energy demand is [also] expected to grow very fast in China and India,“ adds Norwegian petroleum and energy minister Odd Roger Enoksen, in an interview with the BBC News website.

The Search Is On
The Arctic’s commercial potential has sent most leading energy companies scurrying into harsh and remote areas in North America, Russia’s Siberia and the Barents Sea--all parts of a region that is believed to contain as much as a quarter of the world’s undiscovered reserves of oil and gas.
“Obviously, we are doing a lot in Alaska, and depending on how you define the Arctic, we are doing a lot in Russia,“ Lord Browne, chief executive of BP, tells the BBC News website.
Last week, the US Senate Energy Committee voted to open for oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge--despite fierce protests by environmentalists.
In the Barents Sea, meanwhile, the next goal is to develop oil fields, in addition to existing gas fields--again, in spite of protests by both environmentalists and the region’s important fisheries industry.
“There have already been discoveries both on the Norwegian and the Russian side,“ Helge Lund, chief executive of the Norwegian energy giant Statoil, tells the BBC News website.

Harsh Environment
But the warmer climate is proving to be a mixed blessing, even for businesses that stand to gain.
Climate change has done little to improve the Arctic region’s harsh climate. Winter storms, coming at a time of the year when ship and rig crews operate in virtually perpetual darkness, are set to become even more prevalent than before.
“These regions are categorized by extreme weather conditions and sea water temperatures below freezing points,“ observes Mr. Lund.
Indeed, although the warmer weather may be doing much to open up new shipping routes and bluewater ports, it has also led to an increase - not a decrease - in the frequency of icebergs.
“The icebergs can rip up pipelines and production facilities and everything else that gets in their way,“ says Rasmus Sunde, executive vice president of Vetco, a supplier to the oil industry.
Drilling for oil in an area where million-ton icebergs are drifting at speeds of up to 900 meters an hour, only to be overtaken by large sheets of ice sometimes drifting four times as fast, is a serious challenge.
Floating drilling platforms, or drilling barges, of the kind used in the North Sea and elsewhere in the world, cannot be used under such conditions, so fixed installations are required, Mr. Sunde tells the BBC News website.
Conditions are no easier in Siberia and Alaska, where any thawing of the permafrost makes it more difficult to transport heavy kit over the tundra, and where temperature swings that cause the ice to move threaten to destabilize oil and gas pipelines.
All this is pushing up costs.
Arctic crews are scarce, skilled and expensive, ice breakers or ice secured tankers even more so.

Jeffrey Lee, vice chief engineer of Taiwan's Cheng Loong Corp., points at a board of digits showing the wind speed and amount of electricity being generated by the two wind turbines being installed at the company's Chupei mill in northern Taiwan, October 14.

Wind ruffling his hair, Jeffrey Lee unlocks the gate of a bamboo fence surrounding two gigantic windmills, reads the meter, and smiles.
Wind speed is good and enough electricity is being generated by the turbines to power Cheng Loong Corporation’s paper mill in the remote coastal area of Chupei, northern Taiwan.
The 93-meter (306.9 feet) high, Denmark-designed windmills have generated about 20 million watts of electricity for the mill’s use over the past two years, worth some 36 million Taiwan dollars (1.07 million US).
They have also become an unlikely popular tourist attraction.
“The two white wind turbines have become a new landmark of Hsinchu county,“ Lee, a 46-year-old engineer, says proudly. “Taiwan’s west coast will feature hundreds of windmills a few years from now.“
Taiwan imports nearly all of its energy needs and projects like this are part of a nationwide effort to generate electricity from renewable sources, including hydraulic, wind and solar power, according to yahoo.com.
It should account for 10 percent of domestic supply by 2011, up from the present 5.45 percent, with wind-power totaling more than 2,000 megawatts, equivalent to the amount needed to power 4.75 million homes for a year.
Like Asian neighbors such as China and the Philippines, Taiwan has awakened to the need for sustainable energy production, a need made more acute by recent spikes in global oil prices.
In 2000 the ruling Democratic Progressive Party in 2000 decided to help fund investment in renewable energy in response to calls from conservation groups.
Cheng Loong executives inaugurated the Chupei turbines, which have a combined capacity of 3.5 megawatts, in late 2002 at a cost of 115 million Taiwan dollars (3.43 million US), with 50 million being subsidized by the government.
They have been impressed by the revenues, but when the company, which reported 1.1 billion Taiwan dollars in net profit on revenues of 20.04 billion dollars last year, recently looked to expand its wind power operations they found several others were one step ahead.
Cheng Loong’s competitors had applied with the government for the acquisition of land on which hundreds of turbines will be built to create wind farms along the north and west coast of the island.
State-run Taipower, which provides most of the island’s electricity, currently has 40 wind turbines with a total of almost 48 megawatts’ capacity, and is planning to build another 147 wind turbines on Taiwan and the island of Penghu in the Taiwan Strait before the end of 2010.
Each turbine costs at least 100 million Taiwan dollars.
Another major company setting sight on the island’s wind power industry is Germany-based InfraVest WindPower, which plans to build wind turbines with at least 300 megawatts of capacity, says David Chang, the company’s senior electrical manager.
Twenty-five InfraVest wind turbines in the central county of Miaoli, each with a capacity of 2.0 megawatts, are due to become operational before the year’s end, he says, adding that up to 70 others located near that area are scheduled to come on stream next year.
Chen Wu-hsiung, head of Taipower’s Wind Power Construction Institute, says that despite the rush, producing renewable energy is “no easy task“.
Industry experts complain of low electricity prices, preventing a worthwhile return on investment.
“Some companies have displayed interest in investing in the wind power sector, but the government has not come up with strong incentives to woo the potential investors,“ Cheng Loong’s Lee says.
“It would take private investors some 10 years to get back their money. That’s a bit too long,“ InfraVest’s Chang says.
Taipower last raised electricity prices 22 years ago. Despite soaring coal, oil and natural gas prices, the company has repeatedly been ordered to cut power prices to help the government stabilize domestic consumer prices.
As a result, the company in 2005 may suffer a deficit of 6.1 billion Taiwan dollars (183.18 million US)--the first loss since the company was established 59 years ago--according to a budget approved by parliament.

Many people are looking at heating alternatives to either completely heat their homes or supplement their oil or natural gas heating systems.

The price of heating oil is already 30% higher this year than it was last winter, and natural gas prices are predicted to rise at least 50% this winter.
Many people are looking at heating alternatives to either completely heat their homes or supplement their oil or natural gas heating systems.
There are many ways to do that, and some actually do save money, according to Richard Soccio, owner of A.E.S. Hearthplace of Newville.
His firm sells various kinds of alternative fuel units, including gas heaters.
“Gas gets a bad rap when you are talking about whole-house heating, but as zone heaters, gas can be very efficient,“ he said.
What most people are buying this year, however, are pellet stoves, according to dealers such as Soccio and Marc Michaud of Lowe’s in Chambersburg.
“One of our biggest selling items right now are good quality pellet stoves,“ Michaud said last week, publicopiniononline.com said.
Those stoves are such hot items that they sell as fast as they come into the store, he said.
Soccio said the stoves are also a popular part of his inventory, and he even had some at his showroom last week.
Both men said the demand for the stoves is so great that manufacturers are having trouble keeping up with demand.
“There is a backlog to February,“ Soccio said. “I’ve never seen it like this.“
He said he has sold more pellet stoves so far this season than he did the entire winter last year.
Soccio said there are two reasons for the stove’s popularity: The ease of operation and the money the stoves save.
Unlike wood stoves and fireplaces, pellet stoves have no chimney requirements but can be vented right out the wall, he said. That makes it easy and relatively inexpensive to install one.
The hardwood pellets burn very cleanly and are easy to use, he said.
“Older, younger and just very busy people can use them without any problem,“ he said.
The stoves are much less expensive to use also, both Michaud and Soccio said, even though the cost of the pellets has gone up about 40 percent since last summer.
A ton of pellets that cost $150 last year today sells for $210.
Even at that, it costs less to heat with pellets, since three to five tons will get most people through the winter season if they are using them as the main source of heat for a 2,000-square-foot home.
But switching to a pellet stove or furnace probably wouldn’t be an option for a low-income family, because prices for the units start at $1,100 at Lowe’s and go up from there. At A.E.S., the stoves start a little higher and can go up to $3,300, depending on the volume of heat the unit generates.
Installation runs between $500 and $1,500.
There are other, cheaper options, however, and some people already take advantage of fireplaces, wood stoves and other alternative fuel options.
Some of those burn corn, wood or coal. Some use kerosene and Michaud said Lowe’s is already selling more kerosene heaters. He expects those sales to pick up as the weather gets colder.
Experts warn people to handle those alternatives with care, however, and say some alternatives might even prove to be more costly.
A fireplace can suck heat out of a house, for instance, if the vent isn’t closed when the fireplace is not in use.
Michaud said some of Lowe’s customers are looking at electric heaters to supplement their gas or oil furnaces because they believe the cost of electricity will go up less than natural gas or heating oil.