Bob Kalk

The Solar Decathlon

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The Solar Decathlon is a competition in which 20 teams of college and university students compete to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house. The Solar Decathlon is also an event to which the public is invited to observe the powerful combination of solar energy, energy efficiency, and the best … Read more

Openfaced Silicon Sandwich

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Several years ago, SunPower, a unit of Cypress Semiconductor, (CY) realized the top metal plate was reflecting the sun’s rays, cutting efficiency by reducing the percentage of sunlight converted to electricity. So the company decided to put both plates beneath the silicon. It now has an industry-high efficiency of 22% vs. an average of 16%, … Read more

Self-Serving Service Providers

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All the chatter on the message boards during the outage slowly got around to the subject of switching to Linux; there is no way such a thing could ever happen to Linux users. This is not what Microsoft wants to read, especially on its own forums. The Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) plan became a genuine … Read more

Foldable, Bendable Battery Made from Paper

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It is a battery that looks like a piece of paper and can be bent or twisted, trimmed with scissors or molded into any shape needed. While the battery is only a prototype a few inches (centimeters) square right now, U.S. researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who developed it have high hopes for it in … Read more

Researchers: Cellulosic Biofuels Already Cost-competitive

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So-called ‘second generation’ biofuels – made from lignocellulosic feedstocks like straw, grasses and wood – have long been touted as the successor to today’s grain ethanol, but until now the technology has been considered too expensive to compete. However, recent increases in grain prices mean that production costs are now similar for grain ethanol and … Read more