Foldable, Bendable Battery Made from Paper

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

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

There’s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

First the lions attack the little buffalo. Then the crocodile tries to take the buffalo away from the lions. Then all the big buffalo come back to rescue their little buffalo buddy. It’s good to know there’s strength in numbers and that family comes through, eventually. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM] AEVIA Reveals the Source

A New Record in Solar Cells

The University of Delaware has inched up the record for solar cell efficiency with a new device that can convert 42.8 percent of the light that strikes it into electricity. That beats the old record of 40.7 percent hit in December. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, has been funding research to get … Read more

Cheap, Superefficient Solar

Technologies collectively known as concentrating photovoltaics are starting to enjoy their day in the sun, thanks to advances in solar cells, which absorb light and convert it into electricity, and the mirror- or lens-based concentrator systems that focus light on them. The technology could soon make solar power as cheap as electricity from the grid. … Read more