Renewables

While electric bikes provide a welcome push up steep hills and are becoming increasingly popular they are expensive with conversion kits often being both tricky to install and costly. To solve this, Semcon has developed a smart and inexpensive engine prototype that can be easily fitted to any bike.

To truly live up to their potential, electric vehicles need cutting edge charging solutions to support them. An EV charger should be powerful and efficient – and it needs to work without clutter, complication or failure.

A study shows that drones which investigate sensitive water bird species in the wild can be used in a way that has little impact on their natural movement, according to research by the University of New England. Dr Paul McDonald from the School of Environmental and Rural Science said his team wanted to know the impacts drones have on easily disturbed animals.

Perovskite solar cells first appeared in 2009 with an efficiency of just 3.8%. With the outstanding photovoltaic properties, perovskite solar cell has become a subject of vigorous research for sustainable power generation, with researchers around the world finding new ways to increase its energy conversion efficiency. It has currently established itself as one of the most promising solar cell materials.

Altair is supporting the Vortex Bladeless.The project focuses on the development of generators able to capture the kinetic wind energy by 'vortex shedding' and transform it into electricity. This technology seeks to overcome issues related to traditional wind turbines such as maintenance, amortization, noise, environmental impact, logistics and visual aspects.

Designed specifically to support non-destructive electrical contact at various stages of testing during the fabrication process of solar photovoltaic (PV) products, Everett Charles Technologies (ECT) has introduced its SPP-25 probes. This solution is well suited for high volume production testing which is needed as volumes increase due to alternative energies becoming more mainstream.

Researchers at Brown University developed a composite catalyst using nitrogen-rich graphene dotted with copper nanoparticles. A study, published in the journal Nano Energy, showed that the new catalyst can efficiently and selectively convert carbon dioxide to ethylene, one of the world's most important commodity chemicals. Ethylene is used to make plastics, construction materials and other products. Chemical companies produce it by the millions o...

Merck, the German science and technology company, will collaborate with BIPV producer Polysolar, and innovation center CPI for a project in the UK. The Power Generating & Energy Saving Windows project aims to enable windows of the future to generate their own solar power as well as provide greater thermal control. The project addresses the construction industry’s need for so-called zero carbon buildings by developing a transparent BIPV ...

On May 7th, 2015, the Middelkerke municipality, together in an association with eight other Belgium local authorities, became a signatory of the Convenant of Mayors. This European movement was established in 2008 by the European Commission with the aim for all its signatories to commit to cut CO2 emissions of their territories by at least 20% by 2020 and also to implement sustainable energy action plans within one year oftheir signing up.

A technology that is easy to manufacture and uses commercially available materials makes it possible to continuously remove oils and other pollutants from water, representing a potential tool for environmental cleanup. The material is shown to be superhydrophobic and superoleophilic, meaning it rejects water while absorbing oils. It is made using melamine sponges, an ultra-low-weight, porous material found in various products including household ...