What’s your thoughts on Apple? It seems to be de rigeur for Mac users* to wander around in a haze of smugness and defending Apple as if it was one of their own children at any sign of criticism.
Now the fanboys have another reason to love the of purveyor all things white, plastic and overpriced: it looks like the Mac maker is going to start whacking solar panels all over its kit.
According to the sites that watch all things Apple, the company has filed a patent which hints that iPods and iPhones might be up for the solar treatment in the future.
Here’s the telltale snipped from the patent filing:
The present invention generally relates to various methods and systems for using solar cells with portable devices such as PDAs or digital media players. In particular, in embodiments of the present invention, solar cells are integrated into a portable device. The solar energy device (e.g., the plurality of solar cells) are an integral part of the enclosure of the portable device; for example, the solar energy device may be coupled, through a shock absorbing material, to the exterior enclosure such that the enclosure, with the solar energy device, may be separated from the internal electrical components (e.g., media processing system, storage device, and battery). According to at least one embodiment of the present invention, the devices have rechargeable batteries. The solar cells embedded into the device then provide the electrical power to charge the batteries. The power generated from the solar cell can also directly power the operations of the device.
*Greenbang is a self hating Apple user. Why? Charlie Brooker sums it up nicely here.
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Wafers: is there anything they can’t do? Hold KitKats together, form that basis of an oft-quoted Monty Python joke, make ice cream look a bit more art punk with their geometric wafery glory and be a lynchpin of low-energy lighting.
Dutch wafer makers CrystalQ have bent the might of wafers to their will and harnessed them in the production of white LEDs, the latest low energy lighting star that crops up in consumer electronics like mobile phones, and will shortly be making its way into cars, according to the company.
LEDs are rather popular, in case you weren’t familiar with their work, in some lighting circles as they use about 10 percent of the energy of average light sources and last a lot longer.
CrystalQ has announced a wedge of funding from clean tech investors Sustainable Energy Technology Fund’s SET Fund, EPT / Benno Wiersma and E2 Cleantech.
No word on how much lolly they dished up though but EPT / Benno Wiersma says it will be used to expand CrystalQ’s manufacturing base.
If you’re wondering what CrystalQ does with wafers, let Greenbang enlighten you:
“[CrystalQ] is specialized in the preparation of the base material for the production of white LED’s. The company prepares sapphire crystal wafers and polishes these to high quality wafers for the fast growing LED industry. This round of investments will support CrystalQ entering into the growing of sapphire crystals. Its customer base consists of leading LED manufacturers.”
This technology story is brought to you in association with Kyocera
In December next year, there’s going to be a bit of a celebration in Boulder, Colorado. No points if you guessed that’s because of Christmas, a lot of points and a triple word score if you guessed that’s because
Xcel Energy’s $100 million SmartGridCity project will have gone live, after work on construction kicked off recently.
The dodgily-named SmartGridCity is Xcel’s plan to put some cleverness into the electricity grid, allowing it to “better monitor, manage, and even balance itself” using a “portfolio of smart grid technologies designed to provide environmental, financial and operational benefits”. Or to put it another way, the smart grid will give users a bit more insight into where they’re using electricity and how they can cut down consumption, even turning off energy-hogging devices remotely.
According to Xcel, all the design work’s now over with, the company’s put in orders for the necessary kit (including 15,000 smart meters to be installed at the rate of 2,500 a week until this August) and construction on the project has already begun, with the implementation of the high-speed communications network and smart grid sensing equipment.
Here’s how the rollout will work:
Phase I: March 2008 - August 2008
• Includes full-system automation, monitoring and smart meters for the first group of SmartGridCity customers. Involves upgrades to two substations, five feeders and nearly 15,000 meters (representing both residential, commercial and light industrial customers) in Boulder.
• Web portal will provide consumers with insight into their energy use and information for better home energy management.
• A dedicated customer service phone number (1-877-887-3339) and e-mail address (SmartGridCity@xcelenergy.com) for SmartGridCity customers.
• Some customers can choose to have in-home automation tools, allowing increased control over home energy use and costs.
• By mid-August, initial capabilities should be demonstrated.
Phase II: September 2008 - December 2009
• Complete the installation of a distribution and communication network for remaining areas within Boulder (an additional two substations, 20 feeders and smart meters for an additional 35,000 premises).
• Expanded in-home automation installations.
• Enable Web portal access to all SmartGridCity customers.
• Begin initial integration of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, solar and wind co-generation sources onto the grid in Boulder.
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IBM is helping change Greenbang’s mind about high tech rice. Previously, Greenbang had considered the bastard love child of technology and rice - that two minute microwave precooked nonsense - as an embarrassment to the human race. What kind of lazy-arsed folk can be bothered to cook rice? It’s not like it’s the culinary equivalent of a 1,000 piece jigsaw, after all. What’s next? Some sort of system that pre-chews the rice for us and then pumps its directly down our gullets, foie gras style?
But the crosspollination of rice and technology can in fact be a beautiful thing, as IBM has pointed out, in its latest project. Big Blue’s scheme will see the computers of average Joes around the world come together to improve rice, with a view to making it easier to grow as global warming starts getting jiggy with the climate.
Apparently, the project between IBM and the University of Washington will use grid computing to research how to develop rice strains with larger and more nutritious yields.
Grid computing, to the uninitiated, uses the spare computing power from home PCs around the world, and creates a sort of ad hoc super computer. This rice project will use IBM’s World Community Grid - the spare computing nous from one million PCs - to study rice at the atomic level, and make it a bit more climate change friendly.
Apparently, the rice research will be finished in less than two years, thanks to all the unwanted PC power donated to the project.
Here comes the science bit, concentrate:
World Community Grid will run a three-dimensional modeling programme created by computational biologists at the University of Washington to study the structures of the proteins that make up the building blocks of rice. Understanding the structure is necessary to identify the function of those proteins and to enable researchers to identify which ones could help produce more rice grains, ward off pests, resist disease or hold more nutrients. In the end, this project will create the largest and most comprehensive map of rice proteins and their related functions, helping agriculturalists and farmers pinpoint which plants should be selected for cross-breeding to cultivate better crops.
“The issue is that there are between 30,000 and 60,000 different protein structures to study,” said Principal Investigator, Dr. Ram Samudrala, Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Washington. “Using traditional experimental approaches in the laboratory to identify detailed structure and function of critical proteins would take decades. Running our software programme on World Community Grid will shorten the time from 200 years to less than 2 years.”
Ultimately, this project, jumpstarted by a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation, could enable rice-producing countries to become better adapted to future climate changes because they can quickly find the right plants for cross breeding, and create “super hybrids” that are more resistant to changing weather patterns.
This research is also important in the U.S. and other countries because the knowledge gained creating the 3D models can be easily transferred to other cereal crops such as corn, wheat, and barley.
Want to give your spare PC power? Good plan. Go to http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/ to get the software you need to join in. Don’t worry - you won’t feel a thing.
This technology story is brought to you in association with Kyocera
It was only a matter of time before the big tech firms started to realise that without electricity, there ain’t no interwebby.
Greenbang started reading about IBM’s clean-tech investments last year. Word on the street is that this has been ready for some time, but they’ve just announced it - perhaps that’s all part of some kind of campaign and timing thing. Who knows?
Anyway - it’s good. And it’s big.
IBM’s has a new idea for improving the production of solar-powered energy.
Remember that cub scout thing where you used a magnifiying glass to concentrate sunlight to set fire to a piece of paper and your enemies? You wouldn’t if you were a brownie and into making daisy chains. (For all non-UK reader, ignore that last sentence.)
Well IBM has taken that principle and applied it to photovoltaic cells and says it could dramatically increase the amount of energy produced.
The IBM scientists are using a large lens to concentrate the sun’s power, capturing about 230 watts in a centimetre-square solar cell. That energy is then converted into 75 watts of usable electrical power, about five times the energy captured by typical cells used in solar farms.
IBM says the cells could be produced in commercial quantities for $2 (£1) each or even less.
So is it time for a smartie party? IBM seems to think so:
Solar cells use many of the same materials, processes, and underlying science that go into making computer chips, so IBM sees the move in this area as a natural progression from its traditional business.
This was particularly so when it came to controlling excessive heat on the cells. Concentrating the equivalent of 2000 suns on such a small area generates enough heat to melt stainless steel, something the researchers experienced first hand in their experiments. But by borrowing innovations from its own R&D in cooling computer chips, the team was able to cool the solar cell from greater than 1600 degrees Celsius to just 85 degrees Celsius.
This was done by coupling a commercial solar cell to an IBM liquid metal thermal cooling system using methods developed for the microprocessor industry. They used a thin layer of a liquid metal made of a gallium and indium compound that they applied between the chip and a cooling block. Such layers, called thermal interface layers, transfer the heat from the chip to the cooling block so that the chip temperature can be kept low.
Rah - so that’s that. Come on other tech firms - keep up, get those knees up…
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Microsoft - led by this man - has formed a five-year alliance with the European Environment Agency to “inform Europeans on changes to environmental conditions in real time — and empowering citizens to play their part in data gathering.”
The move is part of EEA’s broader vision to build a Global Observatory for Environmental Change. The Observatory aims to be a resource for experts, policy-makers and individuals and will allow citizens to submit local data. This shuld allow it to deliver an ever-more detailed, accurate and up-to-date picture of environmental conditions throughout Europe.
By improving the availability of information, the EEA aims to enable policy-makers and citizens to make decisions about the environment and their impact on it. It could also evolve to include real-time satellite information for emergency relief services, as well as for other environmental operations.
Microsoft is providing development services to help the EEA extend the focus on important environmental factors that include air, ozone and water quality information.
The EEA and Microsoft are developing an internet portal offering access to information by location and allowing for search criteria based on local environmental monitoring agencies. The data will be updated in real time in a comprehensive manner. Users will also be able to access the information through Windows Live and MSN.
It looks like fuel cells are set to be the Weetabix of technology: it’ll soon be about how many you can get in your car. Obviously, you’ll have one in your car - now you can get one in your GPS too. Assuming you have either a car or a GPS. You might prefer maps and walking and be morbidly terrified of satellite communications or be half-bat and able to use echo location.
Assuming you’re none of those things, and you do want a fuel cell GPS, then you might not have to wait too much longer to sate your gadget lust: MTI MicroFuel Cells has come out with a prototype fuel cell GPS unit.
More on the device from MTI:
MTI Micro´s new Mobion powered GPS prototype provides three times as much energy as GPS devices powered by four disposable AA batteries. On a model with a large, full-colour screen, this fuel cell design generates up to 60 hours of continuous power and provides weeks instead of days of typical usage.
The new Mobion® powered GPS prototype includes a USB interface, allowing the prototype to also be used as an independent energy source for a variety of purposes, including for recharging mobile phones, digital cameras, portable media players and other handheld electronic devices. The Mobion® powered GPS prototype can be immediately recharged by refilling it with methanol.
No word on when we might see it on the market, but given it looks like standalone GPS units will be replaced by GPS functionality in mobile phones, MTI might be better off making a nice mobile fuel cell.
This technology story is brought to you in association with Kyocera
Sometimes the smallest things can have the biggest impacts. Take the Krankies, for example, or germs.
Nokia’s latest invention - on show at the company’s design event on this week - is one of those nice baby steps of energy efficiency that warm Greenbang’s cockles far more than they deserve to be by a tiny bit of technology.
And this picture is the invention in question - a charger. Not just any charger - oh no - but one of nine prototypes the folk at Nokia re working to cut the precious energy sucked out of the wall and into the chargers when people forget to turn off the charger when they’re done topping up the mobile.
The first uses a button to charge, so leaving it plugged in means it doesn’t draw power and the user needs to hit the (green) button to set the charge in motion. The second simply charges the device for one hour before switching itself off whilst the third concept actually has a conversation with the device, where the device lets the charger know when it needs power, and when it’s all done.
That last is the ultimate objective but the team still have a way to go to make it happen. Right now the first is real and working and, I hope, will see it’s way into production before too long. Meanwhile Newman and his team are using the chargers every day, living with them and learning from them so one day we can all reap the benefits.
This technology story is brought to you in association with Kyocera
Could you imagine going into a supermarket, plonking your shopping down at the checkout only for the cashier to scrunch up her face, scratch her chin in contemplation, then say ‘Yeah, that’ll be 80 quid please” without ringing it up on the till? Could you? I don’t know about you, but Greenbang likes to know what she’s paying for and that she’s paying on the nose and no more.
Well, this same estimate approach to working out your electricity and gas bill will continue for the foreseeable. The government has decided to not back proposals suggested in last year’s Energy White Paper to compell energy companies to provide their customers with ’smart meters’.
Unlike your traditional display only meters, Such smart meters could provide up-to-the-minute info on how much electricity and gas you’ve burnt your way through and the size of the carbon footprint you’ve made. This info could be beamed to your laptop, mobile or straight to your brain (probably, when the technology is ready).
According to the Energy Retail Association, smart meters are what the Great British public is crying out for. It’s own YouGov poll found that 82 percent of us aren’t down with the ‘guestimate’ system of billing and would rather have smart meters to tell us what we owe.
So the government won’t introduce mandatory smart metering. Here’s what it will do though:
request electricity suppliers to provide on a voluntary basis real-time display devices to particular customer segments, but will not pursue proposals for provision of such devices when a meter is replaced or newly-installed or for provision ‘on-request’ (Section 3);
require electricity and gas suppliers to provide smart meters to all business customers above a certain usage threshold by 2013 (section 4);
to complete further economic assessment work and consultation to finalise policy position in respect of smart metering for small businesses and domestic consumers
The Energy Retail Association, rather than being a bit disappointed about the whole lack of meters, has turned its frown upside down and said this, via its chief exec Duncan Sedgwick:
It is encouraging to see that the Government has listened to the concerns of both the industry and consumer groups and tabled an amendment to the Energy Bill that has effectively opened the door for smart metering. The Government’s backing for smart meters rather than the lesser prize of electricity display devices will also be vital in keeping costs low for consumers and providing customers with what they really want: accurate billing.
This technology story is brought to you in association with Kyocera
Why is it that spies always get the cool stuff? Take James Bond. Greenbang would kill for a watch that shoots lasers, an underwater car or an exploding pen. Not to protect Queen and country though, more to show off to her mates on Friday night out.
Now, the real life Qs of the US intelligence services have plans to build a spy plane that - wait for it - can stay in the sky for five years thanks to solar power.
Managed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency - that’s the US Department of Defence’s R&D boffins to you - Project Vulture, as it’s known, will see the development of a plane that can carry out missions to gather information on the baddies. It’ll work just like a satellite, but will get dressed up as an airplane.
Aurora Flight Sciences will build the unmanned plane with other contractors, such as BAE, providing the electronics. Odysseus, as they’ve called it, will run on solar power during daylight and on stored solar energy during the night. Now the companies just have to work out how to keep the energy flowing while Odysseus is airborne for five years.
Aurora predicts that Odysseus could also be used for monitoring the weather and telecommunications.
This technology story is brought to you in association with Kyocera
What’s your thoughts on Apple? It seems to be de rigeur for Mac users* to wander around in a haze of smugness and defending Apple as if it was one of their own children at any sign of criticism.
