The School of Engineering at Bayonne (ESTIA) is working on a research project on control optimisation for the latest-generation wind generators using intelligent microsensors.
The latest-generation wind generators work at variable speed and with pitch regulation based on the pitch angle of the rotor blades. These degrees of freedom (the rotation speed and the pitch angle of each blade) enable an increase in energy yield, a decrease in fatigue due to mechanical loads and an enhanc
Andalusian scientists of the University of Cadiz and Pablo de Olavide University (Seville) are working on a project of improvement in the photoelectrochemical solar cells performance, an alternative to the silicon cells that are normally used. This would entail reductions in the cost of the parts.
The semi-conduit used in most photovoltaic solar cells that are commercialised is silicon, and despite its optimum efficiency in the exploitation of solar energy, it is a material whose produ
Anyone who uses a cell phone or a WiFi laptop knows the irritation of a dead-battery surprise. But now researchers at the University of Rochester have broken a barrier in wireless chip design that uses a tenth as much battery power as current designs and, better yet, will use much less in emerging wireless devices of the future.
Hui Wu, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Rochester, a pioneer in a circuit design called an “injection locked freq
Smart coatings that should allow cash machine, mobile phone and laptop display screens to be read much more easily in bright sunlight could soon be on the way, thanks to a major research project unveiled today.
Scientists from the University of Abertay Dundee and the University of Greenwich are joining forces with specialist screen and thin film coatings manufacturers in the £600,000 ENDSENSE project, which is part-funded by the Department of Trade & Industry.
The two-y
Devices convert simple motion into electricity
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have crafted tiny nanowires that generate electricity when they vibrate. Just like the quartz crystal in a watch, the zinc-oxide nanowires are piezoelectric, which means bending causes them to produce an electrical charge.
Only 20-40 billionths of a meter in diameter, each fiber partners with millions of others to form a nanogenerator capable of producing significant amounts o
New electronics
A study of how electrons behave in circuitry made from ultrathin layers of graphite – known as graphene – suggests the material could provide the foundation for a new generation of nanometer scale devices that manipulate electrons as waves – much like photonic systems control light waves.
In a paper published April 13 in Science Express, an online advance publication of the journal Science, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the C
Fitted with computer chips, sensors monitor a bridge’s health – and its ability to perform after a catastrophe
An earthquake strikes a large city, wrecking roads and bridges, stranding rush-hour commuters, trapping office workers inside high-rise buildings.
As director of the city’s transportation authority, you have minutes to make a momentous decision. What is the safest, fastest route that rescue teams can take to travel to hard-hit areas of the city? Which bridges,
MIT scientists have harnessed the construction talents of tiny viruses to build ultra-small “nanowire” structures for use in very thin lithium-ion batteries. By manipulating a few genes inside these viruses, the team was able to coax the organisms to grow and self-assemble into a functional electronic device.
The goal of the work, led by MIT Professors Angela Belcher, Paula Hammond and Yet-Ming Chiang, is to create batteries that cram as much electrical energy into as small or
Single-molecule diode may change Moore’s ’law’ of microchip memory
Using the power of modern computing combined with innovative theoretical tools, an international team of researchers has determined how a one-way electrical valve, or diode, made of only a single molecule does its job.
Diodes are critical components within computer, audio equipment and countless other electronic devices. If designers can swap existing diodes with the single-molecule one,
Electro-optical characterization of in-situ indium doped CdS thin films by chemical bath
As the world becomes increasingly aware of global warming and climate change, the need for alternative energy sources is generating greater demand. Electricity generated from solar cells is often quoted as being the solution to our climate problems. Unfortunately, this method of energy generation is quite inefficient. Overcoming this inefficiency is key to the widespread commercial acceptan
Huge reductions in heating bills, safer surgery and the next generation of miniaturised computers are among the potential benefits of new nanotechnology developed at Leeds.
By suspending nanoparticles in water or other liquids, Professor Richard Williams and Dr Yulong Ding have created ‘nanofluids’ which can transfer heat up to 400% faster than other liquids. In a central heating system, nanofluids could increase efficiency without the need to use a more powerful pump, so saving energy and
A jet fuel comparable to Jet A or military JP 8, but derived from at least 50 percent bituminous coal, has successfully powered a helicopter jet engine, according to a Penn State fuel scientist.
“Because the fuel is 50 percent derived from coal, it could reduce our use of imported petroleum for this purpose by half,” says Dr. Harold H. Schobert, professor of fuel science and director of Penn State’s Energy Institute. “We have shown in tests that the mix can go to at least 75
Applications for homeland security, emergency planning
Engineers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, using an emerging sensing technology, have developed a suite of sensors for national security applications that can quickly and effectively detect chemical, biological, nuclear and explosive materials.
“We can use this technology to detect chemical and biological agents and also to determine if a country is using its nuclear reactors to pro
Why do so many companies fail to make use of the energy-saving technologies which are available? Dutch researcher Mark Koetse used a meta-analysis of various empirical studies to assess the relevance of two possible explanations.
Meta-analysis is a research method that has been gradually gaining ground within economics since the mid-1980s. The doctoral research of Mark Koetse focused on the problems associated with this methodology. That is why in his thesis he described the ne
“Hydrogen power engineering — is energy of the future”, efforts are being undertaken in the US, Europe and Russia to implement the above postulate. We have tried to calculate the quantity of hydrogen needed to transfer to it all transport of big cities, i.e. the quantity that will be required to replace engine fuels. All calculations were based on maximum coefficients of efficiency and the most optimistic figures. The conclusions made from the obtained figures seem interesting not only for scientis
In the twenty years since the discovery of high-temperature (Tc) superconductors, scientists have been trying to understand the mechanism by which electrons pair up and move coherently to carry electrical current with no resistance. “We are still at the beginning,” says Tonica Valla, a physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, who will give a talk on his group’s latest results at the American Physical Society meeting in Baltimore, Maryland on Thursday,
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