Renewable Energy

May 2014
UniEnergy Technologies (UET), manufacturer of large-scale energy storage systems for utility, commercial and industrial, and microgrid applications, announced commercial availability of the Uni.System grid-scale energy storage system.  The Uni.System is modular, factory-integrated (including power conversion), an
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Date:
05/30/2014
With the international geothermal power market booming, with a sustained growth rate of 4% to 5% and almost 700 projects currently under development in 76 countries, the GRC Annual Meeting & GEA Geothermal Energy Expo is expected to be an exciting international gathering of geothermal companies, academics, fi
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Date:
05/30/2014
Stanford & MIT scientists find novel way to harness waste heat

Stanford and MIT researchers have developed a four-stage process that uses waste heat to charge a battery. First, an uncharged battery is heated by waste heat. Then, while the battery is still warm, a voltage is applied. When fully charged, the battery is allowed to cool, which increases the voltage. Once the battery has cooled, it actually delivers more electricity than was used to charge it.

Vast amounts of excess heat are generated by industrial processes and by electric power plants. Researchers around the world have spent decades seeking ways to harness some of this wasted energy. Most such efforts have focused on thermoelectric devices – solid-state materials that can produce electricity from a
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Date:
05/26/2014
In support of President Obama’s all-of-the-above energy strategy, the Energy Department today announced $10 million to improve subsurface characterization for enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) by developing state-of-the-art methods that quantify critical underground reservoir properties as they change over ti
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Date:
05/26/2014
Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens announced today that it has been awarded Net Zero Energy Building Certification under the Living Building Challenge™ (a program of the International Living Future Institute™) for the Center for Sustainable Landscapes (CSL), one of the greenest buildings on Earth. De
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Date:
05/22/2014
An energetic crowd of hundreds of leaders throughout the solar community gathered yesterday in southern California to kick off SunShot’s four-day summit and generate ideas to tackle the grand challenge to make solar energy cost competitive in the United States by 2020. Mayor Tom Tait of Anaheim welcomed
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Date:
05/21/2014
Dresser-Rand, a global supplier of environmentally-friendly technology platforms in distributed power generation for the oil and gas, industrial, institutional, and commercial industries, will showcase its Guascor® biogas engines to visitors attending the Water Institute of Southern Africa (WISA) Biennial Conference &a
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Date:
05/21/2014
To kick off the SunShot Initiative’s Grand Challenge Summit and Peer Review, the Energy Department today announced SunShot Catalyst, a new prize competition to spur the rapid creation and development of products and solutions that address near-term challenges in the U.S. solar marketplace. Intended to tackle ma
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Date:
05/21/2014
Despite falling short of previous expectations, global sales of electric vehicles (EVs) actually are progressing at a much faster pace than hybrid cars did during the same stage of their deployment, paving the way for higher demand as more EV options arrive on the market this year and beyond. During the fourt
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Date:
05/16/2014
PERC silicon solar cells achieve world record efficiency

ISFH increases the conversion efficiency of industrial p-type silicon solar cells

The Institute for Solar Energy Research Hamelin (ISFH) increases the conversion efficiency of industrial p-type silicon solar cells with screen-printed metal contacts from today's typical 17.5% to 19.5% to a record value of 21.2%, using leading-edge front-side metallization pastes supplied by the Photovoltaics Bus
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Date:
05/15/2014
NREL hosts race to zero-energy homes

The Urban Harvest team from Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario, developed a high-performance single-family attached townhome design that would fit well in any urban environment

The campus of the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) sprang to life on a late April weekend as 28 teams of university students and building industry experts converged at the lab for the Challenge Home Student Design Competition. During the inaugural competition, funded by the Ene
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Date:
05/14/2014
The Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has selected 17 leaders to participate in its 2014 Executive Energy Leadership program (Energy Execs), which empowers executives to integrate clean energy solutions in their communities. The five-month program offers executive decision-makers from throu
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Date:
05/12/2014
Analog Devices, a leader in high-performance semiconductors for signal processing applications, will demonstrate a broad portfolio of smartly integrated solutions that optimise system performance and show the development and rapid prototyping of solutions and tools at this year’s PCIM 2014 show taking place fr
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Date:
05/12/2014
The Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory recently recognized the professionals behind the lab's greatest innovations from the past year during its annual Innovation and Technology Transfer Awards ceremony. The event also celebrated NREL's commercialization and partnering successes, recognizing the r
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Date:
05/09/2014
In this episode of PSDtv - Since President Obama took office, the country has made significant advances in clean energy. Last year alone was record-breaking for new installations, and the amount of solar power installed in the United States has increased around eleven fold. Just this past week, the U.S. Arm
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Date:
05/09/2014
As a part of the Administration’s all-of-the-above energy strategy, the Energy Department announced the selection of three pioneering offshore wind demonstrations to receive up to $47 million each over the next four years to deploy innovative, grid-connected systems in federal and state waters by 2017. These pr
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Date:
05/09/2014
The Energy Department will help host a live webinar titled “Top Solar Tools: What are they and how do they help policymakers?” on Wednesday, May 14, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. As part of the Solar Technical Assistance Team's Do-It-Yourself Solar Market Analysis summer series, this web
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Date:
05/08/2014
This month Energy Solutions Forum features a Clean Energy Connections panel on "The Age of Intelligent Storage: Distributed Systems, Smart Software and Control Systems" on Wednesday, May 14. ESF Research Pro: New York Green Bank to Transform Clean Energy Markets With project funding commencing, the
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Date:
05/08/2014
ABB touts grid connection breakthroughs at AWEA Windpower 2014

ABB promotes grid interconnection technology applications for wind farms

ABB, a leading wind industry power technology provider, is promoting a series of grid interconnection technology applications for wind farms from the show floor at the annual AWEA Windpower 2014 conference and exhibition this week. Building off a very interactive, half-day, pre-show technical training session on
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Date:
05/07/2014
Unified Solar student team wins an MIT Clean Energy Prize

Unified Solar's solution reduces energy loss for solar panels

Unified Solar, a student team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), won the regional prize of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition at the MIT Clean Energy Prize on April 28. The team takes home the top prize of $100,000 and advances to the national co
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Date:
05/05/2014
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the launch of WINDExchange, a national engagement and outreach initiative that marks a new era of DOE's involvement in wind energy. Building on the success of DOE's previous work in this area, the purpose of WINDExchange is to provide objective information on the cost
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Date:
05/05/2014
Lack of refrigeration in rural India is leading to $10 billion USD worth of fresh produce going to waste every year, including vast quantities of milk, which is a staple of the Indian diet. Lack of a reliable electricity supply is one of the biggest challenges, but an innovative thermal battery, developed by Pr
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Date:
05/02/2014
On Monday, May 5, the geothermal industry will recognize Geothermal Awareness Day in California (#GeothermalDay2014) with a slate of activities in Sacramento and beyond, including a call for entries for GEA Honors, the Geothermal Energy Association’s annual awards program. “There is a growing need to e
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Date:
05/02/2014
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