Wouldn’t it be great to get rid of the last rat’s nest of wires? That is, the various power cords powering our devices or charging their batteries. Researchers from the University of Tokyo are on the case.

On December 10th at the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting in Washington, D.C., University of Tokyo researchers presented a large-area smart sheet that could provide wireless power to devices placed on it. Additionally, the sheet is capable of allowing the devices to communicate with each other.

The image below is of a miniature house with wireless power sheets embedded in the floor and covering the desk and wall. The sheets power various devices symbolized by LED lights

While further development is needed, the researchers believe that the sheets could be formed into table covers, desk covers, wallpaper, or embedded into the floor, allowing hundreds of devices to communicate with each other in a more secure manner than today’s wireless technologies.

The communications sheet is essentially a mixture of wired and wireless communications where communication is carried out over wires except for the last 1 millimeter, which is done wirelessly. “If the wireless connection is this short, the power does not dissipate, and it does not require a direct contact. So no cable or plug is needed.”, explains Takao Someya, associate professor at the University of Tokyo’s Quantum Phase Electronics Center.

By combining the communications sheet with a power-transmission sheet and feeding in power from an outside source, power can also be transmitted to devices. So far, the researchers have achieved a power transfer of more than 40 watts - enough to power a small notebook computer.

Read the IEEE article…

Source: IEEE
Photos: Takao Someya

Silicon Valley-based Nanosolar’s Powersheet was named innovation of the year by Popular Science. The Powersheet is a solar cell made with printing-press style machines that set down a layer of nanoparticle ink onto metal sheets as thin as aluminum foil. The panels can be made for about a tenth of what current panels cost and at a rate of several hundred feet per minute.

Nanoparticle ink is a proprietary ink developed by Nanosolar that makes it possible to simply print the semiconductor of a high-performance solar cell on highly conductive yet low-cost foil.

Nanosolar’s cells use no silicon and the company’s manufacturing process allow it to create cells that are as efficient as existing cells for as little as 30 cents a watt versus about $3/watt for existing silicon-based solar cells. For comparison purposes, to compete with coal that cost per watt has to be in the $1 per watt range.

Nanosolar is backed by several heavy hitters including Google’s founders, Benchmark Capital, SAC Capital, GLG Partners, OnPoint Technologies (the US Army’s private equity fund), and others including a $20 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Drooling for a chance to invest in this company? Stand in line - the firm is privately held and is presently not accepting any new capital.

Read more…

Cree, a company in North Carolina that specializes in LED lighting, has converted their entire office place to use LED lighting exclusively. The building’s parking lots, entryways, lobby and conference rooms are now lit by their XLamp LEDs Apparently, these new LEDs consume around 48% less energy than the incandescent, fluorescent and high-pressure sodium lights they replaced. And as Cree’s CEO states, ““The conversion of Cree’s site demonstrates that the LED Lighting Revolution is well underway…” Press release

Here’s a list of 10 easy tips that can help you save energy and your money. Also, check out ways to save energy if you like to keep your computer on 24.7.

10. Upgrade your gear
9. Dim your screen
8. Consolidate and virtualize computers
7. Turn off peripherals
6. Kill unnecessary processes
5. Get a smart power switch
4. Enable energy saver settings
3. Unplug energy vampires
2. Spin down your hard drive
1. Shut down

Read more details about each of these at Lifehacker.

Finally, Irish company Steorn, which claims to have achieved “the production of clean, free and constant energy,” will be showing us the goods in a demonstration starting tommorrow, and ending July 13 at the Kinetica Museum in London. Apparently the demo will be available for viewing online. Shown above is the first picture of a contraption demonstrating the Orbo technology. I guess we’ll just have to wait for now to see what actually happens, and what physics experts and energy professionals say. More [engadget]

UPDATE: Steorn says they are having problems demonstrating their machine. “We are experiencing some technical difficulties with the demo unit in London. Our initial assessment indicates that this is probably due to the intense heat from the camera lighting…” Ooook. More

UPDATE 2: Orbo demo canceled - A press release by Steorn CEO Sean McCarthy says they “will explore alternative dates for the public demonstration.”

The U.S. Department of Energy has challenged and successfully commissioned some Yale chemists to turn solar energy into chemical form. It’s a $12.8 million project to create “economically viable fuels suitable for use in transportation.” A surprise was this isn’t the first university, Yale is the latest to arrive at the DOE’s ‘Solar Energy to Chemical Fuels Initiative’ party.

Yale via DailyTech

Meet the Mini Solar Racer created by the U.K. company Select Solar. At a mere 1.3 inches long it must be the smallest solar powered vehicle in the world, and is selling for $20.

The NSA has had to delay the delivery of some new equipment, because its power infrastructure can’t cope with the current hardware. The agency has even had to have rolling brownout, shutting some offices for up to half a day.

Andrea Martino, an NSA spokeswoman, said, “We cannot discuss the specifics that may or may not affect the agency’s operations for national security purposes.”

Google.org has launched their new RechargeIT initiative for the research and development of better electric vehicles and ways to make it work. According to VentureBeat, They are “offering $10 million for ideas about how to fund development and adoption of plug-ins, fully electric cars and cars that are equipped to actually return stored energy to the electrical grid, so-called ‘vehicle-to-grid,’ or V2G technology.”

Also, Google has just turned on their new solar panel installation at their headquarters. in Mountain View, California. The installation produces enough electricity yo power 100 California homes, and is the largest solar installation to date on any corporate campus in the United States and one of the largest on any corporate site in the world.

Creating awareness of a problem is important, and that is exactly what this project is attempting to do. This installation of LEDs indicates the quality of the water in which it resides. If the quality is good, the LEDs glow green, and if the quality is bad then the LEDs glow red.

The project, named River Glow, was developed by Soo-in Yang and David Benjamin in only three months, and with a tiny $1,000 budget. The power source is green too, so it won’t be contributing to the pollution problem that it attempts to highlight, “We used floating strips of thin film photovoltaics connected in series to power a rechargeable AA battery. We then re-wired a low-cost pH sensor to detect changes in water quality and trigger an LED connected to uncoated fiber optic strands. The result is an ethereal cloud of light hovering above the water’s surface that changes colors according to the condition of the water below.” ::Inhabitat via EcoGeek