Articles tagged with: research

Newer Options in the Area of Renewable Energy Sources - Cow Power!
Posted in Animals, Earth, Efficiency, Energy, Environment on 26 July 2008

 

Cow power could emerge as one of the green and renewable energy sources to generate electricity in future. Till now the manure produced by bovine and livestock animals has been used in farms only (that too to a certain extent). But now, it can be used to generate electricity which might meet upto 3 % energy (read electricity) consumption needs of entire North America!

The research being conducted by scientists at University of Texas (Austin) believe the results of it will imply on all countries with a large number of livestock (including India). Production of biogas from cow dung is not a new thing and it has been used in rural India to cook food and for other heating purposes. But this research stresses upon the anaerobic digestion (a process which helps in compost formation) of manure which yields energy-rich bio-gas potent enough to generate electricity by rotating standard microturbines.

In recent times, the interest and efforts in analyzing and using cow waste for studying its effect on climate change, has seen an upward trend. The IPCC reports that nitrous oxide and methane (both are Green House Gases) produced by naturally decomposing livestock manure heat up our atmosphere many times more than what CO2 does! Hence, the panel recommends proper utilization of this livestock manure. The latter if utilized fully could generate approximately 100 billion kilowatt hours of electricity (a scenario where the Americans will thank cows profusely for providing resources beyond milk and meat!)

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The nanoconduttori triple the potential of photovoltaic installations
Posted in Energy, Solar on 29 May 2008

 The nanoconduttori triple the potential of photovoltaic installations.  Technology, Renewable, Solar, solar panels, research, universities

The bulk limit energy efficiency of solar panels can be overcome with modern superconductors that triple the number of electrons transportable: the researchers have discovered the University of Technology in Delft (Netherlands) and the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter of having used nanocristalli for the experiment el’hanno renamed “snowball effect”, precisely because of the considerable increase in performance.

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