Green Energy

Image: The tin-based perovskite layer acts as an efficient sunlight absorber that is sandwiched between two electric charge transport layers for conducting electricity to the outside world.

economictimes.indiatimes.com - May 5th, 2014 - Mercouri G. Kanatzidis

In a breakthrough, scientists have developed a new low cost, efficient and environment-friendly solar cell that uses tin instead of the hazardous lead.

Researchers from Northwestern University are among the first to create a solar cell that uses a structure called perovskite, with tin as the light-absorbing material instead of lead.

"Exculding the use of lead is a quantum leap in the process of creating a very promising type of solar cell called a perovskite," said Mercouri G Kanatzidis, an inorganic chemist with expertise in dealing with tin.

Image: A street light in front of the EDF London Eye. Photograph: Andrew Winning/Reuters

theguardian.com - April 25th, 2014 - Terry Macalister

Boris Johnson has announced plans for the London mayor's office to become the UK's latest electricity supplier with an official launch next year of a scheme aimed at lowering bills and bolstering the capital's energy independence.

London will be the first public authority to receive a "junior" electricity licence from industry regulator Ofgem as part of the plan to produce 25% of the capital's power from local sources by 2025.

Energy for London, as the scheme is likely to be named, will initially buy power from small-scale generators owned by London boroughs and public bodies and then sell it on to Transport for London and the Metropolitan police.

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'The negative impacts of Keystone XL will affect the whole world, our shared world, the only world we have.' Photograph: Sue Ogrocki/AP

We must stop climate change. And we can, if we use the tactics that worked in South Africa against the worst carbon emitters

theguardian.com
by Desmond Tutu
April 10, 2014

Twenty-five years ago people could be excused for not knowing much, or doing much, about climate change. Today we have no excuse. No more can it be dismissed as science fiction; we are already feeling the effects.

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Andres Gutierrez/AP

Meet 'photoswitches,' a breakthrough set of materials that act as their own batteries, absorbing energy and releasing it on demand.

theatlantic.com - by Todd Woody - April 15, 2014

The next big thing in solar energy could be microscopic.

Scientists at MIT and Harvard University have devised a way to store solar energy in molecules that can then be tapped to heat homes, water or used for cooking.

The best part: The molecules can store the heat forever and be endlessly re-used while emitting absolutely no greenhouse gases.

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Nature Chemistry - Templated assembly of photoswitches significantly increases the energy-storage capacity of solar thermal fuels