17 Oct 09 German Team Wins 2009 Solar Decathlon
An anonymous reader writes "Our team recently competed in the 2009 US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon. The Solar Decathlon is a 2-year competition that challenges university students from 20 US and international teams to design, build, and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered house. Objective scores are based on comfort control, appliance performance, net-metering, and home entertainment. Subjective contest scores are determined by juries that weigh the engineering design, architectural design, as well as marketing and communication strategies. Team Germany took 1st place due to a large net production of electricity, while Team California claimed top honors in the Architecture contest. Minnesota won the engineering design section. However, looking beyond the contest winners, the main purpose of the event is to raise awareness about solar technology and sustainable design. As part of this campaign, products used in all 20 homes are listed on the DOE website. The most exciting aspect is that the construction and engineering documents and communication materials from all teams are open-sourced for anyone to use or modify!"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Tagi: solar decathlon, campaign products, team california, solar technology, team germany, us department of energy, energy solar, german team, sustainable design, engineering design, architectural design, juries, department of energy, sourced, university studen
06 Nov 09 Sensors for Tracking Home Water Use
Sensors track devices' electricity, water, and gas consumption from one spot.
Tagi: home water, water use, sensors, electricity
28 Nov 09 Algae Could Be the Key To Ultra-Thin Batteries
MikeChino writes "Algae is often touted as the next big thing in biofuels, but the slimy stuff could also be the key to paper-thin biodegradable batteries, according to researchers at Uppsala University in Sweden. Uppsala researcher Maria Stromme and her team has found that the smelly algae species that clumps on beaches, known as cladophora, can also be used to make a type of cellulose that has 100 times the surface area of cellulose found in paper. That means it can hold enough conducting polymers to effectively recharge and hold electricity for long amounts of time. Eventually, the bio batteries could compete with commercial lithium-ion batteries."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Tagi: university in sweden, stromme, uppsala university in sweden, biofuels, clumps, cellulose, algae, surface area, lithium, polymers, batteries, researcher, electricity, beaches
