Technology could streamline solar power - LiveScience- msnbc.com

Technology could streamline solar power - LiveScience- msnbc.com: "Instead of covering a large area with solar cells, the new method only requires locating cells around the edges of a flat glass panel.

The MIT solar concentrator involves a mixture of two or more dyes painted onto a pane of glass or plastic. The dyes absorb light across a range of wavelengths, reemit it at a different wavelength and transport it across the pane to the solar cells at the edges."

Device could help stretch a gallon of gas - Innovation- msnbc.com

Device could help stretch a gallon of gas - Innovation- msnbc.com: "Thermoelectric material could recycle energy lost through exhaust pipe"

Currently, the most efficient material used commercially in thermoelectric power generators is an alloy called sodium-doped lead telluride, which has a rating of 0.71. By adding a bit of thallium to the lead telluride, the researchers doubled the efficiency rating to 1.5.

Tata Motors to introduce Air Car | India Business Blog

Tata Motors to introduce Air Car India Business Blog: "India’s largest automaker Tata Motors is set to start producing the world’s first commercial air-powered vehicle. The Air Car, developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy Nègre for Luxembourg-based MDI, uses compressed air, as opposed to the gas-and-oxygen explosions of internal-combustion models, to push its engine’s pistons. Some 6000 zero-emissions Air Cars are scheduled to hit Indian streets in August of 2008.

The Air Car, called the MiniCAT could cost around Rs. 3,50,000 ($ 8177) in India and would have a range of around 300 km between refuels. The cost of a refill would be about Rs. 85 ($ 2).

Tata motors also plans to launch the world’s cheapest car, Tata Nano priced famously at One lakh rupees by October."

Scientists tap motion in the ocean for energy - Frontiers- msnbc.com

Scientists tap motion in the ocean for energy - Frontiers- msnbc.com: "Preliminary tests in wind tunnels, however, have yielded a 4 percent increase in maximum lift, a 40 percent increase in the stall angle and a reduction in drag by as much as 34 percent" ... in a design inspired by whale fins.

Advance brings low-cost, bright LED lighting closer to reality

Advance brings low-cost, bright LED lighting closer to reality: "But LED lights now on the market are prohibitively expensive, in part because they are created on a substrate, or first layer, of sapphire. The Purdue researchers have solved this problem by developing a technique to create LEDs on low-cost, metal-coated silicon wafers, said Mark H. Oliver, a Purdue graduate student in materials engineering who is working with Sands."

Texas OKs lots more wind power - Green Machines- msnbc.com

Texas OKs lots more wind power - Green Machines- msnbc.com: "Texas officials gave preliminary approval Thursday to the nation's largest wind-power project, a plan to build billions of dollars worth of new transmission lines to bring pollution-free energy from gusty West Texas to urban areas.

Texas is already the national leader in wind power, and wind supporters say Thursday's move by the Public Utility Commission will make the Lone Star State a leader in moving energy to the urban areas that need electricity.

'We will add more wind than the 14 states following Texas combined,' said PUC Commissioner Paul Hudson."