Cleantech News

RSS

JA Solar Completes Development of New 1500V PV Module

JA Solar Holdings Co., Ltd. ("JA Solar" or "JA"), one of the world's largest manufacturers of high-performance solar power products, today announced that it has completed the development of its new 1500V PV module, inaugurating the product's global launch in February 2015.

10 Mar 2015

Global Installed Capacity for Solar PV Projected to Reach 489.8 GW by 2020

The global installed capacity for solar PV is expected to reach 489.8 GW by 2020, according to a new study by Grand View Research, Inc. Growing push for sustainability has led to increased focus on renewable energy forms such as solar PV. In addition, favorable regulatory policies such as Feed in Tariff (FIT) is expected to further increase installed capacity, particularly along the Sunbelt countries. The reduction in price of PV modules is expected to lower the cost of energy generated by solar PV to USD 0.07 - USD 0.16, making it competitive to oil or gas fired peak power plants.

9 Mar 2015

Two Environmental Pollutants Have Adverse Effects on Infants' Development

Even though the levels of two environmental pollutants have declined over the last 20 years, they may still have adverse effects on children's development, according to a new study by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. This is the largest study of environmental pollutants and infant growth to date.

9 Mar 2015

Researchers Report that Growing Periods of Vegetation Have Changed Worldwide

Are leaves and buds developing earlier in the spring? And do leaves stay on the trees longer in autumn? Do steppe ecosystems remaining green longer and are the savannas becoming drier and drier? In fact, over recent decades, the growing seasons have changed everywhere around the world. This was determined by a doctoral candidate at the Goethe University as part of an international collaboration based on satellite data.

9 Mar 2015

Climate Change Poses Challenge to Blue Crab Population

David Johnson was standing in a salt marsh tidal creek north of Boston, Mass., when he scooped up a blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, 80 miles north of its native range. The northern migration of this commercially important species, Johnson says, could be yet another sign of climate change. Then a scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) Ecosystems Center, Johnson recently published his observations in the Journal of Crustacean Biology.

9 Mar 2015

Royal Oak Ford Reduces Lighting Energy Use with CGE Energy's New Cree LED Lighting

CGE Energy (currently trading as MKBY:OTCPink) has made strides in the automotive sales industry by bringing real energy savings with Cree® LED lighting to a large number of car dealerships. Royal Oak Ford of Southeast Michigan recently became another recipient of these energy savings.

9 Mar 2015

Gushing Bubbles from Melting Glaciers Create Noisy Fjords

Bubbles gushing from melting glaciers and their icebergs make fjords the noisiest places in the oceans, a new study of waters near Alaska and Antarctica shows.

9 Mar 2015

1366 Technologies, Hanwah Q CELLS Collaborate to Commercialize Direct Wafer Technology

1366 Technologies and Hanwha Q CELLS today announced that they have entered into a long-term strategic partnership to jointly advance the efficiency and quality of solar cells while dramatically reducing their costs. The two companies will collaborate on the development of 1366's proprietary Direct Wafer™ Technology with the intent to commercialize and use Direct Wafers™ in Hanwha Q CELLS' world-renowned solar cells

6 Mar 2015

CsTolen A Compound Helps Protect Crops from Radiation-Contaminated Soil

Almost four years after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, farmland remains contaminated with higher-than-natural levels of radiocesium in some regions of Japan, with cesium-134 and cesium-137 being the most troublesome because of the slow rate at which they decay.

6 Mar 2015

EU-FP7 DATA SIM Project Studies Consequences of Mass Switch to Electrical Vehicles

The technology behind the design of electric vehicles is ever improving and the EU predicts that these vehicles could be in mass production by 2020. By developing a completely new way of using information from GPS and location data shown by GSM, the EU DATA SIM project simulated the consequences of a massive switch to electric vehicles, and studied the impact on mobility and electricity distribution networks.

6 Mar 2015

Trophic Coherence Could Help Solve the Mystery of Coexistence within Complex Ecosystems

Scientists from the universities of Granada and Warwick have published an article in the journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA) in which they suggest one possible answer for the enigma of stability in complex ecosystems like the Amazon rainforest or coral reefs. Many similar species coexist in these complex ecosystems without one of them prevailing above all the rest and displacing them.

6 Mar 2015

New 2MW Solar Array on RIT Campus to Commence Operation in April

Six-and-a-half acres of a farm field on the Rochester Institute of Technology campus has been transformed this winter into a massive solar array, which is scheduled to be operational early next month.

6 Mar 2015

More Efficient Alternative to Make Carbon Capture Less Energy-Intensive

Trapping carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from power plants and various industries could play a significant role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the future. But current materials that can collect CO2 -- from smokestacks, for example -- have low capacities or require very high temperatures to work. Scientists are making progress toward a more efficient alternative, described in the ACS journal Chemistry of Materials, that could help make carbon capture less energy-intensive.

6 Mar 2015

New Method to Improve Fuel Production from Biomass Fermented by Yeast

Researchers with the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI), a partnership that includes the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley, have found a way to increase the production of fuels and other chemicals from biomass fermented by yeast. By introducing new metabolic pathways into the yeast, they enable the microbes to efficiently ferment cellulose and hemicellulose, the two major families of sugar found in the plant cell wall, without the need of environmentally harsh pre-treatments or expensive enzyme cocktails.

6 Mar 2015

Study Finds Miscanthus as Ideal Ethanol Source Compared to Switchgrass and Stover

A recent study simulated a side-by-side comparison of the yields and costs of producing ethanol using miscanthus, switchgrass, and corn stover. The fast-growing energy grass miscanthus was the clear winner. Models predict that miscanthus will have higher yield and profit, particularly when grown in poor-quality soil. It also outperformed corn stover and switchgrass in its ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

5 Mar 2015