US Department of Energy

New Energy appoints business partnering and scientific experts

New Energy Technologies, Inc. a developer of technologies for generating sustainable electricity, is pleased to announce the appointments of Dr. Scott R. Hammond as Principal Scientist, and Dr. Christopher M. Harris to the Company's Board of Advisors.

Kohl Department Stores to install EV charging stations

Kohl Department Stores will install ECOtality's EV charging stations in 14 locations nationwide to establish a rich EV charging infrastructure that encourages EV adoption.

Tiny solar cells with greater efficiency

How small can a solar cell be and still be a powerhouse? How about six hundred microns wide — about the diameter of a dot made by a ballpoint pen? The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory recently validated greater than 41 percent efficiency at a concentration of 1,000 suns for tiny cells made by Semprius — one of the highest efficiencies recorded at this concentration.

Solar Impulse Project gains new sponsor

SunPower Corp has announced that the company is providing solar cells to the Solar Impulse project.

First solar cells with quantum efficiency over 100 percent

Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have reported the first solar cell that produces a photocurrent that has an external quantum efficiency greater than 100 percent when photoexcited with photons from the high energy region of the solar spectrum.

Tiny solar cell could make a big difference

How small can a solar cell be and still be a powerhouse?

DOE awards over $7 million to advance hydrogen storage technologies

Energy department awards more than $7 mllion for inovative hydrogen storage technologies in fuel cell electric vehicles.

Scientists report solar breakthrough

Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have reported the first solar cell that produces a photocurrent that has an external quantum efficiency greater than 100 percent when photoexcited with photons from the high energy region of the solar spectrum.

New path to flex and stretch electronics

Imprinting electronic circuitry on backplanes that are both flexible and stretchable promises to revolutionize a number of industries and make "smart devices" nearly ubiquitous.

SunPower is official supplier to Solar Impulse Project

SunPower Corp has announced that the company is providing solar cells to the Solar Impulse project.

Bubbles help break energy storage record

Foam-based graphene keeps oxygen flowing in battery that holds promise for electric vehicles.

Zhong Lin Wang receives recognition for innovative technology

Wang, a physicist who joined Georgia Tech in 1995, has almost single handedly launched a new field of research that takes advantage of the unique properties of zinc oxide nanostructures.

Giant piezoelectric effect to improve energy harvesting devices

Researchers in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Materials Research Institute at Penn State are part of a multidisciplinary team of researchers from universities and national laboratories across the U.S. who have fabricated piezoelectric thin films with record-setting properties.

Nanoparticle electrode for batteries

Nanoparticle electrode for batteries could make large-scale power storage on the energy grid feasible, say Stanford researchers

Microfabrication breakthrough for piezoelectric material

Integrating a complex, single-crystal material with "giant" piezoelectric properties onto silicon, University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers and physicists can fabricate low-voltage, near-nanoscale electromechanical devices that could lead to improvements in high-resolution 3-D imaging, signal processing, communications, energy harvesting, sensing, and actuators for nanopositioning devices, among others.

Winners of the IDTechEx Energy Harvesting and WSN Awards

At the Energy Harvesting & Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) awards dinner on November 15 in Boston, USA companies were recognized for making significant technical or commercial progress with these technologies.

Piezo-phototronic effect improves efficiency of LEDs

The devices are believed to be the first LEDs whose performance has been enhanced by the creation of an electrical charge in a piezoelectric material using the piezo-phototronic effect.

Wireless sensor networks and energy harvesting coming together

Zero power wireless sensors are now available, which bring together new low power wireless ICs with energy harvesters (which harvest energy from heat, light or motion, for example) and the appropriate form of energy storage and conditioning.

Could a computer one day rewire itself?

Scientists develop new nanomaterial that steers current in multiple dimensions.