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I am writing about energy supply modernization because it is thought more as an article of quasi-religious belief than as an actual process involving engineering. Electric Car Recharging Subject to sufficient supplies of lithium for batteries and copper and rare earth metals for electric motors, electric cars have a great technical future. However, changing technology can result in changing job opportunities since vehicle-making jobs might forcibly be relocated by governments to countries that supply the essential raw materials. Vehicle manufacturers should endeavor to build multi-year crucial raw material stockpiles. An electric car might go about 280 miles on 70kwh of...

What do solar panels and global warming have in common? The answer: Both are produced with nitrogen trifluoride ([NF.sub.3]), a gas that is 17,000 times more effective than carbon dioxide at trapping atmospheric heat, according to geochemistry professor Ray Weiss and a team of researchers at the University of California--San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Weiss and his team expect [NF.sub.3] to become a bigger problem in the near future because it is used in the manufacturing of three highly popular products: LCD televisions, computer circuits, and thin-film solar cells. "There is a little irony in that, because thin-film solar...

A tiny solar cell doubles the efficiency of common photovoltaics' conversion of sunlight to electricity by capturing the energy from a broader spectrum of light. A tiny chip similar to the solar cells carried by many satellites and other spacecraft today--including the surprisingly long-lived Mars Rovers--has shattered previous records for maximum efficiency in producing electricity from sunlight. "This is the photovoltaic equivalent of the four-minute mile," affirms Larry Kazmerski, director of the Department of Energy's National Center for Photovoltaics in Colorado. "This is a disruptive technology that eventually could provide us, at least in the Southwest, with cost-competitive electricity fairly...

ST. LOUIS, Dec. 06, 2006 -- Boeing [NYSE: BA] today announced that Spectrolab, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary, has achieved a new world record in terrestrial concentrator solar cell efficiency. Using concentrated sunlight, Spectrolab demonstrated the ability of a photovoltaic cell to convert 40.7 percent of the sun's energy into electricity. The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colo., verified the milestone. "This solar cell performance is the highest efficiency level any photovoltaic device has ever achieved," said Dr. David Lillington, president of Spectrolab. "The terrestrial cell we have developed uses the same technology base as...

The Case For Space Based Solar Power Development by Arthur Smith,New York - Aug 11, 2003 Energy policy is in the news again, with debates in Congress, statements from presidential candidates, consternation over our dependence on the Middle East for oil, and a California recall election traceable in part to energy supply problems for that state. Use of energy, whether fuel for transportation, electrical energy running the internet, or the destructive energy released in weapons, is central to our economy and security. It is with good reason that the technical term for energy use per unit time, "power", suggests...