THIN FILM SOLAR PANELS

Archive for August, 2009

High-tech membranes are catching on as a lower cost, non-chemical and more sustainable water treatment process, but there’s a catch: they can quickly foul with dirt and other particles.  Enter NanoBrane, a nanotechnology company with a patent-pending breakthrough in membrane properties that prevents fouling.  That makes the treatment process run more efficiently and reduces the downtime needed to service the membranes, potentially reducing operating expenses by up to 20%.

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We’re all familiar with the vast solar thermal power stations in the desert that use mirrors to make steam to drive turbines. Giant solar thermal arrays are already making electricity in the desert in Spain and California. But what if we could have just one of these units in the backyard, just for our own use?

That’s what motivated a team of MIT students to find the way to make the cheapest solar power station out there. Mass produce it for the home user and market it under their own new start up RawSolar.

Sure, it melts steel. But even more practically for the home owner, it makes steam in a flash:

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If you live in one of the states now sweltering through heat waves; even more frequent sweltering days are in your future as a result of climate change.

But it’s not only your children’s children who will suffer heat waves more often. Your property values in these states will also sink over time as your neighborhoods heat up to unlivable levels over the next decades.

A/C will be a necessity. But adding a heat recovery system will at least cut those losses to your home values:

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The biggest commodities boom of the 20th century was a bust for water and wastewater utilities, which found themselves locked in a battle with manufacturers for vital water treatment chemicals over the past five years.  Competition for more chemicals to grow biofuel crops didn’t help, either.  Prices for some chemicals almost tripled between 2003 and 2008 as utilities scrambled to find scarce supplies.  Though the global recession helped to ease the price and supply issues, the next boom cycle could bring things to a boiling point.  Fortunately, more sustainable non-chemical water treatment methods are on the horizon and could play a role in stabilizing the situation over the long run.

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I was always fascinated by dirt bikes when I was young - I was one of the many kids whose parents wouldn’t let me get one, so I jealously watched my neighbors scoot up and down the street and through the nearby pasture on their little Kawasaki. My Schwinn Stingray was nowhere near as cool. [...]