THIN FILM SOLAR PANELS

Archive for January, 2010

Like some tantalizing cursed treasure, boron nitride nanotubes have been tempting researchers with their promise of high heat tolerance, which makes them excellent candidates for components in the next generation of microscopic-scale high efficiency electronics.  But for years the tiny nanofibers, which are similar to carbon nanotubes, have lead researchers down one blind alley after another.

The fact is that boron nanotubes are much harder to produce than carbon nanotubes.   They won’t catch on until that obstacle is overcome – and it seems that a team of researchers at Michigan Technological University has done just that.  Working with the same instrumentation used for carbon nanotubes, the team has developed a way to grow virtual “Persian carpets” of boron nitride nanotubes in the lab, paving the way for their commercial use.

How to Grow a Boron Nitride Nanotube Carpet

Boron is an abundant metalloid (a small class of elements that are sort of metals and sort of not).  It can be found in the ores ulexite and borax (yes, that borax).  According to a Michigan Tech article, the research team headed up by leading nano-scientist Yoke Khin Yap used substrates of magnesium oxide, iron, and nickel to produce the boron nanofibers at around 1,100 degrees Celsius.  Yap’s team found that the fibers grew only on the substrate without bleeding off, suggesting that the process could have precision production applications.  As an added bonus the boron nanotube sheets proved to be extremely water repellent, which would make them highly durable and resistant to a wide range of acids and alkalies.

Boron Nitride Nanotubes vs. Carbon Nanotubes

Carbon nanotubes currently have ate least one big advantage, which is that they are relatively easy to produce commercially.  Researchers are also working on ways to separate different types of carbon nanotubes during the production process, and even defective carbon nanotubes are proving to be useful.  However, boron nitride nanotubes could lend themselves to a wider range of nano-applications due to their complex structure, which is more like latticework than the simple chicken-wire structure of carbon nanotubes.  This property could enable boron nanotubes to be manipulated into metallic conductors that are more durable and energy efficient than their carbon counterparts.  It looks like there’s a place for boron in the molecule-sized computers of the future.

Image: Carpet by keepitsurreal on flickr.com.

Like some tantalizing cursed treasure, boron nitride nanotubes have been tempting researchers with their promise of high heat tolerance, which makes them excellent candidates for components in the next generation of microscopic-scale high efficiency electronics.  But for years the tiny nanofibers, which are similar to carbon nanotubes, have lead researchers down one blind alley after another.

The fact is that boron nanotubes are much harder to produce than carbon nanotubes.   They won’t catch on until that obstacle is overcome - and it seems that a team of researchers at Michigan Technological University has done just that.  Working with the same instrumentation used for carbon nanotubes, the team has developed a way to grow virtual “Persian carpets” of boron nitride nanotubes in the lab, paving the way for their commercial use.

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Nike has been one green company lately — in the last year, it has pushed for a strong clean energy and climate bill in Congress on its own and in concert with others and it has helped to reduce deforestation of the Amazon. Now, Nike has also just reported that it reduced its own carbon footprint last year while still growing economically. In fact, it has tremendously reduced greenhouse gas pollution over the last decade and 2009 just kept the ball rolling.

On top of all of that, Nike announced today that along with nine other organizations — Yahoo!, Best Buy, Creative Commons, IDEO, Mountain Equipment Co-op, nGenera, Outdoor Industry Association, salesforce.com, and 2degrees — Nike will “collaborate and share intellectual property (IP) which can lead to new sustainability business models and innovation.” This “Web-based marketplace” — GreenXchange (GX) — was announced at a CEO breakfast at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this morning.

If this all has you feeling warm inside, read on.

Nike’s Carbon Emissions Down, Sales Up

Nike reports that it reduced the carbon emissions of its supply chain by 4% in 2009 compared to 2008. Additionally, in the midst of the economic recession, its revenue grew by 3% in 2009 and 14% in 2008. So, lack of economic activity was not the cause of the emissions reductions.

Nike reports that its greenhouse gas footprint in 2009 was 1.53 million tons of CO₂ equivalent. In 2008, it was 1.6 million tons. More dramatically, though, in 1997-1998, it was 7.5 million! Nike has made a lot of improvement in the past 10 years or so.

According to Tom young of BusinessGreen, “It has introduced a programme to monitor and improve the carbon footprint of factories, as well as provide better energy training for employees.” Additionally, it has cleaned up its IT sector (environmentally) and also uses teleconferencing and videoconferencing more to avoid business travel.

Nike is so committed to reducing its own emissions, and doing so well at that, that it has decided to completely stop purchasing carbon offsets.

Nike’s report states, “Our preference is to achieve climate neutrality through a combination of energy efficiency and the purchase of more direct forms of renewable energy, through onsite applications and other means.”

Nike-owned and operated facilities grew in size by 41% from 2007 to 2009 but in the same time they reduced their CO₂ emissions. Others should take note of what they are doing. And that’s exactly what this next part is about.

GreenXchange (GX)

“There is so much duplication of effort and wasted resources when it comes to sustainability,” said John Wilbanks, VP for Science at Creative Commons, the organization responsible for creating a platform to make the sharing of intellectual property (IP) simple, faster and more cost-effective. “We need to make it easier for individuals, companies, academia, and researchers to collaborate and share best practices in order to create and adopt technologies that have the potential to solve global sustainability challenges.”

NIKE, Inc. president and CEO Mark Parker said, “Nike is today committing to placing more than 400 of our patents on GX for research, demonstrating our belief that the best way to stimulate sustainable innovation is through open innovation.”

As one example, one thing Nike thinks may be useful for others is “Nike’s Environmentally Preferred Rubber” — other footwear companies could use it like Nike does or, for example, companies like Mountain Equipment Co-op could use it to make environmentally friendly bicycle inner tubes.

Nike’s Sustainable Business and Innovation Lab was a key actor in the creation of GX.

Nike is Going Beyond Greenwashing

As someone who is personally skeptical every time a for-profit company announces how green they are, I have to say that Nike is an inspiration. It is great to see them leading the way on these issues.

Nike was never really my brand of choice, but they are growing on me.

Related Stories:
1) Nike Opposes US Chamber of Commerce & Leaves Board, over Climate Change
2) World’s Largest Leather Exporter Backs Out of Amazon
3) Who Wants a Climate & Energy Bill? 83 Leading US Companies
4) NBA Team Goes Solar

Image Credit 1: Incase Designs via flickr under a CC license
Image Credit 2: Pensiero via flickr under a CC license
Image Credit 3: vecinodelquinto! via flickr under a CC license

Nike has been one green company lately — in the last year, it has pushed for a strong clean energy and climate bill in Congress on its own and in concert with others and it has helped to reduce deforestation of the Amazon. Now, Nike has also just reported that it reduced its own carbon footprint last year while still growing economically. In fact, it has tremendously reduced greenhouse gas pollution over the last decade and 2009 just kept the ball rolling.

On top of all of that, Nike announced today that along with nine other organizations — Yahoo!, Best Buy, Creative Commons, IDEO, Mountain Equipment Co-op, nGenera, Outdoor Industry Association, salesforce.com, and 2degrees — Nike will “collaborate and share intellectual property (IP) which can lead to new sustainability business models and innovation.” This “Web-based marketplace” — GreenXchange (GX) — was announced at a CEO breakfast at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this morning.

If this all has you feeling warm inside, read on.

Read more of this story »

German thin-film solar PV developer Avancis says tests with the US' National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) show its 30x30cm encapsulated CIS solar modules achieve 15.1% aperture-area efficiency.