Ultra-Efficient Solar Power
Doubling the efficiency of solar devices would completely change the economics of renewable energy. Here is a design that just might make it possible.
Harry Atwater thinks his lab can make an affordable device that produces more than twice the solar power generated by today’s panels. The feat is possible, says the Caltech professor of materials science and applied physics, because of recent advances in the ability to manipulate light at a very small scale.
Solar panels on the market today consist of cells made from a single semiconducting material, usually silicon. Since the material absorbs only a narrow band of the solar spectrum, much of sunlight’s energy is lost as heat: these panels typically convert less than 20 percent of that energy into electricity. But the device that Atwater and his colleagues have in mind would have an efficiency of at least 50 percent. It would use a design that efficiently splits sunlight, as a prism does, into six to eight component wavelengths—each one of which produces a different color of light. Each color would then be dispersed to a cell made of a semiconductor that can absorb it.
Atwater’s team is working on three designs. In one (see illustration), for which the group has made a prototype, sunlight is collected by a reflective metal trough and directed at a specific angle into a structure made of a transparent insulating material. Coating the outside of the transparent structure are multiple solar cells, each made from one of six to eight different semiconductors. Once light enters the material, it encounters a series of thin optical filters. Each one allows a single color to pass through to illuminate a cell that can absorb it; the remaining colors are reflected toward other filters designed to let them through.
Another design would employ nanoscale optical filters that could filter light coming from all angles. And a third would use a hologram instead of filters to split the spectrum. While the designs are different, the basic idea is the same: combine conventionally designed cells with optical techniques to efficiently harness sunlight’s broad spectrum and waste much less of its energy.
It’s not yet clear which design will offer the best performance, says Atwater. But the devices envisioned would be less complex than many electronics on the market today, he says, which makes him confident that once a compelling prototype is fabricated and optimized, it could be commercialized in a practical way.
Achieving ultrahigh efficiency in solar designs should be a primary goal of the industry, argues Atwater, since it’s now “the best lever we have” for reducing the cost of solar power. That’s because prices for solar panels have plummeted over the past few years, so continuing to focus on making them less expensive would have little impact on the overall cost of a solar power system; expenses related to things like wiring, land, permitting, and labor now make up the vast majority of that cost. Making modules more efficient would mean that fewer panels would be needed to produce the same amount of power, so the costs of hardware and installation could be greatly reduced. “Within a few years,” Atwater says, “there won’t be any point to working on technology that has efficiency that’s less than 20 percent.”
Technology
Rabu, 20 November 2013
The History of Technology
A History of Technological Ingenuity
Hess has made smart use of technology to serve its customers and create value since the company’s founding in the 1930s. That’s when Leon Hess installed heaters in oil delivery trucks to warm and thin heavy industrial oil so that it could flow easily, speeding delivery and enabling him to reach more customers more quickly.
Technological ingenuity has played a role in each stage of the company’s growth: building pipelines, terminal delivery systems, exploration of oil fields, deepwater drilling, horizontal drilling, staged fracturing and asset optimization.
Hess created its Exploration & Production Technology group to further the application of technology and the identification of innovative solutions. The company also deploys a Global Process Excellence group based in Marketing & Refining to leverage best practices across the enterprise and around the world.
An array of pipe fittings in a machine shop in Seminole, Texas, where new and existing wells were drilled or deepened to reach the Residual Oil Zone.
Hess people have been studying ways to get more oil out of this formation. The upper portion, known as the Main Pay Zone, has produced more than 660 million barrels of oil since 1937. However, with an estimated one billion barrels still in the ground, the potential remains huge. Hess employed a three-step method to increase productivity.
· New wells were drilled and existing wells deepened to reach the Residual Oil Zone. These wells were connected to field facilities with new pipelines and related infrastructure.
· The project required the development of a way to produce and deliver pure carbon dioxide from a field miles away in New Mexico. Work included drilling or redeveloping 47 wells, installing 60 miles of gathering lines and building a new electrical sub-station to drive two 6,000-horsepower compressors.
· The Seminole gas processing plant was expanded to handle the additional production and improve performance.
Flexible risers, heavyweight hoses from production equipment on the ocean floor, are a critical link up to a surface vessel that produces, processes, stores and offloads oil from nearby fields on to tankers.
Hess Corporation is the first energy company to use a new ultrasound method to help test the integrity of flexible risers, heavyweight hoses carrying thousands of barrels of oil a day from production equipment on the ocean floor to an FPSO, a vessel that produces, processes, stores and offloads oil from nearby fields on to tankers.
For the second time in a decade, Hess Corporation has pioneered the design of a super-fast computer. This one, using 900 processors and 450 graphics processing units to simultaneously process massive amounts of seismic data, is capable of processing data 20 times faster than its predecessor. This allows Hess geoscientists to pour over huge amounts of seismic data and analyze it quickly. As a result, when geoscientists need the valuable sub-surface data to make intelligent exploration decisions, the information available. In the past the company relied on suppliers to analyze data. Now, Hess can do it, and do it quickly.
Hess geoscientists around the world are using an array of new computer-driven tools, hardware and 3D software to find oil and gas. The software is a suite of products (Interpretation Platform Initiative-IPI) for the company’s petrotech community to improve and speed the interpretation of sub-surface geology. As the cost of exploration and drilling rises, increased speed and accuracy all contribute to the company’s success.
Hess offices in London, New York, Houston and Kuala Lumpur now feature Telepresence rooms -- advanced video conferencing facilities with such clarity they cause meeting participants to forget that those across the table are actually an ocean away. Telepresence is to video phones as IMAX is to home movies. The addition of these rooms has enhanced and speeded global communication and reduced travel among the company’s employees – an essential improvement that makes Hess a more competitive and faster-acting operation.
The company is using forensic investigative techniques to solve metallurgical mysteries that lead to equipment failures. Each careful analysis and laboratory-driven investigation of a failed part or piece of equipment allows company engineers to improve the performance and longevity of assets across the globe, saving money in repairs and lengthening the life of expensive equipment.
Hess engineers, working on a team focused on the Valhall field in the Norwegian North Sea, have come up with an improved system to monitor production by embedding intelligent tracers into well architecture.
Intelligent tracers not only offer sub-surface information on the mix of oil and water, they indicate specific locations where the mix may occur. Hess engineers will apply the same technology at other assets around the world to improve production and profitability.
In Retail, a new credit card processing system at Hess Express stores, employs the latest credit- and debit-card processing technology to ensure that each transaction for gasoline and groceries is faster and more secure.
At the pumps, Hess Express customers will also notice that technology ensures accuracy in measuring their fuel and ensuring that their transaction cannot be tampered with and remain secure.
Hess Corporation is using new software to streamline audit and finance processing systems that track shipments, trades and spot sales of our products around the world. With speed and accuracy, then, we can service our customers in a timely way and track their shipments by the minute, no matter where in the world they may be.
The company is using solar-powered ground remediation technology to clear a site where creosote from a historic wood treatment facility contaminated the ground and the river bed on the Elizabeth River near our Chesapeake Terminal.
The company is developing new hydrogen fuel cell technology that is being used extensively in the forklift industry in programs that may lead to wider use with automobiles and trucks. In addition, a Hess facility has developed hydrogen fuel refill stations that can be used with any hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicle.
Through the company’s Energy Marketing business, Hess is able to offer customers a way to offset their impact on the environment with a program that measures their energy use and offsets it with renewable energy certificates (RECs). RECs are part of Hess’ green suite of energy offerings that includes Demand Response and C-Neutral. Hess provides a broad range of energy solutions to help commercial and industrial customers meet their business and environmental needs. The technology behind this suite of programs is not unique to Hess, but the company’s leadership in applying it has been a significant boon to its customers.
Hess has made smart use of technology to serve its customers and create value since the company’s founding in the 1930s. That’s when Leon Hess installed heaters in oil delivery trucks to warm and thin heavy industrial oil so that it could flow easily, speeding delivery and enabling him to reach more customers more quickly.
Technological ingenuity has played a role in each stage of the company’s growth: building pipelines, terminal delivery systems, exploration of oil fields, deepwater drilling, horizontal drilling, staged fracturing and asset optimization.
Hess created its Exploration & Production Technology group to further the application of technology and the identification of innovative solutions. The company also deploys a Global Process Excellence group based in Marketing & Refining to leverage best practices across the enterprise and around the world.
An array of pipe fittings in a machine shop in Seminole, Texas, where new and existing wells were drilled or deepened to reach the Residual Oil Zone.
Hess people have been studying ways to get more oil out of this formation. The upper portion, known as the Main Pay Zone, has produced more than 660 million barrels of oil since 1937. However, with an estimated one billion barrels still in the ground, the potential remains huge. Hess employed a three-step method to increase productivity.
· New wells were drilled and existing wells deepened to reach the Residual Oil Zone. These wells were connected to field facilities with new pipelines and related infrastructure.
· The project required the development of a way to produce and deliver pure carbon dioxide from a field miles away in New Mexico. Work included drilling or redeveloping 47 wells, installing 60 miles of gathering lines and building a new electrical sub-station to drive two 6,000-horsepower compressors.
· The Seminole gas processing plant was expanded to handle the additional production and improve performance.
Flexible risers, heavyweight hoses from production equipment on the ocean floor, are a critical link up to a surface vessel that produces, processes, stores and offloads oil from nearby fields on to tankers.
Hess Corporation is the first energy company to use a new ultrasound method to help test the integrity of flexible risers, heavyweight hoses carrying thousands of barrels of oil a day from production equipment on the ocean floor to an FPSO, a vessel that produces, processes, stores and offloads oil from nearby fields on to tankers.
For the second time in a decade, Hess Corporation has pioneered the design of a super-fast computer. This one, using 900 processors and 450 graphics processing units to simultaneously process massive amounts of seismic data, is capable of processing data 20 times faster than its predecessor. This allows Hess geoscientists to pour over huge amounts of seismic data and analyze it quickly. As a result, when geoscientists need the valuable sub-surface data to make intelligent exploration decisions, the information available. In the past the company relied on suppliers to analyze data. Now, Hess can do it, and do it quickly.
Hess geoscientists around the world are using an array of new computer-driven tools, hardware and 3D software to find oil and gas. The software is a suite of products (Interpretation Platform Initiative-IPI) for the company’s petrotech community to improve and speed the interpretation of sub-surface geology. As the cost of exploration and drilling rises, increased speed and accuracy all contribute to the company’s success.
Hess offices in London, New York, Houston and Kuala Lumpur now feature Telepresence rooms -- advanced video conferencing facilities with such clarity they cause meeting participants to forget that those across the table are actually an ocean away. Telepresence is to video phones as IMAX is to home movies. The addition of these rooms has enhanced and speeded global communication and reduced travel among the company’s employees – an essential improvement that makes Hess a more competitive and faster-acting operation.
The company is using forensic investigative techniques to solve metallurgical mysteries that lead to equipment failures. Each careful analysis and laboratory-driven investigation of a failed part or piece of equipment allows company engineers to improve the performance and longevity of assets across the globe, saving money in repairs and lengthening the life of expensive equipment.
Hess engineers, working on a team focused on the Valhall field in the Norwegian North Sea, have come up with an improved system to monitor production by embedding intelligent tracers into well architecture.
Intelligent tracers not only offer sub-surface information on the mix of oil and water, they indicate specific locations where the mix may occur. Hess engineers will apply the same technology at other assets around the world to improve production and profitability.
In Retail, a new credit card processing system at Hess Express stores, employs the latest credit- and debit-card processing technology to ensure that each transaction for gasoline and groceries is faster and more secure.
At the pumps, Hess Express customers will also notice that technology ensures accuracy in measuring their fuel and ensuring that their transaction cannot be tampered with and remain secure.
Hess Corporation is using new software to streamline audit and finance processing systems that track shipments, trades and spot sales of our products around the world. With speed and accuracy, then, we can service our customers in a timely way and track their shipments by the minute, no matter where in the world they may be.
The company is using solar-powered ground remediation technology to clear a site where creosote from a historic wood treatment facility contaminated the ground and the river bed on the Elizabeth River near our Chesapeake Terminal.
The company is developing new hydrogen fuel cell technology that is being used extensively in the forklift industry in programs that may lead to wider use with automobiles and trucks. In addition, a Hess facility has developed hydrogen fuel refill stations that can be used with any hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicle.
Through the company’s Energy Marketing business, Hess is able to offer customers a way to offset their impact on the environment with a program that measures their energy use and offsets it with renewable energy certificates (RECs). RECs are part of Hess’ green suite of energy offerings that includes Demand Response and C-Neutral. Hess provides a broad range of energy solutions to help commercial and industrial customers meet their business and environmental needs. The technology behind this suite of programs is not unique to Hess, but the company’s leadership in applying it has been a significant boon to its customers.
Kamis, 14 November 2013
New Technology - 2013
New Technology - 2013
On
December 21, 2012, we were supposed to see the end of the world. I'm
thinking that didn't happen, and I glad it didn't, since I enjoy being
alive writing on the internet, playing with new technology, and driving fast cars. Plus, there's a lot to look forward to in 2013 that I don't want to miss. Now that we're past he supposed end of days and done opening up Christmas presents, we are one step closer to the greatest new revolution in technology
mankind has ever experienced. Although we never truly know for sure
what new technology the future will bring us, we've got a pretty good
idea for what new things are in store for us next year. 2013 may not be
the year man and machine become one but there will certainly be plenty
of new technology and gadgets for us to play with.
The
Massachusetts Institution of Technology (MIT) is a hub for new
technology, and has their sights set on being the catalyst for finally
pushing the electric automobile revolution over the edge. In 2013, the
Hinoko (meaning "urban car," pictured above) will be released to the
masses across Europe (With a small few areas in the U.S.), making the
"Smart" brand cars virtually obsolete.
One of the best characteristics of the new Hiroko is that it is incredibly easy to park in small spaces, with the technology to fit in one third of a parking space after being "folded" up. Yes, that's right, three of these things fit into one regular old parking space. Since European cities are known to be rather crowded, this new technology will be a welcomed feature. The initial plan is for city governments to run a program similar to ZipCar, promoting the use of the new Hiroko.
The downside? A 75 mile range, so don't go thinking you can start a new Hiroko Taxi service. You will fail. Miserably.
One of the best characteristics of the new Hiroko is that it is incredibly easy to park in small spaces, with the technology to fit in one third of a parking space after being "folded" up. Yes, that's right, three of these things fit into one regular old parking space. Since European cities are known to be rather crowded, this new technology will be a welcomed feature. The initial plan is for city governments to run a program similar to ZipCar, promoting the use of the new Hiroko.
The downside? A 75 mile range, so don't go thinking you can start a new Hiroko Taxi service. You will fail. Miserably.
Memristor Technology
The
basic message of Moore’s law tells us that advancements in new
technology will cause computer chip performance to double every two
years. So far this has held true; and if it continues, we will run face
first into a brick wall somewhere around 2020 due to simple physical
limitations.
Memristors are the answer. They are without a doubt the future of technology in our society. In their current form, a resistor is a passive component with a set resistance value. Memristors, on the other hand, have the technology to change their resistance based on the direction of current running through them. In addition to that, you can power down a device using memristors, and they will remember their last state when powered back on. This new technology is expected to completely eliminate boot times from computer devices, which will in turn convince us to power them down on a regular basis, drastically reducing power usage and increasing battery life.
This new technology is said to be capable of neural net processing, allowing it to mimic the human brain. Taken further, scientists believe that human skin and blood can be used as memristors. While this has some great implications…it also may be cause for fear…
Memristors are the answer. They are without a doubt the future of technology in our society. In their current form, a resistor is a passive component with a set resistance value. Memristors, on the other hand, have the technology to change their resistance based on the direction of current running through them. In addition to that, you can power down a device using memristors, and they will remember their last state when powered back on. This new technology is expected to completely eliminate boot times from computer devices, which will in turn convince us to power them down on a regular basis, drastically reducing power usage and increasing battery life.
This new technology is said to be capable of neural net processing, allowing it to mimic the human brain. Taken further, scientists believe that human skin and blood can be used as memristors. While this has some great implications…it also may be cause for fear…
While there is no reference to memristors in this series, this new
technology certainly puts us on the right path to create just such a
machine.
Source: Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator.
Google Glass
I remember the day when “Google” was nothing but a single
page with a logo and a text box. Now we’ve got Google
putting their stamp all over new technology with Gmail,
a social network, Android phones, Android tablets, and
even Android TV's. What is the logical next step?
Google smart goggles of course. Tell me you didn’t see
that one coming. (Ok, I didn’t.)
Google’s next piece of new technology is going to put
a little screen right in front of your eyes as you walk
around going about your life. This screen will present to you an augmented reality overlay as you view the world around you. The Google Glass is reported to have built in 4G with GPS technology, a camera, and a Bluetooth connection to Android based phones.
Concept art Samsung used to file a patent for smart skinned phones.
Source: Patent-Bolt
Smart Skin Phones
Samsung has filed a patent for a new technology called smart device-skin
which will supposedly be able to take any digital image, and display
that image across the skin of the device. The patent describes a layer
of film that wraps the phone, covering the entire phone except the
sockets, the camera, and the screen. Little else is known about this new
technology (other than it’s awesome), but it is described as a
possible feature for an upcoming phone. The technology may also be
available as an accessory to fit onto most other devices. While little
information on this new technology has been released to the public
(including a release date), we do know of another upcoming piece of
Samsung technology that just might be the aforementioned phone….
Us techno-geeks love giving new devices complicated, high-tech names. This provides an aura of mystery and excitement. Our next highly anticipated device is known as…
Us techno-geeks love giving new devices complicated, high-tech names. This provides an aura of mystery and excitement. Our next highly anticipated device is known as…
AMOLED bendy screen phones by Samsung
Source: MyGreatPhone.com
Bendy Screen Smartphone
Yes, the bendy screen smartphone.
For those of you who are technologically illiterate, a bendy screen
smartphone is a new technology touting a screen that we can bend!
Yep. Who doesn’t want to bend and twist their phone into silly shapes
sometimes? It's the best way to let out your anger, other than just
throwing the thing against a wall.
Using Samsung’s OLED display technology, we can be expecting a new phone model that will allow us to bend it, roll it up, and hit it with a hammer. (YES!) We already have the specs for this new piece of technological genius as well. The phone debuted as the “Galaxy Skin” (wait..did that say…skin?) features a high-res 800×480 AMOLED screen, 8mp camera and 1Gb of RAM as well as a 1.2GHz processor.
Don’t be surprised to see this new technology implemented into bendy screen tablets released shortly after.
Using Samsung’s OLED display technology, we can be expecting a new phone model that will allow us to bend it, roll it up, and hit it with a hammer. (YES!) We already have the specs for this new piece of technological genius as well. The phone debuted as the “Galaxy Skin” (wait..did that say…skin?) features a high-res 800×480 AMOLED screen, 8mp camera and 1Gb of RAM as well as a 1.2GHz processor.
Don’t be surprised to see this new technology implemented into bendy screen tablets released shortly after.
Xbox 720
There
are rumors everywhere about the new Xbox system: it won’t have an
optical drive, all games will be downloaded digitally, it’s called the
Xbox Loop, it’s called the Durango...and the list goes on. There are a
few reliable rumors about this technology, however. The graphics are
certainly being done by AMD, who claim that the graphic detail will be
on the same level of Avatar. We can also certainly believe that the
system is going to be released at E3 in 2013, as several companies
working on the project have claimed.
Source: MyBasis.com
Basis Band
We’ve
all seen heart rate monitors, pedometers, and the like. Soon, we'll
have something even more advanced and useful called the Basis Band. The
Basis Band is a wrist watch style monitor with the technology to track
virtually everything your body does. It automatically detects your
activities and keeps track of things such as calories burned, heart
rate, sleeping patterns, and other physical activities. I’ve
never been a huge fan of health monitors in the past, but a piece of
technology that can monitor my sleep patterns on top of everything else
may be just what I need.
What About Next Year?
- New Technology - 2014
2013 is already upon us, and 2014 is going to be another great year for new technology, filled with some crazy fun gadgets. - Technology for 2020 and Beyond
Technology is improving at unimaginable rates, and as a result many inventions once thought to be science fiction are nearing reality. Technology of the future is almost here. - Television of the Future
The future of television screen technology is bright, soon we will be streaming everything to our invisible screens throughout the house.
Fujitsu Lifebook 2013
Ok
so you’re the guy who leaves home with a digital camera strung around
his neck, a backpack to carry his laptop, a tablet in his briefcase, and
a phone in his pocket? Well, you’re just weird. That said, Fujitsu has
the answer for you…weird folk.
The Fujitsu Lifebook, coming in 2013, combines all of these fancy pieces of technology into one. Ditch everything else, keep the laptop backpack. Need a camera? Detach the laptop’s camera to be used as a handheld digital camera. Tablet? Open it up and pull that out as well. Put it back in and the tablet immediately displays itself as a touch-screen keyboard for the laptop. There is even a spot where you can attach and remove a special cell phone, which I imagine acts as the cellular modem for the laptop when attached. (Don’t be surprised if this allows you to make video phone calls from the laptop as well.)
The price is undetermined, but as with all new technology, don’t expect it to be cheap.
The Fujitsu Lifebook, coming in 2013, combines all of these fancy pieces of technology into one. Ditch everything else, keep the laptop backpack. Need a camera? Detach the laptop’s camera to be used as a handheld digital camera. Tablet? Open it up and pull that out as well. Put it back in and the tablet immediately displays itself as a touch-screen keyboard for the laptop. There is even a spot where you can attach and remove a special cell phone, which I imagine acts as the cellular modem for the laptop when attached. (Don’t be surprised if this allows you to make video phone calls from the laptop as well.)
The price is undetermined, but as with all new technology, don’t expect it to be cheap.
Lifebook Concept Design
Source: Yanko Design
Which technology of 2013 are you most excited for?
The Invisible Tank
This
may not be some neat tool or new piece of exciting technology you can
bring home and show off to your friends, but it is definitely something
to be excited for. The word invisible may be a bit
misleading though as this tank uses technology more like that of a
chameleon...A chameleon that only works at night. The British Army
revealed this new technology at the world's largest weapons fare,
probably to make everybody else jealous.
The chameleon tank works by using the infrared technology on night-vision goggles and surveillance planes against them (Obviously it is useless against the naked eye). The tank uses a system of thermo-electric tiles and thermal cameras in order to conform with the environment around it. These heat signatures can change so fast that it even works while moving. If that wasn't enough, the system has it's own library of environmental patterns. This means you could be a terrorist looking for the enemy with your nifty night-vision specs only to find nothing out in the field but a roaming cow. Suddenly this cow emits a burst of flames, and you find yourself blown to pieces by an HE-Frag. Who knew cows could be so violent?
The chameleon tank works by using the infrared technology on night-vision goggles and surveillance planes against them (Obviously it is useless against the naked eye). The tank uses a system of thermo-electric tiles and thermal cameras in order to conform with the environment around it. These heat signatures can change so fast that it even works while moving. If that wasn't enough, the system has it's own library of environmental patterns. This means you could be a terrorist looking for the enemy with your nifty night-vision specs only to find nothing out in the field but a roaming cow. Suddenly this cow emits a burst of flames, and you find yourself blown to pieces by an HE-Frag. Who knew cows could be so violent?
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