A startup in Germany has developed a new kind of solar panel made of small, organic molecules deposited on polyester films. The technology is similar to what’s used for OLED displays for phones and flat-screen TVs. The panels are flexible, and far lighter than conventional solar panels, yet in some locations—particularly where it’s hot or cloudy—they can generate just as much electricity as a conventional solar panel.Heliatek, based in Dresden, is funded by Bosch, BASF, and others, and has raised 28 million euros so far. The company, which recently started making its panels on a small, proof-of-concept production line, hopes to raise an additional 60 million euros, part of which will be used to build a 75-megawatt factory. This is fairly small for a solar panel factory—at such a small scale, Heliatek’s panels will cost more per watt than conventional solar panels, says CEO Thibaud de Séguillon. But in four to five years, by which time Heliatek should reach large-scale production, the cost could drop to around 40 to 50 cents per watt, which would make them competitive with conventional solar panels, he says.

Tinted Windows that Generate Electricity – Technology Review

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The key finding is that new residential heating systems fuelled by LPG are 20% lower carbon and 15% lower overall-environmental-impact than those fuelled by heating oil. An unexpected finding was that an LPG system’s environmental impact is about the same as that of a bio heating oil system fuelled by 100% rapeseed methyl ester, Europe’s predominant biofuel. Moreover, a 20/80 blend (by energy content) with conventional heating oil, a bio-heating-oil system generates a footprint about 15% higher than an LPG system’s.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2012.01.004

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http://www.climatewell.com/index.html#/applications

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2012.01.028

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Regional supplies of biomass are currently being evaluated as feedstocks in energy applications to meet renewable portfolio (RPS) and low carbon fuel standards. We investigate the life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and associated abatement costs resulting from using densified switchgrass for thermal and electrical energy. In contrast to the large and positive abatement costs for using biomass in electricity generation ($149/Mg CO2e) due to the low cost of coal and high feedstock and power plant operation costs, abatement costs for replacing fuel oil with biomass in thermal applications are large and negative (−$52 to −$92/Mg CO2e), resulting in cost savings. Replacing fuel oil with biomass in thermal applications results in least cost reductions compared to replacing coal in electricity generation, an alternative that has gained attention due to RPS legislation and the centralized production model most often considered in U.S. policy. Our estimates indicate a more than doubling of liquid fuel displacement when switchgrass is substituted for fuel oil as opposed to gasoline, suggesting that, in certain U.S. locations, such as the northeast, densified biomass would help to significantly decarbonize energy supply with regionally sourced feedstock, while also reducing imported oil. On the basis of supply projections from the recently released Billion Ton Report, there will be enough sustainably harvested biomass available in the northeast by 2022 to offset the entirety of heating oil demand in the same region. This will save NE consumers between $2.3 and $3.9 billion annually. Diverting the same resource to electricity generation would cost the region $7.7 billion per year. While there is great need for finding low carbon substitutes for coal power and liquid transportation fuels in the U.S., we argue that in certain regions it makes cost- (and GHG mitigation-) effective sense to phase out liquid heating fuels with locally produced biomass first.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es202752b

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Recently, there is growing demand for energy saving technologies in buildings due to global warming and environmental impact issue. As a result to this, energy-efficient technologies are becoming more popular amongst researchers and designers. In this regards, to fulfil energy conservation demands, researchers have focused on the development of advance heat or energy recovery with energy-efficient ventilation system. The aim of this paper is to review heat or energy recovery technologies for building applications. The reviews were discussed according to the concept and classification of heat or energy recovery based on types and flow arrangement. The developments of these technologies in integrated energy-efficient system such as mechanical and passive ventilation, air conditioning, dehumidification and photovoltaic panel have also been presented.

doi:10.1016/j.rser.2011.09.026

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