24 Saturday Mar 2018
Posted in energy, energy storage, Hydrogen Economy, solar fuels, Uncategorized
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It was recently announced that Japan will be opening its 100th Hydrogen fueling station this Spring, making it the first country in the world to reach this milestone. According to the article below, Japan has been greatly expanding its hydrogen fueling infrastructure as it expects to have 40,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles on the road by 2020.
By comparison, there are currently around 40 hydrogen fueling stations in Germany and 30 in the U.S..
26 Friday Dec 2014
Posted in Solar-Popular Press
The sun releases ample energy to power all of mankind’s energy needs, but that energy is fairly diffuse by the time it reaches earth (~ 100 W/m^2). This means that large areas of land would be required to meet all of our energy needs with solar, land that might otherwise be used for other purposes like agriculture or development.
One solution to easing this land-use debate is to put the solar panels on water. The French company Ciel et Terre has developed technology that allows arrays of solar panels to float directly above bodies of water such as lakes or reservoirs: http://www.ciel-et-terre.net/floating-solar-system/
Recently, it was announced that the world’s largest floating solar power plant would be installed in Japan: http://news.discovery.com/tech/alternative-power-sources/worlds-largest-floating-solar-plant-planned-for-japan-141224.htm
Besides avoiding competition for land, floating solar panels offer the additional benefits of i.) decreasing evaporation of water and ii.) allowing the solar panel to operating at lower temperature, and thus higher efficiency.
Esposito Research Group Blog 