A team of academics based at the University of Washington have announced an exciting breakthrough in dye-sensitized solar cell technology.

Researchers studying solar cell configurations discovered that by using a design based on a popcorn ball (tiny spheres grouped into bigger porous spheres), efficiency in cheap solar cells was more than doubled.

The advances were detailed in a paper presented at a national meeting of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans. According to lead author Guozhong Cao, a UW professor of materials science and engineering, “we think this can lead to a significant breakthrough in dye-sensitized solar cells.”

Each gram of the new material contains 1000 square feet of light absorbing pigment. The complex design also means that light gets trapped inside the materials, leading to a remarkable increase in absorption. So far, they've only done this with zinc-oxide dyes, which are much less efficient than titanium oxide dyes. The next step in the process is to see if they can reproduce the technique with high-efficiency dies, and still get that 250% spike in efficiency.

Dye-sensitive cells have been around since the early 90s and have so far peaked at about 11% efficiency. But if this new technique works with the more efficient titanium oxide pigments as it does with the less efficienct zinc oxide, then we could see more than 25% efficiency. That would make these cells considerably more efficient than current thin-film cells, like ones being produced by Nanosolar. Though dye cells have many of the same advantages as thin film solar, being light-weight, flexible, and possibly printable, so far thin film has beat them in cost per watt.

But that was before nano-popcorn-balls came along. Now we'll just have to wait and see.

Source: Dailytech.com

Earlier this year, Chinese company Build Your Dream (BYD Auto) announced the launch of the F6DM, a car that might possibly emerge as the first plug-in hybrid on the market (though not available outside China). Now the Shenzen-based outfit has revealed plans to build a smaller, less expensive, follow up.

The F3DM, with its design cues taken from the Toyota Corolla, was showcased at this year’s Geneva Motor Show. The car allows drivers to switch between full-electric and hybrid modes. In full-electric mode it has a fairly impressive range of 80 miles between charges. There is also a small conventional engine enabling the car to function like a regular gasoline-electric hybrid.

The model will be rolled out in China by the end of this year, via a test fleet of 200 taxicabs in home town Shenzen. The company hopes to sell cars in Europe in 3 years and the US in 3-5 years. We're not getting our hopes up, though; so far Chinese auto makers have had a hard time jumping into the emissions and safety standards of the U.S. and E.U.

Via Treehugger and Greencarcongress

Could a vat of chemicals be a more effective way to harness the sun's energy than those fancy, intricately crafted silicon wafers? We're not sure, but Professor Chaurasia of the University of Birmingham, UK, was telling me about that possibility earlier in the month.

He's developing a unique process in which propanol is dehydrogenated using a catalyst and clean, solar energy. The hydrogen then generates electricity - courtesy of a Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cell. The byproduct of dehydrogenated propanol -- acetone -- and the protons (H+) and electrons (e-) then all recombine to form more propanol, which is then ready to start the project all over again.

Very simply, it's a way of harnessing the instability of propanol to push electrons onto the grid. It's not a new way of creating hydrogen, it's a new way of harnessing the sun's power using the versatility of hydrogen, and the instability of propanol. Indeed, it's pretty genius.

But the question of economics remains. Current solar cells are getting cheaper and more efficient every day. And though Chaurasia thinks that his chemical cells could be competitive, that will depend on several factors. The propanol is cheap, PEM fuel cells and titanium catalysts are not, so we will have to wait for these "solar fuel cells" to scale up before making any real judgments.

Chaurasia's most recent paper was published in the International Journal of Sustainble Energy.

Hot on the heels of news that Tesla will sell their Roadster EV in Europe, Fisker has announced plans to ship their Karma plug-in hybrid there as well. The company anticipates a production volume of some 15,000 units a year, around half of which will go to Europe, starting late next year.

The "luxury sports sedan" boasts a hybrid powertrain and a space-age roof with an integrated solar panel. Fisker claims performance figures of 0-60 MPH in less than 6 seconds and a top speed of around 125 MPH.

Although the four-seater Karma will sell for $80,000 in the US, there is speculation that Danish-born CEO Henrik Fisker is planning on a higher price tag in Europe, perhaps as much as €90,000. It seems that the weak dollar may continue to prove good news for US car companies and bad news for many European consumers.

Check out the high-res gallery below...

Via AutoReview

So what did you do last weekend? We spent Saturday and Sunday attending speeches by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Did we mention we live in Missoula, Montana? Yes, for a brief 30 hours, the Big Sky State was the at the center of the political universe. We of course blogged about it.

• Check out our photo diaries from both the Obama and Clinton events.

And in other enviro-political news this week:

• Rob Howard attended the first game at Nationals Field in Washington, D.C. -- it's the country's first major stadium to earn LEED certification.
• The Army has a new mission: Moving desert tortoises from its training grounds.
• First he tried to build a Bridge To Nowhere. Now Sen. Ted Stevens wants to drill for oil in Alaska's Bering Sea.
• The Olympic flame is having a bad week. Not only do protesters want to disrupt the relay, but the torch gets its own plane, which isn't exactly helping helping China's reputation as a polluter.
• Finally, the government has a simple plan for preventing the spread of disease from Yellowstone bison to livestock: Kill every bison that leaves the national park. This strategy isn't going over well with everyone.

This is a hard truth to swallow...but despite the high-tech, clean-room facilities needed to create monosilicon solar panels, the panels themselves still only represent about half of the costs of getting home solar power.

The other half of the cost is mounting and wiring the solar panels to your house, and the grid. In short, installation is just as expensive as the panels. But Akeena solar has developed a system that cuts installation costs by half. They call in "Andalay," though I'm really not sure why.

They've already licensed the technology to Kyocera and SunTech. Akeena ships them the racks, they stick their panels into them, and then they ship them back to Akeena for sale. Because the racks (and all that shipping back and forth to Asia) cost some money, the overall costs are only brought down about 10%. To bring down costs further, Akeena is actually allowing SunTech to sell the panels directly...but only to buyers outside the U.S.

Hopefully, the inefficiencies in this system will get worked out soon, and the costs of installation will continue to drop...along with the cost of the panels themselves.

Via CNet

Let's face it...CFLs, to an ecogeek, are old news. My entire house was converted more than three years ago. I don't even think about them anymore. Frankly, I can't believe incandescents are still on sale!

There just hasn't been very much excitement in the consumer space in lighting. Some fantastic research, sure, but nothing I can buy. Well, one of the few companies who make LED light bulbs has changed that. It may be silly of me to get excited about a light bulb, but I can't help it.

EarthLED already has a few amazing products. The CL line is my personal favorite, I have two of them in my house already. But while they work for my house, with its low ceilings and cave-dwelling inhabitants, folks were previously disappointed by the lack of any 100 W equivalents at EarthLED.

Well, that's changed. The new Evolux line at EarthLED puts off just as much light as a 100 W incandescent but consumes only 13 W. A 13 W CFL, on the other hand, puts out about as much light as an 80 W incandescent would.

And yet, that's not its sole claim to superiority. The new line also promises to be cheaper than CFLs over the life of the bulb, not so much because of energy savings (though that helps) but because of the bulb's lifetime. CREE's LEDs are rated at over 50,000 hours, which is more than a decade of use...and 5X longer than CFLs.

Of course, no one's actually tested these bulbs for all 50,000 of those hours. And as the bulb actually has a moving part (a small, silent fan to keep the circuit board cool) the life of the fan might be more important than the life of the LEDs.

Besides being more efficient and longer lasting than CFLs, the bulbs also contain no mercury, are significantly more durable and won't shatter if dropped, and never get too hot to touch. They're about to release another version of the bulb that will turn any lamp into a dimmable lamp. Simply by turning the lamp on and off quickly, you can select 150 lumen, 750 lumen, or 950 lumen settings.

Of course, there has to be bad news, doesn't there. Though the total cost of ownership will be lower, because you'll only have to buy one every 15 years or so, the initial investment of $80 might come as a shock. But, really, is it that much of a price to pay to be the only person on your block with "The World's Most Advanced Light Bulb"?

From my perspective, I see it as both being a cool thing to have in the house and a way to encourage companies like EarthLED and CREE to continue working their fingers to the bone creating these amazing new products.

EarthLED's Evolux Bulbs

To Make Cities “Resilient,” Reduce Car Travel

The goal for modern cities, as environmental scientist Peter Newman describes it, is to move beyond “sustainability” to “resiliency.” The model of constant consumption needs to stop and cities need to be constructed in such a manner as to make this possible.

One of Newman's main targets is a decrease in oil consumption and, not surprisingly, minimizing the use of cars. Building of suburbs should be scrapped in favor of denser urban settings than enable mass transit, walking, and biking.

U.S. Car Sales Crash in 2008

In the short span of one year, car sales in the United States have come crashing down--and the change is significant. Industry giants Chrysler and General Motors sold 19 percent less automobiles in March 2008 than they did in March of 2007, according to sales reports. Ford isn't faring much better, with sales that are down 14 percent. Meanwhile, Toyota is still hanging on with a mere 10 percent drop.

Introducing Hummer H8: The Earth F@#ker

Tired of tip-toeing around the Hummer's inherent incongruity with things like caring for the planet, giving a damn about anyone's safety, or working towards national energy self-reliance, the auto manufacturer has officially proclaimed*, “Screw it!”

Diesel Exhaust Hurts Your Brain

New research indicates that exposure to diesel exhaust may cause long-term damage to brain function. The study, conducted by Particle & Fibre Toxicology, tracked the effects of the nanoparticles found in diesel exhaust.

EcoGeek is a technology blog...the folks at EnviroWonk do the hard work covering politics. But sometimes, the politics are just too important to ignore.

Today the Senate approved an amendment to the U.S. Housing Bill that will, if passed in the House and signed by President Bush, will extend the Solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for another eight years. Very simply, the ITC gives companies buying solar panels a 30% tax break on the money they spend on panels.

The recent energy bill, passed several months ago, initially included the ITC, but Bush threatened to veto any legislation that reduced subsidies for big oil, so it was removed. The more recent bill is unclear about where the money will come from, leading to concerns that it will be vetoed in the House, as it would be adding to the deficit. If it makes it to the president, however, the bill is likely to be signed this time because he can't make the "But it will increase gas prices" claim.

The solar industry continues to fret about the current ITC's scheduled lapse. Many solar energy projects that have begun will not be financially viable without the ITC, and many others are waiting to see if the ITC is passed before being begun. All together, the ITC would cost about $0.50 per year for the next eight years. It would also likely tip the solar industry into profitability, and create a massive rush to invest in solar projects. It really pisses me off that this has taken so long to pass. Already the solar industry is suffering, and we can't even pay for it with Exxon's subsidies. Obviously, they need the help, since they only made $11 billion last quarter.

Via the Solar Energy Industry Association

In shocking and completely unexpected news, NASA's top climate scientist, James Hansen, was quoted by Daily Galaxy as saying that fossil fuel companies have a stranglehold on the United States government. This probably isn't news to any of you; after all, Dick Cheney is in charge of U.S. energy policy. Nonetheless, it's nice to see a prominent (and government-employed) ecogeek speaking out about the infiltration. According to Hansen, our planet has reached dangerous levels of CO₂ in the atmosphere, and Big Oil is doing its best to keep people uninformed.

Hansen has some ideas on what needs to be done to save us from our current crisis, though. His wish is for all coal-fired plants to be phased out by 2030 and putting a tax on them until that happens. Also, he wants new plants to have to conform to the criteria of trapping and segregating their CO₂ emissions.

As he says, however: "The problem is that 90 percent of energy is fossil fuels." This goes right back to the aforementioned stranglehold and is the reason why his wishes probably won't come true without a fight. How many times do we have to be reminded that we have no power before we decide to take that power back, eh? Something needs to happen. I say it's time for a real bloody brawl!

Via Daily Galaxy

We've been wondering how Eco Nokia's "eco-minded" 3110 Evolve really is. Our first impression was "not very," and it turns out that's pretty accurate.

Smart Planet did a quick review of the phone and, based on their assessment, I'll give you the same advice I give everyone else...the greenest phone is the one you're already using.

The Evolve's green cred comes from a few places, all of which should be included in every single phone being sold today. These features include: Less packaging, more recycled content in the packaging, bio-plastic keys, and a charger that eats less power when the phone isn't plugged into it.

None of these things are going to have a significant impact on the world unless they're used in all of the billion phones out there. Why are they still using overblown packaging for the rest of their phones? Why don't they use recycled paper in all of their packaging. Why do the vast majority of their chargers suck power from the wall even when nothing's plugged into them?

So your best choice? Don't get a new phone every year...my LG VX9800 continues to be the only cell phone I've ever owned...and having a phone that lives twice as long is basically a phone that is twice as green.