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Over this past weekend, well-known figures in the energy business gathered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Energy Conference. Famed venture capitalist and green-tech advocate John Doerr gave the morning keynote speech, and said that funding in energy research and development and venture investing in clean tech are far too low to adequately address climate change.
The conference, which is organised by students, brought in some heavy hitters as speakers. Last year, General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt spoke in the morning, followed by a keynote by Cambridge Energy Research Associates Chairman Daniel Yergin.
This year, internet tycoon Bob Metcalfe gave an abbreviated version of his speech on the EnerNet and the global warming bubble -- the idea being that we can draw lessons from the growth of the internet and apply them to the energy business. He argues that investment bubbles are good for innovation.
Other highlights from the conference included MIT's and Germany's Fraunhofer Institute's announcement on the creation of the Center for Sustainable Energy Systems to do research on advanced solar modules and building energy efficiency. It will have initial funding of $6 million (£3 million) -- $5 million (£2.5 million) from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative state agency and $1 million (£500,000) from utility National Grid.
But most exciting for us were some of the new technologies revealed at the conference. For instance, GreenFuel Technologies has developed a process for growing algae from carbon dioxide emissions at power plants (pictured above). Once the algae are grown, it can be dried and burned to make electricity, or turned into biodiesel.
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MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics is starting a company called Covalent Solar to commercialise the technology developed in its lab. Its solar cells are less expensive because they use less silicon. They're essentially plastic sheets with dyes and waveguides on them to move light to the edges, where there are thin strips of silicon solar cells.
Nuvera is a company that makes fuel cells that convert liquid fuels, like gasoline or ethanol, into hydrogen. The hydrogen then creates electricity from the fuel cell to power the vehicle. Nuvera is making fuel cells (the stack behind the screen) and fuel converters for on-board applications, like this sports car, and for stationary fuelling stations for vehicles like forklifts.
A123 Systems makes the battery inside the Chevy Volt, high-end power tools, and potentially many more devices. The company, spun out of MIT, makes lithium-ion batteries. The orange ones here are designed to deliver more power, as would be needed in an auto battery, while others are designed to store more energy.
Philips is big into LED lighting. Right now, LED lights are an expensive alternative to incandescents or CFLs. But for specialty lighting, like Christmas tree lights, they're becoming available. Proponents of LEDs say that they use 80 per cent less electricity than incandescent lights.
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