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Gravity Batteries, Green Hydrogen, and a Thorium Reactor for China

Cars That Think

2021 was a big year for energy-related news, what with the ongoing hunt for new forms of energy storage and cleaner if not carbon-free electricity and events and research that spotlighted the weak links in our power grid. This article, by researchers at PARC and the University of Washington, is one possible answer.

Hydrogen 104
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Morris Tanenbaum, Inventor of the Silicon Microchip, Dies at 94

Cars That Think

He received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1949 from Johns Hopkins University , in Baltimore, and earned a Ph.D. Three years later, while working at the IAF, he was named an honorary professor in the University of Freiburg physics department. The research paved the way for more effective solar power generation.

Solar 143
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The Complex Calculus of Clean Energy and Zero Emissions

Cars That Think

Among the most articulate and almost certainly the wonkiest is Jesse Jenkins , a professor of engineering at Princeton University, where he heads the ZERO Lab—the Zero-carbon Energy systems Research and Optimization Laboratory, that is. power-grid transmission. Sounds like increasingly you must model how society works.

Clean 97
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How to Prevent Blackouts by Packetizing the Power Grid

Cars That Think

That need for balance is true of electric power grids, too. We got a heartrending reminder of this fact in February 2021, when Texas experienced an. Spiking demand for electric heat collided with supply problems created by frozen natural-gas equipment and below-average wind-power production. We think there’s a better way.

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DOE ARPA-E awards $156M to projects to 60 projects to accelerate innovation in clean energy technologies

Green Car Congress

The new ARPA-E selections focus on accelerating innovations in clean technology while increasing US competitiveness in rare earth alternatives and breakthroughs in biofuels, thermal storage, grid controls, and solar power electronics. Solar ADEPT: Solar Agile Delivery of Electrical Power Technology ($14.7 light energy.

Energy 294
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Lean Software, Power Electronics, and the Return of Optical Storage

Cars That Think

The standard rule is you can’t really do anything that’s smaller than the wavelength of the light you’re using to read or write. As I say, these power adapters that convert AC to DC, they get more efficient. Your power supplies in your computer get more efficient, and your power supplies in your grid center.

Power 73