Energy

Firefighters have worried that in the event of a fracking chemical spill, without information on the chemicals they would not know the best way to respond. Photo courtesy Kaye Bewley, flickr creative commons

Legislators are pushing for a rule that would require fracking operators to provide information about the chemical contents of fracking fluid in the event of a spill.

northcarolinahealthnews.org - by Gabe Rivin - May 16, 2014

North Carolina - First responders are applauding a recent legislative proposal that would allow state officials to retain confidential information about hydraulic-fracturing chemicals, with the intention that the information reach those first responders quickly during an emergency.

superpedestrian.com

Superpedestrian, Inc is a venture-backed company operating out of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Our diverse team is developing lightweight electric vehicles with integrated online platforms, finding new ways to connect people with their environment. Founded in late 2012 by Assaf Biderman, Associate Director at MIT's SENSEable City Lab, Superpedestrian seeks to provide new forms of human-powered mobility for cities. Ultimately, our vision is to offer an improved quality of living to everybody.

The Copenhagen Wheel was initially developed at MIT's SENSEable City Lab as a research project, sponsored by the Mayor of Copenhagen. It has won multiple design awards and been reviewed in over 1,000 media publications, including BBC, Wired and the New York Times - not to mention a glamourous acting debut during a whole season of TV series Weeds. Most importantly, Superpedestrian has been receiving daily requests for pre-orders - over 14,000 messages to date.

Image: The tin-based perovskite layer acts as an efficient sunlight absorber that is sandwiched between two electric charge transport layers for conducting electricity to the outside world.

economictimes.indiatimes.com - May 5th, 2014 - Mercouri G. Kanatzidis

In a breakthrough, scientists have developed a new low cost, efficient and environment-friendly solar cell that uses tin instead of the hazardous lead.

Researchers from Northwestern University are among the first to create a solar cell that uses a structure called perovskite, with tin as the light-absorbing material instead of lead.

"Exculding the use of lead is a quantum leap in the process of creating a very promising type of solar cell called a perovskite," said Mercouri G Kanatzidis, an inorganic chemist with expertise in dealing with tin.

PowerFactor is part of GridSTAR, a demonstration smartgrid project deployed at the Philadephia Navy Yard.

greenbiz.com - by Garrett Hering - April 21, 2014

Technological and market forces have converged to make energy storage one of the most exciting — and potentially game-changing — opportunities for commercial and industrial facility managers, grid operators, homeowners and investors.

Forward-thinking utilities, battery suppliers, power inverter producers, system integrators and public-sector supporters are driving a massive expansion of energy storage solutions aimed at enabling the grid of the future — or even a grid-less future.

Although the energy storage value chain includes hundreds — if not thousands — of players, the following are leading the charge.

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