ENERGY INNOVATED

Solving the Battery Bottleneck and More:

“The laboratories of electrical engineer Jun Yao and microbiologist Derek Lovley at UMass Amherst have created a device they call an "Air-gen." or air-powered generator, with electrically conductive protein nanowires produced by the microbe Geobacter. The Air-gen connects electrodes to the protein nanowires in such a way that electrical current is generated from the water vapor naturally present in the atmosphere. More…

As solar and wind generation technologies grow better and cheaper, a huge field of study, innovation and experimentation is opening: how to store the energy they generate? The current quest is all about finding the better battery. But there are other solutions, like pumping water into dams, or creating hydrogen with solar power and using it to run everything. Other energy innovations include sucking carbon out of the air, wave power and more are appearing every day…