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The need to innovate in renewable technologies to improve the existing or provide new solutions is essential in order to achieve a best response in the global fight against climate change.
Likewise, improving green energy options is betting on a greener environment, which in turn means improving quality of life in a myriad of social and personal aspects.
Lightweight and powerful electric aircraft and generators
With the purpose of cheapen the cost of the superconducting materials, those that conduct electrical current without resistance or wasting energy, the new invention of the Eurotapes consortium proposes a novel material that could offer the much desired cost efficiency and transmission effectiveness.
Years of research have gone into finally coming up with an alternative that could "revolutionize renewable energy production." For now, they have created "600 meters of superconducting tape" at low cost using a copper oxide that conducts one hundred times more electricity than copper, five times the power and allows creating cables to transport electricity without losses.
Its applications in wind power could mark a before and after in the sector, being able to double the power and lightness of the turbines Or, for example, it would also be very useful to design lighter electric airplanes.
Volcanoes and geothermal energy
Volcanoes also have great potential for revolutionize the geothermal lowering its cost and environmental impact. Or, at least, this is what a group of geologists from the Iceland Deep Drilling Project who are conducting field work in Iceland are trying to demonstrate.
Its objective is to pierce the heart of an Icelandic volcano up to 5 kilometers deep in order to find an inexhaustible source of energy.
Finding what is known as “supercritical steam” would allow the energy obtained to be multiplied by ten, in relation to the steam performance of the traditional wells geothermal. But for this they need that vapor to rise to the surface. If achieved, geothermal energy would multiply its productivity in these environments.
Solar foil
The solar sheet is an interesting alternative to traditional panels that could be added as an alternative to the conventional photovoltaic technology, currently the main engine of renewable energy.
In this way, photovoltaic energy would not always be synonymous with solar panels. With new technologies like the one named Sunflare, solar cells can be installed much more easily in a myriad of surfaces, since they are flexible and light.
The father of this invention is a start-up from Los Angeles, in the United States, whose goal was to make it so thin that it could be fixed with a “special double-sided tape”, explains the founder of the company, Lean Gao.
It is made of gallium, copper, indium and selenide, it does not have a glass substrate and it is low cost. Your productivity is higher than others panelsBut there is still a long way to go in this regard.
Salt and glass, keys to solar energy
Get solar energy from salt and glass is not a utopia. It is basically a more sophisticated formula for obtaining solar energy, which finds practical application in the Crescent Dunes project.
To have before our eyes the mammoth project, a plant very particular solar thermalWe have to go to the Nevada desert, in the United States. The complex is made up of ten thousand silver glass panels each measuring around 115 square meters, surrounding a central tower.
Instead of seeing conventional photovoltaic panels, we see mirrors that follow the movement of the sun throughout the day, while heading towards the tower to reflect the light on it, where molten salt is used to store electricity.
Now it has an installed capacity of 110 MW and can supply Energy up to 10 hours after nightfall thanks to this storage system, a revolutionary solution to avoid the well-known problem that power sources have. intermittent powerlike the wind or the sun.
Taking advantage of photosynthesis
Finally, generate energy through vegetables It can be a fruitful path that brings great joys. Specifically, progress is being made in obtaining green energy by taking advantage of the phenomenon of photosynthesis.
In general, the performance is still very low, of a few volts, but could help the electrical charge of mobile devices until the technology advances enough to improve performance. Being asked, scientists do not rule out being able to apply this mechanism on a large scale, based on the production of substances such as sugars to generate electrons that are later converted into electricity.
Conclusions.
We currently live a period of light and shadow. On the one hand, greenhouse gas emissions are tremendous, although the fight against climate change has acquired a global dimension. On the other hand, we continue to depend on fossil fuels, although the transition to a low-carbon world has been underway.
Or, of course, it is necessary to point here the denialism from Donald trump and the risk that this implies in curbing global warming while, on the other hand, scientists are advancing more than ever in their understanding of climate change and find a predicament that was once unimaginable.
In this turbulent landscape, the role of renewable energy is key to tipping the balance on the green side. But for constitute a alternative feasible that also helps to combat climate change in time, it is necessary to move quickly towards energy efficiency that allows to face up to traditional options.
Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, is also one of the greatest leaders of public opinion, and in this regard he is clear. In his view, the fact that renewable energy is advancing in an astonishing way does not mean that it is enough. On the contrary, he believes that more innovation in clean energy is needed.
"The planet needs reliable energy, cheap Y clean, and to achieve it is only possible with deep innovations ”, explains the founder of Microsoft. In fact, Gates leads by example, as we recall his promise at the Paris climate summit (COP21), together with a group of investors who are also billionaires, to invest more than a billion dollars in a fund for this purpose.
In addition to these impulses that are still promises, there are endless proposals that go in this direction, many of them still simple inventions, supported by patrons such as these or institutional grants, as well as carried out in university or business laboratories.
Others, because there are also them, are real businesses that are generating wealth and who knows, perhaps some of them will revolutionize the future of renewable energies and, with it, save that of humanity or, at least, help to do so.
If you want to read more articles similar to 5 inventions and advances that could revolutionize renewables, we recommend that you enter our category of Ecological Technology.
