Stephen Ansolabehere and David Konisky write for The Boston Globe about a survey on public opinion on energy in the U.S. conducted by the MIT Energy Initiative and the Harvard University Center on Environment. The survey found that Americans have better knowledge of the policy debate than might be expected.
MIT scientists have shown recycled lead can be used in solar cells, reports Popular Science’s Emily Gertz. “The group's work demonstrates that the perovskite created from the lead in just one old car battery could provide materials for 30 households-worth of solar energy cells,” writes Gertz.
Martin LaMonica writes for IEEE Spectrum about how MIT researchers have developed a system that uses car batteries to produce solar cells. “The beauty is that this new process is pretty interchangeable with the current production method,” says Prof. Angela Belcher.
In an article for The Wall Street Journal, Professor John Deutch writes about the success of President Obama’s energy policy. “President Obama is having greater success in advancing his energy agenda in his second term than in his first. But it will take more than one successful term to secure the country's energy future,” Deutch writes.
Washington Post reporter Rachel Feltman writes that MIT engineers have developed a system that recycles batteries into solar cells. “We think it could be a competitor that’s easy to process, has rapidly increasing efficiency, and can be made in an environmentally friendly way,” says Prof. Angela Belcher.
Cynthia Graber of Scientific American reports on the new MIT technique to use solar energy to generate steam. Graber reports that the new system reaches, “85 percent efficiency in converting the solar energy into steam."
Jane Porter writes for Fortune about WiTricity, an MIT spinout focused on the development of wireless power-transfer technology. By using vibrational frequencies, electricity can be transferred over distances of up to four feet.
“A new technology creates steam by harnessing solar energy, using a relatively cheap sponge-like material, and it does it with greater efficiency that ever previously achieved,” writes Douglas Main in a piece for Popular Science about a new solar sponge created by MIT scientists.
Kristine Wong reports for Takepart, a division of Participant Media, that "MIT scientists have invented a simple but ingenious device" to generate steam. Gang Chen, who heads MIT's Department of Mechanical Engineering, explains what makes it work: "First, it’s black in color, so it absorbs the light very effectively. Secondly, it’s porous to allow water to come in. Third, it’s insulating, so it absorbs sunlight and turns it into heat."
Writing for DNews, Tracy Staedter highlights a new spongelike structure developed by MIT's Gang Chen and Hadi Ghasemi to turn sunlight into steam. "The advance could one day lead to an efficient, inexpensive and emission-free way for creating steam that could be used to not only generate steam for energy but also for desalination and sterilization," reports Staedter.
Reporting for Science Nation, Miles O’Brien examines new work from Professor Richard Schrock to develop cleaner, cheaper diesel fuel. With his colleagues, Schrock is developing new catalysts that work together to turn carbon sourced material into high-grade diesel fuel.
Wired reporter Katie Collins writes about how a team of MIT scientists has discovered that the electricity produced by bouncing water droplets could be used to charge smart phones.
“Instead of trying to balance output at the panel level, the students looked to balance at the individual cell level,” writes Sami Grover of The Huffington Post about a team of MIT students who developed an integrated chip to solve the problem caused by shade on solar panels. “The result was both better performance and considerably lower cost.”
"Now researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Michigan have devised a way in which graphene can be grown directly onto an insulator like glass or silicon,” writes Dexter Johnson of IEEE Spectrum. The method could be used to manufacture interactive screens, said Professor A. John Hart.
Writing for Scientific American, Melissa Lott reports on how a team from MIT has developed an integrated circuit design that doubles the capacity of existing solar arrays.