New York Times reporter Eduardo Porter writes about the lack of investment in developing technologies to combat climate change, highlighting a recent MIT report on the future of solar power. In the report, MIT researchers examined the challenges to making solar a bigger share of the world’s energy.
MIT engineers have developed an ultralow-power circuit that can efficiently harvest energy from solar power, reports Robert Ferris for CNBC. Ferris explains that the circuit “lends itself well to creating self-powering electronic sensors that can be used in a wide range of applications.”
In an article for The Wall Street Journal, Brian Potts highlights the MIT Energy Initiative’s (MITEI) report on the future of solar energy. Potts writes that solar subsidies should be reconsidered, citing the MITEI report’s findings that “net metering is inefficient and should be redesigned.”
Eleanor Goldberg writes for The Huffington Post that a team of MIT researchers has developed a solar-powered desalination system that could help bring clean drinking water to rural areas. The researchers hope to eventually release a model that could provide clean drinking water for an entire village, Goldberg reports.
A report from the MIT Energy Initiative recommends that U.S. policymakers change their approach to solar technology, reports Erik Sherman for CBS News. “Unless a substantial price is put on carbon dioxide emissions, expanding solar output to levels needed to fight climate change will be cost prohibitive without major change in government policy,” Sherman writes.
Washington Post reporter Joby Warrick writes that a team of MIT engineers has won top prize in a competition designed to spur innovation in desalination technologies for a solar-powered system they developed. “The system, when fully operational, can supply the basic water needs of a village of between 2,000 and 5,000 people,” Warrick explains.
Washington Post reporter Joby Warrick writes that a team of MIT engineers has won the Desal Prize for a solar-powered desalination system they developed. “The system, when fully operational, can supply the basic water needs of a village of between 2,000 and 5,000 people,” Warrick explains.
Professor Richard Schmalensee speaks with Ben Johnson of Marketplace about a new report by the MIT Energy Initiative on the state of solar technology. “Federal R&D policy needs to look toward transformative new technologies not just marginal improvements on the stuff we have today,” says Schmalensee.
A new MITEI report outlines actions the U.S. government could take to facilitate large-scale deployment of solar energy, reports Yeganeh Torbati for Reuters. "Ideally ... rather than subsidize investment, we would subsidize production," says Francis O’Sullivan, an author of the report.
A team of MIT researchers won the grand prize in a competition that challenged participants to develop sustainable desalination technologies, reports Jeff Daniels reports for NBC News. The MIT researchers designed a solar-powered "electrodialysis reversal system that desalinates water using electricity.”
In an article for Popular Science, Mary Beth Griggs reports that a team of MIT researchers won the Desal Prize, a competition judging the effectiveness of new desalination systems. The MIT team developed a system that uses solar panels to power “a system that removes salt from the water through electrodialysis.”
Boston Globe reporter Hiawatha Bray writes about how Prof. Amos Winter and graduate student Natasha Wright are testing their solar-powered desalination system in a competition aimed at finding cheaper and more efficient ways to provide clean water to the developing world. “It’s a two-billion-person problem,” says Winter. “That’s a pretty motivating problem.”
By combining two kinds of photovoltaic material, MIT researchers have developed a more effective solar cell, reports Umair Irfan for Scientific American. Irfan explains that combining the two materials, “generates a higher voltage than either of the layers could do by themselves.”
MIT researchers have released a report evaluating solar lanterns in Uganda, writes Nidhi Subbaraman for BetaBoston. The group is developing a model to assess products designed for the developing world with the goal of helping organizations “as they make purchases for relief efforts.”
According to The Economist, a battery design “being developed by Donald Sadoway of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology would use two sorts of liquid metal, separated by a liquid electrolyte.” Using metals of varying densities, Sadoway’s design would allow the substances to float as separate layers in a container.