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Articles on Technological Breakthroughs in General Renewable Energy

• Solution to Renewable Energy's Intermittency Problem: More Renewable Energy
  Nathanael Massey - December 12, 2012 - scientificamerican.com
  
  A mix of offshore and onshore wind, along with contributions from solar power, could provide reliable and cost-effective power flow during all but a handful of days in a hypothetical four-year period under study.
  
  
• Heliatek's organic tandem solar cell verified at 10.7% record conversion efficiency
  April 27, 2012 - Mark Osborne - pv-tech.org
  
  Dresden, Germany-based OPV thin-film developer Heliatek has achieved a new organic tandem solar cell world record with 10.7% cell efficiency on a 1.1cm2 substrate. SGS undertook the testing and validated the figures. SGS also confirmed the OPV cell's merits in low light and high temperature operation.
  
  
• Suntech’s Pluto technology achieves world-record 20.3% efficiency
  Mar 15, 2012 - Sile Mc Mahon - pv-tech.org
  
  Suntech has logged another world record for its Pluto cell technology with a SERIS-verified 20.3% cell efficiency.
  
  
• 2012: A Breakthrough for Renewable Energy?
  Mar 2, 2012 - insights.wri.org
  
  In his annual State of the Union address, President Obama declared: “I will not walk away from clean energy.”
  
  
• Largest-ever OPV module created at NREL’s labs
  Mar 1, 2012 - Sile Mc Mahon - pv-tech.org
  
  The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has, in collaboration with New Energy Technologies, produced its largest-area OPV module ever at 170cm2. The companies’ engineers have worked together on developing New Energy’s SolarWindow technology that allows the generation of electricity on see-through glass windows.
  
  
• UK wave and tidal has huge potential – needs government backing
  Feb 23, 2012 - Kari Williamson - renewableenergyfocus.com
  
  With the largest wave and tidal resources in Europe, up to 20% of the UK' electricity could eventually come from marine renewables, and developing a thriving wave and tidal industry could bring economic benefits to the UK, the committee says.
  
  
• Ride the energy superhighway
  Nov 28, 2011 - Julian Cribb - canberratimes.com.au
  
  Could Australia become the world's next energy superpower? This is not an academic question. It's about how this country can drive not only its own but also Asian economic development for centuries to come.
  
  
• EIA: World Generation to Increase 84% in 25 Years
  Oct 20, 2011 - powermag.com
  
  World electricity generation is projected to increase 84% from 19.1 trillion kWh in 2008 to 35.2 trillion kWh in 2035—growth that will be driven by increasing demand in developing countries, the Energy Information Agency’s (EIA’s) recently released International Energy Outlook 2011 shows. Much of this growth will be from renewables and natural gas, though coal generation will also increase in developing countries, and particularly, in China and India.
  
  
• REL confirms 16.3% efficiency reached in XsunX CIGS technology
  Aug 19, 2011 - Syanne Olsen - pv-tech.org
  
  The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) confirmed that XsunX’s CIGS PV devices had reached a peak efficiency conversion of 16.36%. The samples tested had efficiency ratings that ranged between 15.3% and 16.36%, which lead to an average efficiency of 15.91%. XsunX supplied the NREL with a 125mm substrate sample, which after deposition was sub-divided into quadrants in order for NREL to generate device test structures and analytical equipment test structures. The organizations advised that this method was used in order to produce a substantial amount of data for XsunX to use as the basis of its future improvement efforts.
  

• State-of-the-Art Control Center
  Jul 21, 2011 - Yakout Mansour - renewablesbiz.com
  
  High-tech Tools Integrate Renewables

• Sustainable Energy without the Hot Air
  Jul 2, 2011 - David J.C. MacKay
  
  Let’s express energy consumption and energy production using simple
  personal units. The units I’ll use are kilowatt-hours. One kilowatt-hour
  (kWh) is the energy used by leaving a 40-watt bulb on for 24 hours. The
  chemical energy in the food you eat to stay alive amounts to about 3 kWh
  per day. Taking one hot bath uses about 5 kWh of heat. Driving an ordi-
  nary car (delivering 25 miles per US-gallon) 100 km uses 80 kWh of fuel.
  
  
• Latest development in HVDC transmission
  May 01, 2011 - Dr. Heather Johnstone - powergenworldwide.com
  
  SABB has implemented several commercial HVDC power transmission schemes based on VSC (Voltage Source Converter) technology and is a pioneer in this field. Since the first project commissioned in 1997, its HVDC Light technology has evolved through three generations. It has now reached its fourth evolutionary stage, based on CTL (Cascaded Two Level) topology.
  
  
• Solyndra offers integrated greenhouse energy generation solution
  Apr 20, 2011 - pv-tech.org
  
  Solyndra has developed a new solar application for agricultural greenhouse and shade structures that takes advantage of the ability of light to pass through Solyndra’s proven tubular thin-film PV panel design. Research CeRSAA in Italy and the Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, have confirmed the improved nature of the panel design and its ability to support crop growth underneath while generating electricity.
  
  
• The World Can Be Powered by Alternative Energy, Using Today's Technology, in 20-40 Years
  Feb 1, 2011 - Louis Bergeron - Stanford University News
  
  A new study – co-authored by Stanford researcher Mark Z. Jacobson and UC-Davis researcher Mark A. Delucchi – analyzing what is needed to convert the world's energy supplies to clean and sustainable sources says that it can be done with today's technology at costs roughly comparable to conventional energy. But converting will be a massive undertaking on the scale of the moon landings. What is needed most is the societal and political will to make it happen.

• New Energy Achieves Major 'Transparency' Breakthrough in Development of See-Thru Windows Capable of Generating Electricity
  Jan 04, 2010 - Business Wire
  
  New Energy Technologies, Inc. (OTCBB: NENE), currently developing MotionPower(TM) technologies for generating electricity from the kinetic energy of moving vehicles and SolarWindow(TM) technologies capable of generating electricity on glass windows, today announced that researchers have overcome a significant scientific hurdle in creating the first-of-its-kind see-thru solar glass by replacing a visibility-blocking solid metal component with environmentally-friendly, non-metallic, transparent compounds.
  
  
• Beacon Integrates Additional MW of Flywheel Storage on New England Grid
  Dec 21, 2009 - RenewableEnergyWorld.com
  
  Beacon Power Corporation has successfully connected and integrated an additional megawatt (MW) of flywheel energy storage on the New England power grid. This brings the company's total installed capacity to 3 MW, all of which are operation and earning revenue from frequency regulation services.
  
  
• Could this be the end of electric power cords?
  Jul 27, 2009 - Los Angeles Times
  
  From the time of Thomas Edison, scientists have been trying to develop a system that would send electric power through the air without wires.
  
  
• RWE Forms New Renewables Unit,To Invest EUR1 Billion Year
  Nov 21, 2007 - Dow Jones News
  
  FRANKFURT -(Dow Jones)- RWE AG (RWE.XE) Wednesday said it will bundle its renewable energy operations in a new unit from Feb. 1, 2008, amid plans to generate more than 20% of its power production from renewable energy sources by 2020, from 5% currently.
  
  
• Man Finds Energy in Burning Salt Water
  Sep 12, 2007 - The Augusta Chronicle
  
  For obvious reasons, scientists long have thought that salt water couldn't be burned. So when an Erie, Pa., man announced he'd ignited salt water with the radio-frequency generator he'd invented, some thought it a was a hoax.
  
  
• LED dynamics creates direct LED replacements for fluorescent tubes
  Aug 2007 - LEDs Magazine
  
  Replacing a fluorescent tube with an LED luminaire becomes very easy when you don't need to worry about drivers, ballasts and wiring, writes Tim Whitaker.
  

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National Energy Grid Maps

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IREC Connecting to the Grid (Interstate Renewable Energy Council)

CIGRE: International Congress on Large High-Voltage Electric Systems

IEEE/PES International Practices Committee panel sessions