The last two weeks has seen a mixture of gloom and hope in the news. In stark contrast to the way news is presented on TV I thought it might be quite nice to focus on the good news (except for the bats).
It appears scientists and engineers have been busy responding to the energy challenge in a variety of ways. The announcement that caught my eye this week relates to a claimed battery breakthrough. A company in Texas claims to have developed a barium-titanate based ultracapacitor that could "replace the electrochemical battery". A bold claim – I'm waiting with baited breath to see if this leads anywhere. Since the Olympics have just finished I thought you might also like to hear about a new world record – this time for photovoltaic cells. The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory has claimed device that is 40.8% efficient (in laboratory conditions). Less ambitious, but no less impressive, a student at the University of Portsmouth has built a working wind turbine from recycled materials for less that £20. With an output of 11.3W it is not exactly the answer to the energy crisis but an impressive effort nonetheless.
This week's animal related news brings bad news for bats. Bats, it seems, have a blind spot for wind turbines. While the chance of them being hit by a turbine blade is small, the low air pressure around turbine blades appears to be lethal as it causes their lungs to burst. Apparently birds don't have the same problem because they have more robust lungs.
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