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.
Forbes reporter Bill Tucker writes about battery innovation, highlighting a liquid battery system developed by MIT researchers. The proposed system would operate at dramatically lower temperatures and would allow renewable energy sources to compete with conventional power plants, reports Tucker.
Professor Ernest Moniz, the U.S. Secretary of Energy, participates on NPR’s quiz show Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!. “A number of young scientists around the country considered the pathway I've taken one that inspires them. And it's really a pleasure to be able to hopefully encourage these young students,” says Moniz.
“A team of MIT researchers has built an all-liquid battery prototype that's designed to store excess energy from solar and wind power plants,” writes Francie Diep for Popular Science. “[F]uture versions of this battery could release energy captured during more productive times into nations' power grids.”
Mark Peplow writes for Nature about a new molten-metal battery designed by Professor Donald Sadoway’s team: “A battery made of molten metals could help to make sources of renewable energy more viable by storing the excess electricity generated by these intermittent sources.”
Professor Donald Sadoway’s team has designed a battery that makes use of molten metals, which could allow for large-scale power storage, reports Jonathan Webb for the BBC. “Previous battery designs have largely been too expensive to help store energy on the scale of a national power grid,” writes Webb.
Nidhi Subbaraman of BetaBoston reports that MIT researchers have proposed a new solar-powered, desalination system for purifying groundwater. “Wright and Winter argue that for the low levels of salt in the groundwater in up to 60 percent of rural India, they can extract enough power from solar panels to run their electrodialysis setup,” writes Subbaraman.
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."
“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.
Liat Clark reports for Wired on Changing Environments, an MIT Media Lab spinoff that is developing solar-powered smart benches to be placed around Cambridge and Boston. These benches allow users to charge their mobile devices and download environmental data.
“Solar-powered benches, called Soofas, will pop up in Boston parks over the next week,” writes Joey Cosco for Slate about a project by Changing Environments out of the MIT Media Lab. The benches collect environmental data and allow users to charge their mobile devices.