Efficient Thin-Film Solar Cells - MIT Technology Review
New breakthrough in making solar cells:
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Researchers at MIT have unveiled a new type of silicon solar cell that could be much more efficient and cost less than currently used solar cells. (...)
The design combines a highly effective reflector on the back of a solar cell with an antireflective coating on the front. This helps trap red and near-infrared light, which can be used to make electricity, in the silicon.
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Konarka Opens World's Largest Roll-To-Roll, Solar Photovoltaic, Thin-Film Production Plant : TreeHugger
Great news for solar power. What I found quite funny, although it was surely unintentionally so, was the use of the word "graduate" in Treehugger's article: "It's a rare treat when a promising one graduates to the commercial level." Why? The process (Konarka's advanced photovoltaic technology) started with Dr. Alan Heeger and the late Dr. Sukant Tripathy, "an internationally known polymer materials scientist, provost at UMASS Lowell and founder of the Plastic Innovation Center."
One word: plastics. The Graduate.
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RFID Enabled Public Bike Service on PSFK
This sounds like a great idea for urban bike sharing, a concept that has been discussed on Victoria and Vancouver blogs, too. The problem is always keeping track of the bikes, making sure they're in good shape, and that they're returned. This design by Continuum (the Ubicycle public bicycle service system) addresses most of those problems: the RFIDs allow the service provider to keep track of the bikes as well as the users; and with buy-in from the users via their regular transit cards, this should help ensure that the bikes are treated reasonably well. Vandalism is a separate issue, which requires push-back from the community as a whole.
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