Dear
Subscriber,
We are happy to announce a Call for
Papers for the Fifth Conference on Future
Energy (COFE5) in the 1st article which will include a
surprise guest speaker and breakthrough energy demonstration! It will be held
February 29 - March 2, 2012 here in the Washington DC area with the prestigious
Elsevier Science publishers for
the Proceedings.
An exciting new development just
presented by a PhD student this year is the "Microenergy Harvester" in story #2 with
a charge-constrained conversion cycle for waste electrostatic energy from
vibrations. We look forward to having Dr.
Ambokar present a paper at COFE5 on this remarkable, sustainable
energy generator.
To me, there is a great similarity between this concept and the Oak Ridge
pyroelectric energy harvester which also generates electricity but from waste
heat http://spiedigitallibrary.org/proceedings/resource/2/psisdg/8035/1/80350V_1?isAuthorized=no
. Both are needed for different situations in order to generate electricity on
the spot for portable devices and vehicles.
In story #3, we find the answer to
the burning question of what Bill
Gates is doing lately...forming Terrapower. He came up with one more
nuclear reactor that still may not circumvent the high cost of building
reactors, according to the article. My question is whether a Thorium reactor
could outperform this traveling wave design. More on that in a future
eNews.
Good news for the electric vehicle
industry: Rocky Mountain Institute
found in a survey that the average score was 4.5,
representing a very high level of agreement that vehicle electrification is
creating new jobs. RMI's findings are also supported by industry research. Read
more in article #4.
However, after such
good news, we leave it up to our readers to figure out why venture capitalists would be backing
away from clean energy. Some renewable energy projects apparently seem to risky
but story #5 at least gives you the facts about the state of the clean energy
revolution, without any sugar coating. These venture capitalists will do well to
mark their calendars for COFE5, the energy conference not to be
missed.
Thomas Valone, PhD,
PE Editor www.IntegrityResearchInstitute.org
More: Future Energy eNews, August 2011