Princeton researchers have found a simple and economical way to nearly triple the efficiency of organic solar cells, the cheap and flexible plastic devices that many scientists believe could be the future of solar power.
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Princeton engineer Bruce Koel is joining with scientists at the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab to tackle the challenge of capturing the energy of the sun on Earth.
Technologies for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere are unlikely to offer an economically feasible way to slow human-driven climate change for several decades, according to a report issued by the American Physical Society and led by Princeton engineer Robert Socolow.
The realization that wind turbines and freight trains have a lot in common changed the trajectory of Warren Powell's career. After decades of work making the transportation industry more competitive and environmentally friendly, Powell has turned his attention to the energy industry. "It's all about resource allocation, whether you need to assign trains better or need to decide how many wind turbines to keep running."
Architects for Princeton's Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment have completed initial plans for laboratory, classroom and garden spaces that support the center's mission while creating an inviting new presence at the eastern edge of campus.
Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, a New York firm known for its careful attention to context, creative use of materials and innovative modernist work, has been chosen to design Princeton University's new Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment.
Energy company BP has committed to a five-year renewal of a joint research partnership with Princeton University that identifies ways of tackling the world's climate problem. It will support Princeton to at least its current level of funding for the years 2011 to 2015.
The National Science Foundation has awarded nearly $20 million to the Princeton Center for Complex Materials, an interdisciplinary research program dedicated to improving and developing materials for uses ranging from alternative energy production to quantum computing.
A new professorship endowed by a gift from Dwight Anderson, a 1989 Princeton alumnus, is part of the University's comprehensive initiative to address critical issues of energy and the environment in the 21st century. The Anderson Family Professorship in Energy and the Environment will support a tenured faculty member in the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Rochelle Murray's senior thesis project puts her on the font lines of a hot research area: the transmuting of waste material into clean-burning fuel.
In a mutually beneficial partnership, Princeton students are helping a local organization reduce its impact on the environment as they strengthen their problem-solving skills and build a stronger connection to the community.
The nation's energy future can be protected by the immediate implementation of techniques to capture and store carbon dioxide emissions, engineering professor Robert Socolow told the U.S. Senate Finance Committee Tuesday, Feb. 27.
All of the fuel cells developed in Jay Benziger's lab run on hydrogen, but much of his research is powered by the chemical engineering professor's collaborations with undergraduates.
David Myers has been appointed to serve on the Cleaner Fossil Fuels Committee of the World Energy Council, a London-based charity organization with member committees in more than 90 countries, including most of the largest energy-producing and energy-consuming countries.
Burning oil and coal, which are rich in carbon, releases the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Until alternative fuels become mainstream, one viable option to cut carbon emissions is to capture the gas and inject it into sediments deep underground, according to Princeton's Michael Celia *79, chair of civil and environmental engineering.
Fuel cell batteries might power clean cars of the future, but for now they are found in niche applications such as spacecraft, where cost is no object. "We are trying to figure out how you could build fuel cells that operate more simply and are cheaper to produce so that they would be acceptable in a consumer market," said Princeton professor of chemical engineering Jay Benziger.
Nuclear fusion promises clean, unlimited energy, of the sort created by the sun. But making a practical reactor is difficult and expensive. In one approach, called inertial fusion, scientists bombard a tiny pellet of deuterium-tritium fuel with intense laser pulses to kick off the fusion reaction.
Eighty five percent of the world's energy supply comes from burning fossil fuels, and this will most likely be the case for a few decades, according to assistant professor Yiguang Ju. In Princeton's mechanical and aerospace engineering department, Ju and Professors Frederick Dryer and Chung K. Law are making the best of that reality by studying the combustion of conventional and alternative fuels to harness their energy with maximum efficiency.
When Princeton University engineers want to increase the power output of their new fuel cell, they just give it a little more gas -- hydrogen gas, to be exact. Though the simple control mechanism was previously thought impossible, Jay Benziger, a professor of chemical engineering, and Claire Woo, who graduated in 2006, showed it can work.
Since her arrival at Princeton, junior Ishani Sud has made a difference by thinking inside the box.
Not just any box, but rather a solar-powered oven she designed her freshman year with classmate Lauren Wang, under the guidance of Wole Soboyejo, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.
The truth about carbon emissions in the United States is far more than inconvenient, it's terrifying, David Crane, the chief executive officer and president of NRG Energy, told a standing-room-only crowd Dec. 5 at Princeton.
Solar panels that are slated to be installed this fall on the roof of Princeton's Engineering Quadrangle will shave only about $60 off the University's monthly electricity bill. But the technology that emerges from this unique industry-academia research collaboration may eventually save New Jersey households millions of dollars in energy costs.
