Image Credit: grynold/Shutterstock.com
Air quality matters. The World Health Organization estimates that there has been an 8% rise in air pollution in recent years, with poorer cities experiencing the most deterioration. Over 91% of people now breathe air polluted with noxious gases and particulates, mostly from fossil fuel combustion.
Air pollution is the fourth leading risk factor for deaths worldwide. There were an estimated 10.2 million deaths related to airborne particulates in 2012, namely PM2.5. A total of 62% of these premature deaths were in China (3.9 million) and India (2.5 million) where pollution is high, with the rest located in parts of the eastern US, Europe, and Southeast Asia.
Predicting Wildfires with Advanced Weather Forecasting Technology azocleantech.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from azocleantech.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
How Windows Could Redirect Light to Solar Cells
Image Credit: Jason Finn/Shutterstock.com
Buildings of the future could have much improved environmental credentials thanks to next-generation windowpanes that redirect light to solar panels positioned along their outer edges. Such ‘smart glass’ windows would utilize light from the sun and artificial light from within the building to generate electricity.
Innovative Energy Collection
Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) are devices that concentrate solar radiation to produce electricity. They have been suggested as an innovative and colorful solution to future energy collection by Rice University engineers, who have designed and built a polymer core-based luminescent window that generates energy using sunlight or light from LEDs.
Image Credit: Yen Strandqvist/Chalmers
Microcombs are small photonic devices that could help improve the energy efficiency of the internet, monitor our health, or even discover new Earth-like exoplanets. Swedish researchers have developed a unique, game-changing microcomb that could bring these advanced applications a step closer.
What is a Microcomb?
A frequency comb is a unique laser source where the emission spectrum consists of a series of discrete, equally spaced frequency lines. It works similarly to a ruler made of light; markers set the frequency scale across the electromagnetic spectrum from ultraviolet to the mid-infrared, with each marker s location linked to a known reference.
Image Credit: tong patong/Shutterstock.com
The way we produce electricity has changed; we are no longer compelled to rely on expensive, polluting fossil fuels and instead have opted for cleaner and cheaper sources.
Power generation in the future is likely to consist of a mix of low-carbon sources such as renewables, hydro and nuclear power. But while renewable sources like the sun and wind now supply a large proportion of our energy, they are intermittent, only generating energy at certain times.
To reap the full benefits of renewables, we must store some of the energy when it is generated and use it in peak demand. One way to do this is with stationary energy storage in the form of batteries.