Thursday, January 31, 2008

New Energy Congress: Top 100 Technologies

Via PESWiki:

A New Energy Congress prioritized listing of the very best energy technologies according to ten criteria, including: renewable, environmentally safe, affordable, credible, reliable, developed, and safe (among others). The New Energy Congress is an association for the purpose of reviewing the most promising claims to up-and-coming clean, renewable, affordable, reliable energy technologies, in order to come up with a weighted list of recommendations of the best technologies.

Table of contents 2 See also

Top 100

(Last updated November 23, 2007)

Since April, 2006, the New Energy Congress has been systematically voting on the following energy technologies, reviewing a new technology every few days, and weighing it against the criteria they established.

  1. Validated | Available for Commercial Purchase | Directory:Solar >
    Stirling Energy Systems utility solar - 20-year purchase agreement between Southern California Edison and Stirling Energy Systems, Inc. will result in 20,000+ dish array covering 4,500 acres capable of generating 500 MW, at a cost competitive to grid power. (http://stirlingenergy.com)
  2. Validated | Directory:Thermal Electric >
    ENECO Chip Converts Heat to Electricity - Utah company claims to have invented and patented a "solid state energy conversion/generation chip" that will convert heat directly into electricity or alternatively refrigerate down to -200 degrees Celsius when electricity is applied. (http://eneco.com) (NEC Specialist: Richard P. George)
  3. Plasma / Waste to Energy / Engines >
    W2 Energy Birthing Affordable, Renewable Petrol - Imagine a gasoline and diesel source that is CO2 neutral, sulfur-free, derived from renewable sources, superior in its power performance to fossil-based fuels, and costs less than 1/7 of fossil-based fuels. The company has also built an engine to optimize use of the syngas portion of the product. (http://www.w2energy.com)
  4. Available for Purchase | Directory:Concentrated Solar Power >
    SolarCube™ by Green and Gold Energy - Award-winning solar technology uses Fresnel lenses to focus sun's energy onto photovoltaic cells. 5.8 cents per kWh. (http://www.greenandgoldenergy.com.au) (NEC Specialist: Richard P. George)
  5. Validated | Available for Commercial Purchase | Directory:Wind >
    Wind Farms - Wind farms present an economy of scale, enabling them to produce electricity in the price range of grid power.
  6. Solar > Concentrated >
    Cool Earth Solar - Company has developed an inflatable solar concentrator technology that slashes materials costs, making solar farms competitive with commercial electricity generation systems within three years. (http://www.coolearthsolar.com) (NEC Specialist: Jon Bonanno, investor, board member)
  7. Directory:Storage > Directory:Batteries >
    EEStor Ceramic "Battery" - Texas company is working on an "energy storage" ultra-capacitor device made from ceramics. It's not technically a battery because it doesn't use chemicals. It can allegedly charge within 5 minutes (from a substation) with enough energy to move a car 500 miles on about $9 worth of electricity -- about 45 cents a gallon.
  8. Directory:Batteries >
    Nanotube Super Capacitor Battery - MIT researchers are developing a battery based on capacitors that utilize nanotubes for high surface area, enabling near instantaneous charging and no degradation. Estimating ~5 years to commercialization.
  9. Directory:Solar >
    DayStar Technologies' Silicon-Free Solar Cells - Daystar's unique metal foil design is not vulnerable to silicon shortages. Striving to "make free energy affordable", production of this thin film design is being ramped up to 20 MW per year. (http://www.daystartech.com/)
  10. Theoretical | Directory:Solid State Generators >
    Sines Reluctance Generator (Potomac Energy Projects) - Electrical generator involves thin film superconductivity, vortices and magnetic flux gates. (http://www.potomacenergyprojects.com - NEC Specialist: Eddie Sines, Inventor)