Today's Green Tech | Green Energy News

August 15, 2004 – Vol.9 No.21

TODAY’S GREEN TECH.

To many the term TECH implies RELATED TO COMPUTERS. But really there’s technology everywhere. Even the chair you’re sitting in has a surprising amount of technology in it if you dig deep enough.

When speaking of tech, two areas that should be included in the tech arena and are related to green energy are nanotechnologies and composites. Nanotechnologies can eventually lead to better solar, fuel cell and battery technologies. Composites, particularly carbon composites, will lead to much lighter and much stronger vehicles for transportation. Boeing’s new jetliner the 7E7, for instance, is expected to be built mostly of carbon composites in a effort to save fuel. The E stands for efficiency.

There’s a continual flow of news from these tech areas.

Nanosolar Inc. has announced that it has secured a $10.3 million contract with the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to further the development of cost-effective and high-efficiency solar cells utilizing nanotechnology materials.

Nanomaterials may lead to highly-efficient, low-cost solar cells that could bring solar energy into the mainstream. DARPA is one of the leading, cutting-edge research organizations in the U.S. Visit Nanosolar at http://www.nanosolar.com/

And as an example of how big the composites business has become, E-composites, an online news and research service for the wide-ranging composites industry, has stated in a new market report that the global carbon fiber industry should grow at a rate of $1.2 billion per year to reach $9.9 billion in annual sales by 2010. Growth areas for carbon fibers include wind energy for light weight turbine blades.

The 500-plus page report, Growth Opportunities in the Carbon Fiber Composites Market 2004-2010, is being offered though E-composites at http://www.e-composites.com/marketcarbon.htm (a summary is available at that address)