energy

Summary: Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are two-dimensionally confined quantum wires that have the potential to impact a variety of renewable energy applications. SWCNTs have several fundamental properties that make them attractive for sustainable energy conversion technologies, including high electron and hole mobilities, size-tunable ionization potentials and electron affinities in an energy range relevant to many photovoltaic devices, and optical transitions in the visible and...

Electromagnetic radiation (ER) is a form of energy, and it acts like a wave as it moves at the speed of light--it’s how energy from the sun reaches Earth. ER is classified by frequency—how many times the wave oscillates in a given amount of time.

This episode of Chalk Talk gives viewers a look inside the "power plant" of most complex cells. Mitochondria provide energy for cells to move, divide, and do all the things they need to do to function properly. Mitochondria are found within almost all living organisms with complex cell structures.

The Center’s Director, Bill Ritter, was elected as Colorado’s 41st governor in 2006 - the first Colorado-born governor in more than 35 years. He quickly established Colorado as a national and international leader in clean energy by creating a New Energy Economy and tripling the state’s renewable energy portfolio. In a state with substantial fossil energy as well as renewable energy resources, Gov. Ritter created policies that balanced energy production with protection of air, land,...

What’s it really like to be an engineer or a scientist? What do they really do all day? You’re about to find out! Meet the next generation of engineers and scientists in these profiles of young professionals, who may just inspire you to join them. Nate Ball pushes technology to its limits. Find out what it’s like to be a mechanical engineer.

The ice skates worn by this year's hockey players, figure skaters and speed skaters are vastly different from what were once used. Melissa Hines, the Director of the Cornell University Center for Materials Research, and Sam Colbeck, a retired scientist from the U.S. Army Cold Regions Lab, explain how innovations in boot and blade design help skaters perform better than ever before.

850 horses all lined up--that's how much power a NASCAR Sprint Cup engine has. The engine's job is to convert the energy in fuel to speed. NASCAR engines do it faster and more efficiently than passenger car engines.

Friction always creates heat. Brakes and tires depend on friction to work, but more friction isn’t always better. In the engine, friction is never good and engine builders use everything from oil to high-tech coatings to get a little extra horsepower.

Addressing the Challenge of Truly Large Scale Photovoltaics: the Industrial and Thermodynamic Potentials of Organic Solar Cells In order for photovoltaic systems to ultimately provide a considerable fraction of the world’s energy needs they will need to meet a number of stringent performance metrics regarding their cost, efficiency, and robustness. In addition, they will need to be manufactured with very high throughput methods in order to realize the enormous production scales...

Explore how different types of biomass can be used to produce fuel. One researcher is building reactors to grow algae used to create biofuel. Another studies how leafcutter ant colonies break down biomass in order to solve a different biofuel problem: conversion of cellulose in plants to a fermentable sugar used to make ethanol. Finally, an engineer shows us how his lab uses chemistry and heat to turn sawmill waste into bio-oil and gasoline.