Sierra is ranked top 10 greenest universities in the United States

Sierra has America's greenest colleges for seven years ranking was, so we know what a campus can make a difference.

Every "cool schools" issue sent will push we it reminds that are LEED certified buildings equipped with low-flow toilets and equipped with recycling bins push Kohlendioxyd levels lower, and reservoirs are empty and trees longer fuller, landfills.

But what about the students? The most powerful renewable energy resource that is to generate these sites freshly trained young people. And universities Crow, an eco-education - teach young people about the State of our planet - puts us on the right track. Is it, though?

We carried out to find out, and it looks like the answer "Yes".

Only a few universities actually measure whether its environmental curriculum makes a difference after students graduate. But the anecdotal evidence is encouraging: history, according to the story confirmed that the protection of the environment around students sticks while studying with them.

A single class or Professor can activate a life green. He four years at a place that grows an own organic food, runs on alternative energy, compost, limited cars and pursues goals, like a stamp be CO2-neutral or zero-waste goes. In the meantime, adult education centres and vocational schools are fillers until green workforce.

Of course, it is easier to measure brick and mortar heart and mind, so that our ranking is its focus on the more quantifiable aspects of the functioning of schools. The year's list stems from an extensive questionnaire that asks about everything from where a campus draws its energy, whether his landscaping using native plants and the canteens and cafeterias offer recycled napkins.

We have responses from 162 qualified schools, then crunched the numbers. A perfect score would be 1,000. Our top-ranked school charged 850, proving that even the nationwide best has improved.

View the original article here

Universities to Lead Energy Department-Funded CSP Projects

The Energy Department announced on August 28 new investments totaling $10 million for two university-led projects to advance innovative concentrating solar power (CSP) system technologies. The five-year projects are under the Department's SunShot Initiative, a collaborative national effort to make solar energy cost competitive with other forms of energy by the end of the decade.

CSP technologies use mirrors to reflect and concentrate sunlight onto receivers that collect solar energy and convert it to heat that can be used to produce electricity. Heat transfer fluids are a key component of CSP systems that transfer heat from a receiver to the point where the heat is needed to drive a turbine. The investments will improve heat transfer fluids to increase efficiency and lower costs for CSP systems.

Two university teams were selected to develop new heat transfer fluids. The University of California–Los Angeles will lead a team with researchers from Yale University and the University of California–Berkeley to investigate liquid metals as potential heat transfer fluids with the ability to withstand higher temperatures. And the University of Arizona, the second awardee, is teaming with researchers from Arizona State University and Georgia Tech to develop and demonstrate new, molten salt-based fluids as possible alternatives to traditional heat transfer fluids.

The projects will focus on making dramatic improvements to fluids that gather thermal energy from the sun and transport it to the power block, where the energy is used to drive a turbine that generates electricity. Today's state-of the-art heat transfer fluids are capable of operating at temperatures up to about 1,050 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperatures in excess of 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit are needed to reach efficiencies greater than 50%, which allow CSP plants to capture more energy from solar power. The selected projects are working to develop heat transfer fluids that can operate at temperatures up to 2,350 degrees Fahrenheit, while simultaneously maintaining high levels of performance. See the Energy Department press release.

View the original article here

DOE offers universities possibilities for SunShot solar further objectives

DOE is University research teams support the search for ways to improve the heat-transfer fluids for the concentration of solar power systems.
IMG credit: U.S. Department of the Interior

DOE announced two opportunities for researchers in universities, which initiative, a program to promote the aims Department SunShot drastically to reduce the total cost of the American solar energy on 20 January. DOE is up to $10 million to support the development of the liquids make available heat transfer the efficient, making the cost of energy from solar power (CSP) systems focus. The Department opened the second round of the SunShot initiative postdoctoral research awards for applied research in universities, laboratories and other research institutions.

See the call for heat-transfer fluids DOE supports University-based CSP research projects for the development and demonstration of liquids, which are more stable than current technologies at temperatures greater than 800 ° c. CSP plants mirror focus sunlight to a working medium generates heat, steam which spins a turbine or powers creates a heat engine, the electricity. Higher temperature working fluids could thus to combine systems with heat engines CSP, to convert the working fluid in power more than 50% of the heat.

This funding will be awarded within the framework of multidisciplinary University research initiative, a program of research, technology transfer in the market to speed up and preparing a new generation of scientists and engineers. DOE expected one or two projects within five years by this opportunity to finance. For more information, see the funding opportunity announcement on DOE funding opportunity Exchange Web site.

In addition, DOE opened the next round of SunShot postdoctoral research initiative awards, which provides students with the chance of advanced clean energy technologies. Receiver performs applied research at universities, laboratories and other research institutions. This program includes an opportunity for recipients in a research exchange programme with Australia under the United States and Australia solar energy cooperation take part. See the DOE progress alert, SunShot postdoctoral of researcher Web page and the SunShot initiative website.

View the original article here