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Awareness, Event

Earth Day Message — Vote!

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We are in a time of great change. Economically, environmentally and socially the 21st century will without doubt overtake any other in terms of humanity’s effect on itself and the planet we live on. What’s more, this decade from 2010 to 2020 could become the decade that shapes our whole way forward.

The Transition Town movement is all about making the best of those changes and challenges in a local, cooperative, and constructive way. Peak oil and climate change may be daunting things to consider but thousands of people around the world including a bunch right here in the Alberni Valley are making real, positive progress towards addressing them head on.

Sometimes though it does seem like it’s all too much, it’s all too complicated and it’s just too hard. However, there is one act that is so simple, so fundamental, that it can make all the difference in the world, voting.

By voting, you truly shape the world you live in. By voting, you can affect not only what goes on in Port Alberni, or in our riding of Nanaimo-Alberni, but also in Canada and the World. By voting you are choosing and expressing your values, your convictions, your needs and wants to all. Voting is the single most powerful act we as citizens can perform.

We all yearn for change in some form. We all wish for things to be better than they are in some way.

So on May 2nd, whether you want to change the world, or only a very small part of it please vote.

Energy, Public

Ahh! waiting. efficiency goes up and prices will drop.

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(From Phil Leblanc)
Quantum dots could make solar panels more efficient
Friday, March 25, 2011 4:47
From NextBigFuture.com


Illustration of multiple-exciton generation (MEG), a theory that suggests it is possible for an electron that has absorbed light energy, called an exciton, to transfer that energy to more than one electron, resulting in more electricity from the same amount of absorbed light. The left side shows an electron promoted to a high energy state (blue) plus the “hole” vacated by the electron (red). The right side shows the original exciton (now dark green/red) and a new exciton (light green/orange) after MEG. The top image shows a conceptualized version of the idea, while the bottom shows an actual exciton and bi-exciton using the same color scheme.

Credit: Mark T. Lusk, Department of Physics, Colorado School of Mines

Studies done by Mark Lusk and colleagues at the Colorado School of … significantly improve the efficiency of solar cells. Their latest work describes how the size of light-absorbing particles–quantum dots–affects the particles’ ability to transfer energy to electrons to generate electricity.

The results are published in the April issue of the journal ACS Nano.

The advance provides evidence to support a controversial idea, called multiple-exciton generation (MEG), which theorizes that it is possible for an electron that has absorbed light energy, called an exciton, to transfer that energy to more than one electron, resulting in more electricity from the same amount of absorbed light.

Quantum dots are man-made atoms that confine electrons to a small space. They have atomic-like behavior that results in unusual electronic properties on a nanoscale. These unique properties may be particularly valuable in tailoring the way light interacts with matter.

Experimental verification of the link between MEG and quantum dot size is a hot topic due to a large degree of variation in previously published studies. The ability to generate an electrical current following MEG is now receiving a great deal of attention because this will be a necessary component of any commercial realization of MEG.

According to Lusk, “We can now design nanostructured materials that generate more than one exciton from a single photon of light, putting to good use a large portion of the energy that would otherwise just heat up a solar cell.”