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power management devices

A Way to Make the Smart Grid Smarter

New solid-state power-management devices will charge cars fast and make the power grid more flexible and efficient.

Industry and Business

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UCSB Institute Designs Energy-Efficient Lamps for Schoolchildren Around the World

UCSB's Institute for Energy Efficiency has designed high-efficiency solar-powered LED lamps for schoolchildren in developing countries…

Industry and Business

starbucks logo

Starbucks Saves Millions on Energy Bills with LED Lighting

Starbucks has replaced every incandescent and halogen bulb in their US coffee stores with LEDs; company-wide, the switch has reduced…

Industry and Business

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Dim Prospects for Energy R&D Funding

Despite urgent calls from the White House and members of Congress this year about the need for more energy R&D, government funding…

Industry and Business

graphene closeup

An Energy Boost for Ultracapacitors

New graphene ultracapacitors have five times the energy density of current commercial devices, thanks to the increased surface area of…

clouds

Cloud Computing Could Slash Data Center Energy Use by Over One-Third

According to a new report by Pike Research, the rapid growth of cloud computing could reduce energy usage in the global information…

Industry and Business

ice cubes

IceCode Wants to Melt Your Ice

Startup IceCode won GE's Ecomagination Challenge last month for a technology that instantly removes ice from wind turbines. Now they…

Industry and Business

led lights

Quantum Dot Displays Start to Shine

A new display technology that uses quantum dots for pixels could be easier to manufacture, brighter, and possibly more energy-efficient…

Industry and Business

CRAY servers

Sharing Super Computing for Energy Innovation

The Department of Energy has rolled out a program to donate billions of supercomputing hours to projects that are working on energy…

Industry and Business

battery

Qnovo: Not Your Average Battery Startup

Start-up Qnovo intends to help customers get the most out of batteries through electronics. Qnovo’s is bypassing new production lines…

Industry and Business

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Newsletter: Fall 2010

Greetings! 

UC Santa Barbara is back in session and we have a full and exciting year ahead of us.  The Institute is…

Newsletter

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Nissan Unveils Fuel Saving Pedal System

Nissan has unveiled a new gas pedal that uses resistance to discourage drivers from pressing the pedal to the metal. The new system is…

Industry and Business

wind turbine

Researchers Show Simple But Effective Discoveries That Could Enhance Wind Turbines’ Efficiency by 18 Percent

Potential improvements to wind turbine efficiency include (1) using computers to measure the airflow over blade surfaces and adjust the…

Research

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Boeing Shatters Solar Power Record with 39.2% Cell Efficiency

Boeing subsidiary Spectrolab's solar panels supply power to over 60% of orbiting satellites, but the company may soon be known for…

Industry and Business

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Are Efficient LED Bulbs Worth the Price?

Energy-efficient LED bulbs have been improving in terms of brightness, color and price, but do the efficiency savings pay for themselves…

Industry and Business

cell phone chip

Cell-Phone Chips to the Rescue

In an effort to reduce the cost of cooling microprocessor chips, data centers are looking to low-power chips used in cell phones and…

Industry and Business