Berkley, CA - March, 24 2008 - Better Energy systems is pleased to announce the availability of it’s newest Solio® model, The Solio Magnesium Edition^TM (Solio Mg). The Solio Mg is the most powerful and efficient hybrid solar charger on the market, with one hour of sunlight providing Solio users with an additional 25 minutes of cell phone talk time or 50 minutes of MP3 music. It’s max output of 8 watts is more than three times that of the older Solio Classic model. 

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Taipei, Taiwan – December 21st, 2007 – Amid rising global energy concerns, leading-edge PC component brand Cooler Master is launching its Green Guard Program in an effort to bring focus to PC power supplies and the environmental effects of modern desktop computing. As energy waste is on the rise, it’s time to ensure the efficiency of PC power supplies and make sure that they are living up to their promises.

Cooler Master has taken this one step further by encouraging everyone to be environmentally conscious and get a chance to win a BRAND NEW 2008 TOYOTA PRIUS!

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Berkeley, CA – September 27, 2007 - Better Energy Systems, a leader in the design and manufacturing of award-winning sustainable energy technologies, today announced the introduction of its Solio® Hybrid1000® - the latest addition to the company’s expanding collection of easy-to-use renewable energy products.

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In the race to make solar energy both cheaper and more efficient, researchers at the Wake Forest University of North Carolina have found a new process to create plastic solar cells that capture more sunlight. Silicon-based solar cells had already been improved very recently with the use of ‘nano-towers’, but organic cells were so far known to be quite ineffective. Record efficiency of over 6% has now been achieved with polymers creating ‘nano-filaments’ branching like trees and able to capture more photons from the sun.

The production of plastic solar cells able to develop an efficiency of 10% or more – proper commercial use of such cells requires a minimum of 8% – is planned for next year. This technology is becoming cheaper and more effective, which is a good sign, as the need for alternative energy sources to fossil fuel is getting increasingly urgent.

The global search for a sustainable energy supply is making significant strides at Wake Forest University as researchers at the university’s Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials have announced that they have pushed the efficiency of plastic solar cells to more than 6 percent.

Source: Wake Forest University

A research team at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, USA, has created a new 3D solar cell that traps photons more efficiently than any photovoltaic device currently in operation. Thanks to microscopic tower structures – 100 microns high, 40 microns by 40 microns square, 10 microns apart, and made of millions of vertically-aligned carbon nanotubes – the cell reflects back far fewer photons than the conventional systems, thus greatly increasing its efficiency at any angle from the source of light.

Future optimization of the cell is planned, along with testing of its operation in space as part of satellites power-producing systems. Back on Earth, this new cost-effective technology may soon give the use of solar energy a more realistic outlook.

Unique three-dimensional solar cells that capture nearly all of the light that strikes them could boost the efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) systems while reducing their size, weight and mechanical complexity.

Source: Georgia Institute of Technology Research News