This week’s update which will be in two separate parts, Tivon tells us about the a new forum for all free energy subjects non-QEG related, and about a research paper done by a spanish university group which supports variable induction generator technology as the future for renewable energy.

Supporting research documentation urls below:

http://www.academia.edu/23286496/Design_Characterization_and_Validation_of_a_1-kW_AC_Self-Excited_Switched_Reluctance_Generator

Portugal just ran for 4 straight days entirely on renewable energy

As renewable energy matures into an ever more popular and cost-effective source of electricity, we’re getting used to seeing some historic achievements from nations that have ramped up their clean energy infrastructure – and the latest glory goes to Portugal.

Recent figures show that the country ran on renewable energy alone for four days straight this month, completing an extraordinary 107-hour run between Saturday morning, May 7, and early Wednesday evening, May 11. During this record-setting window, Portugal ran on solar, wind, and hydro electricity entirely, without needing to fall back on power sourced from its coal and natural gas plants.

The numbers, released by Portugal’s ZERO System Sustainable Land Association in collaboration with the Portuguese Renewable Energy Association (APREN), indicate that the nation has come a long way in terms of embracing clean energy in recent decades, and could stand to even improve its environmental credentials in the near future.

“These data show that Portugal can be more ambitious in a transition to a net consumption of electricity from 100 percent renewable, with huge reductions of emissions of greenhouse gases, which cause global warming and consequent climate change,” reads a statement on the ZERO website.

The news comes on the back of Germany hitting an amazing energy goal of its own in the same time frame: the country sourced 95 percent of its energy from renewable sources on Sunday, 8 May.

While that’s perhaps not quite as impressive as Portugal’s 100-percent effort – for four consecutive days, no less – it was still enough to send local power prices in Germany into the negative, meaning commercial customers were actually being paid to use up electricity.

These kinds of records won’t be going away any time soon, either, with Portugal’s capability to rely entirely on solar, wind, and hydro power for days at a time expected to be a sign of things to come across Europe, as the renewable market becomes even more pervasive.

If you keep an eye on the headlines, you’ll see nations across Europe are a part of this momentum, ranging from Scotland ramping up its wind power sector, to Austria’s booming hydro industry.

“[Portugal’s effort] is a significant achievement for a European country, but what seems extraordinary today will be commonplace in Europe in just a few years,” CEO of SolarPower Europe James Watson told Arthur Neslen at The Guardian. “The energy transition process is gathering momentum and records such as this will continue to be set and broken across Europe.”

Elsewhere in the world, sun-drenched nations are also stepping up to the plate, with countries like India turning to solar over its traditional coal-based power industry.

If things keep going like this, the world could be on track to source more than a quarter of its energy requirements from renewables by the end of the decade.

Let’s do this, people!

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• http://tinyurl.com/jgatzbs

New anti-migraine surgical implants send out tiny electric shocks to ease the brain

… but is there a natural method?

Human trials have been launched on a small, wireless device that is implanted in the forehead and sends electric pulses to block the nerve signals believed to produce migraine pain.

Migraines are headaches characterized by intense throbbing or pulsing pain, typically accompanied by nausea, vomiting, or extreme light and sound sensitivity. The pain from migraines can be so severe as to debilitate people for hours or even days.

The new device is being promoted as a way to offer migraine relief without drugs. But there are already drug-free, natural alternatives – which do not involve implanting devices into your head and beaming your brain directly with carcinogenic wireless radiation.

Device irradiates brain to block nerve impulses

The neurophysiological mechanisms that trigger migraine attacks are poorly understood. One popular theory suggests that abnormal brain activity – perhaps a combination of faulty electrical impulses and imbalances in certain neurotransmitters, including serotonin – cause changes to brain blood flow and the transmission of pain signals.

The StimRelieve Halo is a pea-sized device implanted into the forehead using a gauge needle. It is wirelessly connected to a battery pack which is clipped either to the ear or to the chest (media reports differ). The battery pack contains a button, which can be pressed to send electrical pulses to the implant. Theoretically, these pulses block the transmission of pain signals by nerves in the head.

The trial now underway includes 140 participants, all of whom have been implanted with the device. Half of the participants, however, have inactivated batteries in the devices, so there will be no effect when they push the button.

There is already one similar device available on the market for treating migraine pain. In 2014, the FDA approved Cefaly, a crown-like device that is attached externally to the forehead and uses electric pulses to block nerve signals. In clinical trials, Cefaly caused a 50 percent decrease in migraine pain for 38 percent of participants, compared with 12 percent for a placebo. Unlike the StimRelieve Halo, Cefaly does not use wireless signals and is controlled by a button on the device itself.

Safe, effective and natural migraine relief

Beyond the unsettling and invasive nature of implanting a medical device directly into patients’ heads, the new device would also beam wireless radiofrequency signals directly at the brain. These are the same frequency of signals increasingly being implicated in the development of brain cancer and other tumors.

But what alternative do people have, if they suffer from crippling migraine pain and also want to avoid potentially dangerous pharmaceutical drugs?

In fact, a number of natural remedies have shown great effectiveness in soothing migraine pain. One of the best ways to treat migraines is to prevent them, by learning and avoiding your own personal triggers. While some triggers may be beyond your control, many people find that their migraines are triggered or worsened by certain foods, including caffeine, alcohol, MSG, chocolate, dairy, peanut butter, onions, nitrate-containing meats, fermented or pickled foods, certain fruits (such as avocado, banana or citrus), and foods containing the amino-acid tyramine.

While some of these foods, like nitrate-containing meat, are bad for you, others, such as fermented foods, are generally very healthy. That’s why it’s best to make a food diary and only avoid the foods that actually trigger your attacks.

Some foods and herbs may actively help. Buckwheat, a traditional migraine remedy, may help due to its high levels of the flavonoid rutin. Studies have shown that the herbal remedy feverfew, taken daily, prevents and reduces migraine pain.

To access the full article, use source link below. 

(Source:  naturalnews.com; May 29, 2016; http://tinyurl.com/ze2pysb)

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Innovative and energy-efficient: Clean water without chemicals

Water is used as a resource, for cooling or as a solvent. Water also is indispensable in industrial production. Environmentally compatible processing of water now is subject of the Eco-UV research project funded by the European Union with EUR 3.9 million under the “Horizon 2020” programme. Within the framework of the project, engineers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) plan to develop efficient UV emitters and long-lived electronic systems.

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is applied for processing drinking water among others. Within shortest periods of time, the short-wave radiation can significantly reduce the bacterial count even without chemical additives. The “Eco-UV” EU project of industry and science is aimed at developing an innovative UV technology for water processing, from disinfection of drinking water to the detoxification of industrial process water. In addition, the process to be developed is to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) and overall environmental pollution. “A high energy efficiency and long service life will be major features of the new system,” Dr. Rainer Kling of KIT’s Light Technology Institute says. He coordinates KIT’s work package. “At KIT, we are working on the key component, a new, mercury-free UV emitter.” In addition, KIT engineers will supply the ballast for this lamp. “With silicon carbide as semiconductor material, we reach a very high power density. This does not only increase efficiency, but also reduces energy consumption and CO2 emission.”

Within the framework of the project, the new UV emitter technology will be tested for long-term stability, aging effects, and dose-effect relations under application conditions. For this purpose, industry and science cooperate under the “Eco-UV” project. The emitters made by KIT will be integrated into a system of Hanovia, a British manufacturer of UV systems (overall project coordinator). The DVGW Test Laboratory of KIT’s Engler-Bunte Institute will be responsible for the monitoring and certification of the systems, the Swedish environmental research institute IVL will make a complete lifecycle assessment of costs and benefits for the environment compared to conventional UV technologies. From the results, test protocols will be derived for various end user applications. They may serve as a basis for a future standardized validation of UV applications in the EU.

Eco-UV is financed from funds of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant No. 641.702.

By Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

(Source:  nanowerk.com; May 9, 2016; http://tinyurl.com/jkcrmfg)

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This huge solar panel barge could be the future of ocean-based renewable energy

More than 70 percent of our planet’s surface is covered by water, so scientists are figuring out ways to make use of these vast spaces for generating renewable energy. We’ve already seen solar panels floating on top of lakes and reservoirs, and now researchers in Austria have developed a prototype barge loaded with solar cells that’s capable of handling the dangerously choppy waves of the ocean.

The 100-metre (328-foot) platforms are based on a new floatation system called Heliofloat that enables the solar panels to roll with the swells of the sea and carry on producing electricity. The technology could potentially enable companies to create huge offshore solar plants to help supply our increasing energy needs.

Of course, the ocean is a very tumultuous place for veteran sailors and brand new solar panels alike, and if you’ve invested in stacks of expensive photovoltaic cells, you don’t want them sinking down to the seabed.

But a team from the Vienna University of Technology think they’ve solved that problem by replacing conventional floats with flexible, open-bottomed cylinders.

These cylinders dampen rather than absorb energy, Gizmag’s David Szondy reports, and the team behind the invention says Heliofloat can support platforms up to “the size of football fields” that can cope with heavy seas.

They work in a similar way to ballast tanks on ships and submarines that take on and let go water. 

“The key to this, is that Heliofloat is supported by open floatation devices,” said lead researcher, Markus Haider. “Were a platform to be simply mounted onto air-filled, closed containers, the design of the construction would have to be inefficiently heavy and robust in order to be able to withstand heavy waves.”

The Heliofloat buoyancy units are made from a soft, flexible material with trapped air in the upper section of these barrels.

Because the air has direct contact with the water below, it creates an air column that acts as a shock absorber. The waves are allowed to rise and fall while the solar panel platform itself remains relatively stable.

According to the developers, the same technology could have other applications besides solar power, such as systems for water desalination and evaporation prevention.

“In hot countries, Heliofloat platforms could be utilised to protect lakes against drying up,” says Haider. One day, even residential housing could be built on a Heliofloat.

A prototype version is set for a demonstration at the Hannover Messe trade fair in Germany this week, and Haider and his team are seeking outside investment and commercial partners to help make the Heliofloat platforms a viable product.

(Source:  sciencealert.com; April 29, 2016; http://tinyurl.com/jfnx8xs)

How to build a DIY solar oven

What if you found yourself without electricity for several weeks? If this ever happened, solar cooking can come in handy. It would allow you to cook things like rice, hot dogs, and soups (among other things). As you can probably guess, it revolves on harnessing the sun’s UV light to cook food. Pretty simple concept, wouldn’t you agree? Once you build your solar oven, you’ll be able to reheat foods with no electrical power. I don’t know about you, but that’s pretty cool! Let’s look at the materials required and steps for building a DIY solar oven.

DIY Solar Oven – Things You’ll Need

For this solar cooker project, I’m going to teach you how to build a solar oven out of a pizza box. You can actually build a solar cooker out of a lot of things, but for the sake of simplicity (and since it’s arguably the easiest one to build), we’ll cover the pizza box method.  Here’s what you’ll need:

• Cardboard Pizza Box
• Scissors (or a Box Knife)
• Aluminum Foil
• Tape
• Plastic Wrap
• Black Construction Paper
• Ruler
• Glue
• A Black Marker

As you can see, you won’t need anything too expensive. In fact, you’ll probably have most of these items lying around your house. Perhaps the hardest thing to get out of all this is the pizza box! Once you’ve gathered the necessary materials, you’re ready to begin your solar oven project.

Solar Oven Project Steps

I understand that some of you may be better at reading instructions, while others may be better at “watching” and copying. For this reason, I’m going to write out the steps to building a homemade solar oven, followed by showing you a video on how to do it. Here’s what to do:

• Step 1: Using your scissors (or box cutter), cut out a square flap in the lid of your pizza box. Cut along three sizes while making sure that you leave about one inch of space between the edges of the lid and the sides of the flap. Fold the flip to a standing position.
• Step 2: The next step in this solar cooker project is to cover the insides of the flap with inner foil. Why is this step important? Well, the aluminum foil is the thing that’s going to be reflecting the sun’s rays. Wrap the aluminum foil tightly around the flap, and secure it using tape.
• Step 3: By this point, your DIY solar oven is starting to come together, but it’s not finished yet. Now, get your clear plastic wrap and create an airtight window for sunlight to enter the box. Place the plastic wrap over the original opening you made in step one.
• Step 4: Using your black construction paper, line the bottom of the pizza box. This will allow your DIY solar oven to absorb the heat required for cooking. The amount of paper you use will depend on the size of your pizza box.

And…that’s it! I can’t promise that you’ll be able to cook a turkey with your new DIY solar oven, but you will be able to do things like melt cheese, make s’mores, and heat up cans of soup.

How Hot Will My Homemade Solar Oven Get?

On a sunny day, a well-built DIY solar oven can reach about 200-degrees Fahrenheit. Because it maxes out at this temperature, it will take longer to heat things compared to a traditional oven. While solar cooking does take longer than traditional cooking, it’s a lot of fun and is very easy to do. Plus, it’s pretty cool to think that you’re cooking your food using nothing more than the energy from the sun. The peak hours for cooking are from 11 A.M. to 3 P.M. when the sun is high overhead. If you live in an exceptionally hot state, like Nevada or Arizona for example, then your homemade solar oven will become super-hot.

By preheating your DIY solar oven, you’ll save a lot of time when it cooking/reheating your foods. To do this, simply leave it in the sun for about an hour prior to cooking. As it accumulates more and more sunlight, your solar oven will become incredibly hot. I recommend using a pie plate so that the bottom doesn’t get dirty. Also, having a thermometer is good idea so that you can measure the temperature of your DIY solar oven. If it gets hot enough, you may even be able to cook a hot dog! I’ve even heard of people baking cookies in their solar cooker. Not bad for something that requires minimal time and building materials.

Tips on Using a DIY Solar Oven

Here are some tips to keep in mind when using your DIY solar oven:

• Wrap Food in Aluminum Foil: If you take something like corn on the cob and wrap it in aluminum foil, it will cook much more efficiently.
• Pre-Heat Your Oven: This will help you save a lot of time since solar ovens take a lot longer to heat up compared to conventional ovens.
• Stir Liquids: To ensure that your soups (or even rice or fondue) cook evenly, stir them at least once every 10 to 15 minutes.
• Follow the Sun: Repositioning your solar oven ensures that your oven is always achieving the maximum amount of sunlight possible.

Remember, this a homemade solar oven (especially ones made out of pizza boxes) isn’t designed to kill bacteria. For this reason, it’s not suitable for cooking things like fish, pork, or chicken. You can, however, cook things like rice, hot dogs, soups, cheese, s’mores, and maybe cookies depending on how hot you get it. Overall, it’s a fun project to do with the kids and can definitely come in handy if you’ve lost electricity.

Bottom Line

As you can see, this solar oven project is super-simple to do. As I mentioned earlier, you probably have most of these materials lying around your home (minus the pizza box). Just keep in mind that you need plenty of sun to use it. It won’t work somewhere that’s constantly cloudy, rainy, etc. If you’re looking for another fun DIY project, check out my article: How to Build a PVC Bow. Thanks for reading!

To access full article and video use source link below.

 (Source:  truthsurvival.com; April 18, 2016; http://tinyurl.com/gwfjwwh)

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Distance wireless charging enhanced by magnetic metamaterials

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona researchers have developed a system which efficiently transfers electrical energy between two separate circuits. The system, made with a shell of metamaterials which concentrates the magnetic field, could transmit energy efficiently enough to charge mobile devices without having to place them close to the charging base. The research was published in the journal Advanced Materials (“Quasistatic Metamaterials: Magnetic Coupling Enhancement by Effective Space Cancellation”).

Wireless charging of mobile devices is possibly one of the most desired technological milestones. Some devices can already be charged wirelessly by placing the mobile device on top of a charging base. The next step, charging devices without the need of taking them out of one’s pocket, might be just around the corner.

A group of researchers from the Department of Physics of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona has developed a system which can efficiently transfer electrical energy between two separated circuits thanks to the use of metamaterials. This system is still in the experimental stage, but once it has been perfected and can be applied to mobile devices, it will be able to charge them wirelessly and at a longer distance than currently possible.

Today’s wireless devices make use of induction to charge through a special case adapted to the device and a charging base connected to an electrical socket. When the device is placed on top of the base, this generates a magnetic field which induces an electric current inside the case and, without the need of using any cables, the device is charged. If the device is separated from the base, the energy is not transferred efficiently enough and the battery cannot be charged.

The system created by UAB researchers overcomes these limitations. It is made up of metamaterials which combine layers of ferromagnetic materials, such as iron compounds, and conductor materials such as copper. The metamaterials envelop the emitter and receiver and enable transferring energy between the two, at a distance and with unprecedented efficiency.

With the use of metamaterial crowns researchers were able in the lab to increase the transmission efficiency 35-fold, “and there is much more room for improvement, since theoretically the efficiency can be increased even more if conditions and the design of the experiment are perfected” explains Àlvar Sánchez, director of the research.

“Enveloping the two circuits with metamaterial shells has the same effect as bringing them close together; it’s as if the space between them literally disappears”, states Jordi Prat, lead author of the paper.

Moreover, the materials needed to construct these crowns such as copper and ferrite are easily available. The first experiments conducted with the aim of concentrating static magnetic fields required the use of superconductor metamaterials, unfeasible for everyday uses with mobile devices. “In contrast, low frequency electromagnetic waves – the ones used to transfer energy from one circuit to the other – only need conventional conductors and ferromagnets”, Carles Navau explains.

The study was conducted by researchers from the Electromagnetism Group of the UAB Department of Physics Àlvar Sánchez (also an ICREA Acadèmia researcher) and Carles Navau, and by Jordi Prat, currently researcher at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Innsbruck.

The device has been patented by the UAB and companies from several different countries have already shown interest in applying the technology.

By Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

(Source:  nanowerk.com; May 10, 2016; http://tinyurl.com/jj9a68s)

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Bright dusty galaxies are hiding secret companions

A new University of Sussex study has cleared the air on what lies behind hot dust visible in the distant universe.

Researchers found that the glow of heated dust reaching our planet is frequently due to three or four galaxies instead of a single one, as scientists had previously assumed.

The study, published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (“The multiplicity of 250-µm Herschel sources in the COSMOS field”), applied a statistical method to data from the Herschel Space Observatory to solve one of astrophysics’ great conundrums.

Dr Jillian Scudder, lead author and Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Astrophysics, said: “This is a really interesting result because when we assumed that one galaxy had to be responsible for all of the dust emission, it implied that the galaxy must be forming a tremendous number of new stars.

“Forming that number of stars in a galaxy so early in the Universe is quite hard to explain. By finding that each galaxy is actually two or three galaxies, we’ve dropped the number of stars these galaxies have to be producing by a third.”

Far-infrared observations are relatively low resolution, and so each object detected by Herschel is blurred over an area about 26 times as large as the entire Milky Way. But if you look at the same patch of sky with better resolution, a number of galaxies appear, not just one.

This abundance of possible galaxies makes it difficult to figure out which of them is responsible for the dust glow. Historically, the galaxy closest to the centre of the dust glow is assigned responsibility for creating all of the light.

This new study used a statistical method to find the best possible way to split up the light seen by Herschel, given the positions of known nearby galaxies. If one galaxy is found in the exact centre, it is probably responsible for most or all of the dust glow seen by Herschel. However, if there are no galaxies in the exact middle, or if the glow is not perfectly round, more than one galaxy is likely to be contributing to the light.

Dr. Scudder added: “Even after being revealed as multiple galaxies, each galaxy is still very bright, and forming a lot of new stars. The fact that there are several bright galaxies so close to each other on the sky may mean that they’re interacting with each other, which might help explain how they got so bright in the first place.”

The study looked at a sample of 360 objects detected at 250 micron by Herschel within the COSMOS field and revealed that the sample is almost entirely (95%) made up of at least two dust-bright galaxies hiding within the low-resolution images from Herschel.

By University of Sussex

(Source:  nanowerk.com; May 6, 2016; http://tinyurl.com/hnekswt)

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