MIT discovery resurrects potential of molten salt batteries for grid level power storage New Atlas, January 22nd, 2018 One of the primary problems with renewable energy, particularly wind and solar, is that power gets generated when the wind or sun is available, rather than when it’s most needed. This problem would more or less disappear if … Read more
Making data centers more energy efficient MIT News, August 30, 2017 Most modern websites store data in databases, and since database queries are relatively slow, most sites also maintain so-called cache servers, which list the results of common queries for faster access. A data center for a major web service such as Google or Facebook … Read more
MIT Introduces New Power-Efficient Converter for Reducing Power Consumption in IoT Devices All About Circuits, July 19, 2017 Energy efficiency in the Internet of Things (IoT) devices has become a critical concern for designers due to decreasing device sizes and limited energy storage capacities. The majority of IoT devices are usually deployed in hard-to-reach areas, or … Read more
Ryan Pollin, ERS, for Zondits The Summit Farms solar facility is a landmark collaboration of three Boston-area institutions to collectively purchase 60 MW of power from a solar farm in North Carolina. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston Medical Center, and Post Office Square Redevelopment Corporation came together to buy the power from Dominion, which … Read more
Energy-efficient window tinting goes dark at the flick of a switch New Atlas, August 14, 2016 Current electrochromic window tinting techniques are effective to a point, but there are limitations to the technology. They’re generally slow to change state, struggle to achieve high levels of darkness, and rely on a constant current to maintain their tint. A team at … Read more
How to make cities more energy efficient MIT News, April 20, 2016. Image credit: bryanucla New research shows how to identify the buildings where retrofitting for energy efficiency will have the biggest impact on a city’s overall greenhouse gas emissions. The new findings, which require only minimal information about the buildings and their energy use, was … Read more
MIT researchers create citywide building energy model for Boston MIT News, February 22, 2016. Image credit: Tafyrn The City of Boston now has a powerful new tool for planning its energy future, thanks to pioneering work done by researchers at the MIT Sustainable Design Lab (SDL) and the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, in collaboration with the Boston … Read more
Could The Future Of Urban Farming Be Found Inside Of An Old Shipping Container? Think Progress, February 4, 2016. Image credit: Freight Farms Freight Farms cofounder Brad McNamara first got the idea for creating farms in shipping containers while working in rooftop farm consulting throughout Boston as a graduate student. McNamara was trying to figure … Read more
Ryan Pollin for Zondits, January 18, 2016. Image credit: MIT Image/Ognjen Ilic LED lighting is the best we’ve got, and it’ll stay that way for some time. But, our best and brightest physicists have been up to some very neat tricks in the laboratory, making progress on even more efficient lighting. Researchers at Purdue and MIT … Read more