POWER WINDOWS - Cheap Solar Energy

Imagine windows that not only provide a clear view and illuminate rooms, but also use sunlight to efficiently help power the building…

MUMBAI MIRROR BUREAU

Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US report a new approach to harnessing the sun’s energy: Colourful window panes that double up as energy generators. Their work – published in Friday’s issue of Science – involves the creation of what they call a ‘solar concentrator.’

“Using our technology, light is collected over a large area like a window and then, gathered or concentrated at the edges,” explains Marc Baldo, leader of the work and Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering.

So, rather than covering a roof with expensive solar cells – the semiconductor devices that transform sunlight into electricity – the cells only need to be around the edges of a flat glass panel. In addition, the focused light increases the electrical power obtained from each solar cell “by a factor of over 40”, Baldo says.

INCREASED EFFICIENCY
Because the system is simple to manufacture, the team believes that it could be implemented within three years – even added onto existing solar-panel systems to increase their efficiency by 50 per cent for minimal additional cost. That, in turn, would substantially reduce the cost of solar electricity.

In addition to Baldo, the researchers involved are Michael Currie, Jon Mapel, and Timothy Heidel, all graduate students in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Shalom Goffri, a postdoctoral associate in MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics.

“Professor Baldo’s project utilises innovative design to achieve superior solar conversion,” says Dr Aravinda Kini, program manager in the Office of Basic Energy Sciences in the US Department of Energy’s Office of Science, a sponsor of the work. “This accomplishment demonstrates a revolutionary advance in solar energy utilisation in a cost-effective manner.”

Solar concentrators in use today “track the sun to generate high optical intensities, often by using large mobile mirrors that are expensive to deploy and maintain,” Baldo and colleagues wrote. Further, “solar cells at the focal point of the mirrors must be cooled, and the entire assembly wastes space around the perimeter to avoid shadowing neighbouring concentrators”.

The MIT solar concentrator involves a mixture of two or more dyes that is essentially painted onto a pane of glass or plastic. The dyes work together to absorb light across a range of wavelengths, which is then re-emitted at a different wavelength and transported across the pane to waiting solar cells at the edges.

THAT ’70S TECHNOLOGY
In the 1970s, similar solar concentrators were developed by impregnating dyes in plastic. But the idea was abandoned because, among other things, not enough of the collected light could reach the edges of the concentrator. Much of it was lost en route.

The MIT engineers realised that perhaps those same advances could be applied to solar concentrators. The result? A mixture of dyes in specific ratios, applied only to the surface of the glass that allows some level of control over light absorption and emission.

“We made it so the light can travel a much longer distance,” Mapel says. “We were able to substantially reduce light transport losses, resulting in a ten-fold increase in the amount of power converted by the solar cells.”

Mapel, Currie and Goffri are starting a firm, Covalent Solar, to commercialise the technology.

Researchers Marc Baldo (left) and Shalom Goffri hold examples of the low-cost organic solar concentrators that collect and focus different colours of sunlight. Stacking multiple concentrators optimises the overall power output

To teach India is a calling

An educated nation is a progressive, developed nation, says Bollywood

AFSANA AHMED & NIMISHA TIWARI Times News Network

Actress Tanishaa, who did a short but impressive role in Ram Gopal Varma’s Sarkar Raj, recently stepped out for BT and gave underprivileged children a few lessons about life and making the most of it right on the streets. “My heart goes out to children who do not enjoy privileges as basic as education. What greater good can one do than educate a child,” asked Tanishaa who thought The Times of India’s ‘Teach India’ campaign was “a superb social initiative that’s the need of the hour”. Said the bubbly actress, “With this, every child who will be interacted with is bound to grow into a refined, mature citizen. Isn’t this the entire motive of education?”

It is, indeed. And the movement has picked up momentum in the week of its launch itself. Sixty of India’s most committed NGOs, schools and other social organisations have come up, and more are standing in line to pledge two hours a week that will make the difference to a less fortunate child’s life. While other Indians, like Bollywood hunk Salman Khan who has been quietly helping underprivileged kids in cash and kind for years, asked, “What better way to give back to society than through education?” Salman, in fact, stressed that he would want to make “kids understand the importance of education to better their own current state and therefore the country’s economic growth”.

That’s the power of education. Everybody is willing to give back what they learned. Like Dhak-Dhak girl Madhuri Dixit who believes a noble campaign carried out on such a massive scale will help work against illiteracy and related issues like poverty. While actress Amrita Rao said, “Such kids will wake up to a larger world, if not anything else they will be rich at least in knowledge — a possession nobody can then take away from them.” Actresses Raveena Tandon and Nagma, who have always worked for the cause of the underprivileged Indian child, said illiteracy combated means half of India’s problems are solved. While debutant actor Harman Baweja, pledging to throw in his muscle, added that films, like the media, were a strong platform to “teach India” as “every kid loves film stars and listens to what they say”.

Yesteryear screen queen and social activist Sharmila Tagore, who is noted for her work with NGOs like Unicef, Cry and Katha, agreed that education is one of the most important issues for empowering the underprivileged. But it was left to superstar Amitabh Bachchan to put a finger on exactly what Teach India will mean to the nation. “If mankind is capable of sharing his worth and privilege with those of his kind that do not have opportunity and are underprivileged, it is the greatest deed that can be done,” said the Big B. “An educated individual becomes the owner of several assets, not necessarily material, which contribute immensely in shaping the future of
a country. I believe good education brings in an important element of discipline within all of us and I believe a disciplined nation is a progressive, developed nation. India needs to come out of this long-standing shadow of a developing nation, into one that is developed and education is the key ingredient.”

FOR A BETTER TOMORROW: Tanishaa spends time with underprivileged kids while (top) Salman Khan and (left) Amitabh Bachchan believe in the power of educating them.

‘Antarctic ice shelf hanging by thread’

Paris: New evidence has emerged that a large plate of floating ice shelf attached to Antarctica is breaking up, in a troubling sign of global warming, the European Space Agency said.

Images taken by its Envisat remote-sensing satellite show that Wilkins Ice Shelf is “hanging by its last thread” to Charcot Island, one of the plate’s key anchors to the Antarctic peninsula, ESA said in a press release.

“Since the connection to the island... helps stabilise the ice shelf, it is likely the breakup of the bridge will put the remainder of the ice shelf at risk,” it said. Wilkins Ice Shelf had been stable for most of the last century, covering around 16,000 square kilometres, or about the size of Northern Ireland, before it began to retreat in the 1990s.

Since then several large areas have broken away, and two big breakoffs this year left only a narrow ice bridge about 2.7 kilometres wide to connect the shelf to Charcot and nearby Latady Island.

The latest images, taken by Envisat’s radar, say fractures have now opened up in this bridge and adjacent areas of the plate are disintegrating, creating large icebergs.

Scientists are puzzled and concerned by the event, ESA added. The Antarctic peninsula — the tongue of land that juts northward from the white continent towards South America — has had one of the highest rates of warming anywhere in the world in recent decades. But this latest stage of the breakup occurred during the Southern Hemisphere’s winter, when atmospheric temperatures are at their lowest.

One idea is that warmer water from the Southern Ocean is reaching the underside of the ice shelf and thinning it rapidly from underneath.

“Wilkins Ice Shelf is the most recent in a long, and growing, list of ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula that are responding to the rapid warming that has occurred in this area over the last fifty years,” researcher David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) said. “Current events are showing that we were being too conservative, when we made the prediction in the early 1990s that Wilkins Ice Shelf would be lost within 30 years. The truth is, it is going more quickly than we guessed.” AFP

Study links global warming to higher levels of smog

US environmental regulators quietly published a draft study on Thursday that linked global warming to higher levels of smog that could harm human health, a report green groups said stood in contrast to the Bush administration’s slow movement on climate change. The draft report published by the Environmental Protection Agency in the Federal Register said, “Climate change has the potential to produce significant increases in near-surface (ozone) concentrations in many areas of the US.” It said parts of the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast and lower Midwest show some increases in ozone in study simulations, and the seasons in which ozone is a problem could last longer as a result of higher temperatures. REUTERS

DISAPPEARING FAST: The Antarctic peninsula has had one of the highest rates of warming anywhere in the world in recent decades

TECH TALK...

Solar device that won’t burn a hole in pocket
Washington: Using sheets of glass covered with organic dyes, scientists have devised an efficient and practical solar power device that they believe can help make this clean, renewable energy source more affordable.

Experts eager for energy sources that do not involve the burning of fossil fuels often point to the promise of solar energy — harnessing sunlight to make electricity. But solar power so far has proven costlier than standard energy sources.

Writing on Thursday in the journal Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers describe the development of a new type of “solar concentrator” that may provide a better way to extract energy from the sun.

They used glass sheets coated in organic dyes to concentrate light hitting the panes. The dyes absorbed the light, then emitted it into the glass, which carried the light to the edges of the pane much as fiber-optic cables transport light over distances, the researchers said.

At the edges of the glass are located small solar cells that then transform the light into electricity.

“It consists of just a piece of glass with a layer of paint on top of it,” MIT electrical engineering professor Marc Baldo, who led the research, said in a telephone interview.

“The idea is the light comes in and hits the paint. The paint then bounces the light out to the edges of the glass. All you need is the solar cells on the edges. So we think we can use this to reduce the cost of solar electricity,” added said.

MIT researcher Jonathan Mapel, who also worked on the study, said the hope is that the use of this sort of technology can help bring the cost of solar power closer to the cost of conventional fossil fuel power sources such as coal. “One of the challenges with solar (energy) in general is that it’s just too high in cost. And what you’d like to do is reduce the price of solar electricity,” Mapel said. REUTERS

‘Star-making machine’ found by astronomers...

‘Baby Boom’ Galaxy Produces 4,000 Stars A Year

Washington: Scientists have discovered rare “star-making machine” in distant universe, producing stars at big bursts at a rate of up to 4,000 per year, a development that is in contrast to our Milky Way galaxy that pumps out an average of just 10 stars per year.

“This galaxy is undergoing a major baby boom, galaxy that producing most of its stars all at once,” said Peter Capak of Nasa’s Spitzer Science Centre at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.

The discovery, detailed in the July issue of Institute of Astrophysical Journal Letters, means that if the human of population was produced in a similar boom, “then almost all of the people alive today would be the same age”.

Nasa’s Hubble Space Telescope and Japan’s Subaru atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii, first spotted the “Baby Boom” galaxy in visiblelight images, where it appeared as an inconspicuous smudge due to is great distance.

The discovery goes against the most common theory of galaxy formation that believes that galaxies slowly bulk up their stars over time by absorbing tiny pieces of galaxies and not in one big burst as observed in the newfound “Baby Boom” galaxy, the Science Daily said in a report on Friday.

“The incredible star-formation activity suggests that we may be witnessing, for the first time, the formation of one of the most massive elliptical galaxies in the universe,” said co-author Nick Scoville of Caltech, the principal investigator of the Cosmic Evolution Survey, also known as Cosmos.

The Baby Boom galaxy, which belongs to a class of evolution galaxies called starbursts, is the new record holder for the brightest starburst galaxy in the very distant universe, with brightness being a measure of its extreme starformation rate. PTI

BURST OF ACTIVITY: The green and red splotch is the most active star-making galaxy in the universe, nicknamed ‘Baby Boom’

Science in clean, green surroundings...

With a campus spread over 10 acres, the Doongarsee Gangjee Ruparel College, located opposite Matunga Road Station, is the largest campus in the island city. The college was started in 1952, while the junior college was started in 1976 with the arts and science streams. Commerce was introduced in 1984. Located a short distance from Shivaji Park, the college boasts a clean and green environment and was given the BMC’s cleanest college tag this year.

Ruparel college is noted for its science education, with the junior college stream considered the best in the city by many. Last year, Ruparel’s junior college science cut-off was over 90%, the only college in the city to have such a high cutoff in any stream.

“Our college is run by the Modern Education Society and is managed by teachers. Our faculty is very approachable and friendly. We believe in overall personality development and lay a huge emphasis on extra-curricular, sports and cultural activities. We also believe in spreading education to the poorest,’’ said Dr Pradeep Kulkarni, principal of the college.

For the last 25 years, the college has been successfully running the Brihanmumbai Centre for Talent Search (BCTS). “The BCTS aims at finding young talent from schools and colleges to prepare them for competitive examinations,’’ said Kulkarni. The college tries to balance student aspirations with the needs and expectations of society. Ruparel is the only college in the state to hold inter-collegiate competitions for Marathi oneact plays. TNN

ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY: Ruparel’s campus was called the cleanest one in Mumbai by the BMC this year.

State to ICSE schools: Go beyond Class X...

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai: While the state government is going all out to sanction more seats, and even colleges, to bridge the yawning chasm between the number of students who have cleared Class X and the number of first-year junior college (FYJC) seats, the state education department plans to ask ICSE and CBSE schools to pitch in and help out.

“Several ICSE and CBSE schools have received No Objection Certificates (NOCs) from the Maharashtra government for starting classes X, XI and XII. However, many of these schools, despite having permission to start junior colleges, do not do so,’’ said Sanjay Kumar, state education secretary. The state feels that the Class X students from ICSE and CBSE schools then have nowhere to go but junior colleges offering the HSC. “We will direct them to start classes XI and XII in order to ease the burden on the HSC board,’’ said Kumar.

The state will also request ICSE and CBSE schools that have an NOC to run up to Class X to also run classes XI and XII if they have the infrastructure.

Currently, the government is facing a crisis as 13.15 lakh students cleared Class X this year and there are only 9.75 lakh FYJC seats. The state requires an additional 1,600 divisions. The state is already sanctioning 305 additional colleges across Maharashtra in addition to over 500 additional divisions in existing colleges.

“The state is trying to create additional capacity in junior colleges. ICSE and CBSE students should help ease the load and create more junior college seats,’’ said Kumar

NON-HSC OPTIONS TO THE FORE

With Junior College Admissions Stalled, ICSE & CBSE Students Are Applying To National And International Boards

Hemali Chhapia | TNN

Mumbai: In the past 10 days, Malini Goyal, principal of Lokhandwala Foundation School, has received at least 30 to 40 applications from CBSE and ICSE students wanting to join Class XI in her institution, which offers the ISC certificate. Interestingly, admissions for the ISC began in June and classes have already begun.

The Kendriya Vidyalaya at the IIT-Powai campus Powai, has seen a huge influx of students wanting admissions to Class XI this year, so much so that it started an additional division for science.

With admissions to junior colleges offering the HSC thrown out of gear due to the ongoing court stay, ISC and CBSE institutions are being approached by a higher than usual number of students wanting to join their Class XI.

Most of these students hail from the ICSE and CBSE boards themselves. Several
feel they have been served a raw deal by the state government, which this year brought in marks normalisation to bring the scores of the students of all boards on par for the purpose of junior college admissions. ICSE and CBSE students felt their SSC counterparts benefited from the exercise.

Ranjeet Singh, in-charge principal at Kendriya Vidyalaya, Powai, said that last year his school ran three divisions—two for science and one for commerce—each comprising about 45 students each. But this year the number of students wanting to study at his institution has seen a steep rise. “We have admitted about 53 students in each division and started one more division for science,’’ said Singh. The requisite permission was sought from the KV Sangathan. In fact, several students from Kendriya Vidyalaya, Bhandup, which does not offer commerce in Class XI, were also admitted to the Powai institution.

A similar scenario is unfolding at other places. The Lokhandwala Foundation School, which offers the ISC, has conducted several “late admissions’’ in the past week after ICSE and CBSE students approached Goyal. The ISC college offers humanities, science and commerce. “If the state wanted to announce a new policy, it should have done so in advance. What the government has done has destroyed the mental peace of students and parents,’’ Goyal said.

There has been a surge in applications at international schools too. Vandana Lulla, principal of Podar International High School, said applications for the IB diploma have gone up by about 30% to 40% this year. Most applicants, said Lulla, hail from the CBSE and ICSE boards.

Rustom Kerawala, head of Vibgyor High, said he has received about 100 applications for the 48 seats he has in the IB programme. This is “better than expected’’, he said. About 70% of the applications, he added, are from ICSE students.

In the past few days, the Utpal Sanghvi School has received eight applications from ICSE students. “Students are facing a harrowing time with the junior college admissions this year. I have received some applications, but I don’t have seats,’’ said Abha Dharam Pal, principal of the school which offers the IB diploma.

SCHOOL REGISTER
Non-HSC boards in 2007-08 in the Mumbai region ICSE: 52 schools till Class X | Only 7 of them offer the ISC (classes XI & XII) CBSE: 32-odd schools up to Class X | Only 22-odd go upto Class XII Note: At least one more school, Christchurch, plans to open Class XI for 2008-09

SUSPENDED IN SUSPENSE: Students enquire at an admissions counter at Ruia College on Friday, while the nearby Podar College in Matunga displays a board announcing admissions are stayed.

Cyber schools: Technology reshaping US classrooms

Boston (Massachusetts): From online courses to kid-friendly laptops and virtual teachers, technology is spreading in America’s classrooms, reducing the need for textbooks, notepads, paper and in some cases even the schools themselves.

Just ask 11-year-old Jemella Chambers. She is one of 650 students who receive an Apple Inc laptop each day at a state-funded school in Boston. From the second row of her classroom, she taps out math assignments on animated education software that she likens to a videogame.

“It’s comfortable,” she said of Scholastic Corp’s FASTT Math software in which she and other students compete for high scores by completing mathematical equations. “This makes me learn better. It’s like playing a game,” she said.

Education experts say her school, the Lilla G Frederick Pilot Middle School in Boston, offers a glimpse into the future.

It has no textbooks. Students receive laptops at the start of each day, returning them at the end. Teachers and students maintain blogs. Staff and parents chat on instant messaging software. Assignments are submitted through electronic “drop boxes” on the school’s website. “The dog ate my homework” is no excuse here.

The experiment at Frederick began two years ago at cost of about $2 million, but last year was the first in which all 7th and 8th grade students received laptops. Classwork is done in Google Inc’s free applications like Google Docs, or Apple’s iMovie and specialized educational software like FASTT Math.

“Why would we ever buy a book when we can buy a computer? Textbooks are often obsolete before they are even printed,” said Debra Socia, principal of the school in Dorchester, a tough Boston district prone to crime and poor schools. There is, however, one concession to the past: a library stocked with novels.

“It’s a powerful, powerful experience,” added Socia. Average attendance climbed to 94% from 92%; discipline referrals fell 30%. And parents are more engaged, she said. “Any family can chat online with teacher and say ‘hey, we’re having this problem’.” Unlike traditional schools, Frederick’s students work at vastly different levels in the same classroom. Children with special needs rub shoulders with high performers. Computers track a range of aptitude levels, allowing teachers to tailor their teaching to their students’ weakest areas, Socia said. REUTERS

A CLASS APART: Students at the Lilla G Frederick Pilot Middle School work on their laptops during a class in Dorchester, Massachusetts

Oil-guzzling China has a positive spin-off: Green tech

Richard Woods

At the Lotus engineering works in Norfolk, eastern England researchers are working on an idea that seems almost too good to be true: a car that runs on CO2

The very gas that comes out of exhausts and poses the threat of climate change could, they believe, be extracted from the atmosphere and used as a source of synthetic fuel. Hey presto: a carbon-neutral car, planet saved.

From theory to practice is a bumpy road, of course, and Mike Kimberley, chief executive of Group Lotus, readily admits that some alternative fuels “could be more easily implemented than others”. He is optimistic, however, and determined to make Lotus a “world leader in green transport engineering”. All sorts of initiatives for clean, green and renewable energy are being supercharged by oil prices that hit a new record last week of $146 a barrel — and may well go higher.

What is bad news for businesses and consumers, however, is good for investors in green energy. Vast sums of money are pouring into technologies that until relatively recently were the preserve of niche businesses and environmental campaigners. This year should see a record £73billion or more invested in “clean technology” despite the credit crunch, according to a report published last week by the consultants New Energy Finance for the United Nations.

“The green energy gold rush is attracting legions of modern-day prospectors in all parts of the globe,” said Achim Steiner, head of the UN environment programme. Dotcom entrepreneurs, Wall Street financiers and venture capitalists of every hue are piling in.

While the demand for oil in most western countries has flatlined or even declined over the past 12 months as economic conditions have worsened, in China it is powering away. This demand, and for other commodities, is driving up prices — but also spurring investment in technologies that might unlock a new era of clean, affordable energy.

It prompts several questions: are consumers finally beginning to change their habits? Will alternative energy sources become economically competitive? And could China’s thirst for oil in fact save the planet?

That high oil prices are changing consumers’ habits is clear. In the US the latest figures show that American motorists drove 1.4billion fewer miles in April than in the same month last year. It was the sixth consecutive monthly drop. Bus and train use has jumped 10-15%. In Britain similar concern is evident. Petrol sales are down and an AA survey shows that 48% of drivers are considering cutting out short journeys by car and 62% would consider buying a more fuelefficient model. SUNDAY TIMES

IGCSE SCHOOLS IN INDIA

‘We don’t evaluate students on the basis of knowledge alone’

Anahita Mukherji I TNN

Mumbai: International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE), the Std X board exam offered by the University of Cambridge International Examinations (CIE), is rapidly gaining ground in elite schools across Mumbai.

While there are around 52 ICSE schools in the city, it has 43 IGCSE institutes—twice the number of CBSE schools and more than three times that of IB institutes. TOI interviews Ian Chambers, CIE’s regional manager for south Asia, on what the board has to offer.

What is the growth rate of IGCSE schools across India?
Every year, we are growing at 40%. Currently, there are more than 200 IGCSE schools in India.

What’s the USP of these schools?
We focus on a child-friendly method of teaching that hones a wide variety of skills. We are an application-based board and do not evaluate a student on the basis of knowledge alone. For instance, an IGCSE question could be, “How important is fiscal policy in controlling inflation in India?’’ For this, a student needs to know what fiscal policy is, what the current scenario is as far as inflation is concerned.

Then, he has to apply his knowledge of fiscal policy to the Indian scenario. Students can also include their own ideas on the issue as well as a comparison of the current and past scenarios in India. Only then will he get a high score in the IGCSE.

Are students given grades or marks?
Both. Earlier, we used only grades, but we introduced marks this year as colleges and universities often ask for marks.

Are teachers for IGCSE schools selected on the basis of any exam?
There are no exams but teachers must familiarise themselves with our system. They are chosen by individual schools. For teachers who are already in IGCSE schools, there are regular training programmes in India.

Most schools in India that offer IGCSE are perceived as elitist. Do you feel IGCSE reaches only a limited audience?
No. Our curriculum is being offered by a diverse range of schools. Our focus is on making students independent learners through an enquiry-based method of teaching. This can be implemented in any classroom.

What are the different Std X examinations offered by the CIE?
In the UK, we offer the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). In the rest of the world, there’s the IGCSE. We also offer O-levels, which are the equivalent of the IGCSE and GCSE. In countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, most CIE-approved schools offer O-levels, whereas the IGCSE is more popular in India.

What is the difference between O-levels and IGCSE?
IGCSE tests a wider range of skills and is more application-oriented. There is a lot of practical assessment involved in IGCSE. anahita.mukherji@timesgroup.com

Ian Chambers

Solar Power!

S’pore zero-energy building by next year

Reuters 5 JULY

RENOVATIONSto a research institute will turn the facility into Singapore’s first zero-energy building by next year, news reports said Saturday. Officials plan to cover the government-run BCA Academy with half a football field’s worth of solar panels. “Hopefully, with a little help from heaven, there won’t be too many rainy days,” The Straits Timesquoted National University of Singapore Professor Lee Siew Eang as saying. The ultra-efficient institute is scheduled for completion next year, at the forefront of a drive to reduce power consumption and cut greenhouse gas emissions in the city-state.