3 Green Technologies That Will Change the World

Technology Review, an MIT publication, just released its annual list of 10 new technologies that will someday change the world. The list includes everything from 3-D smart phone screens to social television to electronic medical implants. Three green innovations, including two solar power applications, made it onto the 2010 TR10 list. Each technology is connected to an individual researcher or group that is driving their particular field.

Here are three that I found most exciting:

Solar Fuels

Noubar Afeyan of Joule Biotechnologies genetically engineered microorganisms that can convert sunlight into ethanol or diesel, which may someday make biofuels competitive with conventional diesel, gasoline or natural gas.

Light-Trapping PV

Kylie Catchpole of the Australian National University can boost the efficiency of thin-film solar cells by depositing nanoparticles of silver onto the cell’s surface. This apparently traps more photons and increases cell efficiency. An innovation that could help make solar power competitive with fossil fuels.

Green Concrete

The third green innovation is green concrete. At a time when cement production is responsible for 5% of the world’s carbon emissions, Nikolaos Vlasopoulos of Novacem has invented a cement that is actually a carbon “sink” that absorbs and stores carbon. This could ultimately reduce and offset global carbon emissions from cement production.

What I find most interesting is that TR, out of all the solar innovations in development right now, from solar paint to space solar power, chose solar fuels and light-trapping PV as the most poised to change the world.

It’s easy to understand how solar fuel would make the list. What an amazing breakthrough it would be if free and abundant solar energy could literally create clean-burning fuel for our cars. An interesting side note is the choice of Joule Biotechnologies rather than MIT’s own Daniel Nocera, whose company, Sun Catalytix, has also developed a solar fuel. Of course, Nocera’s vision entails a solar-powered hydrogen fuel cell of sorts, as opposed to Afeyan’s genetically engineered, photosynthetic microorganisms.

The inclusion of a light-trapping layer of silver on thin-film solar cells is a bit more confusing. Only because I’m unclear as to how much or how easily it boosts cell efficiency. To be honest, I see supposed efficiency-boosting innovations all the time, many of which may actually be what they claim but are still in development…just like Kylie Catchpole’s of ANU. So what makes this “silver lining” more promising than other research projects in TR’s eyes?

Catchpole and associates at ANU have been researching how metal nanoparticles can increase the absorption rate of thin-film solar cells. Silver, apparently, is best at “scattering” light into (rather than away from) a thin layer of silicon. Because I have not read Catchpole’s research publications on the subject, I cannot be sure how much more efficient that research has made her test solar cells — obviously enough to impress the folks at Technology Review.

Finally, we have green concrete — truly a valuable innovation, if marketable, as more and more new construction turns to efficient materials like concrete with a high thermal mass. To actually create a concrete product that is a carbon sink rather than a carbon producer, well, that would certainly change the world.

To see the other seven technologies poised to change the world, view the press release at Earth Times.

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