Dear Subscriber,

We are happy to announce a Call for Papers for the Fifth Conference on Future Energy (COFE5) in the 1st article which will include a surprise guest speaker and breakthrough energy demonstration! It will be held February 29 - March 2, 2012 here in the Washington DC area with the prestigious Elsevier Science publishers for the Proceedings.  

An exciting new development just presented by a PhD student this year is the "Microenergy Harvester" in story #2 with a charge-constrained conversion cycle for waste electrostatic energy from vibrations. We look forward to having Dr. Ambokar present a paper at COFE5 on this remarkable, sustainable energy generator.

To me, there is a great similarity between this concept and the Oak Ridge pyroelectric energy harvester which also generates electricity but from waste heat http://spiedigitallibrary.org/proceedings/resource/2/psisdg/8035/1/80350V_1?isAuthorized=no . Both are needed for different situations in order to generate electricity on the spot for portable devices and vehicles.

In story #3, we find the answer to the burning question of what Bill Gates is doing lately...forming Terrapower. He came up with one more nuclear reactor that still may not circumvent the high cost of building reactors, according to the article. My question is whether a Thorium reactor could outperform this traveling wave design. More on that in a future eNews.

Good news for the electric vehicle industry: Rocky Mountain Institute found in a survey that the average score was 4.5, representing a very high level of agreement that vehicle electrification is creating new jobs. RMI's findings are also supported by industry research. Read more in article #4.

Thomas Valone, PhD, PE  Editor  www.IntegrityResearchInstitute.org  

More: Future Energy eNews, August 2011