Today computer chips use tiny copper wires to convey information.  IBM has created nano silicon optical wires to replace the copper ones.  Light rather than electricity is used to send information.  Using silicon and light will significantly lower energy requirements as well as increase the speed at which computers process information.

Flexible solar cells are not new but Caltech has a new method that results in high efficiency, high quality solar arrays.  The key feature of these solar cells are silicon wires that are encased in a thin transparent polymer that will make mass manufacturing these solar arrays inexpensive.

Sandia National Laboratory has developed micro photo voltaic(PV) solar cells that will change the way solar cells are used and applied.  The tiny PV cells are the size of a piece of glitter and have the power of a normal six inch square PV cell.

Yes, you read that right.  Paper batteries/supercapacitors have been created at Stanford University.  Painting a normal sheet of paper with a special ink will give you a battery that is capable of over 40,000 charge-discharge cycles, rivaling lithium ion batteries.

Just about everything that uses electricity heats up.  Your desktop computer, your laptop, television, refrigerator, you name it, it produces waste heat.  Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is developing new technology that will convert that excess heat into electricity that can be used to increase the distance electric cars can run, the length of time your laptop can run on its battery, increase the amount of energy generated at power stations and increase your cell phone talk time.  MIT has developed a new thermoelectric technology called thermal diodes.

Getting rid of toxins in our environment has been a costly, time consuming process for years.  Steward Advanced Materials Thiol-SAMMS, a white powder composed of grains of molecular sponges, is able to effectively, efficiently and inexpensively clean up wastewater. Because of its exceptional ability to clean up the environment, Popular Science has awarded it the Green Tech Grand Award for 2009.

Scientists in the Georgia Tech School of Materials Science and Engineering have developed a cheaper, more efficient flexible solar cell by using fiber optics and zinc oxide.  These solar cells won’t replace large silicon based solar arrays in the near future but they could change the way solar energy is collected on buildings and on the move.

The future of energy storage may not lie in batteries but in springs.  An associate professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has discovered carbon nanotube springs hold as much energy as lithium ion batteries.  These springs may be the best storage device especially for mechanical energy.

Fuel cell research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has shown that size doesn’t matter but shape does.  Scientists working on methanol powered fuel cells have discovered that the amount of platinum used for the electrodes didn’t matter as much as the actual shape of the platinum.  By changing the surface of the catalyst, scientists have increased the efficiency of the fuel cells.

Lotus leaves are very good at repelling water and dirt.  Those attributes are leading scientists to develop new technologies that mimic the lotus leaf.  For example, NASA is working on a coating for spaceflight gear that will repel dirt and bacteria.  Duke University is working on creating lotus water repellant properties in man made materials while Georgia Tech has used the same properties for photovoltaic arrays and other technology.