Solar energy is a serious consideration for any transports and logistics company looking to lower their monthly power utility bills to operate their (usually numerous and disparate) buildings.

Now, imagine that a company, somewhere, could sell you solar panels that can produce between 2 and 4 times more electricity (for the same physical coverage) than “regular” (off the shelf) solar panels.

You’d think such an awesome technology would be either out of price and / or unavailable before at least a few years but you’d be wrong, on both assumptions.

Meet the innovaors at Nanosolar, in Palo Alto, CA who have taken the “nanotechnology” path to greatly improve the solar cell “productivity-level”. The foundation for their solar panels is so well-thought that it seems their ongoing research is constantly yielding more impressive “results” that T&L companies (and other types of companies, too) will surely want to learn more about.

The way things are going, Nanosolar is on track to make electricity:

• cost-efficient for -ubiquitous- deployment (read: everywhere, anytime);
• mass-produced on a global scale (free energy for everyone);
• available in many versatile forms (creative applications, even for the T&L operators).

Nanosolar has developed proprietary technology that makes it possible to simply roll-print solar cells that require only 1/100th as thick an absorber as a silicon-wafer cell (yet deliver similar performance and durability).

There’s a CNN video explaining all of this so you may want to watch it (.wmv format).

The unique approach Nanosolar has perfected dramatically lowers the process cost and complexity involved in the production of thin-film solar cells and makes it possible to scale production very rapidly.

The performance these “nanotech-enabled” solar “films” is so impressive that it might just be possible, right now, to put solar panels on mostly any kind of building, be it residential, commercial or industrial.

We’re pretty sure, here at NavSite, that you’re hoping Nanosolar can (somehow) adapt their impressively “thin” solar panels to fit on trucks, trains, boats and even planes. Well, given the nature of the technology, in our humble opinion, there’s nothing stopping them of doing it.

Tags: nanosolar, nanotechnology, solar energy, environment, thin solar panels

The May / June 2006 Edition of the excellent Public Roads magazine includes a wonderful article on how the highways trucks use could take a hint from the information superhighway.

With freight volume on American highways expected to increase by a whopping 70% by 2020, over 1998 levels, Electronic Freight Management (EFM) can help considerably reduce congestion by better coordinating intermodal connections.

Biometric smart cards are already in use and contain information on truck drivers, including a photocopy of a commercial driver license as well as the driver’s thumbprint. This information, contained in the embedded gold-colored chips, is used to expedite the movement of cargo through intermodal transfer facilities and trucks through border crossings.

Learn more about EFM and the future of transportation by clicking on the title of this article.

In the transports and logistics world, there are few prospects as exciting as limitless free power. Thanks to Victor I. Klimov, who works as Team Leader at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, solar power generation could soon become a lot more efficient.

Imagine having solar cells as small as molecules and you get an idea of where Dr Klimov and his pals are taking the future of solar panels by taking advantage of today’s hottest nanotechnology advances.

On the one hand, you have an abundant amount of -largely untapped- solar energy which is available almost everywhere on Earth (during day time) and on the other, you have the latest nanotechnology shrinking techniques. For Dr Klimov, the fit made perfect sense.

Based in New Mexico, the research team has achieved something which may help shape the way we power stuff in the not-so-distant future and not just pocket calculators. Technically speaking, for one photon of sunlight, you get two electron’s worth of electricity. That’s a huge leap over today’s solar panel capabilities!

By shrinking the functional element of a solar cell to a few nanometers (that’s a millionth of a millimiter), each captured photon can be made to generate two -or even more- charge carriers, which makes it twice as efficient (or more) than today’s best solar panels.

The good news is that this hot technological prowess could, sooner than later, be available for all sorts of applications since the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, based in Golden, Colorado, has successfully replicated Dr Klimov’s experiment.

It’s natural to assume that for anything remotely located and needing a power source to function, this discovery paves the way for very efficient solar panels which can, for instance, power all sorts of electronic signage (especially LED-based)… or even satellites!

Now, more than ever, a sunny future awaits all T&L companies who can successfully integrate such engaging technologies in their operations or offerings.

Tags: nanotechnology, solar power, solar panels, lanl, klimov, energy