Silicon Valley company Luxim has created the most efficient light source yet, at 140 lumens (units of light output) per watt. For comparison, today’s most efficient LEDs only produce 70 lumens per watt, and a normal incandescent bulb produces a measly 15. They have produced a bulb the size of a Tic Tac that produces as much light as a street lamp using a fraction of the power. They use an electrical charge tightly focused into a small capsule of argon gas. The argon turns into a 6000 degree plasma, as hot as the surface of the sun - which is the reason why the light it emits has the same spectrum as natural sunlight. Check out the CNET video to see it in action.

In addition to being the most awesome-looking piece of machinery I have ever seen, the Large Helical Device is billed as the “largest superconducting stellarator in the world”. This Japanese fusion research device consists of intertwined coils of superconducting material, and is designed to contain a 100-million-degree nuclear fusion plasma. The research aims to solve the many engineering challenges that must be overcome in order for fusion reactors to produce more energy than they consume.

Nanosolar is now producing panels that make solar power cheaper than coal for the first time.  Current photovoltaic panels use expensive and fragile silicon wafers.  Nanosolar has developed a process to “print” photovoltaic material onto flexible rolls of aluminum cheaply and quickly, producing solar panels for less than $1 a watt, and enabling construction of large solar power plants for $2 a watt (coal plants cost about $2.10 a watt to build).  The cost should continue to drop as production scales up.

Range Fuels is building the world’s first commerical cellulosic ethanol plant in Georgia, producing 100 million gallons per year. Cellulosic ethanol makes use of normally discarded plant material, such as the husks and stalks from corn, or easily grown switch grass. The process creates 16 times more energy than is required to create it, vs only 1.3 times for corn ethanol, which only uses the kernels of the corn. The plant should be online in 2008. (via AutoBlogGreen)