Algae biofuels
Most assume biofeedstocks need good soil and rain to grow - an assumption that leads to competition between food and fuel crops in America's heartland. But biomass comes from sunlight - which shines more in the southwest. Conventional wisdom says the southwest will never produce biofuels because it has poor soil and receives little rain. At elab we used alternative thinking to design new ways to grow algae without needing fertile soil or rain. Our approach uses sunlight to its fullest potential, conserves water, produces oil 50 times faster than regular crops, and can co-produce electricity. <see more>
Automated Electric Transportation
"In-the-box" pathways to use electricity in vehicle transportation perpetuate a paradigm suggesting vehicles themselves must be energy carriers. They fail to leverage electricity's ability to automate energy delivery and eliminate on-board storage. Vehicle transportation will be transformed when electricity becomes the dominate energy carrier - not vehicles. Disruptive technologies are needed to automate the delivery of energy to vehicles in real-time and minimize the need for on -board energy storage. elab is working with others to create this paradigm shift. <see more>
Adaptive Solar
Solar energy systems will be more effective when they are adaptive, multifunctional, and capable of responding to multiple end-use needs. Sunlight has many uses in buildings (as interior light, radiant heat, hot water, and electricity) and the value of these uses change over time based on occupants needs. At elab, we are using alternative thinking to develop adaptive solar energy systems capable of addressing multiple needs while tripling the overall solar efficiency when compared to single-purpose solar electric technologies. <see more>
Intuitive Buildings
Considerable energy is wasted in building illuminating, heating, cooling, ventilating, and providing other energy-related services that are unnecessary given the preferences and needs of occupants, their location, and the tasks they're performing. At elab, we are using alternative thinking to develop what we call anticipatory and intuitive energy end-use systems that will cut energy use in buildings by more than half when compared to today's best practices. <see more>
Advanced Fusion Regimes
There is enough inexpensive heavy hydrogen in the oceans to meet all of Earth's energy needs for a billion years using fusion, the same process that heats the sun. Many fusion devices employ magnetic fields to confine fuel while it is heated to high temperatures - a hundred million degrees - and they release virtually no greenhouse gases. Most researchers envision a fusion energy future based on very large, expensive reactors. At elab, we're using alternative thinking to explore a different theory based on a phenomenon observed in the atmosphere of Venus. If successful, our work will lead to clean, neighborhood-sized fusion power plants. <see more>
Lidar Wind Energy Profiling
The Center for Active Sensing and Imaging (CASI) at USU is a national leader in modern lidar technology and believes recent technological advancements offer excellent prospects for dramatically improving the speed and accuracy of large area wind profiling when compared to conventional techniques. <see more>