Turning Radiation into Electricity

According to some recent research, it looks like materials physicists may have uncovered properties of nanomaterials that may allow for more efficient conversion of nuclear energy - radiation - directly into electrical current!

Last night, I saw New York Times columnist Tom Friedmann on Comedy Central's The Daily Show, speaking about his new book Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America. Friedmann emphasized that the need for a coherent energy policy is the central issue of the twenty-first century. (Tonight's guest is apparently T. Boone Pickens, who will presumably raise a similar topic.)

I've addressed a number of different power sources before, but one of the most controversial is always nuclear power. Nuclear power is typically performed by harnessing the power of nuclear fission (though in Europe there are efforts to build a reactor that will harness the cleaner power of nuclear fusion) to heat up water. The steam of the water causes turbines to spin which, in turn, generate the electricity.

As you may guess, having this many steps in the process means that it's not the most efficient process in the world.

Research presented in March at the spring 2008 meeting of the Materials Research Society may help with this, though, as it suggests that new nanomaterials can be used to convert the radiation energy directly into electricity. Estimates indicate that this would extract 20 times more power than current thermoelectric materials (which turn heat directly to electricity, and are still more efficient than the turbine method).

Unfortunately, even the lead researcher working on the subject projects that it will be a decade before this technology is ready for implementation. Still, I think that this sort of work only proves to highlight Friedmann's point ... these are large-scale projects which need to be started now, when the crisis isn't completely imminent.

What other technologies are on the horizon, other than the ones always talked about, have the potential to help establish energy independence?

Related Articles:

• New Scientist - Nanomaterial turns radiation directly into electricity
• Sources of Power Production
• Comedy Central's The Daily Show - Tom Friedmann interview from 11/11/08 episode
• Energy from the Motion of the Ocean
• About.com Environment