31/10/2015 Click

This week, solar powered cars, huge pipes, and lots and lots of green

goo. That sounds like a good night out to me!

Think power, think power stations, think power stations, these days

think fossil fuels. That means emissions and huge amounts of carbon

dioxide being pumped into the air. This is a miniature version of the

new carbon capture facilities that we will start to see in power

stations in the next few years. Their job is to capture as much CO2

from waste emissions as possible. This facility at Imperial College

London catches 500 tons of CO2 per year. A full-sized version will

capture 1 million tons per year. This is... I am surrounded by

science right here. This is part of the training for engineering

students at Imperial, looking at alternative energy sources. As the

largest solar research facility in the UK, much of what it does us try

to improve the efficiency of solar cells. Doctor Alvarez is creating a

new kind of solar cell that is two or three times more efficient than

traditional silicon. Why aren't current solar cells very efficient?

The problem is that silicon only picks up one part of the solar

spectrum, and much of it is lost as heat. . You can put other cells in

using different parts of the spectrum in, and that makes the

overall efficiency much higher here is one of those so-called multi-

junction solar cells. It may be tiny but it can cope with the sunlight

focused from Lens 5002000 times bigger than itself. That is another

thing traditional solar cells can't do. Last year, Australia held the

world solar challenge. It is a race for cars powered entirely by the

sun. Jonathan Blake was covering it for us and this is the story of what

happened. Sleek, stealthy, futuristic

machines. These solar cars will attempt to 3000 kilometre journey

across Australia. I am with the first high school from Europe to

take part in the challenge. From Darwin, through the outback to

Adelaide. Their car looks a little different. It was built on a budget

by teenagers from a college. It does stick out a bit but I think it is in

a good way. It shows it is doable to do it as students with off-the-shelf

items, just make something that does look great. After three years of

work there is one final hurdle to clear before the team can race. A

test lap to check the top speed, steering and brakes. It is a nervous

wait for the team. The car passes and after a little helping hand, the

team have a place on the grid. It is an amazing feeling, we are in the

race! It is today the race, and previous winners from Delft

University in the Netherlands are also preparing for the start. There

are high-efficiency solar cells, a very aerodynamic car. It has about

the air resistance of the side mirrors of a normal car, and it is

very lightweight. We use the lightest materials we can find. We

have carbon fibre and aerospace rated aluminium. The cars are making

their way one by one across the start line and beginning the epic

3000 kilometre journey across Australia. So excited, it is crazy.

There is only one route between Darwin and Adelaide, but the team

finds out it is still possible to get lost. About 50 metres into the

race a policeman pulled us over because we are on the wrong road.

They are not expecting solar vehicles on this road. It was a good

start. Soon after the car gets moving again its words out of

control. It is so scary because of all these cars going along at about

100 kilometres per hour, we didn't get very far. We are going to try to

get to the next control stop, we will have an opportunity to work on

what went wrong on the road. But then, more drama. In the rear

support car we can see smoke coming from the trailer. You are wrong

fire! You are wrong fire! It has started rubbing against the metal

frame causing it to smoke. I think we are going to take the car off,

jack up the trailer, try to get the wheel off and go from there. After

an eventful first, the team set up 400 kilometres down. You never

assume things will go your way in a race, always something will come

up. Definitely one thing we learned today. It is the morning of day two,

and the team have had to make a difficult decision. After

yesterday's near miss they are going to keep the car on the trailer and

drive to Alice Springs. That is the halfway point, and there they will

test the car and tried to figure out what went wrong. The team have

decided it is not safe to put anyone in the drivers seat. It is

disappointing, but we have to put safety first. It is the right thing

to do. It means two days on the road and the team losing points for not

driving the solar car. They can still stay in the race if they hit

the checkpoints of time. -- runtime. In Alice Springs, the car gets to

checkup and a test drive. After two days on the trailer, we are in Alice

Springs, halfway, and the team have had a chance to regroup. It looks

like it will get back on the road. Although chuffed to be back on the

road, there are one or two hazards to deal with. We have an incoming

road train. Our first major roundabout, what the hell do we do?

Incoming truck! Soon, the car has another problem. All of a sudden the

current started going up very quickly. The speed started going

down, and we thought it might pass but the car kept going up and be

speed kept going down. We think the brakes are constantly slowing down

while taking more power. It is back on the trailer and onto next

campsite. The brakes are fixed and the car is back on the road. The

team from Cambridge University who have worked closely with them pass

them on the road. It was amazing, it was beautiful driving along here.

The car was working very well and it is great to get some kilometres on

their. How was your foot? My foot is killing me, stuck in the same place

for quite a while. It is great to get this far. At least an hour or so

on the road for the car today, which is a real achievement. They were

hoping to swap drivers but there is a problem with the battery, so after

some roadside repairs it is back on the trailer and hopefully some more

miles on the road later today. At the next control stop to fix their

latest problem, the team had to break the seal on the car's battery,

which could mean they have to withdraw. There is a chance phone

call to a senior race official. We have heard from mission control that

we can finish the race having done fix that we are going to do now. The

car is taken off the trailer one final time despite all the problems

the team has faced, and it is in one piece, ready to drive the final few

kilometres through the city to the finish line. Congratulations! Well

done, you made it. That is 3000 kilometres down for the team, so big

celebrations tonight, and it will be great to see them come through the

finish line with the car. It is a good feeling to have all the crowd

here cheering. It was so good, everyone was cheering. We are so

happy we have finished! A great effort for the students, who came

sixth in their class. The overall winners were the Delft University

team in the Netherlands, completing in just under 38 hours, and only

eight minutes ahead of second place. Welcome to the week in technology.

Let's start with something for science fiction fans, which includes

me. Researchers have created a tractor beam made of sound, using

speakers. It can successfully track, move and twist a small object.

Instead of holding spaceships, research is expected to be used for

smaller scale jobs like microsurgery. It is also the week

that Apple announced more profits, Wall Street failed to be impressed

by Twitter's meagre 4 million new users, and Microsoft unveiled the

tablets oblique it comes with its own handle. And for something rather

lighter, would you write this into space? One space tourism country

seem to think so. They have completed test flight for a

passenger balloon. It was successful, which puts it on track

for a 2040 launch. If you have a spare ?50,000 and don't mind riding

20 miles up in a balloon. By a strange twist of fate we have a

second balloon story this week, courtesy of Google. The balloon

internet project is scaling up, with the company launching a massive ring

of helium balloons 60,000 feet into the stratosphere to being the

internet to people living under their path. -- deem. Just starting

my own business venture... Now, contrary to what you may

think, there are other ways to use the energy from the sun than just

turning it into electricity. This is the solar hydrogen lab at the

Imperial: -- Imperial College in London. They producing algae, which

produces hydrogen, and that is the fuel. We talked last week about

hydrogen's use as a renewable energy, able to fuel cars without

harmful emissions. Up until now, producing it in large quantities has

involved burning fossil fuels, which is not at all green. That is where

this lab comes in. It is green, bright green. Step one, store the

algae in one of these. Step two, grow it in one of these. Step three,

cultivated in some tubes like this, and step four, you put them into one

of these photo by a react as. That is where the magic happens. It is

inside these custom contraptions that the algae is put into a harsher

environment, causing them to produce hydrogen. Stressed algae. Problem is

it also kills the algae. Ordinarily, you would have to stop this process

every so often to get rid of the dead plant matter and feed in new

algae. The breakthrough research here is that scientists have managed

to make that an ongoing process. They can replace the dead algae with

living algae at the correct rate without stopping anything, and

keeping the mini factory producing hydrogen for over a month. Batch

system, you grow it, you make hydrogen, then it stops and you

start from the beginning. In the continuous system you can use

hydrogen all the time. The larger version of this test system can

produce four litres of hydrogen each hour, which is six times as

effective as a batch method. But really, even that is just a drop in

the ocean. If you want to use hydrogen as a fuel, these have to be

going for thousands of litres. When the sun goes down, these go to

sleep, but as we all know that is also when the fun really starts. A

couple of weeks ago we showed you a new camera that can shoot

exceptionally good pictures in the dark. There seems to be a battle

between manufacturers at the moment to create cameras that can do that.

We asked our online camera guru to check-out Sony's latest lowlights

offer. For 17 years I have worked as a

cameraman. For the last ten years I have been a freelance filmmaker. I

worked with George Lucas on his last film. Today I want to talk about

cameras in low light. Night. -- Nice.

As the light goes down and the winter nights come to us it is time

to switch cameras. This is the A7S2. You can buy this on high-street. The

image quality from this is to good, there is nothing stopping it being

used in a cinema. -- so good. In the film days used to bias on that was a

ISO. You would holiday in England. -- buy film. If it was dark and you

would have a higher number. Digital is different. You can get the ISO

you want in your camera. This is going to get darker and starker. You

need higher numbers to compensate. -- darker. That is dark. Let me push

the ISO up to 10,000. On my camera that looks like daylight. You get to

a point where... Right now, it certainly sees more than my eye can

be. I cannot see this lady's face with my eyes but this camera can. --

can see. When I first got it I went down to Brighton beach and was

amazed at how much I could see. I was seeing things I wasn't supposed

to see with couples. I felt embarrassed and pointed the camera

away. So, for me, the biggest benefits of a camera that I can

shoot comfortably at 60,000 ISO is where I can go into where light is

low and I can see better than I can with my eyes. This is the max I can

see. 490,000. I don't think I would ever shoot at 400,000. Then again,

five years ago, I said the same about 1600. By far, the hardest

thing about shooting in lowlight situations... My eyes cannot keep up

with the camera. I have trouble seeing the dots on the lens to get

them in the right place. Well, it has got to that point of the year

where so many blockbuster videogames are about to be released. We are

testing the first one, Halo five. The Master Chief is back and this

time he has brought his mates along for the ride. An Xbox exclusive,

they proved that first person shooters can work on consoles by

blending a grand space opera with incredible dialogue... If this all

goes sideways... I understand... And shooting. Lots and lots of shooting.

Baby came the yardstick by which all sci-fi shooters are now measured. --

They became the. Their missions are now carried out by two different

teams of Spartan super soldiers. The first team is led by Master Chief.

Just like John Paul Van Damme, he has gone AWOL. The second team is

led by Spartan Loch, their job is simple, track down the Chief. Being

part of a team changes up single player. Other teammates can be given

instructions or orders. Mark that turret. It can be fun, though it

does lead to becoming a bit of a bossy boots. Routine, take that

turret. It means you can approach tactical problems in different

ways. -- Blue team. You can also have other humans playing with you

via Xbox Live. There is a new big bad. I am the board. If by talk, you

mean shoot everything that moves while hurling plasma grenades, well,

you are in for it. There is a new multiplayer mode. It is called

warzone, it allows 25 players to go out into huge maps while try to

capture invaders. It is as slick as ever. You can still customising or

personal Spartan, ensuring he is dressed in the highest of fashion.

Your team scored. Gay Meadow. Victory! Halo fight is not perfect.

-- Victory. The story is not that great but the primary mechanic,

digitise destruction, is as enjoyable as ever. -- Halo Five. We

have been is seeking about solar panels. -- we have been speaking.

Would you believe you can power an entire airport? It is possible. You

need many solar panels and a whole lot of sons of the fortunately, we

found both in India. -- lot of sun. Take a deep red. Out of the top 20

of the worst cities for air pollution in the world, the top

three is India. --. You can point the finger at coal and gas powered

stations. You can breathe again now. We are in India. The air is not

perfect on the southern tip of India but it is better than elsewhere. The

views are pretty good as will. A nice place for a holiday. -- as

well. When you fly in, the land of the world's first solar-powered

airport, 46,000 solar panels in total. The main driver behind their

airport project was avoiding skyhigh electricity bills. They needed to

make enough power when the sun was out to also cover the electricity

they used when the sun goes to bed. That is the reason why we have gone

for a huge plant, 12 megawatts, which will be able to, in a short

eerie and 6-7 hours, to generate enough electricity to reach our

requirements. -- period. They are confident they can get back in five

years the 10 million they have paid to build the plant. But is this a

good model for others to copy? The success of solar-powered does not

just depend on how much we care about the environment, or for that

matter, the weather. It is also down to the money. In India, because you

pay more for electricity than you get if you sell it, it makes more

sense to go solar if you are going to use the electricity it self,

otherwise it is going to take you far longer to make back what you

spend on a shiny new solar plant. -- itself. That is fine if you are a

power hungry airport, but not for the rest of us. Solar panels should

get cheaper. The hopes pinned on lectures and they have to be more

highly valued. That airport are telling others to look for power up

in the sky, not down in the earth. -- that airport is. That was David.

We will finish our solar show with, what else, but they solar bench.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, a solar bench for charging your mobile

devices. They are five in London, four in Canary Wharf here. Here are

the charging point. This one is for an iPhone, one for everything else.

And these can be very easily replace yes, and indeed when, they get

pinched. Two USB ports for your computer. -- replaced. This is not

just a solar bench, it is also a smart bench. This monitors the

temperature, pollution level, and ambient noise, which you can call up

on the accompanying application. As if you don't have it these days. The

bench has been designed by a Serbian architect. In his hometown of ELT

rate you will also find a smart stray. -- Belgrade. Not just a

charging station but a Wi-Fi hotspot. -- smart tree. It is

charged by the sun so it can work in the dark. But that is it for this

week. We are out of juice. Fortunately, I have the powers that

be joined us on Twitter throughout the week. -- power. -- join. That is

it for now. See you soon.