Applied Technology

New and Renewable Energy: Solar Energy Takes Lead

On Dec. 23, 2008, CAS formally approved the implementation of the Solar Energy Action Plan. According to statistics, the energy that the sun transmits to the earth every year is nearly 10,000 times of the total energy consumption in the world. There is abundant solar energy resource in China. The sunshine exceeds 2,200 hours/year covering two thirds of the territory, while the desert area is quite large. Thus, China has great potential in development of the solar energy. As solar energy is clean and can effectively reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. The Solar Energy Action Plan aims to form a technological innovation system that supports the development of solar energy industry in China, build some public platforms and research centers on solar energy technology and finally shape a value chain for the whole process from the basic solar research, technological innovation to application and the market.
New Test System for Siemens to be Delivered Soon

The Superconductive Magnet and High Magnetic Field Research Team of the Institute of Electrical Engineering (IEE), CAS, successfully developed a large-caliber non-liquid helium high magnetic field superconductive test system for Siemens recently. The system passed an in-situ test by the National Institute of Metrology and underwent the in-situ test and acceptance on Jan. 12, 2009 by experts from Siemens. During the test, the system underwent severe conditions, such as quench, sudden power failure (including power supply and freezer system) under full magnetic operation. Moreover, the system went through uninterrupted long-term operation test. The temperature of the system was steady and the stability of magnetic field reached 10-8. The results of the in-situ test demonstrated that all indexes of the system exceeded the requirements in the contract signed with Siemens. The system will be delivered to Siemens soon.

Terahertz Communication Realized

Recently, the Terahertz Research Team led by Dr. Cao Juncheng from the State Key Laboratory of Information Functional Materials, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, CAS, realized for the first time the demonstration of wireless communication based on terahertz quantum cascade laser (THzQCL) and terahertz quantum well photo detector (THzQWP). They successfully demonstrated file transmission with this communication system, and the frequent point was 4.1THz.