Tag Archive for: solarcells

The Intertubes lit up today with news of a new, 190% efficient solar cell that could finally send fossil fuels packing once and for all.

A new dawn for solar cells: 190% quantum efficiency is possible

The Intertubes lit up today with news of a new, 190% efficient solar cell that could finally send fossil fuels packing once and for all. The research is still in the proof-of-concept stage, but other solar cells that shoot past the 100% mark are already in development, so anything is possible. However, if you’re thinking this blows the Shockley-Queisser theoretical limit to bits, well, guess again.

Solar cells can shoot past 100% efficiency, depending on what that means

The Shockley-Queisser limit refers to the ability of solar cells to convert sunlight to electricity. The theory emerged in the 1960s to describe the upper limit of basic silicon photovoltaic technology. The initial limit was determined to be 30%, later revised upward to 33.7%.

Click here to read the full article
Source: Clean Technica

—

If you have any questions or thoughts about the topic, feel free to contact us here or leave a comment below.

Bifacial solar cells technology soaks up shaded sunlight and artificial light from lamps to produce its own trickle of renewable power.

Startup develops breakthrough solar cells that can make energy indoors

Have you heard the buzz about a new kind of solar panel that works inside the home?

California-based clean energy startup Ambient Photonics has been hard at work since 2019 engineering affordable solar cells that can tap into indoor light. Their latest invention helps devices charge themselves, with no outlet (or battery) required, according to Euronews.

Officially called bifacial solar cells, this technology soaks up shaded sunlight and artificial light from lamps and bulbs to produce its own trickle of renewable power. The technology builds on low-cost solar solutions that emerged in the 1990s, making sustainable energy possible in any indoor environment with light.

Click here to read the full article
Source: The Cool Down

—

If you have any questions or thoughts about the topic, feel free to contact us here or leave a comment below.

If you want to take advantage of solar energy but you can’t (or don’t want to) put solar panels on your roof, you do have other options.

Everywhere else you can install solar panels

If you want to take advantage of solar energy but you can’t (or don’t want to) put solar panels on your roof, you do have other options. As solar panels become more advanced and the technology develops, gathering energy from the sun is growing ever easier and more unobtrusive than ever. Here are some great options for installing solar panels in places other than your roof.

Solar siding

If you have a south-facing wall on your home with about eight feet by eight feet of space, you can install solar panel siding. These solar cells will work best in unshaded areas, of course, but they can still collect energy even in they are in southeast or southwest facing areas. The advantage of this installation method is that you can choose the color of your panels to match your home’s exterior and blend in with the architecture. The disadvantage is that the solar panels won’t be at an optimal angle to absorb sunlight, as they will be perfectly vertical.

Click here to read the full article
Source: Life Hacker

—

If you have any questions or thoughts about the topic, feel free to contact us here or leave a comment below.

Solar cells that combine traditional silicon with cutting-edge perovskites could push the efficiency of solar panels to new heights.

Super-efficient solar cells: 10 breakthrough technologies in 2024

WHO

Beyond Silicon, Caelux, First Solar, Hanwha Q Cells, Oxford PV, Swift Solar, Tandem PV

WHEN

3 to 5 years

In November 2023, a buzzy solar technology broke yet another world record for efficiency. The previous record had existed for only about five months—and it likely won’t be long before it too is obsolete. This astonishing acceleration in efficiency gains comes from a special breed of next-­generation solar technology: perovskite tandem solar cells. These cells layer the traditional silicon with materials that share a unique crystal structure.

Click here to read the full article
Source: Technology Review

—

If you have any questions or thoughts about the topic, feel free to contact us here or leave a comment below.

The FPSC on Gao’s wearable sweat sensor has a record-breaking PCE exceeding 31 percent under indoor light illumination.

New Caltech wearable sensor sets record for solar power efficiency

Sweat, like blood, can tell us a lot about a person’s health. And conveniently, it’s a lot less invasive to collect.

This is the premise behind the wearable sweat sensors developed by Caltech’s Wei Gao, assistant professor of medical engineering, Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator, and Ronald and JoAnne Willens Scholar.

Over the past five years, Gao has steadily added features to his wearables, making them capable of reading out levels of salts, sugars, uric acid, amino acids, and vitamins as well as more complex molecules like C-reactive protein that can provide timely assessment of certain health risks. Most recently, in collaboration with Martin Kaltenbrunner’s group at Johannes Kepler University Linz in Austria, Gao has powered these wearable biosensors with a flexible solar cell.

Click here to read the full article
Source: Pasadena Now

—

If you have any questions or thoughts about the topic, feel free to contact us here or leave a comment below.

The US Department of Energy just invested $82 million in 19 innovative projects in 12 states to boost US solar manufacturing and recycling.

19 US solar recycling and manufacturing projects just got $82M in funding

The US Department of Energy just invested $82 million in 19 innovative projects in 12 states to boost US solar manufacturing and recycling.

As part of that $52 million in funding, $10 million will come from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to strengthen the US domestic solar supply chain, and $30 million will be put toward technologies that will help integrate solar energy into the grid.

The investment will help promote cheaper, more efficient solar cells and advance cadmium telluride and perovskite solar manufacturing.

Click here to read the full article
Source: electrek

—

If you have any questions or thoughts about the topic, feel free to contact us here or leave a comment below.

Dozens of companies throughout the solar supply chain have made more than 40 domestic manufacturing announcements valued at more than $13B.

Turning America into a solar manufacturing powerhouse

A wave of new announcements by manufacturers reveals a massive swing in the American solar industry: a domestic solar manufacturing boom is underway. This is a sea change for energy security and jobs and will ensure the U.S. solar and storage industry has a reliable supply of solar equipment as it grows from nearly 5% of the nation’s electricity mix to a fundamental part of America’s energy supply.

One year ago, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) revealed that companies were waiting in the wings, ready to invest in domestic manufacturing with the right market signals and policies in place.

Now, with new incentives and comprehensive industrial policies in place, they’re taking action.

Click here to read the full article
Source: SEIA

—

If you have any questions or thoughts about the topic, feel free to contact us here or leave a comment below.

Roadsides, reservoirs & farms are all finding space for solar systems. Germany is experimenting with adding solar cells to railway sleepers.

Solar panels could be installed in the spaces between railway tracks in world first

Solar panels are being rolled out “like carpet” on railway tracks in Switzerland.

Swiss start-up Sun-Ways is installing panels near Buttes train station in the west of the country in May, pending sign-off from the Federal Office of Transport.

As the climate crisis demands that we speed up Europe’s energy transition, developers have been seeing new potential in unusual surfaces.

Click here to read the full article
Source: Euro News

—

If you have any questions or thoughts about the topic, feel free to contact us here or leave a comment below.

The UCLA engineers explore a new, viable application of solar cells that does not require large plots of land.

UCLA engineers design solar roofs to harvest energy for greenhouses

As countries around the globe seek sustainable energy sources and the U.S. endeavors to become a net-zero emissions economy by 2050, renewable energy sources such as solar panels are in high demand.

However, solar panels can take up significant space and are often difficult to scale. Enter the new field of agrivoltaics, which focuses on the simultaneous use of land for both solar power generation and agriculture. For example, replacing the glass in greenhouses with solar panels could power the lamps and water controls in the greenhouse, or even the whole farm. But how does one build solar panels that can absorb energy from sunlight without blocking the light that plants need?

UCLA Samueli School of Engineering’s materials scientist Yang Yang and his team have designed just such a device. In a study published today in Nature Sustainability, they explore a new, viable application of solar cells that does not require large plots of land.

Click here to read the full article
Source: UCLA Samueli 

—

If you have any questions or thoughts about the topic, feel free to contact us here or leave a comment below.

 

One of the biggest advances we can expect to see over the next decades is how we store and use power from solar cells and other renewables.

Solar cells: essential for a brighter future

You wouldn’t recognise the precursor to the modern solar panel if you saw it, and who knows what they’ll look like in the future?

The precursor to the first solar panel wasn’t really a panel, and it didn’t even use the sun’s light. But the physical processes first observed by French scientist Antoine César Becquerel, in his laboratory in 1839 and then in bars of selenium by Willoughby Smith when checking telegraph cables to be submerged under the Atlantic Ocean, are essentially the same as what happens in solar cells everywhere today.

In a nutshell: light shines onto a semiconductor material, which then produces an electric current – no moving parts, no steam, no turbines.

Click here to read the full article
Source: COSMOS

—

If you have any questions or thoughts about the topic, feel free to contact us here or leave a comment below.