NewNergy

NewNergy discusses the latest inventions, innovations and breakthroughs in the energy & environmental sciences.

Solar Breakthrough: Water to Hydrogen with 60% Efficiency

Posted on Monday, March 8, 2010 posted by posted by Mak @ 7:53 PM

British scientists say they've achieved a breakthrough, figuring out how to extract hydrogen from water with an unheard-of 60% efficiency using solar energy. The secret sauce is nanotechnology, in the form of nanoclusters of indium phosphide encrusted on a gold electrode. Using this, they can turn sunlight into that hotshot hydrogen fuel, clean-burning and as energetic as a swift kick in the ass.

New Energy Technologies Develops ‘Spray on’ Solar Solution

Posted on Tuesday, January 12, 2010 posted by posted by Mak @ 1:10 AM

New Energy Technologies has reached the next development stage of a process for spraying solar cells and their related components onto glass. This product is still awaiting patent and is in the early stages, yet if successful, is expected to make significant changes to the BIPV market.

"The ability to spray solar coatings directly onto glass follows on the heels of our recent breakthrough which replaced visibility-blocking metal with environmentally-friendly see-thru compounds, and marks an important advance in the development of our see-thru glass windows capable of generating electricity," announced Meetesh V. Patel, president and CEO of New Energy Technologies.

In commercial terms, this new spray technology could translate into important manufacturing advantages for our SolarWindow, including significant cost-savings, high-speed production, and room-temperature deposition--common barriers to commercial success for innovative solar technologies.

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Portable Charger Harvests Solar and Wind Energy

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 12:56 AM

Miniwiz earlier showcased their portable wind-powered gadget charger in 2007, the Hymini, which charges various portable electronic devices using wind energy. The company is back with an upgraded version of the device that now harvests solar energy as well. Dubbed the Hymini Biscuit, the charger was unveiled at CES 2010, and recharges two AA-sized batteries using renewable energy.

The device features a solar panel and a fan to recharge the set of batteries, which can then be used to various electronic devices that support USB charging. The device costs $50 and can be purchased online.

See more about the batteries here

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Printable Lithium-polymer Batteries to be Used with a Flexible Solar Battery

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 12:46 AM

A research group led by Advanced Materials Innovation Center (AMIC) of Mie Industry and Enterprise Support Center is developing lithium polymer batteries that can be manufactured by printing technology.

The sheet-shaped battery is to be used with a flexible solar battery or display and to be attached to a curved surface. When used with a solar battery formed on a flexible substrate, it will lead to a device that will be used as a power generator and a power storage unit.

Since the battery will be manufactured using printing technology, it will be possible to reduce the thickness of the battery and its cost since it will be possible to produce it by roll-to-roll production method.

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Labels: batteries, research, solar

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Sopogy Inaugurates World’s First MicroCSP Solar Plant

Posted on Monday, January 4, 2010 posted by posted by Mak @ 3:28 AM

Sopogy Inc has inaugurated the world’s first MicroCSP solar thermal plant at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii. The 2MW thermal energy project spans 3.8 acres in the hot Kona desert and makes use of 1000 Sopogy MicroCSP solar panels.

The panels are equipped with mirrors and optics and an integrated sun tracking system, which betters the efficiency of the plant. The system also uses a unique thermal energy storage buffer that allows energy to be produced during cloudy periods and to shift energy produced from the day to evening periods.

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Southwest Solar Technologies Finds a Unique Energy Storage Solution

Posted on Wednesday, December 30, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 3:40 AM

Solar Southwest Technology, a Phoenix based company is out with an interesting and innovative idea to store energy. Under the plan whenever excess energy is available from any source, it is utilized to pump air into a subterranean cavern. Nearly 350 pounds of air is pumped in a square inch.

Whenever electricity is required, the air in the cavern is used to spin a turbine that is capable of converting the energy of a passing gas into rotary energy. The turbine in turn spins a generator and puts power on the grid on demand, rather than at the whim of sun or breeze. In order to obtain better results, the air must be heated so that it expands and drives the turbine blades even more efficiently. A mirror dish is used to heat the air. This dish helps in focusing the sun’s energy on a receptacle filled with a fluid, which captures the heat at up to 1,700 degrees and carries it to where it is required.

The project is currently in its initial stages and the company has installed a prototype solar dish and turbine. An electrically driven compressor provides compressed air for the prototype solar dish system.

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LED Lamp Powered by Solar Energy

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 3:23 AM

Od-Do Arhiteckti has come up with a sustainable lamp that harvests clean energy during the day for sustainable lighting after dark.The lamp is incorporated with photovoltaic cells that can harvest solar energy during the daytime and stores it in an onboard battery. After dark the energy stored is used to power a set of energy-efficient LED light bulbs for sustainable illumination.

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Toyota Industries Develops Solar-powered EV Charging Stations

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 3:17 AM

Toyota Industries Corp. has developed a new charging station for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles that is powered by solar energy. The municipal government of Toyota City has adopted the stations and plans to build 21 stations at 11 places.

The charging station produces 1.9KW of solar power, which is stored in an 8.4KWh battery pack. The station is also connected to the grid, which enables commuters to charge their rides after the stored electricity runs out and the solar array isn’t producing any charge.

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New Glitter-Sized Photovoltaic Cells Use Less Silicon, Generate More Electricity

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 1:00 AM

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have come up with a new photovoltaic cell no bigger than a flake of glitter, but it packs a big punch. The new cell uses 100 times less silicon to generate the same amount of electricity as conventional solar cells. While still in the development stage, the new solar particles could lend themselves relatively easily to commercialization because they are made of crystalline silicon and use the same micro-manufacturing processes typical of modern electronics.

The Sandia team also cites the potential for applying the tiny photovoltaic cells directly to roofing materials, which would practically eliminate the often cumbersome permitting process that is currently needed to install a conventional rooftop solar array (Dow has taken a similar approach with its new solar shingles). Compared to six-by-six inch conventional solar cells, the new solar particles are only up to 20 micrometers thick, less than one third the thickness of a human hair, and they could be imprinted with circuits that would control the collection and disbursement of solar energy within the building and to a grid connection, without the need for expensive and time-consuming electrical design work. Roof maintenance, repair, and shading issues may also be mitigated due to the small size of the micro-cells.

The new cells can be made from available silicon wafers of any size, without some of the quality control problems involved in conventional solar cell manufacturing. The Sandia researchers also expect them to be less expensive, more durable and more efficient that conventional solar collectors, and they could open up an exciting new range of applications.

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Prism Makes $1 a Watt Unique Solar Hybrid

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 12:47 AM

Prism Solar Technologies in Highland, NY has innovated a breakthrough holographic thin-film (Holographic Planar Concentrator™) that makes possible a very parsimonious use of crystalline PV cells to counteract that problem for Northern regions.This brings the cost down to $1 a watt.

Each of their solar modules is actually made up of both crystalline PV and their unique holographic thin-film. The thin-film strips diffract both direct and reflected energy to the PV cell strips integrated between strips of thin-film. Solar modules made in this way are cheaper because they use 50-72% less silicon to make the same energy.(more from here)

Here are the advantages of Holographic Planar Concentrator™ (HPC) technology:

Less silicon reduces cost per watt
Passive tracking from holographic effect produces more energy from diffuse and reflected light.
Cooler operation than conventional PV module, most unusable light passes through module without being turned into heat.
Bifacial PV cells can increase module performance when mounted over a reflective surface.
Lower embodied energy, the energy required to manufacture the HPC film is much less than that required to mine and process silicon.

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SopoLite: New Version of Google Maps to Maximize Sun's Energy

Posted on Monday, December 7, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 5:02 AM

Sopogy has developed a new 90-pound portable power unit called SopoLite. This invention is a pint-sized version of the parabolic trough reflectors that Sopogy uses to collect solar thermal energy.

The unit's most interesting facet is its original purpose - collecting data on the solar power potential of wherever its located. Kimura, CEO of Sopogy, plans to park these units all over the country and build out a map of the potential availability of thermal solar energy, or the energy derived from the sun's heat. Such a map will make it much easier to determine the true thermal solar power potential of any given location without having to deploy sensors and testing gear. This could prove to be a boon to the still nascent rooftop and commercial solar thermal power segment.

Figuring out how well solar thermal power works in any given location, however, is somewhat tricky. Micro-weather patterns are very important for solar thermal as clouds can really put a drag on thermal heat collection. Winds and thermal patterns can also reduce solar collection possibilities. That's where Kimura hopes to insert SopoLite, and in the process turn the unit (which can be towed behind a trailer) into a data-collection initiative similar in nature to those funny Google cars you see driving around with spinning cameras mounted on their roofs.

It's way too early to see whether this will take off, but it's a fascinating idea in a small package.

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Solar-coal Electric System - A New Solar Thermal Hybrid Technology

Posted on Sunday, December 6, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 11:03 PM

A small coal-fired generating plant owned by Colorado's Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association Inc. in northwestern New Mexico will be used to test new hybrid technology that combines solar- and coal-generated steam to produce electricity.

The 245-megawatt Escalante Generating Station in Prewitt, N.M., 27 miles northwest of Grants, is one of two host sites that California’s Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) chose to test the technology. The other site is a natural gas-powered generating station near Las Vegas, Nevada.

Solar thermal hybrid applications can provide a low-cost option for incorporating renewable energy into established grids because, rather than build new transmission capability for a stand-alone solar concentrating plant, the steam generated will make electricity through the turbine generator already established at the coal facility.

It also eliminates the challenges of siting a new plant and new power block, said EPRI Vice President of Generation Carolyn Shockley in a news release.

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Solarmer Energy Attained 7.9% Efficiency with Plastic Solar Cells

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 10:08 PM

California based Solarmer Energy has achieved nearly 8 percent efficiency of its plastic solar panels, certified by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory.Reaching the 7.9 percent mark makes it the highest conversion efficiency for a plastic organic photovoltaic (OPV) cell to date.

The aperture-area test results also mean the company has beat its own 7.6 percent cell efficiencies, certified by the Newport Technology & Applications Center’s Photovoltaic Lab in October.

The company said it uses low-cost plastic as the active materials to convert solar energy into electricity. The active plastics layer is very thin, also offering low costs. The company said it also uses low-cost printing techniques and a fabrication process that has low temperatures and is eco-friendly.

Solarmer is currently completing its pilot manufacturing line and has said its plastic solar panels are expected to be available in 2010.

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South Korean Engineers Develop New Solar Cell Material

Posted on Tuesday, November 24, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 2:35 AM

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) team led by Ha Jang-ho successfully fabricated the single crystal material made from cadmium, zinc and tellurium (CZT) to a diameter of two inches.The compound has a high energy bandgap that permits sensors to operate without additional cooling systems at room temperatures.

Global demand for the CZT compound is on the rise since it can be used to make radiation sensors to detect cancer growth, space telescopes, and solar energy cells.

The global market related to various sensors using radiation stands at around US$1.1 billion and is expected to grow 10 percent annually in the near future. Of the total, CZT sensors make up US$30 million, although it is growing at a faster pace compared to other arrays.

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Storing Renewable Energy in Boxes of Air

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 1:20 AM

Storage is needed to harvest the full yield available from intermittent sources of energy like wind and solar. One of the options is compressed-air storage; till now only possible in underground caverns. But SustainX Energy Solutions; a Dartmouth College start-up that got $4 million in VC funding from Polaris Venture Partners and Rockport Capital this year is working on compressing and storing air in cheap off-the-shelf shipping containers.

The goalis to develop a renewable energy storage system with the portability and scalability of a battery and the economy and capacity of a cave. Make that a portable cave.

Over the next two years SustainX will try to develop a way to cram 4 megawatt-hours worth of stored energy into each 40-foot long container and to reduce the energy that it currently takes to compress and release air by about 70%.

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Breakthrough in Biomimic Photosynthesis to Tap Solar Power

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 1:06 AM

Daniel Nocera’s Sun Catalytix was one of the 37 ARPA-E awardees last month with a $4.1 million vote of confidence from the Nobel prizewinner-driven Department of Energy. Now Polaris Venture Partners has just added $1 million to its earlier $2 million investment in the MIT spin-off to bring their total investment to $3 million.Nocera’s work first burst on the world in 2007 with his work in figuring out how to ape the process of photosynthesis to create cheap solar energy stored as fuel.

According to MIT, the catalyst consists of an electrode placed in water containing cobalt and phosphate. MIT explains that when electricity from any source enters the electrode, the cobalt and phosphate create a film over the electrode, forming a catalyst that separates oxygen gas from the water and leaves behind hydrogen molecules. Then a platinum catalyst is used to convert the hydrogen molecules into hydrogen gas, which could power fuel cells and further efforts to lower global dependence on petroleum-based fuels. The vision is to use sunlight to enable these chemical reactions, creating a new way to tap solar power for energy.

Ultimately the plan is to integrate the technology with solar panels or wind turbines to store energy in liquid or gas fuels which are more energy-dense than the batteries traditionally used for energy storage.The Sun Catalytix electrolyzer breakthrough is that it is being designed to be made with cheap materials. Much work lies ahead, including finding a metal cheaper than the platinum to convert hydrogen molecules into hydrogen gas.

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Solar-collecting Method to Cool Buildings

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 12:37 AM

University of California, Merced officials are trying a new method of cooling buildings. By concentrating solar collectors, temperatures of 400 degrees are achieved. When this technology,which is developed by professor Roland Winston,is operational,the solar array will heat an environmentally friendly mineral oil that will be circulated through a system of tubes connected to "cooling machine" that will produce cool water and, finally, cool air.

UC Merced was awarded a $2.25 million grant from the University of California Office of Research to be the lead agency in the California Alternative Solar Technologies Institute.A demonstration will take place in a couple of months and the system will be used to cool a 16-by-12-foot trailer, he said.

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Dow's New Solar Energy Technology Wins Accolades

Posted on Monday, November 16, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 10:34 PM

A shingle that generates solar energy was named one of the 50 Best Innovations of 2009 by Time magazine.

Dow Chemical, the Powerhouse Solar Shingle's inventor, will make the shingles commercially available by the middle of next year. The Powerhouse design includes thin-film cells of copper indium gallium diselenide. Dow notes the cells' low cost relative to other solar technologies.

And, on top of low cost, Dow's new shingle has other advantages. The company reports that the installation process is no different than that of traditional shingles, making Powerhouse shingles attractive to contractors. And in addition to saving money for homeowners by cutting energy use, the shingles are anticipated to make a lot of money for Dow - up to $10 billion a year by 2020.

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Nanowires to Boost Solar Energy Efficiency

Posted on Tuesday, November 3, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:15 PM

A team of Danish nanophysicists has developed a new method for manufacturing nanowires and believes the discovery will have great potential for the development of nanoelectronics and highly efficient solar cells.PhD student Peter Krogstrup, from the Nano-Science Center at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, developed the method during his dissertation.

Different materials capture energy from the sun in different and quite specific absorption areas.They have produced nanowires that contain two different semiconductors – GaInAs and InAs,which each have their own absorption area, they can collectively capture energy from a much wider area. We can therefore use more solar energy if we produce nanowires from the two superconductors and use them for solar cells.

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Scientists Make Foldable 3D Solar Cells around an Optical Fibre

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 7:47 PM

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have made a three-dimensional photovoltaic solar cell around an optical fibre, a revolutionary new approach that could pave the way for a new generation of hyper-flexible solar systems.

According to team-leader Professor Zhong Lin Wang, “Using this technology, we can make photovoltaic generators that are foldable, concealed and mobile. Optical fibre could conduct sunlight into a building’s walls where the nanostructures would convert it to electricity. This is truly a three dimensional solar cell.”

The dye-sensitised nano-converter is based on coated zinc oxide structures grown on the optical fibre, from which the cladding has been removed, covered with a conductive layer and seeded with ZnO.

The next step is to grow a series of aligned zinc nanowires around the fibre from solution, resulting in something closely akin to a bottle brush, before coating the wires with dye and immersing them in a liquid electrolyte to complete the circuit. The team claim that the set up achieves a solar efficiency of 3.3%.

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Solar Energy Breakthrough: 35.8% Efficiency Achieved

Posted on Wednesday, October 28, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 12:18 AM

Sharp Corporation has achieved the world’s highest solar cell conversion efficiency of 35.8% using a triple-junction compound solar cell.

Unlike silicon-based solar cells, the most common type of solar cell in use today, the compound solar cell utilizes photo-absorption layers made from compounds consisting of two or more elements such as indium and gallium. Due to their high conversion efficiency, compound solar cells are used mainly on space satellites.

To boost the efficiency of triple-junction compound solar cells, it is important to improve the crystallinity (the regularity of the atomic arrangement) in each photo-absorption layer (the top, middle, and bottom layer). It is also crucial that the solar cell be composed of materials that can maximize the effective use of solar energy.

Conventionally, Ge (germanium) is used as the bottom layer due to its ease of manufacturing. However, in terms of performance, although Ge generates a large amount of current, the majority of the current is wasted, without being used effectively for electrical energy. The key to solving this problem was to form the bottom layer from InGaAs (indium gallium arsenide), a material with high light utilization efficiency. However, the process to make high-quality InGaAs with high crystallinity was difficult.

Sharp has now succeeded in forming an InGaAs layer with high crystallinity by using its proprietary technology for forming layers. As a result, the amount of wasted current has been minimized, and the conversion efficiency, which had been 31.5% in Sharp’s previous cells, has been successfully increased to 35.8%.

Sharp achieved this breakthrough as part of a research and development initiative promoted by Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO)*3 on the theme of “R&D on Innovative Solar Cells”.

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Solar Beam Concentrator : A New Solar Energy Invention Moves on in Provincial Competition

Posted on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 10:22 PM

The solar beam concentrator, designed by Edward Herniak of SolarTron Energy Systems Inc., Massachusetts, USA, has been named one of 25 inventions to make it to the second round of the InNOVAcorp I-3 Technology Start-Up Competition.

Using a celestial guiding system, the solar beam concentrator tracks the sun on a daily basis and isn't affected by the earth's tilt. Much like a wind turbine turns off when it's too windy, the solar beam concentrator goes to sleep when the sun isn't shining.Using a global positioning system, the concentrator rotates to follow the sun, absorbing more of that energy.

The typical unit is 3.8 metres in diameter and produces up to 10 kilowatts of heat, or 34,000 btu per hour. That means if you have a 2,400 square foot house, you can heat your house for a period of 24 hours within three hours,adding some of the energy is stored in hot water tanks.

Herniak said, the concentrator is self-driven so no maintenance is required, and could even be used to de-ice a driveway in the winter with heat pipes built into the driveway. In the warmer months, the energy can be put through an absorption chiller, which would give it a refrigeration effect and be used as air conditioning.

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SoloPower Displays CIGS PV Module Prototype

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 3:08 AM

SoloPower, a California-based manufacturer of thin-film solar photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules has announced that a prototype of its flexible copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS ) photovoltaic module will be on display at the Solar PowerInternational 2009 conference in Anaheim, California on October 27-29, 2009.

SoloPower`s flexible CIGS modules represent a breakthrough solar product. Because of their lighter weight, they will be deployable with lower installation costs, providing less expensive solar electricity for utility, commercial and industrial customers.SoloPower’s unique and proprietary CIGS technology is a major break-through in low-cost, high-quality, high-volume manufacturing and commercialization of CIGS-based photovoltaics.

SoloPower`s flexible modules will present new opportunities to large rooftop sites that glass-plate modules cannot service due to factors such as weight, high wind conditions, or roof penetrations.SoloPower flexible CIGS modules are expected to be available for sale later in 2010.

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DOE Funds Innovative Energy Research Projects

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 2:32 AM

Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy ("ARPA-E") selects 37 projects to pursue breakthroughs that could fundamentally change the way we use and produce energy.

Some of the innovative projects selected for awards include:

Liquid Metal Grid-Scale Batteries: Created by Professor Don Sadoway, a leading MIT battery scientist, the all-liquid metal battery is based on low cost, domestically available liquid metals with potential to break through the cost barrier required for mass adoption of large scale energy storage as part of the nation's energy grid. If successful, this battery technology could revolutionize the way electricity is used and produced on the grid, enabling round-the-clock power from America's wind and solar power resources, increasing the stability of the grid, and making blackouts a thing of the past. And if deployed at homes, it could allow individual consumers the ability to be part of a future "smart energy Internet," where they would have much greater control over their energy usage and delivery.
Bacteria for Producing Direct Solar Hydrocarbon Biofuels: Researchers at the University of Minnesota have developed a bioreactor that has the potential to produce a flow of gasoline directly from sunlight and CO2 using a symbiotic system of two organisms. First, a photosynthetic organism directly captures solar radiation and uses it to convert carbon dioxide to sugars. In the same area, another organism converts the sugars to gasoline and diesel transportation fuels. This development has the potential to greatly increase domestic production of clean fuel for our vehicles and end our reliance on foreign oil.
CO2 Capture using Artificial Enzymes: The funding will support an effort by the United Technologies Research Center to develop new synthetic enzymes that could make it easier and more affordable to capture carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and factories. If successful, the effort would mean a much lower energy requirement for industrial carbon capture and significantly lower capital costs to get carbon capture systems up and running. Success of this project could substantially lower the cost of carbon capture relative to current, state-of-the-art amine and ammonia based processes. This would represent a major breakthrough that could make it affordable to capture the carbon dioxide emissions from coal and natural gas power plants around the world.
Low Cost Crystals for LED Lighting: Developed by Momentive Performance Materials, this proposal for novel crystal growth technology could dramatically lower the cost of developing light emitting diodes (LEDs), which are 30 times more efficient than incandescent bulbs and four times more efficient than compact fluorescents. This higher quality, low-cost material would offer significant breakthroughs in lowering costs of finished LED lighting, accelerating mass market use, and dramatically decreasing U.S. lighting energy usage. Lighting accounts for 14 percent of U.S. electricity use.

Eternal Candle : A Renewable Solar Heat Storage Technology

Posted on Wednesday, October 21, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 2:45 AM

Ireland’s Trinity College Dublin showcased 15 of its newest technologies last week, with a handful falling under the cleantech sector, that are now ready for commercialization.One of Trinity’s recent inventions is called the Eternal Candle, a renewable solar heat storage technology that has the potential to provide light for the developing world.

The research team led by Anthony Robinson invented a white light-emitting diode (WLED) lantern, powered by the sun. At night, the device converts the stored heat into electricity, which drives the WLED. The lamp doesn’t require batteries or have any running costs, but it’s not exactly eternal. The device is designed to provide light for four to five hours.The technology is best suited for off-grid communities, so the likes of sub-Saharan Africa, China and some parts of India where people don’t have electricity coming into their homes.

To know more cleantech innovations of Trinity College Dublin clik here

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Precision Nanoparticles to Make Solar Cell More Efficient

Posted on Monday, October 19, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:26 PM

Chemists at Idaho National Laboratory and Idaho State University have invented a way to manufacture highly precise, uniform nanoparticles to order. The technology, Precision Nanoparticles, has the potential to vastly improve the solar cell and further spur the growing nanotech revolution.The chemists have manufactured nanoparticles of the semiconductor copper indium sulfide (identified here as “quantum dots”), a key component of advanced solar cells. Precision Nanoparticles could enable photovoltaic cells to harness a much bigger chunk of the sun’s radiation spectrum.

Engineers have been working hard to harness more of the solar spectrum, to design cells that put low-energy photons to work and use high-energy photons more efficiently. One of the many properties that changes with a nanoparticle's size is its band gap. Because INL chemists learned how to control nanoparticle dimensions so precisely, it may soon be possible to manufacture — from a single material — semiconductor building blocks tuned to specific wavelengths of light. A photovoltaic cell made of such building blocks could capture huge swathes of the solar energy spectrum. And since the cells would contain only a single semiconducting material, they would be much cheaper, more efficient and easier to construct than current multi-layer designs.

Provided by Idaho National Laboratory, This feature story is available here. It was written by Mike Wall.

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Energy Generating Roads Made From Solar Cells

Posted on Wednesday, October 14, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 1:46 AM

Scott Brusaw and his wife,Julie,co-owners of Sagle-based startup Solar Roadways,have come up with an idea to merge the nation's power grid with its system of highways and byways into an "electric road" that would power homes, businesses and vehicles.The Brusaws have drawn up plans for a road system built of 12-foot-by-12-foot solar panels rather than asphalt. The panels would draw energy from the sun to power surrounding homes and businesses, and provide the foundation for a new "smart" power grid.

The idea has a long way to go before it's on the ground, but the federal government is willing to give it a shot. Solar Roadways was recently awarded a $100,000 SBIR Phase 1 grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to build a prototype solar road panel for testing and demonstration. If it pans out, Brusaw said phase two could include an additional $750,000 over two years.

Brusaw estimates that one mile of solar roadway could supply a little less than one megawatt enough energy to power as many as 500 homes.

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Most Efficient Solar Module from DSM

Posted on Thursday, October 1, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 3:40 AM

Royal DSM N.V., the global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company headquartered in the Netherlands, announced that its KhepriCoat anti-reflective coating system has contributed to achieving the highest energy conversion ever of a full-size solar module. The world record of 16.4%, achieved by the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN), was verified by global certification and testing organization TÜV. The previous record of 15.5% from 1998 was broken with an impressive 0.9% efficiency improvement, of which a significant part can be attributed to DSM's coating.

The new record efficiency to 16.4% means a substantial step in the ongoing quest to bring solar energy closer to "grid parity", the point at which solar energy is equal to or cheaper than traditional electricity. This would make it broadly accessible to both industrial and residential users without state and/or government subsidies.

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'Silicon ink' for More Efficient Solar Cells

Posted on Wednesday, September 23, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 2:52 AM

JA Solar, one of the big players in the solar industry, is working with Innovalight to commercialize the latter's method for making silicon-ink-based, high-efficiency solar cells. Innovalight first got noticed in 2007 for perfecting a process in which it could essentially ink-jet-manufacture solar cells using a proprietary silicon ink it had developed. The solar cells are created by pouring an ink solution incorporated with silicon nanoparticles and then decanting the excess liquid to leave behind a crystalline silicon structure.

Innovalight announced that an independent study of its method by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Germany confirmed that its silicon ink-based cells "demonstrated a record 18 percent conversion of efficiency."Shanghai, China-based JA Solar said the process will lower its production cost for this type of solar cell.

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Nanotechnology for High Efficient Solar Cells

Posted on Friday, September 18, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 5:51 AM

Chemical engineers at Oregon State University have invented a new technology to deposit “nanostructure films” on various surfaces, which may first find use as coatings for eyeglasses that cost less and work better. Ultimately, the technique may provide a way to make solar cells more efficiently produce energy.

The key to the process is use of a chemical bath, controlled by a microreactor, to place thin-film deposits on various substrates such as glass, plastic, silicon or aluminum. In this case, the technology will create a type of nanostructure that resembles millions of tiny pyramids in a small space, which function to reduce the reflectance of any light that strikes the material.

The films reduce the reflectance of light, and in the case of eyeglasses would capture more light, reduce glare and also reduce exposure to ultraviolet light. Some coatings with these features are already available, but the new technology should perform better at a lower cost, and be able to be applied on-site in a dispenser’s office.

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Electricity from the Artificial Fluorescent Lighting

Posted on Tuesday, September 15, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 2:41 AM

New Energy Technologies is trying to develop a solar cell that makes electricity just from that nasty fluorescent tube lighting buzzing over your head.

New Energy’s solar cells in their transparent SolarWindow™ generate electricity by using the visible light in artificial fluorescent lighting typically installed in offices and commercial buildings. In tests published in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy they outperformed regular solar cells by orders of magnitude; producing two to ten-fold more power.

Researchers tested the ultra-small solar cells on a 1”x1” substrate against today’s popular solar materials for their capacity to produce electricity under varying artificial light conditions, mimicking the levels of light exposure in homes and commercial offices.

Under normal office lighting conditions, without any natural light from windows, New Energy’s ultra-small solar cells produced not just twice the power of monocrystalline silicon, but achieved:

1. 8-fold greater output power density than copper-indium-selenide, known for its high optical absorption coefficients and versatile optical and electrical characteristics.
2. 10-fold greater output power density than flexible thin-film amorphous-silicon.

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New Solar Battery Technology Offers Cheap Household Power

Posted on Monday, September 14, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:58 PM

Salt Lake City-based company Ceramatec, the R&D arm of CoorsTek, has made what it believes to be a massive breakthrough in batteries for storing energy harnessed from the sun. The company is making impressive inroads on the prototype of a deep storage battery, the size of a small refrigerator, that safely operates at room temperature, consists of everyday materials, and can output household power at 2.5c per kWh. What’s more, Ceramatec says it will be cheap to purchase.

Currently, great performing energy-dense batteries are huge containers of super-hot molten sodium that hover around 600°C. At that temperature the material is highly conductive of electricity, however, it is also toxic and corrosive. Instead, Ceramatec's battery comprises a large piece of solid sodium metal mated to a sulfur compound by a paper-thin ceramic membrane, called NaSICON. The membrane conducts ions - electrically-charged particles - back and forth to generate a current.

The company calculates that the battery will be able to sustain 20-40kWh of energy into a refrigerator-size housing that operates at around or below 90°C. This is possibly the only way that this type of dense battery technology will ever be approved for household use – safe, small (relatively) and cheap to purchase.

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Solar Powered Aircraft to Fly from NYC to Paris

Posted on Monday, August 3, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:53 PM

A Spanish company called Turtle Airships is working on plans to build a luxurious solar-powered blimp which can take passengers from New York to Paris.Perhaps the only thing cooler than being powered by lightweight photovoltaic cells, this airship is also designed to rest on land or water.

The first blimp prototype will be propelled in two nontraditional ways. The outside of the ship will be covered with Cadmium-Indium-Germanium (CIG) photovoltaic cells, picked for their their light weight. The cells should generate enough power to move the blimp at around 40 mph in average conditions, or at around 70 horsepower. Meanwhile, a diesel drivetrain will generate the rest of the power, and ideally the designers will look to an adapted hybrid electric model for that. And because blimps fly at low altitudes, they don’t have to deal with problems that plague diesel engines at elevations over 30,000 ft.

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Researchers Find New Way to Increase Solarcell Efficiency

Posted on Thursday, July 30, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 10:00 PM

Scientists at the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina are using the concept of biomimicry to increase the efficiency of solar cells, peering into how a moth’s eye absorbs light.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy lab are working with the University of Florida’s Peng Jiang to study how special coatings that mimic structures found in nature can make solar cells more productive for commercial applications, homes and even space satellites.

A moth’s eye is so good at absorbing light because it consists of tiny, hexagonal bumps that are smaller than the wavelength of visible light.The engineered coatings that mimic the way a moth’s eye absorbs light can reduce unwanted reflection from silicon solar cells from 30 percent to less than 2 percent.

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DyoCore Launches First Wind/Solar Hybrid Electric Generator

Posted on Monday, July 20, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 2:12 AM

DyoCore Smart Solutions, San Marcos, California, announced the September availability of its SolAir wind/solar hybrid generator. Sporting a breakthrough design with a small blade-span of less than 52 inches and integrated solar fin to maximize directional flow and electrical output, the SolAir is the first hybrid alternative energy source designed for consumer residential, small business and local government markets.

The unit incorporates the latest in thin film transistor solar panels, providing a continuous flow of energy, even with low-exposure to the sun. Furthermore, the company's supplied DC/AC inverter actually recycles unused electricity back into the local grid, dramatically reducing consumer dependency on the nation's power resources, while providing true money savings to environmentally-savvy home owners.

Available in two configurations, 300-watt and 800-watt versions, the SolAir I and II will be available in July 2009 at a suggested retail price of $4,800 for a complete system, including inverter system, high-performance rechargeable batteries and mounting brackets. In many states, the SolAir qualifies for local, state and federal tax credits of up to 80%.

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Solar-Powered Recharger from An Altoids Tin

Posted on Sunday, July 12, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 7:32 PM

Jerome Kelty’s USA, plan to save the planet involves a small solar panel, a USB plug, a battery and an empty Altoids tin.Kelty assembled these parts into his own gadget for charging his iPod Touch using the power of the sun.

Kelty got the idea for the solar-powered charger from the Minty Boost, a $20 charger powered by two AA alkaline batteries. It’s called the Minty Boost because it is also housed in an Altoids breath mints tin. But it had its shortcomings.To improve upon the Minty Boost, Kelty replaced the AA batteries with a rechargeable lithium polymer battery and added a small solar panel. The solar panel recharges the internal battery, which in turn recharges the iPhone.

If everyone who owned the 30 million iPods and iPhones sold to date worldwide recharged their gadgets every day with solar power, instead of plugging into an outlet, 30 million pounds of carbon dioxide, the leading cause of global warming, would not be created.

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Using nanoparticles to increase the effiiciency of thin film solar cells

Posted on Friday, June 12, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:27 PM

Here is an interesting article @ physorg.com on "Using nanoparticles to increase the effiiciency of thin film solar cells"

Read the article here

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Heliotropic Biomimicry: Solar Panels That Follow The Sun

Posted on Monday, June 1, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:24 PM

A team of engineering students at MIT, inspired by heliotropic plants that move in the direction of the sun all day (like a sunflower), have developed a new method of motivation for the photovoltaic cells to move. Their invention won first place in MIT's Making and Designing Materials Engineering Contest (MADMEC).

Solar cells that track the sun can be 38 percent more efficient in generating power than fixed solar cells.Instead of using an electronic tracking system, the team decided to use the difference in temperature between shaded and sunny areas to change the properties of the material supporting solor photovoltaic cells.The system, once built, is completely passive, requiring no power source or electronics to control the movement.

After experimenting with different materials and configurations, they came up with a system whereby solar panels would be placed on top of a curved arch made of a pair of metals, such as aluminum and steel.The concept was demonstrated by shining a spotlight on one side of a bridge containing a solar panel. The heat from the light causes the bridge to arch, tilting the panel towards the light.

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Concentrated Solar Power Could Generate 25% of the World’s Electricity by 2050

Posted on Sunday, May 31, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:25 PM

A new study from Greenpeace, the European Solar Thermal Agency, and the International Energy Agency’s SolarPACES Group has shown that concentrated solar power (CSP) could generate a quarter of the world’s energy needs by 2050–and create thousands of new jobs and prevent millions of tons of CO2 from being released.

CSP uses mirror to focus sunlight on water. The reaction creates steam that turns turbines and generates electricity. Unlike photovoltaic solar panels, CSP only works in places with reliable sunny weather, such as parts of the southern U.S., North Africa, Mexico, and India.

Sven Teske, co-author of the study, estimates that current investments in CSP ($2.8 billion) could grow under a moderate scenario to over $11 billion by 2010 and produce 7% of the world’s electricity generating capacity. By 2050, investments could grow to $93 billion. Combined with geothermal and wind farms, alternative energies could provide a significant portion of our overall energy needs in the next few decades.

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Solar Cells Along Highways To Generate Power

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 7:43 PM

A promising invention now being tested by Solaroad Technologies,part of a business incubator at Towson University, which collects and stores solar energy, even when it isn't sunny.The idea is to place those cells along highways to generate power for street lights or construction.The circular solar collectors placed along a jersey wall gather much more energy than flat panels, even when its a dim day or at night.This solar cell system has the ability to create electricity when headlights strike these tubes at night.The electrawall also stores what it collects in batteries. The company also wants to market a cube tube, which would be installed on top of a workers cubicle in an office and it would get energy from the florescent lights in the work space.

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Multi-Junction Solar Cells with High Efficiency

Posted on Thursday, May 21, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 10:34 PM

Cyrium Technologies Inc.,Ottawa,announced that multi-junction solar cells produced by the company now exceed the performance of all commercially manufactured solar cells.

Cyrium's first generation solar cells offer efficiencies of 40 per cent or higher together with a nearly constant conversion efficiency for solar concentrations from 200 to greater than 1000 suns. This performance sets a new standard for the solar cells' intended use in the Concentrator PhotoVoltaic (CPV) industry.Cyrium's solar cells not only have record efficiencies, but they exhibit nearly constant efficiency over solar intensities varying from 200 to 1000 suns.Other multi-junction solar cell technologies typically peak at some sun concentration value and decline quickly (efficiency roll off) with increasing concentration.Another benefit of the very low roll-off feature of Cyrium's cells is that CPV systems often have a variable intensity profile when the sun is focussed on an array of cells so that cells need to perform even when the peak concentration is two to three times higher than the nominal concentration.

The most outstanding feature of Cyrium's approach is an optimized design for multi-junction cells that does not add complexity or cost.Cyrium anticipates its second generation product will reach 43 per cent efficiency within one year and third generation products are targeted to be at 45 per cent within two years.

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SolarWindows: Small Organic Solar Cells instead of Silicon

Posted on Wednesday, May 20, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 10:05 PM

Washington, D.C.-based New Energy Technologies, Inc. announced about the development of new tinted transparent glass SolarWindows™ capable of generating electricity by coating glass surfaces with the world’s smallest known organic solar cells.

New Energy’s SolarWindow technology uses an organic solar array, - cells for which about one-quarter the size of a blade of grass - which achieves transparency through the creative use of conducting polymers which have the same desirable electrical properties as the world’s most commercially popular semiconductor, silicon. However, the technology also boasts a considerably better capacity to absorb optically photons from light, thereby generating electricity.

The company also aimed at harnessing the energy beneath the tires using MotionPower™ technology, similar to what is used to power hybrid vehicles. The difference is, instead of being installed in cars and trucks, it’s installed in the roadways, capturing the friction energy that is otherwise dissipated as heat.

full article here

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Startup Finds Way to Store Wind & Solar Energy

Posted on Monday, May 18, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:18 AM

Inventor Labs and its offshoot Mechanical Electric, Inc. in Redwood City, CA, have found a way of storing wind and solar electricity without diesel generators or chemical batteries: Coil up a spring or lift up a heavy weight into the air. The invention, called a mechanical electrical storage appliance, uses the energy generated by uncoiling a spring or dropping weights attached to each unit.

The appliance can store energy from wind and solar sources, which only generate intermittently throughout the day, for later use. Wind energy generated at midnight could be stored and used in the daytime with similar use for solar energy. Inventor Labs formed Mechanical Electric Inc. in April to focus on marketing the appliance. The company’s plan is to concentrate on “low-tech, mechanical kinds of things” like the Mechanical Electric project, which uses no chemicals or diesel fuel.

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PARALEX : Parallel Operating System for Thin Film PV Systems

Posted on Thursday, May 14, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 10:53 PM

Sustainable Energy Technologies Ltd (SET) launched its "PARALEXTM" massively parallel operating system for Spanish thin film PV systems at the Genera '09, Trade Show in Madrid, Spain.

The main advantage of SET's low voltage inverter technology is the array architecture used in PARALEXTM systems offers 5 - 15% improved energy yield per kW installed, through the elimination of panel mismatch losses and reduction of partial shading losses. Other advantages of PARALEX systems include the simplicity, flexibility and consistent high energy yield .

PARALEXTM systems use thin film modules which produce more power per kW installed compared to crystalline technologies. The improved light sensitivity of thin film modules means that optimum alignment to the sun is not necessary. Modules can be installed flush with rooftops to reduce the cost of racking, make optimum use of space, and improve aesthetics.With the PARALEXTM operating system, 100% of the PV modules are wired in parallel. The parallel array architecture is enabled by Sustainable Energy's proprietary low voltage inverter technology which is optimized for thin film panels. The elimination of high DC array voltages also provides an important safety benefit to installation and maintenance crews.

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Nitride-Based Thin-Film Solar Cells for High Efficiency

Posted on Friday, May 8, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 3:55 AM

BluGlass Ltd,Australia,intends to expand the market potential of its remote plasma chemical vapor deposition (RPCVD) manufacturing technology to thin-film solar cells incorporating group III-nitride materials. The firm currently develops and commercializes RPCVD for depositing thin films such as gallium nitride (GaN) and indium gallium nitride (InGaN) in the production of LEDs.

Group III nitride semiconductors have many advantages over current materials, such as,

The alloy indium gallium nitride (InGaN) having a direct energy bandgap with wide tunability, giving the potential to convert almost the full spectrum of sunlight (infrared, visible and ultraviolet radiation) to electrical current.Such properties hence allow more energy from the solar spectrum to be captured efficiently by a solar cell and converted to electrical power.Research has established that InGaN solar cells could produce efficiencies of more than 50% [Jani et al. Applied Physics Letters 91, 132117-3 (2007)].
Being a low-temperature process, it is suited to the growth of InGaN: during the growth process, the alloy's fragile bonds crack at high temperature, leading to poor-quality material. A low-temperature process would hence allow indium-rich InGaN layers to be grown.
InGaN also has superior resistance to energy radiation and high-temperature tolerance. Hence nitride solar cells could maintain high performance under extreme conditions, including space applications such as powering satellites and space probes.

If successful, InGaN solar cells promise to be long lasting, relatively inexpensive and highly efficient.Following recent research on InGaN, BluGlass aims to develop a prototype high-efficiency solar cell for industrial testing.

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New Solar Energy Collector with High Efficiency

Posted on Tuesday, May 5, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 4:31 AM

An Israeli company, Zenith Solar, has announced the invention of a new type of solar energy collector that is said to be much more efficient than current photovoltaic ones.The new collection device, is a series of rotating dishes made up of mirror which are said to be able to collect as much as 75% of the sun’s energy or five times those of ordinary solar collectors. The use of mirrors will reduce the need for so many photovoltaic cells as are required in other types of solar collectors, making the new system much more affordable, and even comparable to generating electricity with fossil fuels.

Ron Segev, founder and CEO of Zenith Solor was quoted as saying that the new solar collection device will be able to collect and produce thermal as well as electrical energy at the same time.The new collecting dish device will be able get at least 50% more energy from it in the form of hot water, which is derived from water used to cool the device.Once the device is in operation, it will only require maintenance costs since no fuel is needed. It will also work in places where less sunlight is normally available.

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Solar Thermal Power to Generate Electricity

Posted on Thursday, April 30, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:57 PM

New solar thermal technology overcomes a major challenge facing solar power – how to store the sun's heat for use at night or on a rainy day.

In the high desert of southern Spain,the Mediterranean sun bounces off large arrays of precisely curved mirrors that cover an area as large as 70 soccer fields. These parabolic troughs follow the arc of the sun as it moves across the sky, concentrating the sun's rays onto pipes filled with a synthetic oil that can be heated to 750 degrees Fahrenheit. That super-heated oil is used to boil water to power steam turbines, or to pump excess heat into vats of salts, turning them a molten, lava-like consistency.

Engineers can use the molten salts to store the heat from solar radiation many hours after the sun goes down and then release it at will to drive turbines. That means solar thermal power can be used to generate electricity nearly round-the-clock.

full article here

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Scientists Develop Highly Efficient Plastic-Based Solar Cell

Posted on Sunday, April 26, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:25 PM

South Korean scientists said Monday that they have created a highly efficient plastic-based power cell that can speed up commercial use of solar energy.The team led by Lee Kwang-hee at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), said the solar cells are designed to mimic the photovoltaic activities of plants, and reached an unprecedented energy efficiency rate of 6.2 percent.

If fully developed the solar cells, which can easily bend, could be attached to coats, bags, various electronic appliances and building windows.They used a new material that have "open circuit voltage" properties and titanium oxide to bring about high efficiency.

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Thin Film Solar Tile for Building-Integrated Photovoltaic Roofing

Posted on Monday, April 20, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:50 PM

SRS Energy, a developer of sustainable solar roofing systems, is launching Solé Power Tile this month, bringing the first building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) roofing product to curved roofing systems.The Solé Power Tile can help to provide for some of the energy needs of a house without installing solar panels, which may detract from the visual appeal or not be allowed due to regulations in HOA covenants. The tiles integrate seamlessly with clay tile roofs, making it easy to upgrade a curved tile roof to a power-generating platform.

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Solar Panels That Float In The Ocean

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 9:32 PM

The LSA (Liquid Solar Arrays) is a simple revolutionary solar technology that has the potential to produce electricity at costs comparable to fossil fuel generators. LSAs are solar panels that are designed to float in water. When storms hit, they simply submurge themselves under the water until it passes. It's built using lightweight, readily available plastic with existing solar concentrator technologies, so they're ready to go now. We'll see if they end up catching on in the near future.

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Solar Power in Space : A New Level Renewable Energy

Posted on Friday, April 17, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:18 PM

PG&E in California, is planning to take their ability to tap renewable energy to a whole new level: solar power in space.“Solaren says it plans to generate the power using solar panels in earth orbit, then convert it to radio frequency energy for transmission to a receiving station in Fresno County. From there, the energy will be converted to electricity and fed into PG&E’s power grid.” ~ Next100.com

The advantages of space solar power include:

* energy that can be harnessed at all times, even at night or when it’s cloudy.
* baseload power delivery that makes efficient electricity possible for meeting customer demand.
* an underlying technology that is mature since it is based on communications satellite technology.

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New Solar Panel Produces Energy In the Shade

Posted on Friday, April 10, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 10:11 PM

Grady Mayeaux's newly unveiled peel-and-stick solar panel proven to power a golf cart to 36 holes, rain or shine. In fact, Yamaha was able to take a golf cart on 50 holes using just the Going Green Solar Panel, said Mayeaux.

In direct sunlight, the peel-and-stick panel produced 80 volts or three amps of electricity, which is more than enough to power both the 36 or 48 volts needed for standard golf carts. Mayeaux said his latest invention is the first solar panel to be proven to produce energy in the shade.

The Going Green Solar Panel is made from three layers of amorphous silicon and each layer is tuned to a different level of sunlight frequency. Unlike the glass solar panels, the peel-and-stick panel is durable enough to continue working normally even after being punctured.

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New Dye Design For Solar Cell Efficiency

Posted on Monday, April 6, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:46 PM

A new type of dye could improve the lifespan of dye-sensitised solar cells - low-cost photovoltaic cells that can convert sunlight into electricity and thought to be some of the most promising for widespread use. Designed by Swiss and Japanese researchers, the dye has a light to electric conversion efficiency of 10.1 per cent, making it competitive with the best available. Dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSCs) use dyes to capture energy from sunlight and convert it into electric current.

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Solar power drops to $1 per watt, nears parity with oil

Posted on Friday, April 3, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:48 PM

Solar energy costs have dropped steadily and consistently over the past 30 years. In the late 1970s solar energy cost $100 per watt. Even though the price with the newest solar technology has now fallen to under $1 per watt, that price will almost certainly continue to drop.

key excerpts of an article on solar energy breaking the $1 per watt barrier, as reported in Popular Mechanics, one of the few major media publications to publish this exciting, milestone story.

A long-sought solar milestone was eclipsed on Tuesday, when Tempe, Ariz.–based First Solar Inc. announced that the manufacturing costs for its thin-film photovoltaic panels had dipped below $1 per watt for the first time. With comparable costs for standard silicon panels still hovering in the $3 range, it's tempting to conclude that First Solar's cadmium telluride (CdTe) technology has won the race.

[Yet] even if the solar cell market were to grow at 56 percent a year for the next 10 years—slightly higher than the rapid growth of the past year—photovoltaics would still only account for about 2.5 percent of global electricity, LBNL researcher Cyrus Wadia says. "First Solar is great, as long as we're talking megawatts or gigawatts," he says. "But as soon as they have to start rolling out terawatts, that's where I believe they will reach some limitations." Even the current rate of growth won't be easy to sustain.

full article here

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Suntech's Pluto System Reaches 19% Efficiency

Posted on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:08 PM

Suntech Power Holdings, the world's largest manufacturer of solar panels, has announced further details of its Pluto technology that has seen substantial improvements in solar cell conversion efficiencies.Suntech's Pluto technology has seen conversion efficiencies of approximately 19% on monocrystalline solar panels and 17% on polycrystalline solar panels outside of the lab and in large scale production.

The patent-pending Pluto technology is based on PERL technology, developed locally at the University of NSW in Australia. Lower reflectivity has been achieved through unique texturing technology that allows increased sunlight to be absorbed even without direct solar radiation. Thinner metal lines on the top surface reduces shading loss. Suntech's Pluto technology can be applied to a variety of grades of silicon to suit differing applications and product types.

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Solar Powered, Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Airship

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 8:44 PM

The Pentagon intends to spend $400 million to develop a giant blimp which will reach an altitude of 65,000 feet and remain airborne for 10 years. The dirigible will be filled with helium and powered by an innovative system that uses solar panels to recharge hydrogen fuel cells. Werner J.A. Dahm, chief scientist for the Air Force describing the proposed unmanned airship as a cross between a satellite and a spy plane. The aircraft will provide intricate radar surveillance of the vehicles, planes and even people below.The project is supposed to reflect a shift in Pentagon planning that is more about the intelligence and surveillance operations, and less about expensive high-tech weapons.

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3-D Surface to Boost Solar Cell Efficiency

Posted on Wednesday, March 25, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 10:40 PM

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a new treatment for silicon photovoltaic solar cells that creates bumps and peaks on the surface that increase cell efficiency in two ways.The surface structures prevent water and dust from coming into contact with the cells. When water hits the surface, it beads together and runs off, collecting any dirt or dust along with it. This self-cleaning mechanism will help keep the solar cells working at maximum light absorption at all times.Additionally, the three-dimensional structures manage to capture more light and reflect less.

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InventHelp Client Invents Solar-Powered Light For Bus Stop Shelter

Posted on Tuesday, March 24, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 2:23 AM

InventHelp , America's leading inventor service company, announces that one of its clients, an inventor from Federal Way, Wash., has designed a solar-powered light for installation at a bus stop shelter. This invention is patented.The invention would consist of a solar-powered lighting fixture that would be installed at the top of a bus shelter. Measuring approximately 6 inches high, it is made from aluminum, and could be powered by solar energy or batteries.

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Viper (TM): New Thin Film Affordable Solar Cell

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 1:44 AM

A new piece of thin film manufacturing equipment with the unlikely name of Viper (TM) could help bring solar energy to the masses. Viper (TM) was developed by Sencera, a North Carolina company that got its start supplying thin film hardware for manufacturing transistors and integrated circuits.Thin film has been replacing conventional silicon wafers as a low-cost way to manufacture solar cells. Thin film solar cells don’t need a silicon wafer, so they involve less cost for materials.

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Nanotechnology for More Efficient Thin Film Solar Cells

Posted on Sunday, March 15, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:46 PM

A new European Union funded research project called “ROD-SOL” ('All-inorganic nano-rod based thin-film solar cells on glass') aims to improve the efficiency of thin-film solar cells using nanotechnology. The three year project has a budget of EUR 4 million and may yield a breakthrough for solar power.The ROD-SOL project aims to up the efficiency of these thin film solar cells by developing and optimising the synthesis of silicon nanorods on cheaper substrates such as glass or metal foils. The silicon nanorods are effectively tiny silicon columns whose diameter is measured in nanometres. Researchers propose that the tiny structures are perfect for trapping light energy in a way that it can be transformed into electricity.

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New Plug and Play Solar Panels

Posted on Friday, March 13, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 2:21 AM

Want solar power on the cheap? Veranda Solar may be able to help. The company’s innovative panel design requires only a screwdriver and a standard home outlet. At $600, the panel is much more affordable than many of its competitors.Veranda says that its product can be affixed to windows, gutters, and balconies in “plug and play style”– so the panels snap together and can be plugged in directly to an outlet. If you decide that a single panel isn’t enough to fulfill your power needs, springing for additional snap-on panels at $450 a pop isn’t too much of a stretch.

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Quantum Dots Could Boost Solar Cell Efficiency ?

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 2:12 AM

A recent discovery shatters the notion that one photon can only excite one electron. Researchers from the joint SLAC-Stanford Pulse Institute for Ultrafast Energy Science are on the move to boost solar cell efficiencies by confirming that a single photon can indeed excite more than one electrons in a quantum dot.

The recent PULSE experiments use ‘quantum dots’, tiny spheres composed of a few thousand atoms, to boost electron interactions by concentrating the electrons into a extremely small area. Researchers found that with quantum dots, 1 photon can excite up to 3 electrons depending on the sunlight’s color. These results mean that solar cell processes could be as much as one third more efficient if constructed with quantum dots. Although there are some difficult scientific and engineering feats to be conquered in the production of a solar cell with quantum dots, such a technology could one day revolutionize solar power.

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Quantum Dots Could Boost Solar Cell Efficiency ?

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 2:12 AM

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A New Metallization Paste For Flexible Thin-film Photovoltaic Solar Cells

Posted on Monday, March 9, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:37 PM

Although silicon photovoltaic solar cells account for over 95% of the solar cells produced today, copper-indium-gallium di-selenide (CIGS), amorphous silicon, and cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film cells hold much promise for rapid growth.These thin-film photovoltics can be deposited, not only on glass, plastic, or metal substrates, but also on flexible substrates. This offers the advantage of roll-to-roll processing, thus significantly reducing manufacturing costs.

Now, a flexible high-performance silver metallization paste has been developed for use in flexible thin-film photovoltaic solar cells. The binder of the paste is a soft epoxy-based resin system. Compared with a more conventional thermoplastic paste system, this exhibits superior adhesion and is flexible. The new material, designated LTTF-6363, also displays excellent print characteristics and non-slump performance – extremely important for maximizing the effective open areas on solar cells.

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Solar-Powered Race Car That Runs All Day

Posted on Tuesday, March 3, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:48 PM

A group of researchers at MIT have developed an out-of-the-ordinary new race car, one that isnt dependent on gasoline. Thats right, the team has built a car that runs on solar power. The car, dubbed Eleanor , can reportedly maintain a cruising speed of 55 miles-per-hour and run all day -- if the sun is shining, according to MIT. To get that kind of power from sunlight, researchers have designed the car with six square meters of monocrystalline silicon solar cells and an improved electronic systems. And if the car is running on a rainy day or at night, its batteries can store enough energy for the car to make the trip from Boston to New York City without any sunlight, MIT researchers added.

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Titanium Nanostructure For Efficient Solar Energy Capture

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 8:57 PM

Overcoming a critical conductivity challenge to clean energy technologies, Boston College researchers have developed a titanium nanostructure that provides an expanded surface area and demonstrates significantly greater efficiency in the transport of electrons.Wang said the efficiency gains within the novel material can serve so-called water-splitting, where semiconductor catalysts have been shown to separate and store hydrogen and oxygen gases.

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Coolerado Claims Solar Powered Air Conditioner for Power Conservation

Posted on Monday, March 2, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 7:53 PM

Coolerado, a Colorado-based company, is pushing its namesake air conditioning unit, a novel device that cools air by using water instead of chemical refrigerants and a compressor. Its developers believe it’s the greatest thing for warm climates since the automatic ice maker.

The company’s claims are impressive on multiple fronts. Most important is the power consumption of the unit on display in the video: 600 watts, or “one third the amount of power of a standard hair dryer” and a tenth of what a similarly sized traditional A/C unit would use. Spokesman Rick Gillan says the unit is large enough to cool 3,000 square feet occupied by about 20 people — the size of a small business — and can be powered completely by a small array of four photovoltaic panels.

Also appealing is the idea that the air conditioner itself can help boost the output of the solar panels powering it: In the heat of summer, when solar panels operate at lower efficiency, ducts from the A/C route exhaust air their way. The exhaust air is warmer than that being delivered to the rooms below, but cooler than the untreated outside air, so it helps the solar cells operate closer to their maximum efficiency.

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Big Breakthrough in Solar Costs?

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 7:39 PM

First Solar, the Tempe-based producer of photovoltaic solar panels, said this week it has scored a major breakthrough by reducing the cost of manufacturing its modules to less than $1 per watt.

First Solar uses thin-film technology to convert sunlight into electric current without the need for silicon, a more expensive material used in most photovoltaic cells. Also the company said it is benefitting from mass production techniques as demand soars for its modules.The company has reduced its production costs by two-thirds in four years - from more than $3 a watt in 2004, the company said.

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Solar-Powered Air Conditioner

Posted on Friday, February 27, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:25 PM

Coolerado has added another element to its air conditioners: solar power. According to Coolerado, any solar contractor can easily work with installers in the company’s network to add solar photovoltaic systems to air conditioning units. A demonstration solar-powered Coolerado air-conditioner is on display now at RETECH 2009 in Las Vegas.

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New Solar-panel Technology Could Increase Efficiency?

Posted on Thursday, February 26, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:54 PM

Researchers at the National Institute for Nanotechnology at the University of Alberta have developed a method that increases the efficiency in plastic photovoltaic cells by 30 per cent, a breakthrough they say may someday help make cheap, clean solar power available to the masses.They have developed a compound to spread between two layers of the plastic cell. Just one billionth of a metre thick, the compound helps energy jump from one level to another on its way to becoming usable electricity.

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Bio-Based Solar Cells Could Reduce Cost?

Posted on Tuesday, February 24, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:59 PM

The California-based “BioSolar” company has developed a novel technology to produce bio-based materials from renewable plant sources, which could significantly reduce the cost of solar cells. By replacing petroleum-based plastic solar cell components with bio-based materials, the company says it can achieve cost reduction of up to 50% on the materials being replaced. Advanced manipulation of bio-based polymers allows BioSolar to produce both robust and durable components, which, according to the company, meet the requirements of current solar cell manufacturing processes.

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Rechargeable Batteries with Solar Cells

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 9:47 PM

Knut Karlsen has created a solar-cell charging battery prototype using flexible solar cells from IFE and some older NiMH rechargeable batteries. The batteries are being coined as “SunCast” batteries and work much like a trickle charger.This setup is infact a trickle charger. It is not ideal, but really convenient. A second version would have some electronics and capacitors to charge the batteries more efficiently, but the battery would then be smaller if it all needs to fit within a C-cell battery.

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Solar Cell Consortium Aims To Develop Printable Plastic Solar Cells

Posted on Sunday, February 22, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:49 PM

World leading research from CSIRO's Future Manufacturing Flagship as part of the Victorian Organic Solar Cell Consortium (VICOSC) aims to develop flexible, large area, cost-effective, reel-to-reel printable plastic solar cells. The technology used for these cells is still in its infancy, but this project aims to speed-up the development of this technology and take it from research to rooftops as quickly as possible.

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Iron Pyrite -A New Silicon Alternative To Solar Industry

Posted on posted by posted by Mak @ 7:51 PM

Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory released a study this week concluding that the solar industry could use many cheaper and more abundant alternatives to silicon, including iron pyrite — most commonly known as fool’s gold.In total, the researchers found 23 alternative semiconductors, but only 12 are more easily found than silicon. Iron pyrite was named the most probable solution among those 12.Silicon alternatives already exist in thin-film solar panels made from cadmium telluride or copper indium gallium selenide, both of which are also extremely limited resources.

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Solar Power In A Box

Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:50 PM

One of Maine's premiere builders of custom yachts is starting to build something completely different - solar power in a box.They call it the Power Cube. The Cube is a ready-to-run solar energy generating system, that can be set up virtually anywhere and operating in about a few minutes.There are two models, one with three photo-voltaic panels, the other with six. Lyman says the three-panel Cube can provide about three and a half kilowatts of electricity - that's about the same as a medium size, portable gasoline generator.

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Integrated Circuit Technology for Efficient Solar Applications

Posted on Tuesday, February 17, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:50 PM

The Austin-based chip manufacturer Freescale Semiconductor Inc. designed a new circuit technology the company at its Tempe facility.Freescale's integrated circuit converts the limited amount of energy produced by solar cells into enough voltage to power products. Using a special configuration that Freescale engineers designed, the integrated circuit takes the energy output from a solar cell and converts it to 5 volts, or enough energy to charge batteries inside a particular device.

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Reverse Bias Electroluminescence - A New Light on Solar Cells

Posted on Monday, February 16, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:28 PM

Dominik Lausch from the Department of Semiconductor Physics at the Institute of Experimental Physics II investigates solar cells to which he attached current flowing in the opposite direction,called reverse bias. Here too, the solar cells show characteristic luminescence effects, yet they are exclusively on the defects, in particular on the grain boundaries contained in the multicrystalline material of his investigation.

A very sharp image of the luminescence emerges, an optical radiation through the transition of electrons to a low-energy ground level state.This makes it possible to locate and identify defects with a spatial resolution previously not known or achieved. The method established by the researchers is called ReBEL which stands for "Reverse Bias Electroluminescence". The research findings underscore that photovoltaics are a sustainable and environmentally friendly technology.

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Irish Company Launched Most Efficient Solar Hot Water Panel

Posted on Sunday, February 8, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 7:55 PM

An Irish company called Surface Power has launched what it claims is the world’s most efficient solar hot water panel. Certification by testing house TUV Rhineland has shown that the innovative product is up to 131% more efficient in morning and evening time and 76% more efficient at midday than other panels.Surface Power also believes its product could reduce domestic and commercial hot water bills by up to 70%. While the company’s panel was designed specifically for the retrofit market, it is also suitable for new installations.

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High Efficient Spray-on Solar Panels

Posted on Thursday, February 5, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:12 PM

Australia and Braggone Oy on a three-year project to develop spray-on solar panels that are cheap and highly efficient.Traditionally, solar cells are made of silicon coated with a thin layer of anti-reflective silicon nitrate. The cells are expensive to produce because they are made in a vacuum. With the spray-on method, cells travel along a conveyor belt and are sprayed with hydrogen film and anti-reflective film as they go, thus removing the need for a vacuum.Scientists working on the project also hope to increase cell efficiency beyond the normal range of 5 to 24 percent.

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Solar Energy To Power Coal Plant

Posted on Sunday, February 1, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:28 PM

The Electric Power Research Institute has launched two projects that will infuse solar energy into already existing coal fired electrical generation plants.The two power plants that have adopted this solar infusion process are Tri-State’s 245 megawatt Escalante generating station in Prewitt, New Mexico, and Progress Energy’s 742 megawatt plant in Roxboro, North Carolina.

Coal is burned to produce steam, whose pressure then turns a generator’s turbines to produce electric power. Now add solar. The two pilot installations collect and concentrate the sun’s rays to boil water into steam, which is then fed into the coal-generated steam to augment its power.

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Thin-Film Solar Material Could Charge Portable Devices?

Posted on Thursday, January 29, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:14 PM

Massachusetts based solar upstart Konarka has developed a low cost thin-film solar material that may one day revolutionize solar power. The solar film is made by printing a secret polymer ink onto thin filmstrips using a converted Poloroid press. When light contacts the film, the ink emits electrons and generates an electric current.

The material, called Power Plastic®, is a lightweight, flexible and inexpensive source of power for portable devices and structures. While Power Plastic® is currently being used in handbags and patio umbrellas to charge portable devices, Konarka hopes to perfect a translucent version of the product within the new few years.

Power Plastic® has several advantages over traditional photovoltaic technology including a higher efficiency at low light levels, the ability to flex to a 2-inch diameter and an extremely low production cost. The flexibility factor means that the solar film can be integrated into new materials such as fabrics.

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Painting Photovoltaic (PV) Cells For Efficient Solar-Cell System

Posted on Friday, January 23, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:36 PM

A simple solar-cell method being developed in the UK could provide as much electricity as that produced by 50 wind turbine farms.UK Trade & Investment publication Trade with Britain says that scientists are developing this new ecofriendly technology, after having investigated ways of painting photovoltaic (PV) cells onto the flexible steel sheeting and surfaces commonly used for cladding homes, offices or buildings.

Unlike conventional solar cells, the materials being developed at Swansea University, in Wales, are more efficient at capturing low-light radiation. Paint is applied to ordinary steel cladding when it is passed through rollers during the manufacturing process.The researchers believe that the same approach could be used to build layers of the solar-cell system, with the aim of producing cells that can be painted onto a flexible steel surface at a rate of 30m2 to 40m2 a minute.

They have been collaborating with the steel industry for decades but have tended to focus their attention on improving the long-term durability and corrosion resistance of the steel.Worsley maintains that the potential for the product is immense. Corus Colors (manufacturers of pre-finished steels), produces around 100-million square metres of steel building cladding a year. If this was treated with the PV material, and assuming a conservative 5% energy conversion rate, then we could be looking at generating 4 500 GW of electricity through the solar cells annually, which is the equivalent output of roughly 50 wind farms.

According to UK journal New Scientist, the new PV paint will be based on dye-sensitised solar cells. The report notes that instead of absorbing sunlight using silicon like conventional solar panels, these use dye molecules, attached to particles of the titanium dioxide pigment used in paints.

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Plastic Solar Cells For Portable Electronic Devices

Posted on Thursday, January 22, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 8:08 PM

Solarmer Energy Inc. is developing plastic solar cells for portable electronic devices that will incorporate technology invented at the University of Chicago.

The invention, a new semiconducting material called PTB1, converts sunlight into electricity.Inventors Luping Yu, Professor in Chemistry, and Yongye Liang, a Ph.D. student, both at the University of Chicago, and five co-authors describe the technical details of the technology in an online article published Dec. 18, 2008, in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

The active layer of PTB1 is a mere 100 nanometers thick, the width of approximately 1,000 atoms. Synthesizing even small amounts of the material is a time-consuming, multi-step process. An advantage of the Chicago technology is its simplicity. Silicon-based solar cells dominate the market today. Industry observers see a promising future for low-cost, flexible solar cells. If people can make them sufficiently efficient, they may be useful for all sorts of applications beyond just the traditional solar panels on your house rooftop.

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Alubond SCP Solar Panel-Breakthrough in Solar Energy

Posted on Tuesday, January 20, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 7:53 PM

American Building Technologies, a subsidiary of Mulk Holdings, a multi-national group based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has managed to devise a new method of producing solar energy at a 50 percent lower cost, while at the same time increasing the efficiency of the entire process. The new production system is several times lighter than previous photovoltaic cell systems, and has a 92 percent reflexivity rate, which makes it highly competitive as well.

The new class of panels doesn't require rivets for its joining corners, which somehow makes it weigh about 4 kilograms per square meter, as opposed to the massive 12.5 kilograms per square meter an average glass-encased panel weighs. Aluminum-based designs are lighter than glass ones, but require large components to fix them, which drastically increase their weight. Rivets make the entire construction lose its reflectivity, and thus decrease efficiency.

Alubond SCP is a 3 mm composite weighing approximately 4 kg per sq m with a 92-per-cent reflectivity. The product’s ability to retain a parabolic shape to precise coordinates, and its lightweight features and innovative rivetless joining process, substantially reduces the substructure costs.

“We hope the success of this project will lead to an upsurge in the development of more solar energy plants, which will not only lessen the strain on existing energy resources, but also severely reduce the pollution levels that are currently witnessed in power generation,” a Mulk spokesman says, commenting on the revolutionary breakthrough.

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Three-layer solar cell- A New Solar Energy Breakthrough

Posted on Monday, January 19, 2009 posted by posted by Mak @ 9:23 PM

German researchers say they’ve broken a new record for solar energy efficiency, converting a full 41.1 percent of the power of incoming rays into electricity.“We are elated by this breakthrough,” said Frank Dimroth, a member of the research team at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE).

“The high efficiencies of our solar cells are the most effective way to reduce the electricity generation costs for concentrating PV (photovoltaic) systems,” said Andreas Bett, department head at Fraunhofer ISE. “We want that photovoltaics become competitive with conventional methods of electricity production as soon as possible. With our new efficiency results, we have moved a big step further towards achieving this goal.”

The Fraunhofer system concentrates incoming sunlight by a factor of 454, then focuses the beams onto tiny — 5 millimeters square — solar cells made of gallium indium phosphide and gallium indium arsenide on a germanium substrate.Previously, such so-called “metamorphic multi-junction” solar cells presented efficiency problems because of hard-to-eliminate defects in the solar cell’s crystal materials. Rather than get rid of the defects, the Fraunhofer team found a way to localize the defects in parts of the solar cell that aren’t electrically active. The result: a solar cell whose electrically active regions are free of defects and capable of record-high efficiencies.

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