Archive for category Solar Power

Mogadishu a Safer Place Thanks to Solar Powered Street Lights

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Solar Power on May 18, 2013

Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, is now a safer place to live thanks to solar-powered streetlights installed by the British and Norwegian government. The lights, spreading over a length of 15 kilometers, cost $400,000. After 20 years of conflict, the people of Mogadishu have started to rebuild their lives and the local economy to prosper. If only [...]

Light Control Sheets “Self-Adjust” Solar Load, Can Make Home More Efficient

Posted by Benji Jerew in Green Buildings, Solar Power on May 17, 2013

One way to reduce the amount of energy in a building is to regulate solar load. The sun adds heat, which helps warm a home in winter, but isn’t so great in summer. In the winter, you could open the southern window shades to allow the sun to heat up the home and reduce the [...]

Plasmons Make Liquid Solar Cells More Efficient And Affordable

Posted by Mila Luleva in Solar Power on May 16, 2013

A new generation liquid solar cells are being developed at SUFY Buffalo. Although the new technology is expected to have lower efficiency than conventional silicon or cadmium solar cells, the new solar cells will be much cheaper to produce and can cover much larger surfaces. The new liquid solar cells, made of metal nanoparticles, are [...]

Researchers Harness Photosynthesis to Produce Energy

Posted by Leigh Kim in Solar Power on May 13, 2013

For years, scientists have been trying to harness the energy of photosynthesis since plants themselves are the perfect solar technology. Plants use photosynthesis to produce energy at nearly 100% efficiency. Researchers at the University of Georgia have been able to tap into photosynthesis directly to produce electricity. They discovered a method to interrupt photosynthesis to [...]

Nanotech Solar Cells being Developed by RedWave Energy

Posted by Benji Jerew in New Inventions, Solar Power on May 13, 2013

Energy is all around us, but harvesting it remains an issue if we are going to really clean up our act. Nanotech solar cells promise to harvest energy more efficiently and turn it into something we can use. We’ve talked before about how nanotech might improve current solar panel efficiency. One such technology developed by [...]

New Technique Identifies Manufacturing Residue, Improves Solar Cell Efficiency

Posted by Mila Luleva in Solar Power on May 7, 2013

Scientists from Argonne National Laboratory discovered that the efficiency of solar cells is reduced by traces of residue from the manufacturing process of organic photovoltaics. Solar cells based on organic polymers, or the so-called organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs), are known to be much cheaper to make than the popular silicon solar cells. They can be applied [...]

Single Atomic Layer Photovoltaic Device May Lead to Flexible Solar Cells

Posted by Leigh Kim in Solar Power on May 6, 2013

An international team of researchers from the University of Oxford, National University of Singapore, and the University of Boston have developed an atom-thin photovoltaic device with high quantum efficiency. With a quantum efficiency of 30%, or, translated into layman’s terms, the number of photons converted into charge-carrying electrons, the researchers hope the end result will [...]

European Commission to Impose Import Duties On Chinese Solar Panels

Posted by Mila Luleva in Green Policy, Solar Power on May 3, 2013

Import duties on solar panels from China are about to be proposed officially by the EU’s chief trade commissioner, Karel De Gucht, next week in Brussels. As we already reported last month, solar panel manufacturers were against such actions to be taken by the European Commission, as these might not only harm the industry but also [...]

Graphene and Monolayers For More Efficient Solar Cells

Posted by Benji Jerew in Experiments, Solar Power on May 3, 2013

With all the talk about nanomaterials making up more efficient solar cells, most of the focus has been on graphene and its unique properties. It’s easy to forget that other elements could possibly be manufactured similarly. It stands to reason that if you can make one element into a monolayer, then you should be able [...]

Window Socket Sticks to Windows and Solar-Powers Gadgets

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Green Electronics, Power Saving, Solar Power on May 2, 2013

Ever wanted to harness that free energy coming from the Sun and put it into your gadget? If this project succeeds, all you have to do it plug the cord into your window, and the thing will charge! Sounds weird, right? Not that weird, if you take into account that the Window Socket, designed by [...]

Sunseeker Duo: The Fastest Two-Seater Solar-Driven Airplane

Posted by Mike Sandru in Solar Power on May 1, 2013

This year’s AERO Global Show for General Aviation held in Friedrichshafen, Germany has witnessed the launching of the world’s fastest solar-driven two-seater aircraft – the Sunseeker Duo. The Solar Flight-designed plane is a refresh of 1990’s Sunseeker I which was aimed at cross-country flights. The Sunseeker Duo does not use conventional fuel by relies on [...]

California’s Solar Jobs More Plentiful Than Actors

Posted by Leigh Kim in Solar Power on April 29, 2013

Today, the Solar Foundation released an interactive map that details where in the United States solar jobs are located. No surprise, the leader was California. In addition to comparing solar jobs in different states (ex. 50 solar jobs in Wyoming vs. 43,000 in California), the map provides information about the number of companies operating, solar [...]

Solar Powered Device Turns Methane into Cleaner Syngas and Diesel Fuel

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Solar Power on April 25, 2013

A new solar-powered device developed at the Pacific Northwestern National Laboratory (PNNL) by researcher Robert Wegeng could reduce the CO2 emissions of natural gas by up to 20 percent. Basically, what the device does is it takes the heat obtained by concentrating sunlight through the usage of a parabolic dish (solar concentrator) and uses it to transform [...]

Atwater’s Light-Splitting Solar Cell Could Be 50% Efficient

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Solar Power on April 24, 2013

The ability to dissociate light into fundamental colors could make today’s solar panels 50 percent efficient. If you compare this figure to the 20 percent efficiency found in many solar cells on the market, that’s a game-changer. Harry Atwater, a professor of materials science and applied physics at Caltech thinks he has the solution. The [...]

IBM’s Photovoltaic Prototype Can Concentrate the Power of 2000 Suns

Posted by Leigh Kim in Solar Power, Stirling engine on April 22, 2013

IBM Researchers have built a low-cost prototype solar dish that produces electricity and generates heat for desalination or cooling. IBM got the idea for the solar dish from the water cooling technology used in its high-end computers. The Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation has provided $2.4 million worth of funding to IBM, Swiss researchers, [...]