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Highly Efficient Flexible Silicon Solar Cells Invented
Scientists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Northwestern University invented a silicon solar cell. The interesting fact is that it’s flexible and it can be printed on a curved surface or a fabric. Although solar paint has been produced, there are a few situations where you’d rather use more solid solar cells (like porous surfaces, where paint cannot be applied well).
Vatican Started Installing Their New Solar Panels
The workers say that the newly installed solar panels will save about 200 tons of CO2 in just 2 weeks (the equivalent of 70 tons of oil). It’s just nice. In fact, the Vatican is the only place I don’t think these expensive things will get stolen. The project is estimated to about $1.5 million.
Solar Paint soon to be Marketed as The Cheapest Source of Energy
Some recent partnership between UK university researchers and Corus Colours, also a UK-based firm, brought to the surface a promise of future commercialization of cheap dye-based solar panels.
Solar Cube: Saving Lives With Solar and Wind Power
What can you buy for $38,000? Two second-hand Priuses? No. A smaller airplane? Neither. I’ll tell you what you can have for that money: a solar powered desalination device.
Satellite Solar Power Demonstrated Between Hawaii Islands
If you remember, not a long time ago we had an article talking about NASA’s plans to send a satellite to space which could capture pure Sun energy and resend it to Earth in the form of microwaves.
DIY: How to Build a Solar Furnace from a Satellite Dish
This is about how to build a solar furnace out of a satellite antenna dish and mirror broken in many pieces. As you may know, satellite dishes have a focal point (that is a point in which the electromagnetic energy focuses at its maximum power).
Gold Nanoantennas Could Harvest Solar Power at Night Time
While the most high performance classic solar cells only use up to 20% of the solar power falling onto them, researchers from DoE, the laboratory from Idaho, found out a way to capture much more energy from the Sun’s energy, from the invisible spectrum, even at night.
1MW Solar Powered Laser Made in Uzbekistan
Uzbek researchers want to make a 40-meter tower, tapped with 62 electronically controllable mirrors, arranged in a concave form that focus the Sun’s power onto a solar furnace. The mirrors almost have half the size of a football field, and the whole system is able to focus 1MW of energy into the furnace. Each mirror tracks the Sun’s movement and focuses on it, so to get maximum power out of the received light.
