Graphene Flakes With Attached Brushes Improving Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells
Until now, graphene could have theoretically been incorporated into the dye used to make the Graetzel cell to improve its efficiency, but what stopped the scientists to do that was that it always clumped together, forming graphite, which is of no use for a solar cell.
Nissan Plans to Recycle Old EV Batteries to Wind Power Industry
To greenify their car-supported existence, Nissan has taken the decision to recycle all the old batteries from electric cars by giving them to wind farm developers - of course, at a low price.
Future Solar Cells Made of Bismuth Ferrite Could Yield Higher Voltages
Scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found a way to use a ceramic material made from bismuth, iron and oxygen (bismuth ferrite) to fabricate solar cells in a fashion that nobody ever tried to do. They even have results yielding high voltages out of their material.
36.1 Percent: The Most Efficient Solar Panel Made by Delaware Researchers
Their system consisted of a lens, a dichroic mirror, and two two-cell stacks sponsored by the NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory), achieving probably "the highest efficiency yet measured for the experimental conversion of sunlight to electricity by any means."
60 Year-Old, World's First Semiconductor Solar Cell Found in UK Antique Store
The contraption has been found in the UK, somewhere in Surrey, by antiques dealer Fred Nickson (owning Chiltern Antiques in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire), who bought it from a distant relative of the builder, who is still unknown.
DIY: How to Make a Solar Cell at Home From Readily Available Stuff and…...
A very neat experiment that anyone with some skills can do in the garage or kitchen is creating a solar cell out of blackberry juice and titanium dioxide (and several other components).
Hopes for Solar-Powered Hydrogen by New Virus-Based Artificial Photosynthesis System
A team of researchers from the MIT, led by Professor Angela Belcher, used a modified virus as a biological scaffold for assembling the nanoscale components needed to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The bacterial virus is called "M13", and it's said to be harmless.
NSW Scientists Demonstrating Laser-Ignited Radiation Free Nuclear Fusion
An Australian team of scientists from the University of New South Wales seems to have discovered the recipe for making nuclear fusion possible without the high-temperature hassle and without the fear that it would produce harmful nuclear residues.
Wake Forest's Plastic Fiber Solar Cells Doubling Energy Output of Flat Ones
Solar cells get efficient as time goes, but there are methods to improve the performance of current ones, made with older technologies. Wake Forest Center for Nanotechnology has just received a patent for a new solar cell technology that can double the energy production of current silicon flat cells at highly reduced costs.
New SOLO-TREC Thermal Engine Powers Ship Indefinitely by Using Ocean Energy
The Office of Naval Research is funding a project called "SOLO-TREC" (Sounding Oceanographic Lagrangian Observer -- Thermal RECharging), that uses the temperature difference in layers of the ocean to generate electricity and propel a ship theoretically indefinitely.
