Japanese Company Suggests Use of Organic Solar Cells in Low Power Gadgets
Photovoltaic solar cells are often used in centralized power harvesting installations, generating large amounts of energy for use in the grid. Rohm Co Ltd, on the other hand, proposes the usage of organic photovoltaic solar cells (dye-sensitized cells) in small appliances and healthcare devices.
Bumpy Nanoparticle Treatment of Solar Cells Making Them More Efficient
Yi Cui, a researcher from Stanford University, about whom we've been talking about many times lately, has discovered how nanoscale wires, pores, bumps and other material textures can improve the performance of solar cells dramatically. They could even serve as self-cleaning coatings, because of their highly hydrophobic properties.
World's First Commercial Solar-Powered EV Charging Station Unveiled by SunPods
California-based company SunPods Inc. has recently unveiled at the Cleantech Open event in San Jose this Thursday, world's first factory-built, solar-powered electric-vehicle charging station. Dubbed â€Ã…“SP-300 Plug-N-Go,†this solar-powered EV charging station is able to charge two cars at the same time. The energy surplus can also be sold back to utility companies.
Archimede: World's First Concentrated Solar Power Plant That Uses Molten Salts as Energy Storage
First of all, Italy is one of the leading innovators in solar power. On July 15, their electricity company Enel has unveiled Archimede, their most innovative power plant using concentrated solar power (CSP) technology, where parabolic mirrors focus the Sun's light onto capturing surfaces which take the heat to the storage location. For the first time in the world, molten salts have been used as storage for the heat they captured from the Sun.
World's First See-Through Glass SolarWindow Capable to Generate Electricity
Measuring less than ¼ the size of a grain of rice, the see-through glass could be coated with SolarWindow's coatings at room temperatures using commercially available technologies.
Specially Shaped Nanopillars Make Solar Cells Absorb 99% of Light and Use 99% Less...
To increase the light absorption of solar cells, researchers from the University of California, Berkeley have perfected a nanostructure that could make up cheaper and more efficient solar cells and light detectors. Their structures absorb 99 percent of visible light and use 1 percent of the silicon semiconductor needed for flat crystalline silicon solar cells.
Shanghai Railway Station Benefits 6.8 MW Solar Power Plant Since Sunday
Germany and Spain may be the leaders in solar photovoltaics, but China comes from behind and amazes everyone with an enormous power station just above the Beijing-Shanghai railway station. The plant is able to produce 6.3 MWh (megawatt-hours) of electricity and can provide the needs of 12,000 households in Shanghai.
Zephyr Solar Powered Airplane: Aloft For Two Weeks, Landing on Friday
Prototypes are always good if they can prove the weakest link between theory and practice. Then, the heavy industry can have the cake and make it ten times bigger, but the start and beauty of things is in the trial-and-error phase. Such is the case of Zephyr, a solar powered aircraft that took off more than seven days ago and is still aloft.
New Manufacturing Technology Promises to Improve CIGS Solar Cells' Efficiency
When it comes to power, everybody thinks about money and how we should make power-generating devices like solar cells become more efficient (read: more stuff for the same money and size). Thin film solar cells are yet another competitor to classic ones, and attract customers through the fact that they're thin, flexible and cheap. And they're also pretty inefficient (20% at most).
Plasmonic Motor Powered Mechanically and Directly by Light, Developed by UC Berkeley
Researchers from the University of California Berkeley, led by Xiang Zhang, a principal investigator with the university's Materials Sciences Division and director of UC Berkeley's Nano-scale Science and Engineering Center (SINAM), demonstrated for the first time practically how light can actually move material nanometric particles of gold by using surface plasmons.
