Among Many Uses Gold Nanoparticles Could Help Dye Sensitized Solar Cells
Gold nanoparticles could be used to make better Graetzel solar cells, among others, as a Queensland University of Technology scientist claims to have discovered.
Paper-Printed Solar Cells Invented in MIT's New Solar Research Center
For the first time in history, scientists at the MIT have coated paper with a solar cell at the newly opened Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Research Center. The coating technique is similar to that of an inkjet printer - the big difference is that the coating is this time a semiconductor, not ink.
Purple Bacteria Natural Self-Arrangement Process Can Make Solar Cells Become More Efficient
The purple bacteria are very flexible when it comes to the intensity of light, arranging themselves in different patterns. "Our study develops a mathematical model to describe the designs it adopts and why, which could help direct design of future photoelectric devices," says Johnson, who collaborated on his study with colleagues from the Universidad de los Andes in Colombia.
Photoprotein Found in Marine Bacteria Could Improve Solar Cells
The open-access journal PLos Biology presented a novel finding by a team of researchers from the Univeristy of Linnaeus, in Sweden, and colleagues from Spain, explaining how oceanic bacteria harvests light energy from sunlight by using a unique photoprotein.
Efficient Concentrated Solar Cell Technology Given $129 Million Credit for Development
Amonix, a CA-based startup company, is developing ultra-efficient solar cells based on concentrated photovoltaic technology, combining cheap yet powerful lenses, a Sun-tracking system and efficient silicon solar cells, but in smaller quantities than if spread on a panel without lenses.
Efficiency Record for Silicon Ink Solar Cells Broken by Innovalight
Innovalight has a proprietary platform, named Cougar, which can adapt existing solar cell manufacturing processes that companies now own, to their cheaper silicon ink solar cells production line. There is only one step that needs to be added to current manufacturing lines, with -they say- huge profits.
Tapas Mallick Inventing Cheaper Solar Concentrators by Using Plexiglas
Tapas Mallick, at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, UK, is developing a grid of cheap light concentrators that can be mounted on walls, rooftops or between the panes of double-gazed windows.
Evalon Solar: Solar Panels That Don't Make Your Rooftop Look Ugly
Intemper Espanola, a Spanish company, in a partnership with an undisclosed German company, developed a virtually "invisible" flexible solar film in a EUREKA project.
Caltech Metamaterial Refracts Light Coming From Broad Range of Angles: Suitable for Solar Cells
Caltech researchers have just discovered a metamaterial with a particular three-dimensional structure that exhibits a negative index of refraction for the light entering it. It simply bends the light in another angle than it would normally be expected, no matter what angle the incident light had.
Plasmonic Thin Film Solar Cells Producing 30% More Electricity Than Non-Treated Ones
Kylie Catchpole (image), from the Australian National University in Canberra, working to make thin film solar cells more efficient, discovered that nanoparticles of silver deposited on the surface of a thin-film solar cell would not reflect the incident light back, but instead it would deflect the photons so they bounce back and forth withing the cell, allowing longer wavelengths to be absorbed.
