organic solar cells Archives – The Green Optimistic

Photovoltaic Cells Might Soon be Made Out of Bacteria, MIT Study

Mila Luleva — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 15:32:24 +0000

Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) produced biofilms from bacteria, which can conduct electricity and emit light. Inspired by bones, mixed matrices that can be observed in nature, the team combined living cells with materials such as nanoparticles and quantum dots to produce the living material that one day could lead to low cost manufacturing […]

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New Organic Solar Cells Restore Their Efficiency By Mimicking Plant Leaves

Mila Luleva — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 18:44:30 +0000

A team of researchers from North Carolina State University developed self-healing solar cells, which reinvigorate themselves as their performance decreases with time in a very effective, cheap and environmentally friendly manner. Each cell is based on organic systems and has a network of channels, which mimic the function of the organic vascular systems of plants. […]

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New 4G Solar Cells Combine Inorganic and Organic Materials to Boost Efficiency

Mila Luleva — Tue, 30 Jul 2013 14:40:34 +0000

A new range of combinations of organic and inorganic materials is found to set the grounds for a hybrid fourth generation more efficient and more cost-effective solar cells. The scientist behind the discovery, professor Ravi Silva of the University of Surrey, claims that the new technology could significantly improve the harvesting and conversion of solar […]

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Record Efficiency for Organic Solar Cells Obtained by Michael Gratzel

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 15:45:56 +0000

Michael Gratzel, the inventor of organic solar cells and a professor at EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne) in Switzerland is hitting headlines again with the latest achievement in the field of organic photovoltaics: an efficiency figure of 15 percent. His new solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) are two percent more efficient than the last […]

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Coloured, Transparent Solar Cells on Buildings Convert 12% of Incoming Sun Energy

Mila Luleva — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 22:35:20 +0000

Oxford Photovoltaics received £2m grant to develop colourful, transparent solar cells, which can be placed on building facades, making the whole building capable to produce clean power. The dyed glass is very close to being commercialized. According to Kevin Arthur, the company’s founder and CEO, there will not be a need to attach PV cells. […]

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Nanowire-Embedded Quantum Dots Break Solar Cell Efficiency Records

Mila Luleva — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 20:20:15 +0000

An international team of scientists from Sweden, Switzerland, Spain and the US established a process through which quantum dots can self-assemble at optimal locations in nanowires. This discovery might just be the key to improving not only solar cells, but also quantum computing and lighting devices. A press release by NREL from last week, stated […]

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New Class of Fullerene Mimics May Lower Organic Solar Cell Cost

Leigh Hutchens — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 12:12:59 +0000

A new understanding of fullerenes, a molecule composed entirely of carbon and shaped like a hollow sphere, ellipsoid, or tube, may lead to a new class of electronic acceptors that can be used to build less expensive organic solar cells. Invented nearly 20 years ago, organic solar cells have come a long way. However, in […]

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Scientists Studying How Organic Photovoltaics Could Charge Our Devices

Mila Luleva — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 19:11:01 +0000

Charging the Li-ion battery of your favorite electronic device, might just have become that much easier. According to scientists at University of Warwick, an organic photovoltaic solar cell (OPV) can do this even at a low level light and partial shading on its own, without being connected in series of multiple cells. The researchers Professor […]

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SolarWindow-Maryland Technologies' New Solar Window Saves More Than Classic PV Panels

Mike Sandru — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 17:46:26 +0000

Maryland-based New Energy Technologies has great plans for the future - they want to develop a new type energy generating window. Last week, the company has unveiled a working 12 x 12 inch prototype of its SolarWindow product.

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Revolutionary Method Of Creating Conductive Transparent Thin Films Discovered by Mistake

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 16:39:31 +0000

A novel method for developing conductive and transparent thin films, that could be used in applications ranging from solar cells to ultracapacitors, has been discovered by a team of UCLA researchers, by mistake.

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Organic Solar Cells Greener Than Silicon-Based Ones, Rochester Study Reveals

Ovidiu Sandru — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 09:22:49 +0000

A recent study, conducted by the Rochester Institute of Technology, reveals that the total energy needed to make organic solar cells is less than the one needed to make inorganic solar cells.

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Green Algae Modified to Act as Photovoltaic Cells Power a Clock

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 04:02:06 +0000

Algae and photosynthetic bacteria could also be exploited to generate electricity, besides jellyfish. University of Cambridge researchers let by Adrian Fisher and Paolo Bombelli study how they could use the two fore-mentioned to actually generate usable energy.

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Heliatek: World's First Company to Manufacture and Commercialize Organic Solar Cells

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 18:56:39 +0000

The first organic solar cell has come from Switzerland. It seems somehow normal that the first practical application and the first organic solar cell manufacturer to come from Germany - doesn't it?

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