solar cell Archives – The Green Optimistic

New Bacterial Solar Cell Works Even in Overcast Sky

Arsenij Percov — Thu, 12 Jul 2018 19:27:36 +0000

A lot of places are not able to use solar panels efficiently due to weather conditions. More precisely, places where overcast skies are common. For example, British Columbia and parts of northern Europe. However, University of British Columbia researchers have found an effective and a cheap solution to this problem. They built a solar cell […]

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MIT’s Open Source Tool Predicts Solar Cell Performance per Location

Janina Lazo-Cruz — Sun, 17 Dec 2017 22:26:26 +0000

“If you have a new solar cell technology, you can see where your technology might be able to outcompete commercial silicon solar cells,” explains Tonio Buonassisi, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Massachusetts’s Institute of Technology (MIT), pertaining to the significance of their newly developed open-source tool published in the journal Joule last December 13. […]

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Double-glazed Solar Panels: New Approach to Solar Energy Efficiency

Janina Lazo-Cruz — Mon, 11 Dec 2017 18:46:50 +0000

Upon acknowledging that at present, the improvement of solar cell’s efficiency has already reached its maximum with only gradient increases if any, the two physicists from the University of Warwick, Coventry took the works of Einstein and Tesla as inspiration and came up with a new design of solar panels – double-glazing. The proposed solar […]

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Cheaper and Safer Solvents for Increasing Solar Cell Efficiency

Janina Lazo-Cruz — Thu, 07 Dec 2017 19:19:54 +0000

The amount of solar energy that a solar cell can convert into electrical energy is presently limited by its bandgap, such that only the photons with higher energies can be converted, leaving photons with lower energies useless. This limit is also called the Shockley-Queisser limit and in order to address such hindrance in achieving optimum […]

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Semi-transparent, Flexible Solar Cells Give 0.7% More Efficiency

Janina Lazo-Cruz — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 05:13:44 +0000

Solar cells that offer a range of transparency while possessing high mechanical flexibility are considered as the next-generation smart solar cells, gathering much attention at present. Their special features find their application in cellular phones, human skin, personal computers, and windows. However, the technology is needing a lot of improvements in terms of its scalability […]

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Stretchable Solar Cells That Can be Washed and Worn

Janina Lazo-Cruz — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 14:53:21 +0000

Recent studies are developing small energy-harvesting devices that can make them applicable in wearable medical devices and sensors. Previous attempts have been made to construct solar cells that could be incorporated into textiles, but these were challenged by long-term stability in air and water, energy efficiency, and resistance to deformation. A new design of solar […]

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Insolight Boldly Claim Record Solar Cell Efficiency

Courtney Lepping — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 18:37:14 +0000

Insolight, which became an official solar company in 2015, recently made the claim that its new solar panel designed for residential installations is ‘twice as efficient’ than the norm. How? It claims to have a solar energy conversion rate of 36.4 percent. 34.6 percent is pretty much double the conversion rates of popular solar cells. […]

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New Solar Cell Behaves Like Actual Plant

Courtney Lepping — Thu, 04 Aug 2016 19:49:19 +0000

There’s an efficient new solar cell that can basically perform the job of any plant: convert carbon dioxide into fuel. Instead of a photovoltaic solar cell, the photosynthetic solar cell aims to utilize the excess carbon in the atmosphere and make fuel from that. The characteristics and appearance of such solar cell is much like […]

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MIT Breaks Theoretical Efficiency Limit of Solar Cells

Courtney Lepping — Thu, 02 Jun 2016 07:14:07 +0000

An MIT demonstration revealed the ability to top the theoretical upper limit of solar cell efficiency which is currently 32 percent. It was a silicon solar cell that showed that the Shockley-Quiesser Limit could be bypassed, suggesting a silicon alternative to perovskites and other solar cell types. An efficiency of 32 percent is considered high, […]

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New Stanford Solar Cell Uses Coldness of the Universe

Courtney Lepping — Fri, 13 May 2016 04:46:41 +0000

Current research by Stanford University scientists is showing promising implications for the efficiency of solar cells. These solar cells rely on heat loss from radiative cooling and electricity from sunlight. Solar cells utilize photons, light particles, to generate electricity. In the process, solar cells also generate heat which reduces efficiency. The current research allows the […]

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Tandem Silicon and Perovskites Solar Cell boost Energy Absorption

Guest Contributor — Sat, 16 Jan 2016 21:29:05 +0000

It has been a challenge for decades until the time being, to avid solar cell innovators and scientists, how to tweak the design and what material to use, just to completely absorbed the wide solar spectrum of about 300 to 2500 nanometer. Commercial Silicon (Si) based Photovoltaic (PV) cell’s performance, ranges 17 to 20 percent […]

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Solar Energy Production Made Easier with New Chip

Annika Tostengard — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 11:03:25 +0000

A step forward for solar energy production was announced today when researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced that they have developed a new converter chip that can collect even tiny amounts of solar energy with 80% efficiency. This new green technology will be useful in environments where solar is not always practical […]

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New Coating for Solar Cells Prevents Them from Overheating

Mila Luleva — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 08:43:37 +0000

While solar panels generate clean electricity, many of the maintenance practices are often not so clean, especially when it comes to cooling. A team from Stanford, however, claims to have found the recipe for making a new coating that allows panels to cool themselves without wasting any water or energy, while boosting their power generation. […]

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Semprius’ Four-junction, Four-terminal Solar Cell Achieves Record High Efficiency

Mila Luleva — Sat, 03 May 2014 11:18:19 +0000

In an attempt to develop high efficiency solar cells that can surpass polluting energy generating facilities in terms of amounts of electricity output, a team of engineers from Semprius Inc. and Solar Junction, together with scientists from University of Illinois, came up with a four-junction, four-terminal stacked solar cell, which has a 43.9 percent efficiency with a potential […]

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New Theoretical Model Could Boost Solar Cell Efficiency

Danny Harper — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 18:53:20 +0000

In order for solar to become a financially viable alternative to fossil fuels, the efficiency must increase greatly. This mean breaking through the theoretical limit of 10% efficiency (the Shockley-Quiesser limit) and creating solar cells that offer cost-effective clean energy. Scientists up to this point have struggled with truly understanding the materials that make up […]

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‘Perovskite’ Material Promises New Highly Efficient and Cheap Solar Cells

Mila Luleva — Tue, 12 Nov 2013 18:09:24 +0000

Researchers from University of Pennsylvania discovered a new material that can double the efficiency of solar cells, and significantly reduce the cost of new solar panels. Perovskite materials have a unique crystalline structure and is made of chemical elements and molecules not seen in nature before. The properties of the material provide the world of […]

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Thinnest Light Absorber Ever Created by Stanford Scientists

Leigh Hutchens — Sat, 20 Jul 2013 04:34:44 +0000

Scientists at Stanford University have succeeded in building light-absorbers that are thousands of times thinner than a sheet of paper. The nanosize structures are capable of absorbing close to 100 % of visible light emanating from specific wavelengths. Researchers believe the material could be used to make cheaper, more efficient solar cells. An ideal solar […]

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Graphene and Monolayers For More Efficient Solar Cells

Benji Jerew — Fri, 03 May 2013 15:45:11 +0000

With all the talk about nanomaterials making up more efficient solar cells, most of the focus has been on graphene and its unique properties. It’s easy to forget that other elements could possibly be manufactured similarly. It stands to reason that if you can make one element into a monolayer, then you should be able […]

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Atwater’s Light-Splitting Solar Cell Could Be 50% Efficient

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:35:28 +0000

The ability to dissociate light into fundamental colors could make today’s solar panels 50 percent efficient. If you compare this figure to the 20 percent efficiency found in many solar cells on the market, that’s a game-changer. Harry Atwater, a professor of materials science and applied physics at Caltech thinks he has the solution. The […]

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Solar Modules Have Great Efficiency Potential, NREL Director Says

Mila Luleva — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 19:30:51 +0000

All solar modules and solar cells have the potential to get a boost in efficiency, especially thin-film solar and concentrated photovoltaics. This is according to Dan Arvizu, the director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), who presented his observations during the 2013 International Renewable Energy Conference in Abu Dhabi. Although thin-film solar panels have […]

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Recyclable Organic Solar Cell Hits New Efficiency Record at 2.7%

Benji Jerew — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 19:19:20 +0000

Photovoltaic organic solar cells have the potential to be truly green, but often their manufacturing processes are not so green. Petroleum- and silicon-based solar cells can be bad for the environment and nearly impossible to recycle. One possible solution to creating a truly green solar cell could be to use natural materials. On the other […]

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Solar Power Conversion Efficiency Limits Broken, Nanowires Win

Benji Jerew — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 19:19:57 +0000

With the development of nanotechnology, researchers using nanowires in solar cells are finding that solar cell efficiency limits may be higher than they previously thought possible. Current commercial silicon-based solar cell efficiency is less than 15%, which means that more than 85% of the sun’s energy is lost to heat and reflection. Modern theory places […]

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BioSolar’s Solar Panel Backsheet Made With Bio-Oil, Not Petroleum

Benji Jerew — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 18:05:39 +0000

Typically, manufacturers apply a protective backsheet made of plastic, but BioSolar’s solar panel bio-oil backsheet has no petroleum component. The semiconductor photovoltaic solar panel needs some measure of protection as well as electrical insulation. For this reason, petroleum-based plastic works well as a backsheet for pretty much all solar panels that are manufactured today. Up […]

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Atomic Layer Deposition Increases Efficiency of Nighttime Solar Cells

Mila Luleva — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 19:33:26 +0000

A promising new process, known as Atomic Layer Deposition, could potentially improve existing solar energy systems. The new technique has been invented by Brian Willis, an associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Connecticut and the former director of UConn’s Chemical Engineering Program. He explored the so called rectennas, or nano-antennas, […]

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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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Low-Temp Meltable Alloy Increases Solar Cell Efficiency

Mila Luleva — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 20:03:31 +0000

The field of solar power and photovoltaic cells has developed enormously over the past decade, providing opportunities for even greater innovations. One of these is presented in the latest issue of Advanced Materials, a team from the Jawaharlal Nehru Center for Advanced Scientific Research in Bangalore. The researchers proposed using low temperature meltable alloys to […]

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New Dye for Organic Solar Cell Hits Record 11.9% Efficiency

Benji Jerew — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 21:13:44 +0000

Solar cells may be the cleanest energy source available, but they have one thing working against them, which is efficiency. Sure, there are some who have expanses of horizontal and vertical real-estate on which to put hundreds of square feet of solar cells, but they could be better. If a 10%-efficiency solar array on the […]

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Exotic Form of Silicon Improves Solar Cell Efficiency

Leigh Hutchens — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 08:33:29 +0000

Researchers have discovered that an exotic form of silicon may improve solar cell efficiency. This predicted improvement using a structure of silicon called silicon BC8 was detailed in the January edition of the journal Physical Review Letters, and is based upon computer simulations by researchers at the University of California Davis and in Hungary. Scientists rejected […]

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New Efficient Solar Cell Design Inspired by Evolution

Mila Luleva — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 22:03:47 +0000

Researchers at Northwestern University published a paper entitled “Highly Efficient Light-Trapping Structure Design Inspired by Natural Evolution,” in the journal Nature earlier this month, showing that single-crystal silicon solar cells do not have to be as expensive as they currently are. The solution is hidden in the new geometric pattern of the scattering layer, which […]

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New Multi-junction Solar Cell Breaks Efficiency Records

Mila Luleva — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 15:39:33 +0000

The 50 percent conversion efficiency barrier in multi-junction photovoltaic development has the potential to be broken with the novel triple-junction solar cell proposed by researchers at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory-the Electronics Technology and Science Division, in collaboration with the Imperial College London and MicroLink Devices, Inc., Niles, Ill.. According to Robert Walters, Ph.D., NRL […]

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Solar Frontier Establishes New Record in Thin Film Efficiency: 19.7%

Benji Jerew — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 06:47:15 +0000

We’ve been covering a lot of advancements in the area of photovoltaic [PV] solar power, from how long solar panels last, decades that is, to breaking the efficiency barrier, which has stood at 18.6% for the last ten years. Some prototype panels have boasted higher efficiency values, up to 44% in the case of a […]

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Layered Quantum Dots Lead to More Efficient Solar Cells

Leigh Hutchens — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 08:10:48 +0000

Two researchers at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, Pralay K. Santra and Professor Prashant V. Kamat, have discovered that a solar cell that is comprised of up to three layers of quantum dots. Each layer they discovered is tuned to a different part of the solar spectrum and has an efficiency that is […]

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Learning From Deep-Sea Bacteria to Increase Solar Panel Efficiency

Benji Jerew — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 20:00:53 +0000

Photovoltaic [PV] solar panels are a really green way to generate electricity. They are simple, have zero emissions, and last for decades. They also take up space, and the more electricity required, the more space they use, and not everyone has a whole lot of space they’d like to give up for solar panel installations. […]

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New Thin-Film Solar Cell May Provide Electricity at Grid Parity

Leigh Hutchens — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 07:21:36 +0000

No stranger to developing sustainable organic photovoltaic (OPV) technologies, Global Photonic Energy Corp. (GPEC), has created a thin-film solar cell that has the ability to provide electricity at grid parity or the cost of traditionally provided electricity. This breakthrough is the direct result of drastically reduced production costs and is based on a method that […]

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First Silicon-based Optical Fiber With Solar Cell Properties

Mila Luleva — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 19:53:22 +0000

A scalable silicon-based optical fiber with capabilities of a solar-cell was developed by scientists at Penn State University. This innovation can serve as a stepping stone for creating flexible, twisted or curved solar fabrics. In the next issue of the journal of Advanced Materials, the team led by John Badding, a professor of chemistry, will […]

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Solar Cells Efficiency Boosted by Flexible Plastic Nanostructures

Mila Luleva — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 19:12:27 +0000

Cheap and flexible tiny plastic devices hold the key to three times better efficiency of organic solar cells, according to scientists at Princeton. The team led by Stephen Chou, an electrical engineer used metal and plastic sandwich-like nanostructure that collects light. The increase in efficiency was estimated to be 175%. Chou is certain that this […]

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Triple-Junction Compound Solar Cell Gives Record Conversion Efficiency

Mila Luleva — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 19:25:24 +0000

A triple-junction compound solar cell, with three stacked photo-absorption layers, has the highest conversion efficiency. This incredible achievement came from a research and development initiative at Sharp Corporation. It is promoted by Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) on the theme of “R&D on Innovative Solar Cells. The new world record of […]

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Revolutionary Solar Cell Absorbs More Sunlight, More Efficiently

Janina Lazo-Cruz — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 13:10:30 +0000

Based on a computer model developed by MIT engineers, it is possible to capture a broad spectrum of sunlight using a very thin film (about 6 Angstroms) of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) that is poked with a microscopic needle at the center, creating a field of varying (non-uniform) elastic strain, and thus, varying band gap across […]

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Side-Illuminated Solar Cell Boosts Energy Efficiency

Mila Luleva — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 20:04:00 +0000

Researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) have created new concentrator solar cells that have a solar conversion efficiency of more than 40% and intensities of 10,000 suns. This is almost as much as the most ultra-efficient photovoltaics available on the market today. Prof. Jeffrey Gordon, a member of the Department of Solar Energy […]

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Malachite’s Solar Cell 38% Efficient, at Least in Theory

Janina Lazo-Cruz — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 15:55:12 +0000

Malachite Technologies, a solar cell startup company based in San Francisco, California, aims to improve solar cell’s efficiency by coating gallium arsenide on silicon. Gallium arsenide, a III-V semiconductor that has six times higher electron mobility than silicon, allows a faster operation and lower thermal noise. Based on Malachite’s calculations, the silicon/gallium-arsenide tandem solar cell […]

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World’s “Blackest” Solar Cell Absorbs 99.7% Sunlight

Janina Lazo-Cruz — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 05:11:45 +0000

Years after attempting to decrease the reflectivity of solar cells even further, Natcore has finally came up with its ‘blackest’ solar cell to date, reflecting only 0.3% of incident of sunlight, without the use of an antireflective coating, but rather, using a cheaper wet chemistry route. This new accomplishment is so good and economical that […]

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Tiny German Photovoltaic Cells Break Efficiency Record

Mila Luleva — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 19:52:28 +0000

A tiny photovoltaic cell brought the 2012 German Environmental Award, the largest award for environmental work given in Europe, to Andreas Bett. Together with his co-workers- Hansjörg Lerchenmüller and Günther Cramer, Bett has spent the last 25 years developing these multi-junction solar cells of the future. What makes these cells special, is their ability to […]

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New Anti-Reflection Coating Increases Solar Cells’ Efficiency

Mila Luleva — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 19:59:55 +0000

One of the disadvantages of solar energy generation is that great amount of light is reflected away by the solar cells, which reduces their efficiency. A new anti-reflection coating, however, might be the link that has been missing. Professor E. Fred Schubert, of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering, and his […]

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Nano-Engineered Super Thin and Flexible Solar Cells

Mila Luleva — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 19:12:24 +0000

Solar powered technologies might increase in number if nanotechnological developments from University of Texas, prove effective. This will become possible if the Team of scientists consisting of Dr. Anton Malko, Dr. Yuri Gartstein, and Dr. Yves Chabal, succeed in their project to develop solar cells using ultra-thin materials. Their aim is to produce cells that […]

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New Flower-Like Germanium Sulfide Structures Could Improve Batteries, Solar Cells

Mila Luleva — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 15:53:05 +0000

New flower-like structures, made from germanium sulfide (GeS), have the potential to be the next-best-thing in the field of energy storage and solar cells. The “nanoflowers” have only 20-30 nanometers thick petals, with a large surface area in a small amount of space. Assistant professor Dr. Linyou Cao, from North Carolina State University- one of […]

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The Fate of Thin-Film Solar Panels

Mila Luleva — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 13:49:28 +0000

Last week, the Chinese energy company Hanergy announced their purchase of Miasole, a thin-film solar company, based in the Silicon Valley. Although experts in the field are a bit skeptical about the faith of this technology considering the popularity of the conventional silicon panels, today’s market conditions indicate otherwise. Looking at the trends of the past couple […]

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Spinning Conical Solar Cells Increase Output Twenty-Fold

Janina Lazo-Cruz — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 12:03:55 +0000

V3Solar has launched an innovative design to the conventional flat solar cells resulting to a twenty-fold increase in its output, owing to its concentrator lenses, conical shape, and revolving assembly. The conical shape with 56o angle of the one-meter high, one-meter-wide V3Solar Spin Cells indulges maximization of harvesting light, omitting the need for an active […]

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Solar-Powered Clothing Researched at Colorado State University

Guest Contributor — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:08:56 +0000

A very recent study at Colorado State University could bring a complete revolution to the traditional way solar panel charging systems are handled and utilized. Researchers and students affiliated to the university have shown that there is a possibility that natural clothing material could be incorporated with solar-powered chargers and be used to tap solar […]

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Solar3D Claims New Solar Cells 200% More Efficient Than Standard Ones

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 10:57:45 +0000

Solar3D, a company saying it will revolutionize solar power, has just published a thorough simulation analysis of its new 3D solar cells. They’re saying their solar cell technology is 200% more efficient in harvesting the energy of sunlight than conventional counterparts. The company’s 3D solar cells are better from the fact that they can harvest […]

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New Bismuth Selenide Material Enhances Solar Cells’ Heat-Capturing Ability

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:13:00 +0000

An “exotic” material belonging to a class of materials called “topological insulators” could help solar cells and optical communication devices evolve. A team of scientists from Stanford and SLAC have noticed that ultra-thin sheets of that material remain transparent and highly conductive even in the harshest conditions. To be more precise, the researchers flexed, folded […]

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UK Scientists One Step Closer to Artificial Leaves With New Discovery

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 01:07:19 +0000

As the world stands on grim perspectives, such as the doubling of energy consumption within the next 40 years and the imminent shortage of oil and gas, the attention shifts towards nature’s resorts. And photosynthesis, far-fetched as it may seem, is no exception. The principle of it is relatively simple: plants produce carbohydrates through what […]

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Usable Quantum Dot Solar Cells Finally Produced at NREL

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 14:33:22 +0000

A new type of solar cell developed by a team of researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, is able to harvest the energy that photovoltaic cells usually lose as heat. Although the efficiency is for now only 5 percent, the process could be improved in the future. The researchers led by […]

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New Organic Solar Cell Efficiency Record Obtained by Heliatek

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 20:22:18 +0000

A new efficiency record for organic photovoltaic cells has been reached by Heliatek, for the third time in a row. The German company created a cheap solar cell that can convert up to 9.8 percent of the incoming light into electricity. Heliatek’s new solar cell is made from oligomers, and differs from polymer and dye-sensitized […]

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Silver/Silicon Oxide Nanoscale Shape Absorbing More Sunlight

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:35:39 +0000

Researchers from Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science have developed a material that could one time revolutionize the solar cell industry, by absorbing a wider range of wavelengths than currently used materials are able to. “The solar spectrum is not like a laser Ã¢â‚¬â€œ it’s very broadband, starting with UV and going […]

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Transparent Solar Cells Made Cheap, Efficient and Flexible With Carbon Nanotubes

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 16:54:37 +0000

A new discovery coming the Northwestern University could make solar cells embeddable in clothes and various fabrics. It involves changing tin, an important element of solar cells, with carbon nanotubes, considered more flexible and efficient. For a solar cell to be transparent and still function, it has to have several layers, of which a transparent […]

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Japanese Green Ferrite Solar Cell 100 Times More Powerful Than Any Silicon-Based

Mike Sandru — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:46:32 +0000

A team of professors and students from the Okayama Graduate School of Science and Technology led by Professor Naoshi Ikeda has built a unique solar cell that uses an iron oxide substrate instead of silicon, making the cell not only cheaper, but, as the professor claims, 100 times more powerful than anything based on silicon. […]

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Australian Solar Power Reaches Grid Parity in Some Places, While Production Moves to China

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 18:30:26 +0000

Others may not brag with it, but some parts of the New South Wales (NSW) in Australia can say they’ve achieved grid parity and even more – meaning that solar power got cheaper then coal-fired power – a proof subsidy plans can work to achieve the ultimate goal: giving up on fossil fuels. Andrew Blakers, […]

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MIT Researchers Invent Solar Cells That Transform Heat Into Electricity

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 16:35:58 +0000

If you thought photovoltaics can only get energy from the Sun, then you were wrong. An MIT team of researchers have invented a device that produces electricity from heat. The process uses the photovoltaic effect as the middleman and is three times more efficient than the most efficient lithium ion batteries on market today.

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Light Harvesting Nanoantennas Made With Plant DNA and Artificial Molecules

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 05:55:51 +0000

A University of Toronto research team has reported the first time construction of what they call "artificial molecules." These molecules have been inspired by photosynthesis and use nanotechnology to harvest sunlight.

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New Colloidal Quantum Dots Solar Cells Gather Visible and Infrared Light

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 18:44:33 +0000

A solar cell developed at the Unversity of Toronto, Canada, is able to harvest both visible and infrared light and can theoretically achieve efficiencies of up to 42 percent. Their tandem solar cell is based on colloidal quantum dots (CQD), and the team has been led by Professor Ted Sargent, a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

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Solar Powered Nokia C1-02 Cellphone Tested Around The World

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 10:32:42 +0000

Nokia is seemingly testing a solar powered phone these days in different conditions from different parts of the globe. They put four of their C1-02 devices, each having an attached solar panel and sent them to Kenya, the Arctic Circle, Sweden and to a boat on the Baltic Sea.

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SunPower's Solar Panels Enter The Guinness Book

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 19:09:23 +0000

I didn't know the Guiness Book awards solar cell efficiencies lately. This story I read on Cleantechnica tells how SunPower, "the most popular solar panels company in California," got into the Guinness Book for providing people with "the most efficient commercially available photovoltaic modules on the market."

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Solar Thermoelectric Device Harnesses Sun's Heat, Transforms Directly Into Electricity

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 03 May 2011 17:25:13 +0000

A new material that could one day change the efficiency of thermal solar panels has been invented by MIT and Boston College researchers, with collaborators from GMZ Energy. The thermoelectric device is at least eight times more efficient than what's currently available in labs.

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3D Nanocone Solar Cells Improve Efficiency by 80% in Lab Experiments

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 02 May 2011 14:31:01 +0000

Jun Xu and his team from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory have just created a three-dimensional "nanocone-based solar cell platform," which is able to increase the light conversion efficiency by almost 80 percent by eliminating the issue of poor charge transport due to bulk material defects.

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Solar Junction Sets New Efficiency Record for Concentrated Photovoltaics: 43.5%

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 07:24:26 +0000

A new record for concentrated photovoltaics efficiency has been broken by Solar Junction, the same company that announced a 41.4% efficiency in February. The new score is 43.5% and their multi-junction solar cells can be produced right away.

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New Solar Cell 'Scribing' Technology Uses Ultra-Fast Laser, Could Yield Efficiency Gains

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 05:22:26 +0000

A new technology that could bring an increase in solar cell efficiency has been presented by Purdue researchers. They use an ultra-fast pulsing laser which creates "microchannels" needed to connect the solar cells in series, for building a usable system.

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Stanford Researchers Get Threefold Efficiency Gains by Binding Organic Layer to Solar Cells

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 16:31:57 +0000

While studying quantum dot solar cells, chemical engineering Professor Stacey Bent and associate Professor Michael McGehee of the department of Materials Science and Engineering coated a titanium dioxide semiconductor in their quantum dot solar cell with a very thin single layer of self-assembling organic molecules.

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Self-Repairing Organic Solar Cells Use DNA Strands to Work

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 14:01:37 +0000

A grand breakthrough in solar cell technology is attempted at the Birck Nanotechnology and Bindley Bioscience centers at Purdue's Discovery Park. It involves the creating of a brand new carbon nanotube enhanced and DNA manipulated solar cell, capable of self-repair.

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New Chip-Embedded CIGS Solar Cells Could Account for Pollution Reduction

Ovidiu Sandru — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 14:29:16 +0000

Rather than using the classic approach of a solar cell and a battery, researchers from the University of Twente, the MESA Institute for Nanotechnology have developed an interesting microchip that embeds a high-efficiency solar cell.

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Advances In The Field of Infrared-Harvesting Solar Cells: Prototype Heralded Next Year

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 14:29:14 +0000

A team of researchers about whom we've been talking about more then two years ago, from the Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls, has made advances in the study of a special kind of solar cells that can harvest the solar power even at night, in the absence of visible light.

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Singlet Fission Having The Possibility to Increase Solar Cell Efficiency by 35 Percent

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 17:17:09 +0000

A molecular system that could be used to enhance the efficiency of solar cells by 35 percent has been recently discovered by NREL and University of Colorado, Boulder (UCB) researchers.

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Both Light And Heat Harvested by New Device from Fujitsu

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 15:37:27 +0000

Solar panels harvest light and thermoelectric devices harvest the heat - but recently, Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd have developed a blend of both: a power-generating device that can convert both light and temperature difference into an electric current.

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Konarka's Thin Plastic Organic Solar Cell Breaks New Efficiency Record For Its Class

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 09:40:16 +0000

Konarka, one of the early adopters of thin plastic solar cells has recently unveiled news about their latest prototype achieving a light conversion efficiency of 8.3 percent.

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Wasps Convert Sunlight Into Electricity, Offering Inspiration For Organic Solar Cells

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 21:12:35 +0000

An interesting observation on the way wasps live and how their body works led some UK and Israeli scientists to the conclusion that they may be harnessing solar power just like a photovoltaic solar cell.

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New Polymer Solar Cell Coating Technology Yields 20% Increase In Efficiency

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 17:21:11 +0000

A new solar cell manufacturing technology that uses a thin and uniform light-absorbing layer has been developed by Iowa State University and Ames Laboratory researchers. The thin layer is to be deposited on textured substrates and has been proved to increase the efficiency of polymer solar cells.

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New Fullerene-Based Transparent Honeycomb Polymers Could Act As Power Generating Windows

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 12:14:47 +0000

Nowadays, many researchers search methods of making transparent solar cells that can act both as windows and as solar harvesters. Some of them can even be manufactured relatively cheaply using a technology that can spread them onto large areas.

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New Quantum Dot-Enabled Solar Cells Doubling Output Current With Same Lighting Conditions

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 14:05:28 +0000

Cost-efficient and energy-efficient solar cells could be right around the corner. These so-called "third-generation" photovoltaics begin to emerge nowadays and dismiss a theory stated in 1961 by William Shockley and Hans Queisser, who showed that there is a theoretical 31 percent limitation in what regards the maximum efficiency for a single solar cell.

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Rohm's 30% Efficient Indoor Organic Solar Cells Exhibited at Ceatec Japan 2010

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 15:41:34 +0000

Ceatec Japan 2010 hosted Rohm's new dye-sensitized solar cells that we were talking about a few months ago. Now, the Japanese company applied their plans to TV remotes, mice and sensors.

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Electrowetting Solar Cells Use Liquids to Focus Light Onto Them, Eliminating Expensive Mechanics

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 08:54:12 +0000

Solar panels, throughout their entire existence, have had the same issue over and over again: once the Sun's light began to hit them with an angle, they became inefficient, so fixed solar panels were only great at noon. Soon after people realized that, they began constructing all sorts of contraptions that would modify the panels' position so to face the Sun directly.

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New Leaf-Mimicking Solar Cells Using Chlorophyll-Infused Water Gel

Ovidiu Sandru — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 12:13:52 +0000

Solar cells currently used are mostly bulky and made from silicon and other non-recyclable materials, hence they're not as green as they should be. Mimicking nature might be a solution to this problem. More exactly, North Carolina State University researchers have prototyped a water-based solar cell, mimicking the functioning of a leaf, to produce electricity.

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Catalothermionic Generator: A New Blend of Solar and Fuel Cell Nanotechnology Produces Electricity

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 11:59:48 +0000

...it's like hydrogen and the Sun are related in a way... the star's energy comes from burnt hydrogen, on one hand, and on the other, here on Earth, solar cells are the best means of generating hydrogen out of water and have it used as an energy source. There's an interesting symmetry between the two.

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A New Step Taken Towards Spray-On Solar Cells and Self-Powered e-readers

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 15:08:11 +0000

University of Florida researchers have invented spray-on polymers that can reflect or transmit any color, and can be applied to glass or plastics as well. "That's what this newest paper is about, but we've also developed polymer coatings for all the other colors of the spectrum," said John Reynolds, a scientist at the University of Florida who led a team that developed the clear-to-black polymers.

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Rice University Researchers Use Surface Plasmons to Harvest Light From Lasers: Solar Panels May Benefit

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 17:12:04 +0000

Doug Natelson and graduate student Dan Ward, from Rice University, have discovered how to make a light-harvesting antenna from two gold tips separated by a gap only a few nanometers wide. As light source they used a laser, whose rays, once trapped in the gold tips, get concentrated into a tiny space, increasing the light intensity in the gap by a thousand times.

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New Stretchable Conductive Material Could Find Uses In Organic/Thin Film Solar Cells

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 09:36:31 +0000

Stretchable solar cells and other flexible electronic devices can celebrate the making of a material developed by three institutions from Germany and Japan called the "silver particle-containing polyurethane base electric wiring."

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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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Jellyfish Protein Serves as Organic Solar Cell; Could Be Used in Health Implants

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 03:45:56 +0000

Recently, Zackary Chiragwandi at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, and his colleagues have developed a solar cell based on a green fluorescent protein (GFP) from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria.

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Sharp Breaks New Record With Its Concentrated Photovoltaic Cells

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:24:22 +0000

Sharp has worked closely with the University of Tokyo, and aims breaking the record again with 45% by 2015 and even to reach 50% by 2025. The company says that at 45% the cost of solar will finally reach that of nuclear and thermal power plants.

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Zinc Oxide Solar Cells Receiving 8 Percent Boost With Food Dyes

Ovidiu Sandru — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 16:53:57 +0000

Zinc oxide-based solar cells have just received an innovation from an Indian scientist, Ram Mehra of Sharda University in Greater Noida, India. He claims boosting the capacity of zinc oxide fuel cells and making them capture more of the incident light by using a blended mixture of common dyes, regularly used in food and medical industries.

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Self-Repairing, Leaf-Mimicking Solar Cells Invented by MIT Scientists

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:33:49 +0000

A new and effective way of harnessing solar power comes from the researchers at MIT. Once again trying to mimic the way green plants work, the scientists now have a different approach, pointing to the fact that, otherwise invisible, the effects of sunlight over solar cells are often damaging.

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Flexible Rooftop-Mountable Solar Panel Unveiled by Global Solar

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 07:40:14 +0000

Global Solar, a solar cells manufacturer, has just developed and released a flexible solar panel designed for flat commercial rooftop buildings. The modules, consisting of solar panels 19 feet long and 1.5 feet wide, are actually made with CIGS (copper, indium, gallium, selenium) cells that work as well as their rigid counterparts.

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Magic Sticker Makes Solar Cells Up to 12 Percent More Powerful

Ovidiu Sandru — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 05:56:10 +0000

Genie Lens Technologies has developed the easiest solution yet: a sticker that applied to the solar cell, will direct the incoming light onto the light-sensitive surface, greatly reducing reflections and improving the efficiency.

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How Scientists Made Moulds From Blowflies' Eyes And Used Them in Solar Cells

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:39:55 +0000

Along with butterflies and moths, whose eyes have inspired scientists to build more efficient solar cells, a particular type of fly (the blowfly) has been discovered to have the right properties that would make us harvest the sun more efficiently.

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Organic Photovoltaic Solar Cells: A New Graphene-Based, Flexible Kind of Cell

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 18:31:52 +0000

A team of researchers from the University of Southern California has published a paper in the most recent journal ACS Nano, revealing a new approach to solar cells. Specifically, they combined graphene, one of the most recent and studied materials discovered, and organic (Graetzel) solar cells. Their project has produced organic photovoltaic cells (OPV).

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Bumpy Nanoparticle Treatment of Solar Cells Making Them More Efficient

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:59:35 +0000

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.

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Specially Shaped Nanopillars Make Solar Cells Absorb 99% of Light and Use 99% Less Silicon

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:32:36 +0000

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.

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New Manufacturing Technology Promises to Improve CIGS Solar Cells' Efficiency

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 20:13:40 +0000

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).

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Delft Researcher Modifies Amorphous Silicon Solar Cells' Production Line to Raise Efficiency

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:47:08 +0000

Amorphous silicon solar cells lose their efficiency during the first hours of sunlight exposure, because of the phenomenon called the Staebler-Wronski effect, which has not yet been fully explained by science. After several hours of sunlight, these types of solar cells lose about a third of their efficiency, from 10 to 7 percent.

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New Organic Framework for More Efficient Graetzel Solar Cells Discovered

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 14:50:29 +0000

Scientists from Cornell University have unveiled a basic process that could give solar cells a boost in efficiency and a drop in price. The process employs molecules typically used in coloring blue jeans and in ink dyes. Their purpose if to build an organic framework that could serve as a building block for cheaper and flexible solar cells.

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Michigan Researchers Develop Technology to Make Plastic Solar Cells Cheaper Than Ever

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 13:50:33 +0000

Jay Guo, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Michigan as developed a method to improve the fabrication technology of polymer solar cells. He used a simplified process for printing them, and demonstrated it on a large-area, roll-to-roll printing system. By eliminating steps in the old fabrication technology, plastic solar cells could be manufactured easier and faster.

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New Polymer Coating for Plastic Solar Cells Boosting Their Lifetime

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 18:50:41 +0000

Researchers from the University of Alberta and the National Institute for Nanotechnology have just published a study and showed a prototype of a very cheap plastic solar cell that lasts for eight months at full operating capacity. The same plastic solar cell had lasted for only ten hours until now.

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