solar panel Archives – The Green Optimistic

New Hyundai Sonata Hybrid Goes 1,300km a Year on Its Solar Panel Alone

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 22 Aug 2019 13:29:19 +0000

In the old times, there were Priuses. Now, it’s Hyundai. They just launched their Sonata Hybrid and it has a solar roof charging system. In the 2004-2009 Prius, the solar panel on the top was used to power the air conditioner while the car sat in full sunlight. Not Hyundai. They’re going after mileage gains […]

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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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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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Elon Musk: How Many Solar Panels Does the World Need?

Samantha Joe — Thu, 31 Dec 2015 13:50:32 +0000

Elon Musk has an idea how many solar power panels would be required. While being interviewed at the American Geophysical Union meeting, Musk stated that if only a corner of Nevada or Utah were covered in panels, the solar energy generation rate would be enough to power the entire United States. At an earlier talk, Musk […]

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NASA’s Origami Solar Panels

Satya Sivani — Tue, 14 Apr 2015 20:41:43 +0000

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory researchers engineered solar panels inspired by the Japanese paper folding art, Origami. They are light, foldable and easily deployable. As far as I remember, a paper girl made out of a chocolate wrapper was my first origami artwork (though I came to know of the name ‘Origami’ only in my late teens). […]

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Solar Panel Even More Efficient With Adaptive Optical Coating

Benji Jerew — Tue, 05 Aug 2014 15:39:19 +0000

For those looking to reduce emissions, utility costs, and increase energy independence, from residences to entire countries, solar panel arrays are one a popular solution. On the other hand, solar panels could be more efficient, and average mass-market commercial panels are typically around 15% efficiency. The rest of the sun’s energy is lost to heat […]

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Scientists Use Solar Panels to Extract CO2 from the Atmosphere

Mila Luleva — Fri, 04 Jul 2014 18:02:18 +0000

Greenhouse gas emissions have been identified as the major cause of global warming, and even if these are brought down to zero as of this moment, it is unlikely that the predictions for the near future will change. Scientists have come up with numerous geo-engineering techniques to directly extract CO2 from the atmosphere, but for now, most just […]

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Weird but Green: Donkeys Carry Solar Panels to Charge Shepherds’ Smartphones

Mila Luleva — Fri, 04 Jul 2014 17:59:11 +0000

To set the scene, currently Google and Facebook are arguing over who would own the technology that could one day provide wireless internet to the most remote areas of the world. At that same time numerous engineers and designers compete to make the best and most efficient, compact, easily transported, solar powered and preferably wireless charging […]

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Are Solar Panels “Cool” Enough?

Benji Jerew — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 03:28:42 +0000

Solar panel technologies have been around for decades, always improving in efficiency and power capabilities, but are they “cool” enough? Visionary Elon Musk, the force behind Tesla Motors electric vehicles, SolarCity solar panel and power systems, and the Tesla Gigafactory, the force behind them all, has been moving these technologies ahead, in spite of the […]

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Nanowire Solar Panel More Efficient at No Additional Cost

Benji Jerew — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 21:08:17 +0000

Solar installation prices continue to fall as solar panel manufacturers add to the glut of solar panels on the market already. The standard silicon-based solar panel is no more efficient than before, and there are just too many on the market to make a profit. Other technologies could make solar panels more efficient, but not […]

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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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Holographic Solar Panels – Cheaper and More Efficient

Leigh Hutchens — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 10:00:31 +0000

Apollo Shipping GmbH & Co. KG, from Dresden, and Solar Bankers LLC, which is based in Arizona, have banded together to develop a silicon-based solar panel with a holographic foil that is twice as efficient as typical models. Apollo and Solar Bankers said that instead of the typical 17% efficiency of other panels, their solar […]

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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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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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Solar Panel Exceeds Original Specifications After 30 Years of Service

Benji Jerew — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 15:17:09 +0000

There aren’t too many things that we bought in 1980 that are still functioning just as they were when new, much less in existence. This might be a good time to check your warranty, if you still have something like a solar installation on your roof or land. Any good company will have a decent […]

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Solar Panel System: How to Build a Cheap One

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 20:20:18 +0000

A cheap solar panel system will forever be the best solution to expensive electric bills. Solar cells are getting cheaper each year. While you could pay up to $10,000 for an off-the-shelf installation and could cover the system’s price in just over 10 years, it’s still better and more educational to make one yourself. Let’s face it: […]

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Imported Chinese Solar Panels Causing Instability in U.S. Industry

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 18:13:38 +0000

An economic “war” is about to unleash between China’s solar panel industry and the U.S.’s, as the latter applied more than $1 billion in duties to the imports from China. Also, Solyndra LLC blamed the Chinese low-priced solar cells for their September bankruptcy. The two Chinese companies that have been accused of unfair policies are […]

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An Interesting Report on Solar Panel Efficiency in Near Space Conditions

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 14:17:26 +0000

You don't really have to be an accredited scientist to prove the world that you actually can do scientific experiments. All you need is passion, knowledge and a little financial effort. That's how a team of San Diego engineering students succeeded doing an experiment that involved sending a balloon, solar panels, cockroaches and anti-freeze Cucujus beetles into near-space.

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Israeli Company Builds Floating Concentrated Solar Panels To Help Clearing Lands

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 13:59:11 +0000

Keeping the land clear for useful projects is vital to some countries that have limited space and that have to manage it as tightly as possible.
If those countries will want to rely on solar power in the future, they'll have to find solutions for managing their solar fields and the land is just not proper for that in some cases. But water bodies are.

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Suntech's New Power Optimizers Could Solve Solar Panel Efficiency Issues Related To Shades

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 16:46:25 +0000

Solar panels are usually mounted in series, to sum up their voltages, and the resulting power is sent to a large inverter, which transforms the DC voltage into AC. One big issue with this scheme is that if shade falls on one panel, or it gets dirty, the inverter lowers the current of all the other panels, and causing power losses through inefficiency.

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Dutch Researchers Designing 65% Efficient Nanowire Solar Cells

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 14:46:31 +0000

High efficiency solar cells are for the moment only available to space applications, because of their prohibitive costs. The Eindhoven University of Technology from The Netherlands, with a EUR 1.2 million help from the Dutch government wants to develop ultra-efficient solar cells that are also cheap. They envision their cells having a 65% efficiency, something even the satellites would envy.

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Canadian Company Installs 1 MWh of Solar Power in Italy

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 19:54:42 +0000

The Italian town of Narni has been in the attention of the press these days as Canadian Solar, an important solar power company announced the opening and commissioning of a 1 MW solar farm, called SOLARTA.

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Shimizu's Master Plan For a 11,000 Km Long, 400 Km-Wide Lunar Solar Belt

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 19:36:38 +0000

A Japanese company, Shimizu, dreams of turning the Moon's ecuator into an 11,000 kilometers long solar collector, and bring that energy "down" to Earth via a 20-km wide dishes, through microwaves and lasers. The belt would have widths ranging from a few to 400 km. Now, how brilliant is that?

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Solar Powered Windows From Pythagoras Solar Both Transparent and Productive

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 19 May 2010 19:00:04 +0000

Some solar energy adopters wish to use their solar panels in the classic manner - installed on a roof or in their backyard. Still, there are situations where installing a flat solar panel is near to impossible, due to space limitations in places like corporate buildings or where aesthetics matters.

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SunPower Helps Sewage Treatment Plants Get Self Sustaining

Cristi — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 20:18:55 +0000

Wastewater treatment plants are usually packed with industrial-sized aerators, pumps and other machines that usually use a lot of electricity from the grid. But SunPower Corp. developed a solar power system for the West Riverside Wastewater Treatment Plant in Corona, California that is able to generate one-megawatt of energy

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Rooftop Solar Panels Could Earn NSW Inhabitants Up To $10,000 A Year

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:50:43 +0000

Installing solar panels on your roof seems ok from one point of view. Getting money for your installed panels and trading the energy you get from them back to the grid is even better.

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Sanyo Double-Sided PV Cells Increase Efficiency With DuRock Reflective Membrane

Cristi — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 11:37:58 +0000

The Sanyo' HIT (Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin-layer) is a double-sided photovoltaic module that can be mounted very easily over carports, canopies, porches and other types of coverings.

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U.S. Troops Powered by Solar Cells in Innovative GREENS Project

Cristi — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:46:36 +0000

The 300-watt photovoltaic/battery system provides continuous power to Marines in the field. The widely dispersed units need constant power for their computing devices, targeting systems and communications. GREENS will even cut fuel use, cost and risk of ambush on the supplying convoys.

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Solar iPhone Charger DIY Tutorial

Mike Sandru — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:23:35 +0000

The construction of this universal solar charger is very simple and cheap(only $50) . You don't need to have any familiarity with electronics or prior circuit knowledge. It can be used to charge any device via USB.

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Alaska Installing Solar Water Heating System for Educational Purposes

Cristi — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:38:16 +0000

To reduce energy consumption, Denali Education Center has come up with an idea to install a hot water system, and they managed to make it one of the largest in the state.

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DIY: Rick's Cheap Solar Panel Installation Powers His Home

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 07:03:18 +0000

A lot of people want to be green in using energy but they don't know where to start, or they don't have enough money/time at their disposal to actually start making something useful.

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Sony Ericsson Says Solar Powered Cell Phones Not So Green

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:27:08 +0000

Not long ago, I presented some cell phones that, among their many functions, also incorporated a small solar panel, for flexible charging and green purposes. Well, those green purposes prove themselves being not so green, if we take into account recent studies.

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USB Solar-Powered Battery Pack Unveiled at CeBIT

Cristi — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:54:00 +0000

The Company called FSP came to CeBIT 2009 with USB green battery charger which uses solar panels.

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Iron Pyrite Used for Cheaper Solar Panels

Florin — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 06:25:32 +0000

Many of today's solar panels use silicon for transforming solar energy into electrical energy. But this is not only quite expensive, but also can be in shortage.

The study the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has performed and recently published tells us that there are many cheaper and abundant alternatives to silicon. One of them is iron pyrite, a quite common resource.

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Gain Up to 30% More Solar Power With Automatic Cleaning System

Cristi — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 19:12:27 +0000

Heliotex has released the first pending patent of automatic cleaning systems for business and home solar panels. Heliotex Automatic Solar Panel Cleaning Systems automatically washes and rinses the solar panels as often as you find necessary. The system helps you to maximize your investment by allowing your solar panels to achieve their full potential (dirty solar panels lose up to 30% efficiency).

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World's Most Efficient Solar Water Heater Made by Surface Power

Cristi — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:45:26 +0000

Surface Power received an independent certification from TUV Rhineland that their solar water heaters are at least 131% more efficient in the morning and evening, and 76% more at midday than other solar heaters.

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BOINC Software to Cut 20 Years in Solar Cell Development

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:31:56 +0000

Everyone knows two are more powerful than one. On the same principle, IBM and Harvard University researchers launched a joint project today in an effort to search for the optimum combination of materials to create the most efficient solar cells ever.

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Harvard`s Black Silicon: 100 to 500 Times More Powerful Than Old Solar Cells

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:26:30 +0000

Kept in secret until yesterday, a newly appeared company, named SiOnyx, unveils an invention of some Harvard researchers, that is going to revolutionize the whole industry. Harvard has been studying their "black silicon" for almost ten years, but nothing has come out of their lab, due to internal policies regarding the output of their discoveries to commercial companies.

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Solyndra Cylindrical Solar Panels: Cheaper and Powerful

Mike Sandru — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:50:07 +0000

Solyndra, a company situated in Fremont, CA, has invented a new type of cylindrical solar panel, cheaper to install and more powerful compared to the conventional panels, which are made of flat solar cells.

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Vatican Started Installing Their New Solar Panels

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 08:32:06 +0000

The workers say that the newly installed solar panels will save about 200 tons of CO2 in just 2 weeks (the equivalent of 70 tons of oil). It's just nice. In fact, the Vatican is the only place I don't think these expensive things will get stolen. The project is estimated to about $1.5 million.

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Nanowires May Boost Solar Panels Efficiency and Lower Prices

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:28:17 +0000

Gang Chen from Cambridge University has done research on making a new solar cell structure, that would rise its efficiency by not reflecting light, but absorbing it through the intrinsic nature of the nanowire material.

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Solar Panel Coating to Increase Efficiency up to 6%

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:55:15 +0000

Xerocoat, a newcomer in the solar industry, has patented a system that will make solar panels better and more efficient. They made a coating for the solar panels so that when covered with it, they receive 3% more light at noon and as much as 6% during early morning and evening hours. So they increase sensibly the solar panels' efficiency and decrease the cost/watt.

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Homemade Solar Panel with Cells Bought from eBay

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 09:08:13 +0000

Today I stumbled upon a web site made by a guy (he's an astronomer) who did his own very cheap solar panel. He has a remote property in Arizona and there isn't any power source, so he had to improvise it by himself.

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Mindset Six50: solar/battery/gasoline powered car

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:18:27 +0000

Mindset, a newcomer in the auto industry has announced Six50, a hybrid 2+2 seater that incorporates solar power, Li-Ion battery and a two-cylinder gasoline motor that also kicks in as a generator as required. Battery charging is further assisted by the roof-top solar panels.

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New Solar Panels: 80% Efficient

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 29 May 2008 19:18:41 +0000

A team of scientists from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has been developing a brand new solar energy technology that is about to revolutionize the way we collect and distribute solar energy.

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Solar Powered Inflatable Heater

Ovidiu Sandru — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 19:08:31 +0000

Meet the new invention of the 21st century. It is a solar heater. The basic principle is pretty simple: water is stored in a bed-sized floating bag, which looks like this: The Sun’s light passes through the transparent plastic, heats up the water inside the black tubes, and then it’s passed on to the heating […]

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