Tag Archives: solar pv
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin in Madison has demonstrated the viability of a design for solar panels that can simultaneously generate electricity from sunlight and store the energy captured. As well as generating electricity in the usual way, the panels would also store electrons on zinc oxide nanowires coated with polyvinylidene fluoride polymer. The polyvinylidene fluoride polymer has a high dielectric constant, which releases the stored energy through the nanowires when the solar cell stops harvesting energy. Energy would be stored during sunny days and released at night or on cloudy days. The design was developed by Professor Hongrui … Continue Reading
Rearchers at Australia's CSIRO have built a gigantic printer that spits out solar cells at a rate of about ten metres a minute. The printer system uses existing technology to embed polymer solar cells (also known as organic solar cells) in thin sheets of plastic. The A3-sized panels are created by laying a liquid photovoltaic ink onto the thin, flexible plastic. According to the researchers, the technology is so simple that it could soon mean everyone has the ability to print their own solar panels at home. Project co-ordinator and University of Melbourne researcher, Dr David Jones, said that “We’re … Continue Reading
Scientists at Airlight Energy have joined IBM and the Swiss universities, ETH Zurich and Interstate University of Applied Sciences, to develop an affordable photovoltaic system that is capable of concentrating sunlight 2,000 times onto hundreds of one centimetre square PC cells – yielding high efficiency at low cost. The system uses a large parabolic dish made from a multitude of mirror facets. The dish is attached to a tracking system that determines the best angle based on the position of the sun. Once aligned, the sun’s rays reflect off the mirror onto triple-junction PV chips. On average, each chip can … Continue Reading
Georgia Institute of Technology and Purdue University researchers have developed efficient solar cells on cellulose nanocrystal substrates. The cellulose substrates and made from plants and can be easily recycled at the end of their life. To date, organic solar cells have usually been fabricated on glass or plastic. Neither of these is easy to recycle if, for example, they are broken during manufacture or installation. Cells on plastic have the further disadvantage of being petroleum-based. Paper substrates have been tried but have limited performance because of paper's rough surface and porosity. However, cellulose nanomaterials, being made from plants, are renewable … Continue Reading
A number of methods for predicting the rate of technological development have been developed. The most famous of these is Moore's Law, named after Intel's co-founder Gordon E. Moore who in 1965, wrote that the number of components in integrated circuits had doubled every year and predicted that the trend would continue. The prediction has proved accurate ever since. Moore's Law has been applied to other forms of digital technology, which have been found to develop exponentially but at different rates. For example, hard disk storage has been found to half in cost every 1.1 years whereas RAM halves in … Continue Reading
Wysips, a company based in Aix-en-Provence, in southern France, has developed a photovoltaic film which can be built into a mobile phone, laptop or tablet screen and charge the battery from any artificial or natural light source. According to Wysips chief executive, Ludovic Deblois, “With 10 minutes in the sun you will be able to communicate for two minutes. To recharge completely you will have to expose it for six hours, so our technology is not necessarily for a full recharge but rather for an energy boost for specific applications. For example, for security if you have to make an … Continue Reading
Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have developed a radically new design for a concentrator solar cell that, when irradiated from the side, generates solar conversion efficiencies that can exceed an ultra-efficient 40% conversion with intensities equal to 10,000 suns. Typically a concentrator solar cell consists of multiple layers of semiconductor materials stacked on on top of the other. These are connected in series and electricity is generated by the different materials as light of different wavelengths passes through them. These concentrators are complex and difficult to manufacture and have efficiency limitations. The new type of concentrator cell also … Continue Reading
Researchers at Princeton University have been able to increase the efficiency of the solar cells by 175% by using a nanostructured "sandwich" of metal and plastic that collects and traps light. The researchers believe that the technology will also increase the efficiency of conventional inorganic (silicon) solar collectors, but have not yet completed testing inorganic devices. Two of the main reasons that solar cells lose energy are light reflecting from the cell and the inability to fully capture light that enters the cell. The nanotechnology sandwich – called a "subwavelength plasmonic cavity" - allowed the team to create a solar … Continue Reading
Sharp has announced that it is launching semi-transparent solar panels designed for balcony railings in apartment blocks. The semi-transparent black solar panels are 1.4 metres wide by 1 metre tall and just 7.6 millimetres thick. They have an efficiency of about 6.8% with a maximum output of 95 watts. While this conversion rate is relatively low, other commercially available panels have not been designed for this appication. As well as providing solar power, the panels act as a heat shield and create a privacy screen when viewed from a distance.
A team of researchers at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee has developed a technique to combine the protein in spinach that converts light into electrochemical energy with silicon to create “biohybrid” solar cells. It has been known for more than 40 years that spinach (and most other plants) contains a protein, called PS1, which converts sunlight into electrical energy with nearly 100% efficiency, compared to conversion efficiencies of less than 40% achieved by man-made devices. In the past, researchers have developed ways to extract PS1 efficiently from leaves and have demonstrated that it can be made into cells that produce electrical … Continue Reading
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Renewables News- Vic Council Approves Wind Farm with Community SharesBuloke Shire has approved a planning permit for a five-turbine wind farm spanning 5.t hectares at Coonooer Bridge, west of Bendigo..It is the first wind farm planning permit approved since 2011 when the Victorian Government introduced tough planning laws that … Continue Reading → […]
- NZ Electricity Co Offers Solar PV with BatteryVector Limited, the largest electricity and gas distribution company in New Zealand, is offerring a "home solar power solution", incorporating intelligent battery storage into a traditional solar PV system. In the introductory phase of the programme, a limited number of … Continue Reading → […]
- Sydney City Revises Trigen Power PlanThe City of Sydney has decided not to pursue its plan for a trigeneation power precinct at Green Square at this time but has re-affirmed its commitment to cutting carbon emissions using trigeneration, among other technologies, The decision to halt … Continue Reading → […]
- Vic Council Approves Wind Farm with Community Shares
