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May 24 | News
Taking their cue from the humble leaf, researchers have used microscopic folds on the surface of photovoltaic material to significantly increase the power output of flexible, low-cost solar cells. The team reported that the folds resulted in a 47% increase in electricity generation.
May 24 | News
Doping may be a no-no for athletes, but researchers at the University of Florida say it was key in getting unprecedented power conversion efficiency from a new graphene solar cell created in their laboratory.
May 15 | News
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has released a new repeatable test protocol that simulates real shade conditions and can predict with much greater precision the effects of shade on a solar array. The new test demonstrated that under heavy shading conditions the use of microinverters instead of typical string inverters can help mitigate the impacts of shade by improving system performance by more than 12%.
May 9 | News
A
detailed description of development of the first practical device that
mimics the process of photosynthesis has recently been published in an
American Chemical Society journal. Unlike earlier devices, which used
costly ingredients, the new device is made from inexpensive materials
and employs low-cost engineering and manufacturing processes.
May 7 | News
A new approach to assessing greenhouse gas emissions from
coal, wind, solar, and other energy technologies paints a much more
precise
picture of cradle-to-grave emissions and should help sharpen decisions
on what
new energy projects to build.
Apr 27 | News
Taking
their cue from the humble leaf, researchers have used microscopic folds
on the surface of photovoltaic material to significantly increase the
power output of flexible, low-cost solar cells. Though the work by
Princeton University researchers involved plastic-based cells that are
not yet in widespread use, they reported a substantial increase in
electricity generation through channeling of light waves.
Apr 26 | News
Scientists at the University of Southern California have developed a potential pathway to cheap, stable solar cells made from nanocrystals so small they can exist as a liquid ink and be painted or printed onto clear surfaces.
Apr 25 | News
The
government wants you to install solar panels at your house, and will
even give you a tax break to do it. But your neighbors? Maybe not.
Homeowners associations around the country have banned or severely
restricted the installation of solar panels, and the solar industry has
pushed back to halt the practice.
Apr 24 | News
Detailed studies of one of the best-performing organic photovoltaic materials reveal an unusual bilayer lamellar structure that may help explain the material’s superior performance at converting sunlight to electricity and guide the synthesis of new materials with even better properties.
Apr 20 | News
Theoretically,
a solar cell can achieve 33.5% efficiency under ideal conditions, but
until now researchers had hit only 26%. This past year, a company called
Alta Devices acted on the theory that emission and voltage go
hand-in-hand by creating solar cell that acts like a light-emitting
diode. Its prototype broke the record, achieving 28.3% efficiency.
