Solar Energy
Sun-powered plane completes California test flight
April 22, 2013 9:16 am | by Haven Daley, Associated Press | News | Comments
Considered the world's most advanced sun-powered plane, the Solar Impulse took off from Moffett Field at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View on Friday at first light. The two-hour practice run was held in advance of a planned multi-city, cross-country tour, which previews a flight around in the world in about two years.
Secret of efficient photosynthesis is decoded
May 15, 2013 9:25 am | News | Comments
Purple bacteria are among Earth’s oldest organisms, and among its most efficient in...
Nanoparticles give major enhancement to polymer solar cells
May 7, 2013 11:11 am | News | Comments
A polymer thin film solar cell (PSC) produces electricity from sunlight by the...
The fluorescent future of solar cells
May 7, 2013 7:45 am | News | Comments
For some solar cells, the future may be fluorescent. Scientists at Yale University have improved...
Balance is key to making quantum-dot solar cells work
May 24, 2013 7:53 am | by David L. Chandler, MIT News Office | News | CommentsThere has been great interest in using quantum dots to produce low-cost, easily manufactured, stable photovoltaic cells. But, so far, the creation of such cells has been limited by the fact that in practice, quantum dots are not as good at conducting an electric charge as they are in theory. Something in the physical structure of these cells seems to trap their electric-charge carriers. Now researchers may have found the key.
Solar industry pushes for more use in Ga.
May 21, 2013 1:25 pm | by RAY HENRY - Associated Press - Associated Press | News | CommentsThe solar industry in Georgia is pushing a power monopoly to expand its use of solar energy as it plans to meet the state's electricity needs over the next two decades. State utility regulators heard testimony Tuesday on the energy plans from Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power, which must submit new plans every three years.
Artificial forest for solar water-splitting
May 16, 2013 2:34 pm | News | CommentsIn the wake of the sobering news that atmospheric carbon dioxide is now at its highest level in at least three million years, an important advance in the race to develop carbon-neutral renewable energy sources has been achieved. Scientists with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have reported the first fully integrated nanosystem for artificial photosynthesis.
Performance improvement in solar-powered hydrogen generation
May 15, 2013 9:43 am | News | CommentsUsing a powerful combination of microanalytic techniques that simultaneously image photoelectric current and chemical reaction rates across a surface on a micrometer scale, researchers at NIST have shed new light on what may become a cost-effective way to generate hydrogen gas directly from water and sunlight.
Livermore Lab, Cool Earth Solar partner on renewable energy demonstration project
May 14, 2013 2:53 pm | News | CommentsThe California Energy Commission has awarded $1.7 million to a partnership between Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Cool Earth Solar Inc. to conduct a community-scale renewable energy integration demonstration project at the Livermore Valley Open Campus.
Scientists detect residue hindering efficiency of solar cells
May 6, 2013 7:32 am | News | CommentsA team from Argonne National Laboratory has worked for years to develop a new type of solar cell known as organic photovoltaics (OPVs). Because of their potential to reduce costs for both fabrication and materials, OPVs could be much cheaper to manufacture than conventional solar cells and have a smaller environmental impact as well. However, they aren’t as efficient as conventional solar cells due to one limitation.
New technology propels 'old energy' boom
May 4, 2013 11:52 am | by JONATHAN FAHEY - AP Energy Writer - Associated Press | News | CommentsTechnology created an energy revolution over the past decade—just not the one we expected. By now, cars were supposed to be running on fuel made from plant waste or algae—or powered by hydrogen. Electricity would be generated with solar panels and wind turbines. Fossil fuels? They were going to be expensive and scarce. But in the race to conquer energy technology, Old Energy is winning.
Oil drilling technology leaps, clean energy lags
May 2, 2013 1:52 pm | by JONATHAN FAHEY - AP Energy Writer - Associated Press | News | CommentsTechnology created an energy revolution over the past decade—just not the one we expected. By now, cars were supposed to be running on fuel made from plant waste or algae—or powered by hydrogen or cheap batteries that burned nothing at all. Electricity would be generated with solar panels and wind turbines. When the sun didn't shine or the wind didn't blow, power would flow out of batteries the size of tractor-trailers.
Solar-powered nanofilters pump in antibiotics to clean contaminated water
May 1, 2013 12:39 pm | News | CommentsUsing the same devious mechanism that enables some bacteria to shrug off powerful antibiotics, scientists have developed solar-powered nanofilters that remove antibiotics from the water in lakes and rivers twice as efficiently as the best existing technology.
New solar cell coating could boost efficiency
April 18, 2013 2:44 pm | by David L. Chandler, MIT News Office | News | CommentsThroughout decades of research on solar cells, one formula has been considered an absolute limit to the efficiency of such devices in converting sunlight into electricity: Called the Shockley-Queisser efficiency limit, it posits that the ultimate conversion efficiency can never exceed 34% for a single optimized semiconductor junction. Now, researchers have shown that there is a way to blow past that limit.
A solar booster shot for natural gas power plants
April 11, 2013 12:58 pm | News | CommentsNatural gas power plants can use about 20% less fuel when the sun is shining by injecting solar energy into natural gas with a new system being developed by the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The system converts natural gas and sunlight into a more energy-rich fuel called syngas, which power plants can burn to make electricity.
First Solar in strategic shift, buys TetraSun
April 9, 2013 5:10 pm | by JONATHAN FAHEY - AP Energy Writer - Associated Press | News | CommentsFirst Solar Inc., in a major strategic shift, will begin making a type of solar panel it has long competed against in an effort to win new customers. First Solar announced Tuesday it would acquire TetraSun, which has developed a design for high-efficiency solar panels, from JX Nippon Oil & Gas Energy Corp.
“Artificial leaf” gains ability to self-heal damage, produce energy from dirty water
April 9, 2013 5:47 am | News | CommentsAnother innovative feature has been added to the world’s first practical “artificial leaf,” making the device even more suitable for providing people in developing countries and remote areas with electricity, scientists reported at the American Chemical Society’s National Meeting & Exposition this week. It gives the leaf the ability to self-heal damage that occurs during production of energy.
Nanowires with the power to transform solar energy
April 9, 2013 5:00 am | News | CommentsImagine a solar panel more efficient than today’s best solar panels, but using 10,000 times less material. This is what researchers in France expect given recent findings on these tiny filaments called nanowires. Solar technology integrating nanowires could capture large quantities of light and produce energy with incredible efficiency at a much lower cost.
Global solar photovoltaic industry is likely now a net energy producer
April 3, 2013 8:12 am | News | CommentsThe construction of the photovoltaic power industry since 2000 has required an enormous amount of energy, mostly from fossil fuels. The good news is that the clean electricity from all the installed solar panels has likely just surpassed the energy going into the industry's continued growth, Stanford University researchers find.
Solar plane plans stops in Phoenix, Dallas, NYC
March 28, 2013 10:41 pm | by Terence Chea, Associated Press | News | CommentsSolar Impulse, considered the world's most advanced solar-powered plane, is set to travel across the United States, stopping for seven to 10 days at major airports in each city, so the pilots can display and discuss the aircraft with reporters, students, engineers and aviation fans. It plans to reach New York's Kennedy Airport in early July—without using a drop of fuel, its creators said.
Trees used to create recyclable, efficient solar cell
March 26, 2013 8:01 am | News | CommentsSolar cells are just like leaves, capturing the sunlight and turning it into energy. It’s fitting that they can now be made partially from trees. Georgia Institute of Technology and Purdue University researchers have developed efficient solar cells using natural substrates derived from plants such as trees. Just as importantly, by fabricating them on cellulose nanocrystal substrates, the solar cells can be quickly recycled in water at the end of their lifecycle.
Nanowire solar cells raise efficiency limit
March 25, 2013 8:35 am | News | CommentsThe typical solar cell efficiency limit―called the "Shockley-Queisser Limit"―has for many years has been a landmark for solar cell efficiency. Scientists from at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen and other colleagues have shown that a single nanowire can increase this limit by concentrating sunlight up to 15 times normal intensity.
New solar cell design based on dots, wires
March 25, 2013 7:40 am | by David L. Chandler, MIT News Office | News | CommentsUsing exotic particles called quantum dots as the basis for a photovoltaic cell is not a new idea, but attempts to make such devices have not yet achieved sufficiently high efficiency in converting sunlight to power. A new wrinkle added by a team of researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology—embedding the quantum dots within a forest of nanowires—promises to provide a significant boost.
U.S. solar installations soared 76% in 2012
March 14, 2013 11:01 am | by JONATHAN FAHEY - AP Energy Writer - Associated Press | News | CommentsSolar panel installations in the U.S. grew 76 percent in 2012 as the cost of panels and the surrounding equipment continued to fall, according to an annual report by a solar trade group. The U.S. installed panels capable of producing 3,313 megawatts of peak electricity, up from 1,887 megawatts in 2011, the report said.
Beach sand-encapsulated paraffin stores heat from the sun
March 13, 2013 10:50 am | News | CommentsThe search for sustainable new materials to store heat captured from the sun for release during the night has led scientists to a high-tech combination of paraffin wax and sand.
Researchers map out an alternative energy future for New York
March 12, 2013 2:39 pm | by Rob Jordan, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment | News | CommentsHydraulic fracturing may soon be approved for the state of New York. However, a new study finds that it is technically and economically feasible to convert New York's all-purpose energy infrastructure to one powered by wind, water, and sunlight. The authors say that overall switch would reduce New York's end-use power demand by about 37% and stabilize energy prices.
Improved colloidal quantum dots to make solar cells more efficient
March 8, 2013 10:04 am | by Terry Lavender, University of Toronto | News | CommentsA research group at the University of Toronto has recently described a new technique to improve efficiency in what are called colloidal quantum dot photovoltaics. The method depends on a characteristic of quantum dots: Their light-absorption spectrum can be changed simply by changing the size of quantum dot. By adjusting this property to the infrared portion of the spectrum, efficiency is improved.
MIT researchers develop solar-to-fuel roadmap for crystalline silicon
March 5, 2013 11:12 am | by David L. Chandler, MIT News Office | News | CommentsBringing the concept of an “artificial leaf” closer to reality, a team of researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology has published a detailed analysis of all the factors that could limit the efficiency of such a system. The new analysis lays out a roadmap for a research program to improve the efficiency of these systems, and could quickly lead to the production of a practical, inexpensive and commercially viable prototype.
Sterilizing with the sun
February 26, 2013 10:52 am | News | CommentsUsing sunlight, researchers and students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology are trying to change how medical equipment is sterilized in remote clinics—and a pilot project in Nicaragua has begun to show promising results.
