Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have reported the first solar cell that produces a photocurrent that has an external quantum efficiency greater than 100 percent when photoexcited with photons from the high energy region of the solar spectrum. The external quantum efficiency for photocurrent, usually expressed as a [...]
Researchers have reduced the preparation time of quantum dot solar cells to less than an hour by changing the form to a one-coat quantum dot solar paint. How? Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles are coated with cadmium sulfide (CdS) or cadmium selenide (CdSe.) The composite nanoparticles, when mixed with a solvent, form a paste that can [...]
BioSolar, Inc, developer of a breakthrough technology to produce bio-based materials from renewable plant sources that reduce the cost of photovoltaic (PV) solar modules, today reported that the company will present BioBacksheet integrated PV panels at the GovGreen Conference held in Washington DC later this week. The panels were produced by four PV manufacturers that [...]
Dye-sensitized Grätzel solar cells have just set a new efficiency benchmark. By changing the composition and color of the cells, an EPFL team has increased their efficiency to more than 12%. Their results have been published in Science. A group of scientists in EPFL’s Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces, under the leadership of EPFL professor [...]
Cyclone Power Technologies Delivers Plans for Solar Engine to Renovalia Energy Cyclone Power Technologies Inc, a developer of the all-fuel, clean-tech Cyclone Engine,announced that it has delivered to Renolavia Energy SA, prototype design plans for a high-efficiency Rankine cycle engine, developed to run on solar thermal energy. The delivery satisfies Cyclone’s license agreement with the [...]
The Solar Research Facilities of the Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS) are among the most advanced laboratories in the world for concentrated solar energy research. A major feature of the Unit is a SolarPower Tower containing a field of 64 large, multi-faceted mirrors (heliostats), each measuring 7 X 8 meters. A picture of the Solar [...]
Magnolia Solar Corporation has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Magnolia Solar, Inc., has updated the scientific community on its progress to develop high-efficiency, thin-film solar cells as part of a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Dr. Roger E. Welser, Magnolia’s Chief Technical Officer, [...]
The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon is an award-winning program that challenges collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. The winner of the competition is the team that best blends affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency. The first Solar [...]
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)has produced and made available a rich data set showing what happens, second-by-second, when clouds pass over a solar power installation. Seventeen measurement stations near Hawaii’s Honolulu International Airport on the island of Oahu collected data at 1-second intervals over the course of a year. [...]
Konarka Technologies In the consumer sector the innovative solar cells of the American manufacturer Konarka Technologies have been used successfully for many years. For their integration into buildings, the technology leader was now able to win over the cable manufacturer Lapp Kabel GmbH, the industrial concerns Bayer Sheet Europe and Thyssen Krupp, Bischoff Glastechnik, and the Fraunhofer [...]
A Concentrated Solar Power CSP Developers DNI Dream In an emerging CSP market such as South Africa, one of the many challenges developers face is siting the project based on acquiring accurate Direct Normal Irradiation data, as optimal siting of Concentrated Solar Power plants is a key component to plant efficiency, and ultimate profitability. [...]
Magnolia Solar Corporation has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Magnolia Solar, Inc., has demonstrated high-voltage InGaAs quantum well waveguide solar cells, a unique structure capable of improving the performance of photovoltaic modules. Dr. Roger E. Welser, Magnolia’s Chief Technical Officer, summarized the latest technical results at the Solar Energy and Technology Conference in San [...]
One DOE collaboration has resulted in the deployment of two Total Sky Imagers (TSIs) at the Copper Mountain Solar power plant in Boulder City, Nevada. TSIs are the latest technological innovation in the solar resource assessment arena and are designed to capture real-time cloud activity to manage variability and inform solar plant operations. The work [...]
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