Fool's gold catches eye of solar energy researchers
Iron pyrite - also known as fool's gold - may be worthless to treasure hunters, but it could become a bonanza to the solar industry. The mineral, among the most abundant in the earth's crust, is...
View ArticleNew ways to harvest light with low-cost photovoltaic materials
The direct conversion of sunlight into electricity using photovoltaics is becoming an increasingly important technology for renewable energy generation as a replacement for fossil fuels, with...
View ArticleRecord efficiency of 18.7 percent for flexible CIGS solar cells on plastics
Scientists at Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, have further boosted the energy conversion efficiency of flexible solar cells made of copper indium gallium...
View ArticleFlexible films for photovoltaics
Displays that can be rolled up and flexible solar cells -- both are potential future markets. Barrier layers that protect thin-film solar cells from oxygen and water vapor and thus increase their...
View ArticleSun-free photovoltaics
A new photovoltaic energy-conversion system developed at MIT can be powered solely by heat, generating electricity with no sunlight at all. While the principle involved is not new, a novel way of...
View ArticleOrganic photovoltaics: Solar cells of the future?
Undergraduate researcher Safatul Islam is a member of a team in the College of Optical Sciences investigating organic photovoltaics, which can lead to improved electronics.
View ArticleNano Gold Rush: Researchers use tiny gold particles to boost organic solar...
(PhysOrg.com) -- In the world of solar energy, organic photovoltaic solar cells have a wide range of potential applications, but they are still considered an upstart. While these carbon-based cells,...
View ArticleNanowires get into the groove
Weizmann Institute scientists have discovered that growing nanowires out, not up, can keep them in line.
View ArticleOrganic solar cell breakthrough
NPL scientists have achieved a significant breakthrough in the metrology of organic photovoltaics – a solar power technology. The research demonstrated a new type of atomic force microscopy that can...
View ArticleHow to produce flexible CIGS solar cells with record efficiency
High-performance flexible and lightweight solar cells, say, on plastic foils, have excellent potential to lower the manufacturing costs through roll-to-roll processing and the so called...
View ArticleNew record voltage for organic solar cells opens the tech to consumer...
Molecular Solar Ltd, a spinout company from the University of Warwick, has achieved a significant breakthrough in the performance of solar photovoltaic (PV) cells. They have achieved and demonstrated a...
View ArticleSelf-organization gives rise to more efficient organic solar cells
Organic solar cells have the potential to convert sunlight into electrical energy in an economical and environmentally friendly fashion. The challenge is that they still work less efficiently than...
View ArticleSolar concentrator increases collection with less loss
(PhysOrg.com) -- Converting sunlight into electricity is not economically attractive because of the high cost of solar cells, but a recent, purely optical approach to improving luminescent solar...
View ArticleEngineers solve energy puzzle
University of Toronto materials science and engineering (MSE) researchers have demonstrated for the first time the key mechanism behind how energy levels align in a critical group of advanced...
View ArticleNew approach aims to slash cost of solar cells
Solar-powered electricity prices could soon approach those of power from coal or natural gas thanks to collaborative research with solar start-up Ampulse Corporation at the U.S. Department of Energy's...
View ArticlePhysicists demonstrate quantum plasmons in atomic-scale nanoparticles
Addressing a half-century-old question, engineers at Stanford have conclusively determined how collective electron oscillations, called plasmons, behave in individual metal particles as small as just a...
View ArticleDevelopment of a new method for the boron-doping of two dimensional carbon...
Kyoto University researchers have developed a new method for the boron-doping of two dimensional carbon materials, which is expected to be a promising approach towards the development of highly...
View ArticleInnovative 3-D designs can more than double solar power generated from a...
(PhysOrg.com) -- Intensive research around the world has focused on improving the performance of solar photovoltaic cells and bringing down their cost. But very little attention has been paid to the...
View ArticleTighter 'stitching' makes better graphene
(Phys.org) -- Similar to how tighter stiches make for a better quality quilt, the "stitching" between individual crystals of graphene affects how well these carbon monolayers conduct electricity and...
View ArticleSolar expertise turns competitors into collaborators
An advanced processing technology being pioneered at UNSW to improve the efficiency of first generation silicon solar cells has turned two of the world's leading solar manufacturers into unlikely...
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