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Category: solar power – Page 38

You may not have heard of piezoelectric materials, but odds are, you have benefitted from them.

Piezoelectric materials are —like crystals, bone or proteins—that produce an electric current when they are placed under mechanical stress.

Materials that harvest energy from their surroundings (through light, heat and motion) are finding their way into solar cells, wearable and implantable electronics and even onto spacecraft. They let us keep devices charged for longer, maybe even forever, without the need to connect them to a power supply.

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On May 4, the first photovoltaic solar farm to connect directly to the UK’s National Grid transmission network went online.

Larks Green is a 200-acre solar farm located on the Severn Vale next to the hamlet of Itchington, to the north of Bristol, and with the addition of a big battery energy storage facility, it’s being heralded as a game-changer in creating a future where solar power is a consistent supplier of much of Britain’s electricity.

The 50 MW solar farm is owned and operated by Cero Generation and Enso Energy and was connected to the National Grid’s Iron Acton substation.

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Researchers have resolved the mechanism of exciton fission, which could increase solar-to-electricity efficiency by one-third, potentially revolutionizing photovoltaic technology.

Photovoltaics, the conversion of light to electricity, is a key technology for sustainable energy. Since the days of Max Planck and Albert Einstein, we know that light as well as electricity are quantized, meaning they come in tiny packets called photons and electrons. In a solar cell, the energy of a single photon.

A photon is a particle of light. It is the basic unit of light and other electromagnetic radiation, and is responsible for the electromagnetic force, one of the four fundamental forces of nature. Photons have no mass, but they do have energy and momentum. They travel at the speed of light in a vacuum, and can have different wavelengths, which correspond to different colors of light. Photons can also have different energies, which correspond to different frequencies of light.

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A solar-powered motorhome, shaped like a huge elongated teardrop, silently rolled into Madrid on Friday as part of a month-long journey from the Netherlands to southern Spain to highlight more sustainable modes of transport.

Engineering students at the Technical University of Eindhoven in the Netherlands created the blue and white vehicle, named Stella Vita – Latin for “star” and “life” – to inspire car makers and politicians to accelerate the transition toward green energy.

Expansive solar panels on the roof and on lateral wings that unfold when the vehicle stops allow the self-sustaining house on wheels, or SHOW, to travel up to 740 km (460 miles) on a sunny day, while the battery can also power a fridge, coffee maker and laptop in the two-person cabin.

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It can generate enough energy to power 1.5 million households a year.

The first of China’s wind and solar energy projects being built in the desert areas is now connected to the electricity grid and has begun generating power, media outlet ChinaDaily.

With the planet needing to reduce carbon emissions, countries are now innovating in generating greener energy. Interesting Engineering reported earlier this year how Switzerland installed 5,000 solar panels on the highest dam in Europe. On its part, China is looking to convert the arid regions of its geography into power generation zones.

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An artificial photosynthesis system that combines semiconducting nanoparticles with a non-photosynthetic bacterium could offer a promising new route for producing sustainable solar-driven hydrogen fuel.

Other artificial photosynthesis systems that integrate nanomaterials into living microbes have been developed before, which reduce carbon dioxide or produce hydrogen, for example. However, usually it is the microorganism itself that makes the product via a metabolic pathway, which is aided by a light-activated nanomaterial that supplies necessary electrons.

Now, the labs of Kara Bren and Todd Krauss at the University of Rochester, US, have turned this concept on its head. They have designed a new hybrid bio-nano system that combines a finely-tuned photocatalytic semiconducting nanoparticles to make hydrogen with a bacterium which, while it does not photosynthesise or make hydrogen itself, it provides the necessary electrons to the nanomaterial to synthesise hydrogen.

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All-perovskite tandem solar cells, stacks of p-n junctions formed from perovskites with different energy bandgaps, have the potential of achieving higher efficiencies than conventional single-junction solar cells. So far, however, most proposed all-perovskite tandem cells have not achieved the desired power conversion efficiencies (PCEs), often due to difficulties associated with creating suitable narrow-and wide-bandgap subcells.

Researchers at Nanjing University and University of Toronto recently developed new inorganic wide-bandgap perovskite subcells that could increase the PCEs and stability of these promising . Their design, introduced in a paper in Nature Energy, involves the insertion of a passivating dipole layer at the interface between organic transport layers and inorganic perovskites within the cells.

“Our research group has been focusing on improving the PCEs of all-perovskite tandem solar cells, which have broken the world record several times and have been included in the ‘solar cell efficiency tables,’” Hairen Tan, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told Tech Xplore.

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Sorry I’m not that active. My mom had a heart attack a little over a month ago and I care for her now. Plus last Thursday I went to the ER for overdosing accidentally on depakote which can be deadly. But check this out. In case of an emergency is this cool or what? Kind of expensive though.

If this summer you’re in the mood for some off-the-grid camping trips, this state-of-the-art self-sustainable luxury trailer is what you need. Designed from the ground up for off-grid camping, the trailer can also produce its own water, making it fully self-sufficient. This extremely sophisticated camper is the work of a California-based company called Living Vehicle which specializes in making self-sustainable luxury travel trailers. The 2023 model was recently introduced by Living Vehicle and it boasts a few industry firsts.

According to its makers, the off-grid camper is aimed at those who wish “to travel far away from campgrounds and overcrowded RV parks.” With a starting price of $340,000, the luxury camper is available in three versions: Core, Max, and Pro. Additionally, Living Vehicle offers a laundry list of options that can be added to the camper via the company’s online configurator.

The 29-foot-long innovative camper runs on solar power. It comes with 1,400W of solar capacity as standard, but Living Vehicle offers an option to further increase its capacity. The Pro version boosts the maximum solar capacity of 3,400W. The energy is stored in a lithium-ion battery pack with a capacity ranging from 14.4 kWh to 57.6 kWh depending on the trailer’s version, along with invertor power ranging from 5 kW to 20 kW. The company from Santa Barbara claims the stored solar energy can power the camper’s air conditioner overnight without any external power input.

Continue reading “This 0,000 fully self-sufficient, off-grid luxury camper is solar-powered and can produce its own water from thin air” | >

“TeraWulf generates domestically produced Bitcoin powered by 91% nuclear, hydro, and solar energy with a goal of utilizing 100% zero-carbon energy.”

EASTON, Md.—()—TeraWulf Inc. (Nasdaq: WULF) (“TeraWulf” or the “Company”), which owns and operates vertically integrated, domestic Bitcoin mining facilities powered by more than 91% zero-carbon energy, today announced that the Company is deploying solely BITMAIN Technologies Ltd. (“BITMAIN”) manufactured mining equipment to fill its 50 MW of capacity at the nuclear-powered Nautilus bitcoin mining facility.

“BITMAIN’s carbon neutral strategy and best-in-class mining equipment make BITMAIN an ideal partner to scale our zero-carbon digital infrastructure at Nautilus” Tweet this

The Nautilus facility represents the first behind-the-meter bitcoin mining facility of its kind, directly sourcing reliable, carbon-free, 24×7 baseload power from the 2.5 GW Susquehanna nuclear generation station in Pennsylvania. TeraWulf recently commenced mining operations at Nautilus and expects its full share in phase one of the facility – 50 MW and 1.9 EH/s – to be online by May. The Company has the option to add an additional 50 MW of bitcoin mining capacity at the Nautilus facility, for a total of 100 MW, which TeraWulf plans to deploy in future phases.

Continue reading “TeraWulf Announces it Has Deployed BITMAIN Miners at the Nuclear-Powered Nautilus Facility” | >