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Solar cells could be printed out like newspapers after Australia’s leading science organisation opened a $6.8 million facility dedicated to flexible solar technology.

The CSIRO launched its state-of-the-art Printed Photovoltaic Facility in south-east Melbourne on Wednesday, following more than 15 years of research into the renewable energy technology.

Researchers said printed, flexible photovoltaic cells could not only lower the cost of solar energy but could be used to deliver power in challenging areas such as space exploration, defence and disaster recovery.

While wind and solar energy are the two most viable clean alternatives to the dirty energy sources that power most of our society, the energy that can be harvested from ocean waves also has a lot of potential as an infinitely renewable source.

However, the technology is still developing, and a new research tool may play a big part in helping it get there, Interesting Engineering reported.

Continue reading “Scientists create revolutionary tool to help power over 20 million homes: ‘Developers can spend more of their time building better devices’” »

The type of semiconductive nanocrystals known as quantum dots are both expanding the forefront of pure science and also hard at work in practical applications including lasers, quantum QLED televisions and displays, solar cells, medical devices, and other electronics.

One of the UK’s largest solar farms, a 55 MW project, is now officially online, providing enough power for over 20,000 homes.

The solar farm, developed by Atrato Onsite Energy, is also the fourth largest in the entire country, marking a major milestone for renewable energy in the UK.

The solar farm, which cost £39.4 million to build, is located in Richmond, North Yorkshire, and it covers an impressive 166 acres – that’s about 93 football fields. With over 93,000 bifacial solar panels, this site is expected to reduce CO₂ emissions by 11,000 tonnes annually.

The reason? While sunny regions naturally provide enough light to grow crops, areas with colder winters often need grow lights and greenhouses part of the year. This increases energy consumption, logistical headaches, and ultimately, food costs.

In their paper, Jiao and colleagues argue for a new method that could dramatically revamp farming practices to reduce land use and greenhouse gas emissions.

Dubbed “electro-agriculture,” the approach uses solar panels to trigger a chemical reaction that turns ambient CO₂ into an energy source called acetate. Certain mushrooms, yeast, and algae already consume acetate as food. With a slight genetic tweak, we could also engineer other common foods such as grains, tomatoes, or lettuce to consume acetate.

NASA recently evaluated initial flight data and imagery from Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator-4 (PTD-4), confirming proper checkout of the spacecraft’s systems including its on-board electronics as well as the payload’s support systems such as the small onboard camera. Shown above is a test image of Earth taken by the payload camera, shortly after PTD-4 reached orbit. This camera will continue photographing the technology demonstration during the mission.

Payload operations are now underway for the primary objective of the PTD-4 mission – the demonstration of a new power and communications technology for future spacecraft. The payload, a deployable solar array with an integrated antenna called the Lightweight Integrated Solar Array and anTenna, or LISA-T, has initiated deployment of its central boom structure. The boom supports four solar power and communication arrays, also called petals. Releasing the central boom pushes the still-stowed petals nearly three feet (one meter) away from the spacecraft bus. The mission team currently is working through an initial challenge to get LISA-T’s central boom to fully extend before unfolding the petals and beginning its power generation and communication operations.

Continue reading “NASA Begins New Deployable Solar Array Tech Demo on Pathfinder Spacecraft” »

Researchers at Monash University have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) model that significantly improves the accuracy of four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy (4D STEM) images.

Called unsupervised deep denoising, this model could be a game-changer for studying materials that are easily damaged during imaging, like those used in batteries and solar cells.

The research from Monash University’s School of Physics and Astronomy, and the Monash Center of Electron Microscopy, presents a novel machine learning method for denoising large electron microscopy datasets. The study was published in npj Computational Materials.

Sweden’s Alight and Finland’s 3Flash have entered into a joint development agreement to build a 120 MW solar park in Loviisa, a town in southeastern Finland.

Construction is expected to begin early next year, with commissioning currently scheduled for 2027. Once completed, it is expected to generate 155 GWh, equivalent to the annual electricity needs of 31,000 households.