Experts have created a ‘miracle material’ that will be the end of conventional solar panels: 60 times more energy and unexpected performance.
Researchers at SLAC have made groundbreaking strides in understanding the photoelectric effect, initially described by Einstein.
They’ve developed a technique using attosecond X-ray pulses to measure electron-emission delays, revealing discrepancies in existing theories by showing larger-than-expected delays. Their method provides a new tool to study electron-electron interactions, which are fundamental to many technologies, including semiconductors and solar cells.
New Photoelectric Effect Insights
Chinese solar PV giant Trina Solar has successfully begun commercial operations at a new agri-voltaic solar project in Japan that combines solar modules with a yam crop that thrives in the shade.
The agrivoltaic project is only small – just 2.4 MW – and is located in the city of Fukuchiyama in Japan’s northern Kyoto Prefecture, but is a demonstration of the new way of thinking about the use of solar projects and existing farmland.
The Fukuchiyama project is paired with the cultivation of the Japanese yam, also known as ebi-imo, a crop native to the region which thrives in shade.
Since 2014, solar capacity at K-12 schools has more than quadrupled across the US, according to a new report from clean energy nonprofit Generation180.
The “Brighter Future: A Study of Solar on K-12 Schools” report highlights that over 6.2 million students – more than 1 in 9 – now attend schools powered by solar. In 2023 alone, more than 800 schools added solar panels, meaning that at least one school went solar every single day during the 2022–23 school year.
“The benefits of solar energy are now reaching a broad range of schools across the country, including those in under-resourced communities that stand to gain the most from the cost savings and educational opportunities that solar technology provides. We want all schools and communities, regardless of their size, geography, or wealth, to have access to affordable, clean energy,” says Tish Tablan, the report’s lead author and senior director of Generation180’s Electrify Our Schools Program.
Summary: Researchers developed a brain-inspired AI technique using neural networks to model the challenging quantum states of molecules, crucial for technologies like solar panels and photocatalyst.
This new approach significantly improves accuracy, enabling better prediction of molecular behaviors during energy transitions. By enhancing our understanding of molecular excited states, this research could revolutionize material prototyping and chemical synthesis.
Your early morning run could soon help harvest enough electricity to power your wearable devices, thanks to a new nanotechnology developed at the University of Surrey.
Surrey’s Advanced Technology Institute (ATI) has developed highly energy-efficient, flexible nanogenerators, which demonstrate a 140-fold increase in power density when compared to conventional nanogenerators. ATI researchers believe that this development could pave the way for nano-devices that are as efficient as today’s solar cells.
The findings are published in the journal Nano Energy.
In a paper published in Nature Chemistry, researchers from the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London and Queen Mary University of London have shown for the first time how different arrangements of molecules in organic solar cells can improve light absorption, leading the way to better and cheaper solar panels.
Organic solar cells use small organic molecules or organic polymers to absorb and transform sunlight into electricity. The molecules can be produced synthetically at high throughput, and the resulting cells are lightweight, flexible and inexpensive to make. This makes them potentially cheaper, sustainable and more flexible than traditional cells made of silicon.
When light hits an organic solar cell, it forces the molecules to transfer electrons, which generates an electrical current. The efficiency of the process depends on the arrangement of the molecules and how well they interact.
The multi-layered coating is not only thinner than the silicon cells typically used in solar panels, but rivals their efficiency, too.
“Establishing that there is a big reservoir of liquid water provides some window into what the climate was like or could be like,” said Dr. Michael Manga.
While Mars is incapable of having liquid water on its surface, what about underground, and how much could there be? This is what a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated how liquid water might be present beneath the Martian surface. This study holds the potential to help researchers not only better understand the current conditions on the Red Planet, but also if these same conditions could have led to life existing on the surface in the past.
For the study, the researchers analyzed seismic data obtained by NASA’s now-retired InSight lander, which landed on Mars in 2018 and sent back valuable data regarding the interior of Mars until the mission ended in 2022. This was after mission planners determined the amount of dust that had collected on the lander’s solar panels did not allow for sufficient solar energy to keep it functioning. However, despite being expired for two years, scientists continued to pour over vast amounts of data regarding the interior of Mars.
Continue reading “Probing Mars’ Interior Reveals Vast Underground Water Reservoir” »
Australian scientists have joined an elite club of just eight around the world, making a perovskite solar cell that can hit 30 per cent efficiency.
Led by storied University of Sydney professor Anita Ho-Baillie, the Sydney team’s work was weighed and measured by the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
“It shows that we are capable of producing high performance cells. The next step we will achieve is higher performance, either by double junction or triple junction,” Ho-Baillie says.
