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Photovoltaic
3-D photovoltaic systems go where the sun don’t shine
By Darren Quick
23:31 November 2, 2009 PST
The photovoltaic (PV) panels adorning the rooftops of buildings around the world have become a visible sign of the shift towards environmentally friendly solar power. Now researchers have developed a new type of three-dimensional PV system using optical fiber that promises solar generators that are foldable, concealed and mobile, meaning they could be hidden from view and leave rooftops panel-free. Read More
ReVerb's 3-foot tall, solar powered iPod dock
By Paul Ridden
19:09 October 29, 2009 PDT
Of the myriad of iPod docking stations available, the ReVerb iPod dock from Regen looks set to tower above the rest - literally. At just over 35 inches (90cm) in height, this dock is not going to fit on your bedside cabinet. It will kick out an equivalent of a room-filling 60 watts, includes a backlit LCD display and features an integrated photovoltaic panel to draw energy from the sun. Read More
Solar Decathlon 2009 results are in, and the winner is...
By Darren Quick
23:23 October 19, 2009 PDT
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Solar Decathlon has wound up in Washington, D.C. with Team Germany taking the top honors, followed by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in second place, and Team California taking out third. As we reported last week the competition to design, build, and operate the most attractive and efficient solar-powered home saw 20 university-led teams from around the world competing in ten contests, ranging from subjective elements such as architecture, market viability, communications, lighting design, and engineering, to technical measurements of how well the homes provided energy for space heating and cooling, hot water, home entertainment, appliances, and net metering. Read More
World’s first commercial application of DSSC solar technology is in the bag
By Jeff Salton
19:54 October 13, 2009 PDT
The first commercial shipment of low-light, ultra thin, solar cell technology called DSSC (dye-sensitized solar cells), created by G24 Innovations, has been sent to Hong Kong-based consumer electronics bag manufacturer, Mascotte Industrial Associates for use in backpacks and bags. Ideal for clothing and portable applications, DSSCs are less than 1mm thick, inexpensive, don’t contain silicon or cadmium and can even operate indoors, making them ideal for powering cell telephones, cameras and portable electronics. The company says DSSCs also can be embedded into tent material to power LED lighting systems for camping. Read More
Solar Decathlon solar house competition heats up
By Darren Quick
00:45 October 12, 2009 PDT
Competition is underway in the Department of Energy’s (DoE) Solar Decathlon, in which 20 teams of college and university students compete to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house. The house designs entered in the competition not only capture heat and light from the sun, but also integrate design features to take advantage of cooling breezes and shading. By combining these proven energy efficient designs with the latest off-the-shelf technology, the teams aim to create homes that reduce utility bills and meet all their energy needs, while providing all the comforts of home. Read More
Color matters: GreenSun Energy colored solar technology
By Paul Ridden
17:22 September 24, 2009 PDT
One of the most common ways to turn the sun's energy into electricity is by persuading silicon to give up some of its electrons. But it's also quite expensive, so any innovation that helps reduce the cost of solar cell production is welcome. Researchers in Israel have come up with a cell that uses only 20% of the silicon in a standard cell yet yields similar amounts of electricity. It does this by diffusing any light that falls on its surface and sends it off to photovoltaic collector strips on each of its sides. And it doesn't even need bright sunlight to operate. Read More
Carbon nanotubes used to build a near-ideal efficiency solar cell
04:34 September 14, 2009 PDT
Today's photovoltaic technology, while certainly promising, offers very poor efficiency because of inherent issues in its working mechanism. Using carbon nanotubes, however, Cornell University researchers now hope to lead the way to the next generation of highly efficient solar panels. Read More
New solar battery technology offers household power at 2.5c per kWh
By Jeff Salton
00:14 September 2, 2009 PDT
As part of man's ongoing quest to extract the greatest benefits from solar power, Salt Lake City-based company Ceramatec, the R&D arm of CoorsTek, has made what it believes to be a massive breakthrough in batteries for storing energy harnessed from the sun. The company is making impressive inroads on the prototype of a deep storage battery, the size of a small refrigerator, that safely operates at room temperature, consists of everyday materials, and can output household power at 2.5c per kWh. What’s more, Ceramatec says it will be cheap to purchase. Read More
Plan to turn rooftops, walls and windows into cheap solar cells
By Jeff Salton
19:23 August 25, 2009 PDT
Cheaper solar cells – roughly one-tenth the cost of current day prices – could be available within three to five years thanks to a manufacturing procedure that uses nanoparticle ‘inks’ to print them like newspaper or to spray-paint them onto the sides of buildings or rooftops. Even windows could become solar cells thanks to the semi-transparent inks. 'Painting' solar cells on buildings has been an idea in the making for some time – Gizmag investigated the possibilities of 'solar paint' in 2008. Read More
Arty sunflowers look good and provide power, too
By Paul Ridden
17:38 August 24, 2009 PDT
A boring and unattractive loading area at the rear of a retail development in Austin, Texas is now hidden from view by a collection of 15 huge blue sunflowers, the petals of which collect energy from the sun to power the artwork's LED lighting and generate funds to help towards costs. Whether driving past or walking through the Electric Garden, onlookers will be treated to an awe-inspiring panorama where art meets functionality. Read More
Not your average solar panel: The SRS solar roof tile
By Paul Ridden
18:35 August 23, 2009 PDT
Thanks to a system created by SRS Energy and offered exclusively as an upgrade option to customers of US Tile (the largest manufacturer of clay tile in the United States), those wishing to benefit from rooftop solar energy will no longer have to worry about any panels being stuck on the side of the roof and spoiling the aesthetics. The Solé Power Tile system is the first building-integrated photovoltaic roofing product designed to blend in with curved roof tiles commonly found in the Pacific West and Southwest of the United States. Read More
Entech Solar energy hybrid has hopes for bright future
By Jeff Salton
02:44 August 14, 2009 PDT
Renewable energy technology company Entech Solar has completed a preliminary design review and prototype of its next-generation concentrating solar product, ThermaVolt II, which combines concentrating photovoltaic and thermal (CPVT) technology. The company says its product delivers four to five times the amount of energy compared to traditional photovoltaic systems and costs less to produce. Read More
Milan trade fair to commission world’s biggest rooftop solar power installation
By Karen Sprey
20:27 August 10, 2009 PDT
Bigger may not always be better but when it comes to solar power generation it's a plus. The rooftop photovoltaic power installation at the Milan trade fair will cover around 270,000 square meters (2.9 million square feet) and have a peak installed capacity of at least 18 megawatts (MW). This will put it ahead of the biggest existing rooftop solar plant at General Motors in Zaragoza in Spain, which has a peak capacity of 12MW. Read More
Solar blimp: Projet Sol'r to take on the English Channel
By Paul Ridden
17:02 August 6, 2009 PDT
A group of French students are getting ready to fly across the English Channel in the world's first solar powered airship. One hundred years after Louis Blériot won the coveted Daily Mail prize of £1000 by being the first to traverse the watery expanse in his 3-cylinder, 25 horse-power XI monoplane, the Projet Sol'r team will take to the skies in Néphélios, a 22 meter long airship capable of cruising at 30-35kph. Gizmag recently talked to one of the project's founders, Arnaud Vaillant. Read More
Organic solar power efficiency gets a boost
07:24 July 30, 2009 PDT
Few would argue with the attractiveness of solar as an alternative energy source, but the cost of conventional photovoltaics has long been a stumbling block on the path to making it a viable option. This is changing rapidly. Grid parity, as the target for equaling coal burning production costs is called, has recently been claimed by solar manufacturers and research dedicated to improving solar systems continues on many fronts. Photovoltaics using organic molecules is one of them. This technology promises cells that are cheap, easy to make and flexible, and this flexibility makes them suitable for a diverse range of applications like powering your mobile phone, or lining your backpack or window shades. The problem is that currently they only last a few thousand hours and are inefficient, converting less than 6 percent of light into electricity. Work by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) could help change this. Read More
Nanotechnology breakthrough promises cheaper, more efficient solar cells
04:44 July 15, 2009 PDT
The quest for alternative fuels has become one of science’s major pre-occupations and finding ways to cheaply produce energy from the sun is a key battlefront. Researchers at Berkeley, California, have found a way to make cheaper, better solar cells using tiny nanopillar semiconductors measuring just billionths of a meter wide. The underlying theory is that a 3-D solar cell has more surface – and, therefore, will be a much more efficient light-collector – than the usual 2-D solar cell. Read More
Future festival goers in for solar tenting treat
By Paul Ridden
18:21 June 24, 2009 PDT
The future of music festival tenting has arrived. Well, not actually arrived as such. Let me start again. The concept of music festival tenting for the future has arrived. Following on from the foot pump powered mobile phone charger announced earlier this month, telecommunications giant Orange is using its regular slot at the UK's most talked about music festival to announce its vision of ultra-comfortable camping for lovers of all things live and musical... and solar power is just the beginning. Read More
New DuPont technology reduces solar costs, increases performance
By Karen Sprey
19:06 June 1, 2009 PDT
New encapsulant technology from DuPont promises long-term protection for solar cells, the most sensitive part of photovoltaic modules. The DuPont PV5200 Series and DuPont PV5300 Series encapsulant sheets will also reduce the cost per watt and increase reliability and durability of the modules, allowing manufacturers to deliver better performing, cost-effective solar power. Read More
Sharp releases "industry's thinnest" solar panel for mobile devices
By Paul Best
23:22 May 28, 2009 PDT
Recently we reported on Japanese cellular provider KDDI releasing a Sharp waterproof, solar-powered cell phone, which we believe has been renamed the SH002. Growing interest in both photovoltaic power as a clean and green source of energy and solar-powered devices has galvanized Sharp to release globally its new LR0GC02 solar module for mobile devices – which it claims is the industry's thinnest. Read More
AIRchitecture: Flying classrooms of the future
By Karen Sprey
05:00 March 31, 2009 PDT
If you’ve ever sat in a classroom, bored silly, and wished you could just fly away, here’s the solution, well, sort of. The new concept from Geotectura and Malka - a flying structure for Delft University’s Architecture Faculty - melds spacecraft with studio space to create AIRchitecture, a dynamic, real-world learning environment with a minimal carbon footprint. Read More
3D coating promises greater solar cell efficiency
By Darren Quick
22:05 March 25, 2009 PDT
Solar power from photovoltaic cells are widely recognized as an integral part of a clean green future, and any development that can make these cells more efficient, no matter how small, assists in making this future a reality. A team of researchers at Georgia Tech have developed a surface treatment that boosts the light absorption of silicon photovoltaic cells by trapping light in three-dimensional structures and by making the surfaces self cleaning. Read More
Could changing the color of the sky to counter global warming backfire?
03:38 March 25, 2009 PDT
The concept of delaying global warming by adding particles into the upper atmosphere to cool the climate could unintentionally reduce peak electricity generated by large solar power plants by as much as one-fifth, according to a new study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Read More
Solar panel industry achieves Holy Grail - $1 per watt grid-parity
By Paul Evans
15:02 March 3, 2009 PST
Arizona based First Solar has achieved a major milestone in reducing the manufacturing cost for solar panels below the $1 per watt price barrier - the target necessary for solar to compete with coal-burning electricity on the grid or grid-parity. Using cadmium telluride (CdTe) technology in its thin-film photovoltaic cells, First Solar claims to have the lowest manufacturing cost per watt in the industry with the ability to make solar cells at 98 cents per watt, one third of the price of comparable standard silicon panels. The efficiency is in part due to a low cycle time - 2.5 hours from sheet of glass to solar module - about a tenth of the time it takes for silicon equivalents. Read More
Terotech
- November 21, 2009 @ 19:38 UTC
