Solar energy

Solar Power Game-Changer

harminka — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:46:11 -0600

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have discovered and demonstrated a new method for overcoming two major hurdles facing solar energy

New solar energy material captures every color of rainbow

harminka — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:28:26 -0500

Researchers have created a new material that overcomes two of the major obstacles to solar power: it absorbs all the energy contained in sunlight, and generates electrons in a way that makes them easier to capture.

Researchers Create Energy-Producing Solar Paint

admin_huliq — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:37:27 -0500

A recent partnership between the steel industry and UK university researchers has led to the development of a unique photovoltaic paint that can be applied to steel.

Colorful approach to solar energy

harminka — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:01:44 -0500

Revisiting a once-abandoned technique, engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have successfully created a sophisticated, yet affordable, method to turn ordinary glass into a high-tech solar concentrator.

Harnessing solar energy like plants do

harminka — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 11:00:57 -0500

Ask any scientist to name Earth's most abundant source of energy, and the answer comes quickly: sunlight. In one hour, the sun strikes Earth with enough energy to power the entire planet for a year.

Substantial improvement in essential cheap solar cell process

harminka — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 08:12:17 -0500

A cheap alternative to silicon solar cells can be found in dye-sensitised solar cells. This type of cell imitates the natural conversion of sunlight into energy by, for instance, plants and light-sensitive bacteria.

Scientists identify advances that could improve quality of life

harminka — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 08:31:39 -0500

A diverse committee of experts from around the world, convened at the request of the National Science Foundation (NSF), announced 14 grand challenges for engineering in the 21st century that, if met, would improve how we live.

Modeling How Electric Charges Move

harminka — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 12:46:52 -0500

Learning how to control the movement of electrons on the molecular and nanometer scales could help scientists devise small-scale circuits for many applications, including more efficient ways of storing and using solar energy.

Steel forges foundation for cheaper solar power

harminka — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 14:42:50 -0600

Steel forged railroads, skyscrapers and the automobile industry. Now it may help solar energy become cheaper and more widely available. In a study scheduled for the March 20 issue of ACS' weekly Journal of Physical Chemistry C, Finnish scientists report an advance in replacing the single most expensive component of a cutting-edge family of solar cells with less costly material.

Stirling Energy Systems set new world record for solar-to-grid conversion efficiency

harminka — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 06:35:57 -0600

On a perfect New Mexico winter day — with the sky almost 10 percent brighter than usual — Sandia National Laboratories and Stirling Energy Systems (SES) set a new solar-to-grid system conversion efficiency record by achieving a 31.25 percent net efficiency rate.

Durham University leads UK research project into cheaper solar energy

harminka — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 13:37:05 -0600

A national team of scientists led by experts at Durham University are embarking on one of the UK’s largest ever research projects into photovoltaic (PV) solar energy.

Solar cells of the future

harminka — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 13:48:51 -0600

A new material, nano flakes, may revolutionise the transformation of solar energy to electricity. If so, even ordinary households can benefit from solar electricity and save money in the future.