Jan

18

Sensing the Wind Is Getting Better Results

January 18, 2012 | 1 Comment

Wind speed primarily determines the power generated by a wind turbine. On a wind farm in which the turbines experience the same wind speeds but different “shapes”, most easily seen as turbulence affecting the wind profile, the turbines will produce different amounts of power. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientist Sonia Wharton and colleague Julie Lundquist [...]

Dec

22

A Claim for 100%+ Solar Cell Efficiency

December 22, 2011 | Leave a Comment

A research team at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) report in Science the first photovoltaic solar cell that produces a photocurrent that has an external quantum efficiency greater than 100% when photoexcited with photons from the high energy region of the solar spectrum. For comparison external quantum efficiency for photocurrent is usually expressed as [...]

Dec

19

Solar Photovoltaic Catches a Major Breakthrough

December 19, 2011 | 8 Comments

At MIT or Massively Innovative Teams, in lieu of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a major new innovation in mounting photovoltaic solar panels should revolutionize the industry.  It’s based on a simple and when thought through – obvious observation. On a clear bright day you’ll notice the shadows are a dark area with little light.  But [...]

Dec

16

Doubling Up On Photovoltaic Solar Cell Efficiency

December 16, 2011 | 1 Comment

Chemistry Professor Xiaoyang Zhu at The University of Texas at Austin has a method of photon harvesting significantly increasing the efficiency of conventional solar cells.  The professor’s work improves the mechanisms of solar energy conversion. Zhu and his team have discovered that it’s possible to double the number of electrons harvested from one photon of [...]

Dec

5

Solar Power By Biomimetic Antenna

December 5, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Silicon and printed dye photovoltaic may have a new competitor soon. At Washington University in St. Louis’s Photosynthetic Antenna Research Center (PARC) one scientific team has just succeeded in making a crucial photosystem component – a light-harvesting antenna – from scratch. The new antenna is modeled on the chlorosome found in green bacteria. We may [...]

Nov

15

Energy Gathering Antennas Reach Further Into the Light Spectrum

November 15, 2011 | Leave a Comment

A solar panel composed of nano-antennas instead of semiconductors, made by adapting classic metallic antennas to absorb light waves at optical frequencies, has been announced by Tel Aviv University’s Department of Physical Electronics from its innovative new Renewable Energy Center. We have a prior work to consider that harvests the infrared from nearly four years [...]

Nov

10

Absorbing All the Light and its Energy

November 10, 2011 | Leave a Comment

NASA engineers have developed a super black material that absorbs light across multiple wavelength bands.  The material absorbs on average more than 99 percent of the ultraviolet, visible, infrared, and far-infrared light that hits it — a development that promises to open new frontiers in space technology.  It also has implication for those seeking to [...]

Nov

7

Hybrid Design Comes to Power Plants

November 7, 2011 | 1 Comment

Prof. Avi Kribus of Tel Aviv University’s School of Mechanical Engineering and its innovative new Renewable Energy Center is applying the term “hybrid” to power plants. Prof. Kribus has developed a new technology that combines the use of conventional fuel with the lower pressures and temperatures of steam produced by solar thermal power, allowing plants [...]

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