Apr

27

Paint Your Own Solar Cell

April 27, 2012 | 1 Comment

Scientists at USC think they have the material made of nanocrystals that could be painted on surfaces for making a solar cell. If the team gets to commercial market, the projection is a pathway to cheap, stable solar cells made with a liquid ink that can be painted or printed onto clear surfaces. Richard L. [...]

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 | 9 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 | 2 Comments

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 [...]

Nov

3

Close to the Maximum Solar Collector

November 3, 2011 | 3 Comments

Koray Aydin, a new assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the McCormick School at Northwestern University, has developed a new material that absorbs a wide range of wavelengths and could lead to more efficient and less expensive solar technology. The paper published in Nature Communications entitled, ‘Broadband Polarization-Independent Resonant Light Absorption Using [...]

Sep

19

Quantum Dots for Photovoltaic Cells Get Better

September 19, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Researchers from the University of Toronto (U of T), the King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST) and Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) are reporting a the most efficient quantum dot assembly technique of solar cells in the latest issue of Nature Materials.  In the paper entitled “Collodial-quantum-dot photovoltaics using atomic-ligand passivation,” the researchers [...]

Aug

17

Looking For a Better Plastic Solar Cell

August 17, 2011 | 1 Comment

Lehigh University physicists Ivan Biaggio, professor of physics, and Pavel Irkhin, a Ph.D. candidate, have developed an imaging technique that makes it possible to directly observe light-emitting excitons as they diffuse in a new material that is being explored for its extraordinary electronic properties. The problem for low cost plastic based solar cells the absorption [...]

Aug

12

Better Rooftop Hydrogen Production

August 12, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Duke assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering, Nico Hotz, proposes a hybrid option in which sunlight heats a combination of water and methanol in a maze of glass tubes on a rooftop.  Using two catalytic reactions, the system produces hydrogen much more efficiently than current technology without [...]

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