#Elon musk Needs a Very Big Factory for His New Solar technology The Tesla founder and private space entrepreneur Elon musk announced yesterday that Solar City,
And with typical bravado, he also said that the company plans to build a huge factory to produce Silevo high-efficiency solar panels,
it will also become a major manufacturer of solar panels, with by far the largest factory in the U s. The acquisition makes sense given that Silevo technology has the potential to reduce the cost of installing solar panels,
Solar City main business. But the decision to build a huge factory in the U s. seems daringspecially given the recent failures of other U s.-based solar manufacturers in the face of competition from Asia.
Silevo produces solar panels that are roughly 15 to 20 percent more efficient than conventional ones.
Silevo isn the only company to produce high-efficiency solar cells. A version made by Panasonic is just as efficient,
and Sunpower makes ones that are significantly more so (see ecord-Breaking Solar cell Points the Way the Cheaper Solar power.
if building huge factories to produce advanced solar panels can bring down costs, the market for solar panels could still grow exponentially l
#How LEDS Are Set to Revolutionize Hi-tech Greenhouse Farming It won't come as a surprise to discover that consumers all over the developed world are increasingly demanding seasonal vegetables all year round even
and that light frequency also influences the biomass of certain plants as well as their nutritional content.
and co. Exactly how light of various frequencies influences plant growth biomass and nutritional content is understood not well.
In the new work, researchers from University college London and the University of Iceland added carbon dioxide to a stream of water being pumped underground at a large geothermal power plant in Iceland,
The simpler design also means that manufacturing costs are about half that of a traditional wind turbine (those massive blades are expensive.
The simpler design also means that manufacturing costs are about half that of a traditional wind turbine (those massive blades are expensive.
*Offshore wind turbines could also benefit from self-healing technology, as they are damaged often by bird strikes.
*Offshore wind turbines could also benefit from self-healing technology, as they are damaged often by bird strikes.
and is covered with 15 m2 of lightweight solar panels.''All you need to do is unfurl the sail
'The balloon can be used for homes in remote areas where the roof cannot take the weight of traditional solar panels,
and is covered with 15 m2 of lightweight solar panels.''All you need to do is unfurl the sail
'The balloon can be used for homes in remote areas where the roof cannot take the weight of traditional solar panels,
The included solar cells all act independently to capture and store energy for each individual LED.
#Israel-based Utilight develops revolutionary new technique for 3d printing solar cells With the rise of various products that are aimed at creating
the engineers at Utilight have been actively developing a new type of additive manufacturing technology called Pattern Transfer Printing (PTP) that allows for the immediate implementation in the photovoltaic metallization process of c-Si solar cells.
Ultimately, the new technique is capable of increasing the efficiency of solar cells while simultaneously reducing the photovoltaic manufacturing costs.
Although the company itself is relatively young in the scope of solar cell technologies, its executive members bring a wealth of experience from material science, physics and engineering backgrounds;
Although the solar cell industry may not be familiar to many, it is expected to grow exponentially as we continue to seek out alternative
(our) innovative technology aims to increase solar cell efficiency and reduce material use, reducing the cost per watt of solar electricity,
adds the company. s today leading photovoltaic cell manufacturers have reached the limits of conventional screen printing metallization processes for solar cells;
PV manufacturers must adopt new ways to promise substantial efficiency gains in order to be competitive within this thriving market. h
#Paper-thin 3d printed solar cells to provide affordable electricity for unlit rural areas Jun 29, 2015 By Simonthanks to a recent surge of interest surrounding various alternative energy sources and technologies including Elon musk announcement of a Tesla home battery,
Now, a new printed solar cell technology that only requires the use of existing industrial-size 3d printers
which is capable of producing printed solar cells that are both flexible and inexpensive to transport,
According to Scott Watkins, the director of the unit for overseas business at Korean firm Kyung-In Synthetic, these 3d printed solar cells have already been used in India. e witnessed firsthand how the technology has enabled urban poor communities in India
A 10×10 cm solar cell film is enough to generate as much as 10-50 watts per square meter. atkins recently spoke about the technology during the Smart Villages session of the World Conference of Science Journalists in Seoul, South korea.
It will enhance power transmission from solar arrays to the high-power electric thrusters on the spacecraft,
and deliver the power from the advanced solar arrays to the high-power electric propulsion thrusters on spacecraft."
Recently the emergence of green technology markets of products such as direct drive wind turbine power systems hybrid and electric vehicles and energy storage units have increased the demand for permanent magnets.
could be solar cells, printed circuit boards, low-emissivity coatings, or transparent electronics. A microchannel applicator used in the system will allow the creation of smaller, more complex electronics features.
With ultrathin solar panels for trim and a USB charger tucked into the waist, the Southwest-inspired garment captured enough sunshine to charge cell phones
to build better or more efficient solar cells, or make better and more economical use of fossil fuels,
#Gallium Phosphide Nanowires Significantly Increase Efficiency of Solar fuel Cells The solar cell made of gallium phosphide (Gap) generates clean fuel hydrogen gas from Water gap is a compound containing phosphide and gallium which also acts
the efficiency of the solar cell can be increased tenfold without using considerable amounts of costly material.
The electricity thus generated by the solar cell can be utilized to trigger chemical reactions. If these reactions produce fuel, then solar fuels would become a promising alternative for polluting fuels.
One efficient solution is to link a current silicon solar cell to a battery which is capable of splitting the liquid water;
when a huge flat surface is present as that utilized in Gap solar cells. The team resolved this issue by fabricating a network of small Gap nanowires
even at the extremely low power levels characteristic of tiny solar cells. Previous ultralow-power converters that used the same approach had efficiencies of only 40 or 50 percent.
Where most of its ultralow-power predecessors could use a solar cell to either charge a battery
Ups and downsthe circuit chief function is to regulate the voltages between the solar cell the battery,
and falls depends on the voltage generated by the solar cell, which is highly variable. So the timing of the switch throws has to vary, too.
whose selection is determined by the solar cell voltage. Once again, when the capacitor fills, the switches in the inductor path are flipped. n this technology space,
solar panels and transistors, are printed mainly on hard or rigid materials, such as paper or plastics. For wearable devices, materials would need to be soft and stretchy to be comfortable and well fitting
much less how peat smoke chemical properties differ from other kinds of biomass smoke. Yet emerging research offers early clues.
#Sweet source for aviation biofuel Researchers have identified a new way to produce aviation fuel from sugarcane biomass that could deliver substantial cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
"Prof Bell said that the process to make the aviation biofuel outlined in his team's paper would use waste biomass to generate the energy required operate the refinery,
Continuous improvements in growth media and cell lines have elevated biomass concentrations in bioprocesses. Therefore, these increasingly higher concentrations place growing challenges on the purification process.
As the system maintains a constant ratio of biomass and filter aid, users will benefit from continuous maximum filter performance.
Last week, the U s. Navy signed an agreement with biotech company Biodico to collaborate on developing advanced biofuels and bioenergy refineries throughout the globe for the U s. military.
California that will produce biofuels and bioenergy at prices competitive with unsubsidized conventional fuel and power.
where there is already a 2. 35 MW solar array that generates about 55%of the campus electricity.
and in some cases you can actually see sheep among the solar panels. Modern farming is becoming dual purpose.
and crops. e has nearly 350 kw of solar panels mounted on poles 3 meters above ground
Both the solar panels and the food-bearing plants receive enough sunlight to be productive. It would be nice
#GE Launches Digital Wind farm To Make Renewables More Efficient Multinational company GE announced the launch of its new Digital Wind farm on Tuesday,
and adaptable wind energy ecosystemintended to boost a wind farm energy production by 20%.%According to GE, the Digital Wind farm makes use of the industrial internet o address a longstanding need for greater flexbility in renewable power. very business including our own at GE
and every industry is being transformed by smarter digital technologies, and the greatest opportunity lies in energy, said Steve Bolze,
That what will separate industry leaders from those left behind. he Digital Wind farm is based around GE new generation of Brilliant wind turbines
%and could help generate up to an estimated $50 billion of value for the wind industry (based on all wind farms in the world using the latest GE turbines and technology).
E focus on life-cycle operations is consistent with the way we operate our wind farms, said Michael Polsky,
president and CEO of leading energy company Invenergy. e look forward to working together with GE Digital Wind farm to unlock even more long-term value across our fleet.?
we can create a world where wind farms learn, adapt and perform better tomorrow than they do today. b
and far more spores, could produce more power per unit than a wind farm. If you want more details,
and a new pathway to converting biomass to jet fuel was announced by a team from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in partnership with the petroleum giant BP of all people (corporations are people too,
now that offshore wind energy is taking off, but the pursuit is worth it. One key advantage of wave devices is their relatively low profile above the surface,
That provides much more flexibility for site selection than offshore wind turbines which can easily run into aesthetic obstacles.
The integration of magnetoelectronics with ultrathin functional elements such as solar cells light-emitting diodes transistors as well as temperature and tactile sensor arrays will enable autonomous and versatile smart systems with a multitude of sensing
This type of solar panel would neither rust nor require much cleaning. There's still a little more R&d to do though,
Firm unveils radical design that claims to be quieter and safer than traditional wind farms By Ellie Zolfagharifard For Dailymail. com Published:
a bladeless wind turbine that can generate more electricity for less. Scroll down for videocreated by Madrid-based Vortex Bladeless,
#Lightsail launches to test revolutionary solar technology in Earth orbit A small spacecraft designed to test solar sail technology in Earth orbit has taken flight in a successful launch.
Could we finally power cars with SOLAR PANELS? Nanowire...Forget the Insane Mode: Elon musk says Tesla's new...
the solar cell obtains adequate light, even in the darkness of winter, said Fraunhofer. On the chip are magnetic
was to deposit a solar cell directly on a die, over the uneven metal layers. his is had why we to find a means of filling in
and evening the surface prior to coating it with the solar cell, said engineer Dr Gerd vom Bögel,
Secondly, the chip needed to run from a tiny solar cell, in the winter, and through the night. y keeping both processor and chip extremely small, the latter is extremely frugal.
which approached IMS for on-die solar cells two years ago. Solchip has plans to use them to monitor street traffic
it features a solar panel in the flap which charges as the children walk to and from school as well as strips of reflective material,
he removes the solar panel and screws it onto a solar jar that can last up to 12 hours,
#This cloudy-day black silicon solar cell can hit a record 22.1%efficiency When most people think of solar power,
or black, solar cell. They accomplished this by overlaying a thin, passivating film on the nanostructures by a process known as atomic layer deposition,
Black solar cells work really well on cloudy days. his is an advantage particularly in the north,
And thanks to the inherent properties of black solar cells, they can capture solar radiation at low angles,
and delivers vibrant color Light-emitting diodes (LEDS) are prevalent in everything from digital clocks to solar panels, traffic lights, electronic banners and signs, Christmas decorations,
and today most solar cells are based on silicon. In theory, the success with simple transistors implies that this material could also help continue advances in solar cells.
What most exciting here after graphene has saturated headline space for so long, is that there was only a few months needed to take this purely theoretical 2d substance from a computer simulation to practical, working transistors.
#New material combines photons for big solar energy gains An innovative new approach to solar energy from University of California Riverside could dramatically increase the amount of light available to contemporary solar panel designs.
Rather than widening the absorption spectrum of the solar panels themselves, this new study looked at taking currently inaccessible infrared light and turning it into visible light.
They hope that by directing this newly fabricated light onto conventional solar panels, the efficiency of solar power could be improved greatly, for an affordable price.
Infrared light currently passes straight through most silicon solar cell technologies representing a substantial inefficiency in generating electricity from sunlight.
and thus the manufacturing process for solar panels. Their impacts tend to be limited by cost concerns, more than anything else.
more importantly, it exists in a form that existing solar panels can absorb. By changing the incoming sunlight into silicon favorite for absorption,
the material could improve solar panel efficiency by as much as 30%.%And while the costs of the material itself are known not yet,
The resulting, lower-wavelength photons can move on to be absorbed by the transistors of the solar panel as normal,
and it is currently being missed by every solar panel outside of a research laboratory. In general, this sort of research into the manipulation of light could allow a wider rollout of solar power around the world.
and harder for modern solar panels to turn into power. Infrared radiation moves through and overcast sky quite well
Researchers say that this could be useful in the creation of rust-free solar panels that capture the sun energy
Nanowires are extremely thin nanocrystal threads used in the development of new electronic components like transistors and solar cells.
#New record efficiency for black silicon solar cells Researchers at the University of Aalto, Finland have broken the efficiency record for black silicon solar cells a type of cell that can gather sunlight even from tight
allowing solar cells that use it to trap light even when it's coming from very low angles.
This could be a good way to increase the yield of solar cells throughout the day
as they don't need the antireflection coatings used by many other types of solar cells. The main issue that has stifled the progress of black silicon cells is something known as carrier recombination.
When a photon hits a silicon atom inside a solar cell, the excess energy frees up an electron that is later used to generate electricity.
"The fuel was created by Audi's project partner Global Bioenergies, in France. In late 2014, Global Bioenergies started up the fermentation unit for a pilot program to produce gaseous isobutane from renewable biomass sugars such as corn-derived glucose.
Gaseous isobutane is a sort of raw material for the petrochemical industry that can then be refined into a variety of plastics, fuels and other applications.
"says Global Bioenergies CEO Marc Delcourt.""It is the first time that we have produced real gasoline from plants."
"says Rick Bockrath, vice president for chemical engineering at Global Bioenergies.""It's basically how we're moving away from an oil-based economy towards something that has a renewable, sustainable future to it."
"Audi and Global Bioenergies hope to tweak the production process in the future so that biomass is required no longer
and e-benzin can be created using only water, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and sunlight. We saw a similar project in Europe in 2014 that sought to make jet fuel.
including local wastewater, biomass or watersheds. Source: Binghamton Universit a
#3d printed flutes hit the right notes Researchers at Australia's University of Wollongong (UOW) have created a number of 3d printed custom flutes that can play microtonal tunings otherwise unachievable with standard flutes,
#New energy cell can store up solar energy for release at night A photoelectrochemical cell (PEC) is a special type of solar cell that gathers the Sun's energy
While there's a healthy selection of compact solar panels to keep our mobile gadgets charged up light permitting the vast majority of these are either too small to be effective or too bulky for carting around.
while the actual solar panels are only 1. 5 mm thick. But Solar Paper has more going for it than just its form factor.
Both have been utilized individually by researchers to boost sunlight conversion to electrical current in solar cells, and to increase the efficacy of electrically-generated light.
Electricity is generated by way of a 4. 3 kwp glazed photovoltaic solar panel array. This is fully integrated into the south-facing roof of the house
and Wind Incentives Permanent President Obama just unveiled a $3. 99 trillion budget for 2016 that asks Congress for a permanent extension of tax credits for the solar and wind industry.
About three-fifths of those Hawaiian solar systems use microinverters from Enphase, the company that leads the market for DC-to-AC devices that sit at the solar panels themselves, rather than in one big box next to the power meter.
Third-party solar provider Solarcity, for example, has worked with HECO and Department of energy researchers to show that smart inverter technologies can allow more solar per circuit--an important concession for HECO,
Researchers Tout Solar panels Made With erovskitemineral A new generation of solar panels made from a mineral called perovskite has the potential to convert solar energy into household electricity more cheaply than ever before, according to a study from Britain Exeter University.
we have the abundant solar and wind resources, the innovative companies, and the open energy storage procurement proceeding that can, at a modest scale, kick-start the long-duration energy storage market.
REDT is developing a vanadium redox flow battery for storing wind and wave power in Scotland. And Isentropic is building a demonstration project for its cryogenic energy storage technology.
Offshore wind turbines could benefit from selfhealing technology, as they are damaged often by bird strikes (AFP/Getty) Professor Wass team at the University of Bristol has been focusing on the creation of self-healing versions of carbon fibre composite materials,
*Offshore wind turbines could also benefit from self-healing technology, as they are damaged often by bird strikes.
and built by the Washington-based engineering firm Janicki Bioenergy, which is now receiving funding from the Bill
The device is a pocket-size rectangle that unfolds to reveal three solar panels. These panels can absorb enough sunlight in 90 minutes to charge a standard smartphone
a bladeless wind turbine that looks like a giant rolled joint shooting into the sky. The Vortex has the same goals as conventional wind turbines:
To turn breezes into kinetic energy that can be used as electricity. But it goes about it in an entirely different way.
Based on field testing, the Mini ultimately captures 30 percent less than conventional wind turbines, but that shortcoming is compensated by the fact that you can put double the Vortex turbines into the same space as a propeller turbine.
which Suriol is actually happy about. e can say anything bad about conventional wind turbines; theye great machines, he says. ee just proposing a new way, a different way. ource:
Nanofibers-polymer filaments only a couple of hundred nanometers in diameter have a huge range of potential applications, from solar cells to water filtration to fuel cells.
where you would be able to individually control each emitter to print deposits of nanofibers. angled talenanofibers are useful for any application that benefits from a high ratio of surface area to volume solar cells, for instance,
Nanofibers-polymer filaments only a couple of hundred nanometers in diameter have a huge range of potential applications, from solar cells to water filtration to fuel cells.
where you would be able to individually control each emitter to print deposits of nanofibers. angled talenanofibers are useful for any application that benefits from a high ratio of surface area to volume solar cells, for instance,
#Chemists devise technology that could transform solar energy storage The materials in most of today's residential rooftop solar panels can store energy from the sun for only a few microseconds at a time.
A new technology developed by chemists at UCLA is capable of storing solar energy for up to several weeks-an advance that could change the way scientists think about designing solar cells.
To capture energy from sunlight, conventional rooftop solar cells use silicon, a fairly expensive material. There is currently a big push to make lower-cost solar cells using plastics
rather than silicon, but today plastic solar cells are relatively inefficient, in large part because the separated positive and negative electric charges often recombine before they can become electrical energy. odern plastic solar cells don have well-defined structures like plants do
because we never knew how to make them before, Tolbert said. ut this new system pulls charges apart
and keeps them separated for days, or even weeks. Once you make the right structure,
The researchers are already working on how to incorporate the technology into actual solar cells. Yves Rubin, a UCLA professor of chemistry and another senior co-author of the study,
#Chemists devise technology that could transform solar energy storage The materials in most of today's residential rooftop solar panels can store energy from the sun for only a few microseconds at a time.
A new technology developed by chemists at UCLA is capable of storing solar energy for up to several weeks-an advance that could change the way scientists think about designing solar cells.
To capture energy from sunlight, conventional rooftop solar cells use silicon, a fairly expensive material. There is currently a big push to make lower-cost solar cells using plastics
rather than silicon, but today plastic solar cells are relatively inefficient, in large part because the separated positive and negative electric charges often recombine before they can become electrical energy. odern plastic solar cells don have well-defined structures like plants do
because we never knew how to make them before, Tolbert said. ut this new system pulls charges apart
and keeps them separated for days, or even weeks. Once you make the right structure,
The researchers are already working on how to incorporate the technology into actual solar cells. Yves Rubin, a UCLA professor of chemistry and another senior co-author of the study,
To accomplish this, traditional solar panels can be used to generate an electrical current that splits water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen,
However, the cost of producing efficient solar panels makes water-splitting technologies too expensive to commercialize.
unconventional method to fabricate high-quality, efficient solar panels for direct solar hydrogen production with low cost. The work is published in Nature Communications.
However, harvesting usable amounts of solar energy requires large areas of solar panels, and it is notoriously difficult and expensive to fabricate thin films of 2-D materials at such a scale
which is much less expensive than a traditional solar panel. The thin film produced like this was tested
#Reshaping the solar spectrum to turn light to electricity Researchers find a way to use the infrared region of the sun's spectrum to make solar cells more efficient.
When it comes to installing solar cells, labor cost and the cost of the land to house them constitute the bulk of the expense.
The solar cells made often of silicon or cadmium telluride rarely cost more than 20 percent of the total cost.
if less land had to be purchased to accommodate solar panels, best achieved if each solar cell could be coaxed to generate more power.
A huge gain in this direction has now been made by a team of chemists at the University of California
spectrum passes right through the photovoltaic materials that make up today solar cells, explained Christopher Bardeen, a professor of chemistry.
an assistant professor of chemistry. his is lost energy, no matter how good your solar cell. The hybrid material we have come up with first captures two infrared photons that would normally pass right through a solar cell without being converted to electricity,
then adds their energies together to make one higher energy photon. This upconverted photon is absorbed readily by photovoltaic cells,
generating electricity from light that normally would be wasted. ardeen added that these materials are essentially eshaping the solar spectrumso that it better matches the photovoltaic materials used today in solar cells.
The ability to utilize the infrared portion of the solar spectrum could boost solar photovoltaic efficiencies by 30 percent or more.
providing a route to higher efficiencies. his 550-nanometer light can be absorbed by any solar cell material,
#Reshaping the solar spectrum to turn light to electricity Researchers find a way to use the infrared region of the sun's spectrum to make solar cells more efficient.
When it comes to installing solar cells, labor cost and the cost of the land to house them constitute the bulk of the expense.
The solar cells made often of silicon or cadmium telluride rarely cost more than 20 percent of the total cost.
if less land had to be purchased to accommodate solar panels, best achieved if each solar cell could be coaxed to generate more power.
A huge gain in this direction has now been made by a team of chemists at the University of California
spectrum passes right through the photovoltaic materials that make up today solar cells, explained Christopher Bardeen, a professor of chemistry.
an assistant professor of chemistry. his is lost energy, no matter how good your solar cell. The hybrid material we have come up with first captures two infrared photons that would normally pass right through a solar cell without being converted to electricity,
then adds their energies together to make one higher energy photon. This upconverted photon is absorbed readily by photovoltaic cells,
generating electricity from light that normally would be wasted. ardeen added that these materials are essentially eshaping the solar spectrumso that it better matches the photovoltaic materials used today in solar cells.
The ability to utilize the infrared portion of the solar spectrum could boost solar photovoltaic efficiencies by 30 percent or more.
providing a route to higher efficiencies. his 550-nanometer light can be absorbed by any solar cell material,
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