but wonder how the amount of living biomass there compares to that at the Earth s surface, says Konhauser s
Bigbelly streetside trash and recycling bins are already pretty smart they use solar power to compact certain materials
and future Earthlings enabling them to use renewable energy sources for making hydrogen fuel. Hydrogen fuel cells can power vehicles ranging from cars to submarines and rockets.
That means renewable energy sources like wind or sunlight which are often patchy are not reliable enough.
The whole process uses a single whack of power and patchy renewable energy will suffice for this says Cronin.
#Wind energy reaches greater heights Wind turbines across the globe are being made taller to capture more energy from the stronger winds that blow at greater heights.
and Alexander Slocum, the Pappalardo Professor of Mechanical engineering at MIT is developing a novel system that adapts a traditional pipe-making technology to churn out wind turbines on location,
at wind farms, making taller towers more economically feasible. Keystone system is a modification of spiral welding,
because the trees slow down the wind near the ground you can see a 50 percent increase in energy capture for the same wind turbine.
Solving transport problems The Keystone system value lies in skirting wind turbine transportation constraints that have plagued the industry for years.
Towers are made in segments to be shipped to wind farms for assembly. But theye restricted to diameters of about 14 feet
Smith explains. ut there no way to weld together a tower in a factory that 20 feet in diameter and ship it to the wind farm.
while conducting an independent study on wind energy issues with Slocum. Running a consulting company for machine design after graduating from MIT
Smith was vetting startups and technologies in wind energy, and other industries, for investors. As wind energy picked up steam about five years ago, venture capitalists soon funded Smith, Slocum,
and other wind energy experts to study opportunities for cost savings in large, onshore wind turbines. The team looked, for instance,
at developing advanced drivetrain controls and rotor designs. ut out of that study we spotted tower transport as one of the biggest bottlenecks holding back the industry,
Now, the company is working with the Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas Wind Systems, and other turbine makers, to plan out full-scale production,
In Maine, for example, there only a small percentage of the state where wind power is economically feasible today,
In the Midwest, wind energy has reached already grid-parity, undercutting even today low-cost natural gas but in areas like New england and the Southeast,
taller towers are needed to reach the strong winds that make wind energy economically feasible. nce youe at the heights wee looking at,
#How to make a perfect solar absorber The key to creating a material that would be ideal for converting solar energy to heat is tuning the material s spectrum of absorption just right:
When harnessing solar energy you want to trap it and keep it there Chou says; getting just the right spectrum of both absorption and emission is essential to efficient STPV performance.
Most of the sun s energy reaches us within a specific band of wavelengths Chou explains ranging from the ultraviolet through visible light and into the near-infrared.
which would add greatly to the complexity and expense of a solar power system. This is the first device that is able to do all these things at the same time Chou says.
and materials science to advance solar energy harvesting says Paul Braun a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who was involved not in this research.
Of course much work remains to realize a practical solar cell however the work here is one of the most important steps in that process.
The work was supported by the Solid-state Solar Thermal energy Conversion Center and the U s. Department of energy y
and is exploring powering the device on solar energy an important consideration for poor rural areas. The research was funded by the Singapore National Research Foundation through SMART T
#Recycling old batteries into solar cells This could be a classic win-win solution: A system proposed by researchers at MIT recycles materials from discarded car batteries a potential source of lead pollution into new,
long-lasting solar panels that provide emissions-free power. The system is described in a paper in the journal Energy and Environmental science,
It is based on a recent development in solar cells that makes use of a compound called perovskite specifically,
organolead halide perovskite a technology that has progressed rapidly from initial experiments to a point where its efficiency is nearly competitive with that of other types of solar cells. t went from initial demonstrations to good efficiency in less than two years,
Already, perovskite-based photovoltaic cells have achieved power-conversion efficiency of more than 19 percent, which is close to that of many commercial silicon-based solar cells.
Initial descriptions of the perovskite technology identified its use of lead, whose production from raw ores can produce toxic residues,
the team analysis shows that the lead from a single car battery could produce enough solar panels to provide power for 30 households.
As an added advantage, the production of perovskite solar cells is a relatively simple and benign process. t has the advantage of being a low-temperature process,
and the number of steps is reducedcompared with the manufacture of conventional solar cells, Belcher says.
In a finished solar panel, the lead-containing layer would be encapsulated fully by other materials, as many solar panels are today,
limiting the risk of lead contamination of the environment. When the panels are retired eventually, the lead can simply be recycled into new solar panels. he process to encapsulate them will be the same as for polymer cells today,
Chen says. hat technology can be translated easily. t is important that we consider the life cycles of the materials in large-scale energy systems,
Old lead is as good as new Belcher believes that the recycled perovskite solar cells will be embraced by other photovoltaics researchers,
just as good for the production of perovskite solar cells as freshly produced metal. Some companies are already gearing up for commercial production of perovskite photovoltaic panels,
and provide a solution for future renewable energy. The work, which also included research scientist Jifa Qi, graduate student Matthew Klug and postdoc Xiangnan Dang, was supported by Italian energy company Eni through the MIT Energy Initiative y
or microfluidic devices or solar panels that could automatically clean themselves of dust and grit. Most surfaces are passive says Kripa Varanasi an associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT
For example solar panels and the mirrors used in solar-concentrating systems can quickly lose a significant percentage of their efficiency
The issue of dust basically makes the use of solar panels to be less efficient than in North america or Europe.
The new material is able to convert 85 percent of incoming solar energy into steam a significant improvement over recent approaches to solar-powered steam generation.
if you can generate steam with solar energy, it would be very useful. Ghasemi and mechanical engineering department head Gang Chen,
But initiating this reaction requires very intense solar energy about 1, 000 times that of an average sunny day.
and retain solar energy. The structure bottom layer is a carbon foam that contains pockets of air to keep the foam afloat
They found they were able to convert 85 percent of solar energy into steam at a solar intensity 10 times that of a typical sunny day.
The research which also included MIT graduate student Daniel Preston and former postdoc Ryan Enright now at Lucent Ireland Ltd. was supported by MIT s Solid-state Solar-Thermal energy Conversion Center
At the time he was working on various photonics projects lasers solar cells and optical fiber that all involved a phenomenon called resonant coupling.
or in improving the efficiency of solar cells. While this analysis still leaves open questions about the precise structure of eumelanin molecules, Buehler says,
when it comes to wind power. Founded by alumni Ben Glass 08 SM 10 and Adam Rein MBA 10 Altaeros has developed the world s first commercial airborne wind turbine
Instead its purpose is to bring wind power to remote off-grid areas where towers aren t practically or economically feasible.
It s really about expanding wind energy to all those places on the fringes where it doesn t really work today
and expanding the amount of wind power that s able to be deployed globally Rein says. Aerostat innovationmuch of the BAT s innovation lies in its complete autonomy Glass says.
Harboring an interest in wind turbine design and knowing that traditional towers could never reach high-altitude winds he designed the BAT in his free time receiving technical guidance from Institute Professor Sheila Widnall and other faculty.
For their first power-producing prototype they bought a small reliable wind turbine rotor and cut off some metal in the back that was dead weight
#Getting more electricity out of solar cells When sunlight shines on today solar cells, much of the incoming energy is given off as waste heat rather than electrical current.
yielding new design guidelines for using those special materials to make high-efficiency solar cells. The results are reported in the journal Nature Chemistry by MIT alumni Shane R. Yost and Jiye Lee,
However, achieving it in a functioning solar cell has proved difficult and the exact mechanism involved has become the subject of intense controversy in the field.
In 2013, they reported making the first solar cell that gives off extra electrons from high-energy visible light,
According to their estimates, applying their technology as an inexpensive coating on silicon solar cells could increase efficiency by as much as 25 percent.
The results also provide practical guidelines for designing solar cells with these materials. They show that molecular packing is important in defining the rate of fission but only to a point.
whose integrated chip restores lost power to partially shaded solar panels achieving double the energy capture improvement of similar technologies won big on Monday night at the seventh annual MIT Clean energy Prize (CEP) competition.
the DOE Energy efficiency and Renewable energy Clean energy Prize, worth $100, 000, and the NSTAR MIT Clean energy Prize, worth $125, 000.
Solar panels on residential rooftops that are shaded partially by clouds or trees sacrifice as much as 30 percent of their energy potential over a year.
Unified Solar technology, for the first time, integrates an entire power balance circuit onto a low-cost chip that can be integrated into a solar panel to regain that lost energy. n the real world,
One finalist team was selected in each of three categories renewable energy (Thermovolt), energy efficiency (MF Fire), and infrastructure and resources (ulink) with each receiving $25, 000.
Existing solutions for partially shaded solar panels optimize power at the panel level. But these bulky oxesrely on costly energy storage components
you learn a lot about properties of solar cells that people often ignored as parasitic components. People wanted to get rid of them,
but we found a way to leverage them. o one has thought ever of using the solar cell as an energy storage itself,
and routing device that plugs into solar panels to power electronic devices, enabling a pay-as-you-go electricity system for people off the grid.
Winning in renewable energy (and also an Audience Choice Award) was Thermovolt which turns solar cells into cogeneration systems.
Sun exposure to solar panels produces about 0. 5 percent of wasted heat per Degree celsius increase.
Thermovolt modified solar cell captures that wasted energy and uses it to heat water for homes.
The two other audience choice awards went to REECYCLE, which reclaims rare earth elements from recycled electronics to create other resources,
#Excitons observed in action for the first time A quasiparticle called an exciton responsible for the transfer of energy within devices such as solar cells LEDS
For example in a solar cell an incoming photon may strike an electron kicking it to a higher energy level.
for other uses such as solar cells it is essential to minimize the trapping. The new technique should allow researchers to determine which factors are most important in increasing
which is the defining characteristic of most materials for low-cost solar cells and LEDS Baldo says.
#A molecular approach to solar power It an obvious truism, but one that may soon be outdated:
The problem with solar power is that sometimes the sun doesn shine. Now a team at MIT and Harvard university has come up with an ingenious workaround a material that can absorb the sun heat
or powering heat-based industrial processes this could provide an opportunity for the expansion of solar power into new realms. t could change the game,
not electricity, might be desired the outcome of solar power. For example, in large parts of the world the primary cooking fuel is wood or dung
and better photochromic compounds and composite materials that optimize the storage of solar energy in chemical bonds, Kanai says.
and especially in solar thermophotovoltaicsharnessing solar energy by using it to heat a material, which in turn radiates light of a particular color.
That light emission can then be harnessed using a photovoltaic cell tuned to make maximum use of that color of light.
which could one day be used to design more complex devices such as solar cells self-healing materials
and solar cells Lu says. The researchers are interested also in coating the biofilms with enzymes that catalyze the breakdown of cellulose
In a new Nature Materials paper, the researchers report boosting plantsability to capture light energy by 30 percent by embedding carbon nanotubes in the chloroplast,
Supercharged photosynthesis The idea for nanobionic plants grew out of a project in Strano lab to build self-repairing solar cells modeled on plant cells.
As a next step, the researchers wanted to try enhancing the photosynthetic function of chloroplasts isolated from plants, for possible use in solar cells.
For example the wind industry grew from a $500 million industry to a $15 billion industry in five years.
Among other things, she is now studying the financing of small-scale distributed solar power in areas of Kenya without either a formal grid or established banking systems;
hoists for workers at dams, buildings, bridges, and massive wind turbines; as well as for first responders. here a broad spectrum of users people who use rope access as part of their work for
Doug Arent, a research scientist at the National Renewable energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo. who was involved not in this work,
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 downs The 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,
and provide backup for renewable energy sources that produce intermittent output, such as wind and solar power. But Chiang says the technology is suited also well to applications where weight
#New technique helps probe performance of organic solar cell materials A research team led by North carolina State university has developed a new technique for determining the role that a material's structure has on the efficiency of organic solar cells
which are candidates for low-cost next generation solar power. The researchers have used the technique to determine that materials with a highly organized structure at the nanoscale are not more efficient at creating free electrons than poorly organized structures#a finding
There have been a lot of studies looking at the efficiency of organic solar cells but the energy conversion process involves multiple steps
Broadly speaking organic solar cells convert light into electric current in four steps. First the cell absorbs sunlight which excites electrons in the active layer of the cell.
In previous organic solar cell research there was ambiguity about whether differences in efficiency were due to dissociation or charge collection#because there was no clear method for distinguishing between the two.
so that it runs parallel to the long axis of organic solar cell molecules it will be absorbed; but if the light runs perpendicular to the molecules it passes right through it.
The researchers created highly organized nanostructures within a portion of the active layer of an organic solar cell meaning that the molecules in that portion all ran the same way.
or just the disorganized section#even though they were on the same active layer of the same solar cell.
and nanostructure features are needed to advance organic solar cell technology. Explore further: Hybrid materials could smash the solar efficiency ceiling More information:
Awartani O. Kudenov M. W. Kline R. J. and O'connor B. T. 2015) In-Plane Alignment in Organic solar cells to Probe the Morphological Dependence of Charge Recombination.
#Researchers create novel nanobowl optical concentrator for organic solar cell Geometrical light trapping is a simple and promising strategy to largely improve the optical absorption and efficiency of solar cells.
Solar energy is one of the most promising renewable energy resources and represents a clean and ultimate replacement for fossil fuels in the future.
Organic photovoltaic (OPV) has been regarded as one of the promising candidates for large-scale low-cost and efficient solar energy harvesting.
Meanwhile light trapping by nano-textured substrate is an appealing strategy to improve solar cell efficiency.
The novel nanobowl optical concentrator developed by Professor Zhiyong Fan can largely enhance the optical absorption in the active layer of organic solar cell
In addition they have investigated the effect of geometry of nanobowl on the solar cell performance and three types of nanobowl with pitch of 1000 nm 1200 nm and 1500 nm were studied.
Solar cells based on nanobowl with pitch of 1000 nm exhibited the best photon absorption in photoactive layer leading to the highest short-circuit current density of 9. 41 ma cm-2 among all nanobowl substrates.
With open-circuit voltage of 0. 573 V and fill factor of 57.9%this nanobowl solar cell achieved a solar energy conversion efficiency of 3. 12
The renewable energy sources of tomorrow will often be found far away from the end user. Wind turbines, for example, are most effective when placed out at sea.
Solar energy will have the greatest impact on the European energy system if focus is on transport of solar power from North africa and Southern Europe to Northern europe."
"Reducing energy losses during electric power transmission is one of the most important factors for the energy systems of the future,
"says Chalmers researcher Christian Müller.""The other two are development of renewable energy sources and technologies for energy storage."
"Together with colleagues from Chalmers University of Technology and the company Borealis in Sweden, he has found a powerful method for reducing energy losses in alternating current cables.
Carbon nanoballs can greatly contribute to sustainable energy supply Wind turbines are most effective when placed out at sea.
the researchers tested a number of molecules that are used also within organic solar cell research at Chalmers.
whether the crystalline structure of the materials is mismatched-lowering the manufacturing cost for a wide variety of semiconductor devices such as solar cells lasers and LEDS.
For example in photonic devices like solar cells lasers and LEDS the junction is where photons are converted into electrons or vice versa.
This manufacturing cost is a major reason why semiconductor devices such as solar cells lasers and LEDS remain very expensive.
#Lengthening the life of high capacity silicon electrodes in rechargeable lithium batteries A new study will help researchers create longer-lasting higher-capacity lithium rechargeable batteries
In a study published in the journal ACS Nano researchers showed how a coating that makes high capacity silicon electrodes more durable could lead to a replacement for lower-capacity graphite electrodes.
Understanding how the coating works gives us an indication of the direction we need to move in to overcome the problems with silicon electrodes said materials scientist Chongmin Wang of the Department of energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
Silicon electrodes aren't very durable#after a few dozen recharges they can no longer hold electricity. That's partly due to how silicon takes up lithium#like a sponge.
and thoroughly#an improvement over earlier silicon electrodes#but only partly alleviates the fracturing problem. Last year materials scientist Chunmei Ban and her colleagues at the National Renewable energy Laboratory in Golden Colorado and the University of Colorado Boulder found that they could cover silicon nanoparticles with a rubberlike coating made from aluminum glycerol.
The coated silicon particles lasted at least five times longer#uncoated particles died by 30 cycles but the coated ones still carried a charge after 150 cycles.
Ban's group#which developed the coating for silicon electrodes called alucone and is currently the only group that can create alucone-coated silicon particles#took high magnification images of the particles in an electron microscope.
And their energy storage abilities may help smooth out the power flow from alternative energy systems such as wind energy. They can power a defibrillator open the emergency slides on an aircraft
and inorganic-based energy devices such as battery solar cell and self-powered devices that require high temperature processes s
When associate professor Qi Hua Fan of the electrical engineering and computer science department set out to make a less expensive supercapacitor for storing renewable energy he developed a new plasma technology that will streamline the production of display screens.
#New nanocomposites for aerospace and automotive industries The Center for Research in Advanced Materials (CIMAV) has developed reinforced graphite nanoplatelets seeking to improve the performance of solar cell materials.
#Graphene/nanotube hybrid benefits flexible solar cells Rice university scientists have invented a novel cathode that may make cheap, flexible dye-sensitized solar cells practical.
The discovery was reported online in the Royal Society of Chemistry's Journal of Materials Chemistry A. Dye-sensitized solar cells have been in development
While they are not nearly as efficient as silicon-based solar cells in collecting sunlight and transforming it into electricity,
dye-sensitized solar cells have advantages for many applications, according to co-lead author Pei Dong, a postdoctoral researcher in Lou's lab."The first is that they're low-cost,
The hybrid material solves two issues that have held back commercial application of dye-sensitized solar cells,
Lou's lab built and tested solar cells with nanotube forests of varying lengths The shortest,
Tests found that solar cells made from the longest nanotubes produced the best results and topped out at nearly 18 milliamps of current per square centimeter
The new dye-sensitized solar cells were as much as 20 percent better at converting sunlight into power,
This approach to growing nanomaterials will improve the efficiency of various devices including solar cells and fuel cells.
These semiconducting nanowires could also replace thin films that cover today's solar panels. Current panels can process only 20 percent of the solar energy they take in.
By applying the nanowires the surface area of the panels would increase and allow more efficient solar energy capture and conversion.
The wires could also be applied in the biomedical field to maximize heat production in hyperthermia treatment of cancer.
The new kind of nanotubes also could lead to flexible solar panels that can be rolled up and stored or even"painted"on clothing such as a jacket,
thus favouring the use of this renewable source of energy, "affirms Eudald Casals, ICN2 researcher participating in the project.
thereby greatly increasing the production of biogas, a renewable energy which is growing steadily and is accessible to everyone,
thus becoming a useful technology in all industrial applications using heat transfer systems such as solar power plants, nuclear power plants, combined-cycle power plants and heating, among other.
and reduce the cost of solar cells and increase the capacity and reduce the charging time of batteries he says.
The resulting batteries and solar cells are also mechanically flexible and thus can be integrated with flexible electronics.
Breakthrough for carbon nanotube solar cell l
#See-through one-atom-thick carbon electrodes powerful tool to study brain disorders Researchers from the Perelman School of medicine and School of engineering at the University of Pennsylvania and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia have used graphene
and renewable energy storage, high-density energy storage systems are needed. Lithium-ion batteries, though mature and widely utilized, have encountered the theoretical limit
The ability to mold inorganic nanoparticles out of materials such as gold and silver in precisely designed 3-D shapes is a significant breakthrough that has the potential to advance laser technology microscopy solar cells electronics environmental testing
this area of research could revolutionise renewable energy production. Working in collaboration with researchers at the University of Sheffield,
and replace them with synthetic components to create a new generation of solar cells. Professor Evans concludes:"
#Blades of grass inspire advance in organic solar cells Using a biomimicking analog of one of nature's most efficient light-harvesting structures blades of grass an international research team led by Alejandro Briseno of the University of Massachusetts Amherst
or discontinuous pathways that pose a serious drawback when using blended systems known as bulk heterojunction donor-acceptor or positive-negative (p-n) junctions for harvesting energy in organic solar cells.
He says This work is a major advancement in the field of organic solar cells because we have developed
The breakthrough in morphology control should have widespread use in solar cells batteries and vertical transistors he adds.
For decades scientists and engineers have placed great effort in trying to control the morphology of p-n junction interfaces in organic solar cells.
We envision that our nanopillar solar cells will appeal to low-end energy applications such as gadgets toys sensors and short lifetime disposable devices s
#Nanoengineering enhances charge transport promises more efficient future solar cells Solar cells based on semiconducting composite plastics and carbon nanotubes is one of the most promising novel technology for producing inexpensive printed solar cells.
Physicists at Umeå University have discovered that one can reduce the number of carbon nanotubes in the device by more than 100 times
Carbon nanotubes are more and more attractive for use in solar cells as a replacement for silicon. They can be mixed in a semiconducting polymer
and deposited from solution by simple and inexpensive methods to form thin and flexible solar cells.
and transport electrical charges generated from solar energy. Earlier this year, Dr. David Barbero and his research team at Umeå University,
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