Solar Energy News

April 18, 2024

Top Headlines

New Four-Terminal Tandem Organic Solar Cell Achieves 16.94% Power Conversion Efficiency

Apr. 8, 2024 — Researchers have fabricated a new four-terminal organic solar cell with a tandem configuration with a 16.94% power conversion efficiency (PCE). The new device is composed by a highly transparent ...

Chemistry Researchers Modify Solar Technology to Produce a Less Harmful Greenhouse Gas

Apr. 2, 2024 — Researchers are using semiconductors to harvest and convert the sun's energy into high-energy compounds that have the potential to produce environmentally-friendly ...

A Solar Cell You Can Bend and Soak in Water

Mar. 27, 2024 — Researchers have developed an organic photovoltaic film that is both waterproof and flexible, allowing a solar cell to be put onto clothes and still function correctly after being rained on or even ...

Researchers Take Major Step Toward Developing Next-Generation Solar Cells

Mar. 22, 2024 — Engineers have discovered a new way to manufacture solar cells using perovskite semiconductors. It could lead to lower-cost, more efficient systems for powering homes, cars, boats and ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:19pm EDT

Heat, Cold Extremes Hold Untapped Potential for Solar and Wind Energy

Mar. 27, 2024 — Conditions that usually accompany the kind of intense hot and cold weather that strains power grids may also provide greater opportunities to capture solar and wind energy. A study found that ...

Pairing Crypto Mining With Green Hydrogen Offers Clean Energy Boost

Mar. 25, 2024 — Pairing cryptocurrency mining -- notable for its outsize consumption of carbon-based fuel -- with green hydrogen could provide the foundation for wider deployment of renewable energy, such as solar ...

Reimagining the Future of Solar Energy

Mar. 18, 2024 — New research suggests that there might be other ways to generate solar energy than just trying to make individual solar cells ...

New High-Performance Solar Cell Material

Mar. 13, 2024 — A new study reports the discovery of an entirely new stable, earth-abundant, high-performance material for solar absorbers -- the central part of a solar cell that turns light into electricity. While ...

Researchers Invent New Triple-Junction Tandem Solar Cells With World-Record Efficiency

Mar. 4, 2024 — Scientists have developed a novel triple-junction perovskite/Si tandem solar cell that can achieve a certified world-record power conversion ...

Study Unlocks Nanoscale Secrets for Designing Next-Generation Solar Cells

Feb. 29, 2024 — A team of researchers has revealed ways to optimize efficiency and better control degradation, by engineering the nanoscale structure of perovskite ...

Researchers Improve the Stability of Perovskite Solar Cells

Feb. 29, 2024 — Perovskite solar cells are considered the strongest contender to replace silicon solar cells. While they achieve high power conversion energy, they also suffer from lead leakage and perovskite ...

Researchers Use Hawk Supercomputer and Lean Into Imperfection to Improve Solar Cell Efficiency

Feb. 27, 2024 — Solar energy is one of the most promising, widely adopted renewable energy sources, but the solar cells that convert light into electricity remains a ...

New Study Unveils Scalable and Efficient Photoelectrode Modules for Green Hydrogen Production

Feb. 28, 2024 — A recent study has achieved a remarkable technological breakthrough in the production of green ...

What Will It Take for China to Reach Carbon Neutrality by 2060?

Feb. 26, 2024 — To become carbon neutral by 2060, China will have to build eight to 10 times more wind and solar power installations than existed in 2022, according to a new study. Reaching carbon neutrality will ...

Perovskite Solar Cells: Vacuum Process May Offer a Short Track to Commercialization

Mar. 14, 2024 — Which process is best suited for mass production of perovskite solar cells? While solvent-based manufacturing processes are used in laboratories around the world, vacuum vapor-phase deposition ...

New World Record for CIGS Solar Cells

Feb. 26, 2024 — A new record for electrical energy generation from CIGS solar cells has been reached. Scientists have achieved a 23.64 percent ...

New Evidence Shows UK Solar Parks Can Provide for Bees and Butterflies

Feb. 21, 2024 — A new study shows that UK solar parks, if managed correctly, can provide vital resources to help stem the decline in the nation's bees and butterflies. The new research provides peer-reviewed ...

Revolutionary Breakthrough in Solar Energy: Most Efficient QD Solar Cells

Feb. 21, 2024 — A research team has unveiled a novel ligand exchange technique that enables the synthesis of organic cation-based perovskite quantum dots (PQDs), ensuring exceptional stability while suppressing ...

Scientists Invent Ultra-Thin, Minimally-Invasive Pacemaker Controlled by Light

Feb. 21, 2024 — A team of researchers has developed a wireless device, powered by light, that can be implanted to regulate cardiovascular or neural activity in the body. The feather-light membranes, thinner than a ...

Physicists Develop More Efficient Solar Cell

Feb. 20, 2024 — Physicists have used complex computer simulations to develop a new design for significantly more efficient solar cells than previously available. A thin layer of organic material, known as tetracene, ...

Electrification or Hydrogen? Both Have Distinct Roles in the European Energy Transition

Feb. 16, 2024 — A key step to achieving climate neutrality in the European Union is to rapidly shift from fossil fuels to electric technologies powered by renewable energies, a new study shows. At the same time, ...

New Sustainable Method for Creating Organic Semiconductors

Jan. 22, 2024 — Researchers have developed a new, more environmentally friendly way to create conductive inks for use in organic electronics such as solar cells, artificial neurons, and soft sensors. The findings ...

Breakthrough Research Enhances Stability and Efficiency of Perovskite Solar Cells

Jan. 22, 2024 — A research team has achieved remarkable advancements in the stability and efficiency of perovskite solar ...

Artificial 'Power Plants' Harness Energy from Wind and Rain

Jan. 17, 2024 — Fake plants are moving into the 21st century! Researchers developed literal 'power plants' -- tiny, leaf-shaped generators that create electricity from a blowing breeze or falling ...

Space Solar Power Project Ends First in-Space Mission With Successes and Lessons

Jan. 17, 2024 — A 10-month mission demonstrated three elements of the plan to beam solar power from space to ...

Advancement in Thermoelectricity Could Light Up the Internet of Things

Jan. 16, 2024 — Researchers have improved the efficiency of heat-to-electricity conversion in gallium arsenide semiconductor microstructures. By judicious spatial alignment of electrons within a two-dimensional ...

Bulky Additives Could Make Cheaper Solar Cells Last Longer

Jan. 11, 2024 — An insight into preventing perovskite semiconductors from degrading quickly could help enable solar cells estimated to be two to four times cheaper than today's thin-film solar ...

New Findings Regarding the High Efficiency of Perovskite Solar Cells

Jan. 10, 2024 — Free charge carriers in perovskite solar cells likely have a special form of protection from recombination, researchers have discovered. This may be key to the high efficiency of this cell type, ...

Green Wheels, Bright Skies: Analysis Unveils the Connection Between Electric Vehicles and Photovoltaics

Jan. 9, 2024 — People who own electric vehicles (EVs) are more likely to go a step further and add solar panels to their home, according to an analysis of a behavioral study. Conversely, the impact of owning solar ...

High-Performance Stretchable Solar Cells

Jan. 4, 2024 — Engineers have succeeded in implementing a stretchable organic solar cell by applying a newly developed polymer material that demonstrated the world's highest photovoltaic conversion efficiency ...

Nature-Inspired Advanced Materials Achieves 99.6% Solar Reflectivity

Jan. 3, 2024 — Scientific researchers draw inspiration from nature's brilliance as they seek to develop transformative solutions to unresolved ...

The Solar Forest

Dec. 13, 2023 — What would be the most effective use of a certain plot of land in terms of the climate crisis: planting a forest, which is a natural means of absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, or erecting ...

Free Electric Vehicle Charging at Work? It's Possible With Optimum Solar

Dec. 12, 2023 — The global surge in electric vehicle sales has prompted an Australian university to explore how it could offer free or nominal EV charging facilities to staff and students by optimizing its solar PV ...

'Energy Droughts' in Wind and Solar Can Last Nearly a Week

Dec. 11, 2023 — Understanding the risk of compound energy droughts -- times when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow -- will help grid planners understand where energy storage is needed ...