Solar Energy News

November 1, 2024

Top Headlines

Paving the Way for Harvesting and Storing Solar Energy Efficiently

Oct. 29, 2024 — Approximately 50 percent of global final energy consumption is dedicated to heating. Yet, the utilization of solar power in this sector remains relatively low compared to fossil energy sources. An inherent problem limiting the widespread usage of ...

New AI Model Could Make Power Grids More Reliable Amid Rising Renewable Energy Use

Oct. 24, 2024 — Researchers use AI to manage the growing complexity of modern power ...

Let There Be Light: Bright Future for Solar Panels, TV Screens and More

Oct. 14, 2024 — From brighter TV screens to better medical diagnostics and more efficient solar panels, new research has discovered how to make more molecules stick to the surface of tiny nanocrystals, in a breakthrough that could lead to improvements in everyday ...

Engineering Perovskite Materials at the Atomic Level Paves Way for New Lasers, LEDs

Oct. 11, 2024 — Researchers have developed and demonstrated a technique that allows them to engineer a class of materials called layered hybrid perovskites (LHPs) down to the atomic level, which dictates precisely ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:09pm EDT

The Evolution of Green Energy Technology: Developing Three-Dimensional Smart Energy Devices With Radiant Cooling and Solar Absorption

Oct. 25, 2024 — - DGIST, KAIST, and Korea University collaborated to develop a three-dimensional device with reversible heating/cooling based on the thermal ...

Next-Generation Solar Cells Become More Powerful With Silver (Ag) Doping Technology

Oct. 25, 2024 — Researchers have significantly improved the performance of kesterite (CZTSSe) thin-film solar cells. They developed a new method for doping silver ...

Researchers Unlock the 'Silicate Magic' for Safer, Cheaper, and More Efficient Batteries

Oct. 17, 2024 — A research team is exploring new battery technologies for grid energy storage. The team's recent results suggest that iron, when treated with the ...

Solar-Powered Desalination System Requires No Extra Batteries

Oct. 8, 2024 — Engineers built a solar-powered desalination system that produces large quantities of clean water despite variations in sunlight throughout the day. Because it requires no extra batteries, it offers ...

AI Speeds Up the Discovery of Energy and Quantum Materials

Oct. 7, 2024 — Unearthing new LEDs, solar cells, and photodetectors requires extensive knowledge surrounding the optical properties of materials. Calculating these takes time and resources. Yet researchers unveiled ...

Researchers Restore the Performance of Quantum Dot Solar Cells as If 'Flattening Crumpled Paper'

Oct. 3, 2024 — Researchers adopt a new ligand to enhance the efficiency and stability of perovskite quantum dot solar cells. Solar cell efficiency increases to ...

Cool Roofs Could Have Saved Lives During London's Hottest Summer, Say Researchers

Oct. 1, 2024 — As many as 249 lives could have been saved in London during the 2018 record-setting hot summer had the city widely adopted cool roofs, estimates a ...

Molecular Level Changes Translate to Big Efficiency Gains for Organic Solar Cells

Sep. 10, 2024 — Researchers have designed and synthesized a new organic semiconductor for organic solar cells (OSCs). By adding specific side units to their ...

Shining Light on How Solar Power and Farming Can Coexist

Sep. 6, 2024 — Scientists have developed a new tool to help identify optimal photovoltaic (PV) materials capable of maximizing crop growth while generating solar ...

Insights from Satellite Data Pave the Way to Better Solar Power Generation

Aug. 27, 2024 — Fluctuations in solar radiation are a problem for solar power plants as they cause problems in the power grid and other reliability issues. In a recent study, scientists aimed to deepen our ...

New Defect Passivation Strategy for Perovskite Solar Cells

Sep. 10, 2024 — Researchers report on a new defect passivation strategy for improved power conversion efficiency and stability of perovskite solar ...

New Nano-Device Could Mean Your Run Could Power Your Electrical Wearables

Aug. 22, 2024 — Your early morning run could soon help harvest enough electricity to power your wearable devices, thanks to new ...

Sharing Risk to Avoid Power Outages in an Era of Extreme Weather

Aug. 20, 2024 — Heat waves, droughts, and fires place growing stress on the West's electric grid. New research suggests that more integrated management of electricity resources across the region could ...

Engineering Researchers Enhance Perovskite Solar Cells Durability With First-of-Its-Kind Chiral-Structured 'Springy' Interface

Aug. 9, 2024 — A research team has constructed an unprecedented chiral-structured interface in perovskite solar cells, which enhances the reliability and power conversion efficiency of this fast-advancing solar ...

Stacking Molecules Like Plates Improves Organic Solar Device Performance

Aug. 6, 2024 — Researchers found that how well light-converting molecules stack together in a solid is important for how well they convert light into electric current. A rigid molecule that stacked well showed ...

Engineering Researchers Crack the Code to Boost Solar Cell Efficiency and Durability

Aug. 1, 2024 — Photovoltaic (PV) technologies, which convert light into electricity, are increasingly applied worldwide to generate renewable energy. Researchers have now developed a molecular treatment that ...

More Electricity from the Sun

July 31, 2024 — A coating of solar cells with special organic molecules could pave the way for a new generation of solar panels. This coating can increase the efficiency of monolithic tandem cells made of silicon ...

Fresh Light on the Path to Net Zero

July 26, 2024 — Researchers have used magnetic fields to reveal the mystery of how light particles split. Scientists are closer to giving the next generation of solar cells a powerful boost by integrating a process ...

Indoor Solar Cells That Maximize the Use of Light Energy

July 25, 2024 — Chemists have synthesized materials that can improve solar elements for indoor use. Such photovoltaic cells, which can also be integrated into various electronic devices, generate electricity even in ...

Manufacturing Perovskite Solar Panels With a Long-Term Vision

July 23, 2024 — Researchers working at the forefront of an emerging photovoltaic (PV) technology are thinking ahead about how to scale, deploy, and design future solar panels to be easily recyclable. Solar panels ...

3D-Printed Microstructure Forest Facilitates Solar Steam Generator Desalination

July 23, 2024 — Faced with the world's impending freshwater scarcity, researchers turned to solar steam generators, which are emerging as a promising device for seawater desalination. The team sought design ...

'Secret' Hidden Structure Paves New Way of Making More Efficient and Stable Perovskite Solar Cells

July 19, 2024 — Researchers has revealed the existence of surface concavities on individual crystal grains -- which are the fundamental blocks -- of perovskite thin films, and have unraveled their significant ...

Solar Farms With Stormwater Controls Mitigate Runoff, Erosion, Study Finds

July 18, 2024 — As the number of major utility-scale ground solar panel installations grows, concerns about their impacts on natural hydrologic processes also have grown. However, a new study by Penn State ...

Researchers Show Promising Material for Solar Energy Gets Its Curious Boost from Entropy

July 10, 2024 — Researchers discovered a microscopic mechanism that solves in part the outstanding performance achieved by a new class of organic semiconductors known as non-fullerene acceptors ...

Cool Roofs Are Best at Beating Cities' Heat

July 4, 2024 — Painting roofs white or covering them with a reflective coating would be more effective at cooling cities like London than vegetation-covered 'green roofs,' street-level vegetation or solar ...

Giant Clams May Hold the Answers to Making Solar Energy More Efficient

July 2, 2024 — Solar panel and biorefinery designers could learn a thing or two from iridescent giant clams living near tropical coral reefs, according to a new study. This is because giant clams have precise ...

Moving Beyond the 80-Year-Old Solar Cell Equation

July 2, 2024 — Physicists have made a significant breakthrough in solar cell technology by developing a new analytical model that improves the understanding and efficiency of thin-film photovoltaic (PV) ...

Solar Technology: Innovative Light-Harvesting System Works Very Efficiently

June 26, 2024 — Researchers are reporting progress on the road to more efficient utilization of solar energy: They have developed an innovative light-harvesting ...

Promise Green Hydrogen May Not Always Be Fulfilled

June 21, 2024 — Green hydrogen often, but certainly not always, leads to CO2 ...

Lab Achieves Major Gains in Perovskite Solar Cell Stability

June 13, 2024 — Researchers have developed new chemistry to achieve commercially relevant stability and performance for perovskite solar ...