NOAA GOES-R satellite black wing ready for flight

Solar Energy News -- ScienceDaily

NOAA GOES-R satellite black wing ready for flight

The solar array that will provide power to NOAA's GOES-R satellite has been tested, approved and shipped to a facility where it will be incorporated on the spacecraft. The five sections of the solar array come together as one to resemble a giant black wing.

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Nanotube composites greatly increase efficiency of next generation of solar cells

Solar Energy News -- ScienceDaily

Nanotube composites greatly increase efficiency of next generation of solar cells

Carbon nanotubes are becoming increasingly attractive for photovoltaic solar cells as a replacement to silicon. Researchers have discovered that controlled placement of the carbon nanotubes into nano-structures produces a huge boost in electronic performance.

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Cheap and enviromentally friendly: Tofu ingredient could revolutionize solar panel manufacture

Solar Energy News -- ScienceDaily

Cheap and enviromentally friendly: Tofu ingredient could revolutionize solar panel manufacture

The chemical used to make tofu and bath salts could also replace a highly toxic and expensive substance used to make solar cells, a new study has revealed. Cadmium chloride is currently a key ingredient in solar cell technology used in millions of solar panels around the world. This soluble compound is highly toxic and expensive to produce, requiring elaborate safety measures to protect workers during manufacture and then specialist disposal when panels are no longer needed.

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Scientists create new battery that's cheap, clean, rechargeable ... and organic

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Scientists create new battery that's cheap, clean, rechargeable ... and organic

Scientists have developed a rechargeable battery that is all organic and could be scaled up easily for use in power plants where it can make the energy grid more resilient and efficient by creating a large-scale means to store energy for use as needed. The batteries could pave the way for renewable energy sources to make up a greater share of the nation's energy generation.

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Alternative energy evaluation: Net energy analysis should become a standard policy tool, scientists say

Solar Energy News -- ScienceDaily

Alternative energy evaluation: Net energy analysis should become a standard policy tool, scientists say

To be viable, wind farms, power plants and other energy technologies should deliver more energy than they consume. Net energy analysis allows researchers to evaluate the long-term sustainability of a technology by comparing how much energy it produces over its lifetime with the energy required to build and maintain it, say scientists.

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Hunt for extraterrestrial life gets massive methane boost

Solar Energy News -- ScienceDaily

Hunt for extraterrestrial life gets massive methane boost

A powerful new model to detect life on planets outside of our solar system more accurately than ever before has been developed by researchers. The new model focuses on methane, the simplest organic molecule, widely acknowledged to be a sign of potential life. The new model has been tested and verified by successfully reproducing in detail the way in which the methane in failed stars, called brown dwarfs, absorbs light.

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Breakthrough in energy storage: Electrical cables that can store energy

Solar Energy News -- ScienceDaily

Breakthrough in energy storage: Electrical cables that can store energy

Nanotechnology scientists have developed a way to both transmit and store electricity in a single lightweight copper wire. Sounds like science fiction, but it may become a reality thanks to breakthrough technology. So far electrical cables are used only to transmit electricity. However, nanotechnology scientists have developed a way to both transmit and store electricity in a single lightweight copper wire.

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Concentrating solar power: Study shows greater potential

Solar Energy News -- ScienceDaily

Concentrating solar power: Study shows greater potential

Concentrating solar power could supply a large fraction of the power supply in a decarbonized energy system, shows a new study of the technology and its potential practical application.

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Power plant emissions verified remotely at Four Corners sites, largest point source pollution in U.S.

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Power plant emissions verified remotely at Four Corners sites, largest point source pollution in U.S.

Air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from two coal-fired power plants in the Four Corners area of northwest New Mexico, the largest point source of pollution in America, were measured remotely. The study is the first to show that space-based techniques can successfully verify international regulations on fossil energy emissions.

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Up to 6-cent per kilowatt-hour extra value with concentrated solar power

Solar Energy News -- ScienceDaily

Up to 6-cent per kilowatt-hour extra value with concentrated solar power

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) projects would add additional value of 5 or 6 cents per kilowatt hour to utility-scale solar energy in California where 33 percent renewables will be mandated in six years, a new report has found.

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New class of nanoparticle brings cheaper, lighter solar cells outdoors

Solar Energy News -- ScienceDaily

New class of nanoparticle brings cheaper, lighter solar cells outdoors

A new class of solar-sensitive nanoparticle that outshines the current state of the art has been developed and tested by researchers. This new form of solid, stable light-sensitive nanoparticles, called colloidal quantum dots, could lead to cheaper and more flexible solar cells, as well as better gas sensors, infrared lasers, infrared light emitting diodes and more.

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Solar energy prospects are bright for Scotland, experts say

Solar Energy News -- ScienceDaily

Solar energy prospects are bright for Scotland, experts say

Installing state-of-the-art solar panels on a quarter of a million roofs could meet one-sixth of Scotland's electricity demands, experts say. Scientists say the strategy could ease the plight of one in three Scottish households, which currently struggle to provide themselves with adequate heat and hot water. Researchers, business leaders and public sector experts have contributed to a report which sets out how Scotland could benefit from solar power.

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Revolutionary solar cells double as lasers

Solar Energy News -- ScienceDaily

Revolutionary solar cells double as lasers

Latest research finds that the trailblazing 'perovskite' material used in solar cells can double up as a laser, strongly suggesting the astonishing efficiency levels already achieved in these cells is only part of the journey.

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Quantum mechanisms of organic devices for alternative solar panels are revealed

Solar Energy News -- ScienceDaily

Quantum mechanisms of organic devices for alternative solar panels are revealed

Silicon panel-based technology requires a very costly, contaminating manufacturing process, while organic photovoltaic devices have been positioned as one of the most attractive alternatives as a source of solar energy. This is the first time the quantum mechanisms that trigger the photovoltaic function of these devices have been deciphered.

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Enhancing safety of domestic solar power storage

Solar Energy News -- ScienceDaily

Enhancing safety of domestic solar power storage

Lithium-ion battery-based energy storage systems have already demonstrated efficiency and reliability in commercial electric vehicles. These high standards now also have to be transferred to battery-based storage systems for private photovoltaics facilities.

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Technology using microwave heating may impact electronics manufacturing

Solar Energy News -- ScienceDaily

Technology using microwave heating may impact electronics manufacturing

A continuous flow reactor can produce high-quality nanoparticles by using microwave-assisted heating -- essentially the same forces that heat up leftover food with such efficiency. This may finally make it possible for this technology to move into large scale manufacturing and usher in an electronics revolution.

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Tiny crystals to boost solar

Solar Energy News -- ScienceDaily

Tiny crystals to boost solar

A new approach to studying solar panel absorber materials has been developed. The technique could accelerate the development of non-toxic and readily available alternatives to current absorbers in thin film based solar cells.

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First real-time movies of the light-to-current conversion in an organic solar cell

Solar Energy News -- ScienceDaily

First real-time movies of the light-to-current conversion in an organic solar cell

Scientists have reported the first real-time movies of the light-to-current conversion process in an organic solar cell. Researchers show that the quantum-mechanical, wavelike nature of electrons and their coupling to the nuclei is of fundamental importance for the charge transfer in an organic photovoltaic device.

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An abundant and inexpensive water-splitting photocatalyst with low toxicity

Solar Energy News -- ScienceDaily

An abundant and inexpensive water-splitting photocatalyst with low toxicity

Researchers in Japan have discovered a new photocatalyst, Sn3O4, which facilitates the production of hydrogen fuel from water, using sunlight as an energy source.

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Environmentally compatible organic solar cells in the future

Solar Energy News -- ScienceDaily

Environmentally compatible organic solar cells in the future

Environmentally compatible production methods for organic solar cells from novel materials are in the focus of “MatHero”. The new project aims at making organic photovoltaics competitive to their inorganic counterparts by enhancing the efficiency of organic solar cells, reducing their production costs and increasing their life-time.

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New findings to help extend high efficiency solar cells' lifetime

Solar Energy News -- ScienceDaily

New findings to help extend high efficiency solar cells' lifetime

Scientists have made a surprising discovery about the degradation of solar cells that could help pave the way to creating a longer lifetime for these cells.  Key factors for creating cost-efficient solar cells to compete with conventional energy sources like fossil fuels include fabrication cost, efficiency and lifetime of the cells. 

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Multilayer, microscale solar cells enable ultrahigh efficiency power generation

Solar Energy News -- ScienceDaily

Multilayer, microscale solar cells enable ultrahigh efficiency power generation

A printing approach allows manipulation of ultrathin, small semiconductor elements that can be stacked on top of one another to yield an unusual type of solar cell capable of operating across the entire solar spectrum at exceptionally high efficiency.

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Novel laser system mimics sunlight to test solar cell efficiency

Solar Energy News -- ScienceDaily

Novel laser system mimics sunlight to test solar cell efficiency

A laser-based instrument that generates artificial sunlight to help test solar cell properties, and find ways to boost their efficiency, has been developed by researchers. The novel system simulates sunlight well across a broad spectrum of visible to infrared light. More flexible than conventional solar simulators such as xenon arc-lamps or light-emitting diodes, the laser instrument can be focused down to a small beam spot -- with resolution approaching the theoretical limit -- and shaped to match any desired spectral profile.

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Solar policy pathways for U.S. states examined

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Solar policy pathways for U.S. states examined

The Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory has published a report that aligns solar policy and market success with state demographics. By organizing the 48 contiguous states into four peer groups based on shared non-policy characteristics, the research team was able to contextualize the impact of various solar policies on photovoltaic installations.

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Solar panel manufacturing is greener in Europe than China, study says

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Solar panel manufacturing is greener in Europe than China, study says

Solar panels made in China have a higher overall carbon footprint and are likely to use substantially more energy during manufacturing than those made in Europe, said a new study. The team performed a type of systematic evaluation called life cycle analysis to come up with these hard data. Life cycle analysis tallies up all the energy used to make a product -- energy to mine raw materials, fuel to transport the materials and products, electricity to power the processing factory, and so forth.

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Two-dimensional material shows promise for optoelectronics: LEDs, photovoltaic cells, and light detectors

Solar Energy News -- ScienceDaily

Two-dimensional material shows promise for optoelectronics: LEDs, photovoltaic cells, and light detectors

Team creates LEDs, photovoltaic cells, and light detectors using novel one-molecule-thick material. Researchers have used a novel material that's just a few atoms thick to create devices that can harness or emit light. This proof-of-concept could lead to ultrathin, lightweight, and flexible photovoltaic cells, light emitting diodes (LEDs), and other optoelectronic devices, they say.

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Outdoor lighting using wind-solar hybrid renewable energy sources

Solar Energy News -- ScienceDaily

Outdoor lighting using wind-solar hybrid renewable energy sources

As an outcome from the continuous hybrid renewable energy research, an innovative outdoor lighting system powered by a shroud-augmented wind turbine and a solar panel was installed in the Kuala Lumpur campus of University of Malaya (UM).

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More sustainable thermosolar plants thanks to hybridization with biomethane

Solar Energy News -- ScienceDaily

More sustainable thermosolar plants thanks to hybridization with biomethane

The integration of biomethane in concentrating solar thermal power plants would facilitate the commercial introduction of concentrating solar power (CSP) technology in the energy market, reducing both financial and environmental costs. Researchers are studying the integration process of biomethane.

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Smart grid for electric vehicle fleet

Solar Energy News -- ScienceDaily

Smart grid for electric vehicle fleet

Being able to charge up to 30 electric cars at once requires some ingenious energy management. Researchers are incorporating a mix of renewables into the design of a smart grid for Germany’s largest charging station.

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Microsatellites: Making light work of orbit and attitude control

Solar Energy News -- ScienceDaily

Microsatellites: Making light work of orbit and attitude control

Microsatellites have to be very light – every gram counts. The same applies to the gyroscopes used to sense the satellite’s orientation when in orbit. A novel prototype is seven times lighter and significantly smaller than earlier systems.

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