News tagged with energy conversion
Related topics: solar cells
Silicon nanohole solar cells aim to make photovoltaics cost-competitive
(PhysOrg.com) -- Due to the increasing demand for renewable energy sources, photovoltaic solar cells have advanced significantly over the past decade. Since 2002, photovoltaic production worldwide has been ...
Discovery of a 'dark state' could increase maximum theoretical efficiency of solar cells from 31 to 44 percent
The efficiency of conventional solar cells could be significantly increased, according to new research on the mechanisms of solar energy conversion led by chemist Xiaoyang Zhu at The University of Texas at Austin.
Dec 15, 2011 |
4.8 / 5 (23) |
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Award-winning energy harvester brings practical applications closer
(PhysOrg.com) -- Although the idea of harvesting ambient energy from the environment and using it to generate electricity is alluring, most of the technology so far is capable of generating only very small ...
Down to the wire: Inexpensive technique for making high quality nanowire solar cells developed
(PhysOrg.com) -- Solar or photovoltaic cells represent one of the best possible technologies for providing an absolutely clean and virtually inexhaustible source of energy to power our civilization. However, ...
Aug 31, 2011 |
5 / 5 (9) |
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Shining a light on the elusive 'blackbody' of energy research
A designer metamaterial has shown it can engineer emitted "blackbody" radiation with an efficiency beyond the natural limits imposed by the material's temperature, a team of researchers led by Boston College ...
Jul 22, 2011 |
4.8 / 5 (16) |
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Solar-thermal flat-panels that generate electric power
(PhysOrg.com) -- High-performance nanotech materials arrayed on a flat panel platform demonstrated seven to eight times higher efficiency than previous solar thermoelectric generators, opening up solar-thermal ...
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
May 01, 2011 |
4.3 / 5 (6) |
7
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Breakthrough in converting heat waste to electricity
(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Northwestern University have placed nanocrystals of rock salt into lead telluride, creating a material that can harness electricity from heat-generating items such as vehicle exhaust systems, ...
Jan 18, 2011 |
4.7 / 5 (23) |
18
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Discovery paves way for development of efficient, inexpensive plastic solar cells
Physicists at Rutgers University have discovered new properties in a material that could result in efficient and inexpensive plastic solar cells for pollution-free electricity production.
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Oct 10, 2010 |
4.7 / 5 (20) |
6
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Multi-component nano-structures with tunable optical properties
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory report the first successful assembly of 3-D multi-component nanoscale structures with tunable optical properties ...
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Sep 30, 2010 |
5 / 5 (8) |
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World's biggest Wave Hub installed off UK coast
(PhysOrg.com) -- A wave energy generation test site called the "Wave Hub" is being set up off Cornwall’s northern coast. The site is the first offshore wave energy site in the UK, and will allow four wave ...
New solar energy conversion process could revamp solar power production
Stanford engineers have figured out how to simultaneously use the light and heat of the sun to generate electricity in a way that could make solar power production more than twice as efficient as existing ...
Technology / Energy & Green Tech
Aug 02, 2010 |
4.7 / 5 (64) |
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Nanoparticles Increase Intensity of Quantum Dots' Glow
(PhysOrg.com) -- Demonstration of precision DNA-based nanoassembly method for making light-emitting particle clusters could lead to advances in solar cells, optoelectronics, and biosensors
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Jul 26, 2010 |
5 / 5 (8) |
0
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Sanyo announces world's most efficient solar module
(PhysOrg.com) -- Sanyo has announced its development of the world's most energy efficient solar module, the HIT-N230. The module was unveiled at a press conference run by Sanyo Electric's Solar Division.
New way to extract light from semiconductors could lead to ultra-high efficiency LEDs
(PhysOrg.com) -- By fabricating ridges coated with silicon dioxide (SiO2) on the surface of a semiconductor, scientists from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in ...
Novel negative-index metamaterial that responds to visible light designed
A group of scientists led by researchers from the California Institute of Technology has engineered a type of artificial optical material—a metamaterial—with a particular three-dimensional structure such that ...
Apr 22, 2010 |
4.8 / 5 (43) |
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