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 ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created May 07, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (26) | comments 13 | with audio podcast feature

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.

Physics / Condensed Matter

created Dec 15, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (23) | comments 12 | with audio podcast

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 ...

Technology / Engineering

created Dec 01, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 12 | with audio podcast report

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, ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Aug 31, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (9) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

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 ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created Jul 22, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (16) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

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

created May 01, 2011 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (6) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

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, ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Jan 18, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (23) | comments 18 | with audio podcast

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

created Oct 10, 2010 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (20) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

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

created Sep 30, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (8) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

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 ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Sep 08, 2010 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (6) | comments 0 report

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

created Aug 02, 2010 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (64) | comments 38 | with audio podcast

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

created Jul 26, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

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.

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Jun 16, 2010 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (35) | comments 27 | with audio podcast report

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 ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created May 14, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (25) | comments 8 | with audio podcast report

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 ...

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Apr 22, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (43) | comments 10 | with audio podcast