A unique solar panel design made with a new ceramic material points the way to potentially providing sustainable power cheaper, more efficiently, and requiring less manufacturing time. It also reaches a four-decade-old goal ...
Materials Science
Dec 11, 2013
13
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- Japan's IKAROS has rolled out its solar sail, the first ever deployed in space. JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, achieved the feat by rotating the craft rapidly and spinning the sail out by centrifugal ...
To produce the maximum amount of energy, solar cells are designed to absorb as much light from the Sun as possible. Now researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, have suggested – and demonstrated – ...
Nanomaterials
Apr 19, 2012
10
0
(Phys.org)—It may sound counterintuitive that replacing one of the most photosensitive solar cell materials with a material with less desirable photosensitive properties can improve the solar cell's efficiency, but that's ...
(PhysOrg.com) -- After several hours of exposure to sunlight, silicon solar cells experience light-induced degradation, which can decrease their efficiency by up to 10%. In a new study, scientists have attempted to detect ...
Control of light-matter interaction is central to fundamental phenomena and technologies such as photosynthesis, lasers, LEDs and solar cells. City College of New York researchers have now demonstrated a new class of artificial ...
Optics & Photonics
May 5, 2017
4
849
(PhysOrg.com) -- With the creation of a 3-D nanocone-based solar cell platform, a team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Jun Xu has boosted the light-to-power conversion efficiency of photovoltaics by nearly 80 percent.
Nanophysics
Apr 29, 2011
7
0
(Phys.org) —By growing 2D nanosheets along the surface of a 1D nanowire, scientists have synthesized a new 3D nanoscale heterostructure that they call—for appropriate reasons—"shish kabobs." Due to the integration of ...
When it comes to installing solar cells, labor cost and the cost of the land to house them constitute the bulk of the expense. The solar cells—made often of silicon or cadmium telluride—rarely cost more than 20 percent ...
Nanomaterials
Jul 28, 2015
9
1667
A layer of silicon nanocrystals and erbium ions may help solar cells to extract more energy from the ultraviolet (UV, high-energy) part of the solar spectrum. Experimental physicists from the FOM Foundation, the STW Technology ...
Nanophysics
Aug 13, 2014
5
1703
