solar energy tagged posts

Hydrogen, the lightest element on the periodic table, is a master of escaping almost any container it’s stored in...

Solar energy is now so cost-effective that, in the sunniest countries, it costs as little as £0.02 to produce one unit of power, making it cheaper than electricity generated from coal, gas or wind, according to a new study from the University of Surrey.

In a study accepted for publication in Energy and Environment Materials, researchers from Surrey’s Advanced Technology Institute (ATI) argue that solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is now the key driver of the world’s transition to clean, renewable power.

Professor Ravi Silva, co-author of the study and Director of the ATI at the University of Surrey, said, “Even here in the U.K., a country that sits 50 degrees north of the equator, solar is the cheapest option for large-scale energy generation.

A research team led by Lund University in Sweden has shown how solar power can convert carbon dioxide into fuel, by using advanced materials and ultra-fast laser spectroscopy. The breakthrough could be an important piece of the puzzle in reducing the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere in the future. The study is published in Nature Communications.

The sunlight that hits Earth during one hour corresponds roughly to humanity’s total energy consumption for an entire year. Our global carbon dioxide emissions are also increasing. Using the sun’s energy to capture greenhouse gases and converting it into fuel or another useful chemical, is a research focus for many today...

Researchers recently developed an innovative technique to capture the unused solar energy that illuminates a solar panel. They created special holograms that can be easily inserted into the solar panel package. This method can increase the amount of solar energy converted by the solar panel over the course of a year by about five percent.

The energy available from sunlight is 10,000 times more than what is needed to supply the world’s energy demands. Sunlight has two main properties that are useful in the design of renewable energy systems. The first is the amount power falling on a fixed area, like the ground or a person’s roof...