Solar power tagged posts

Engineers calculate the ultimate potential of next-generation solar panels. Most of today’s solar panels capture sunlight and convert it to electricity only from the side facing the sky. If the dark underside of a solar panel could also convert sunlight reflected off the ground, even more electricity might be generated.

Double-sided solar cells are already enabling panels to sit vertically on land or rooftops and even ho...

When exposed to sunlight, star-shaped gold nanoparticles coated with a semiconductor allow efficient production of hydrogen from water. Credit: Ashley Pennington/Rutgers University-New Brunswick

Rutgers study opens door to broader use of sunlight and advanced materials to combat climate change. Star-shaped gold nanoparticles, coated with a semiconductor, can produce hydrogen from water over 4X more efficiently than other methods – opening the door to improved storage of solar energy and other advances that could boost renewable energy use and combat climate change, according to Rutgers University-New Brunswick researchers.

“Instead of using ultraviolet light, which is the standard practice, we leveraged the energy of visible and infrared light to excite electrons in gold nanoparticles,” sa...

Dendritic Hematite Nanoarray Photoanode Modified with a Conformal Titanium Dioxide Interlayer for Effective Charge Collection. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2017; DOI: 10.1002/anie.201705772

Modification of a hematite photoanode by a conformal titanium dioxide interlayer for effective charge collection. Earth-abundant, cheap metals are promising photocatalytic electrode materials in artificial photosynthesis. The nanostructured electrode benefits from two separate effects. This design combining nanostructure with chemical doping may be exemplary for improved “green” photocatalytic systems.

With the help of a catalyst, sunlight can drive the oxidation of water to oxygen and the release of electrons for current generation, a process also called artificial photosynthesis...

These Solar Glasses with lens-fitted semitransparent organic solar cells supply two sensors and electronics in the temples with electric power. Credit: KIT

Semitransparent organic solar cells in eyeglasses to power microprocessor, example of future solar-powered mobile applications. Organic solar cells are flexible, transparent, and light-weight – and can be manufactured in arbitrary shapes or colors. Thus, they are suitable for a variety of applications that cannot be realized with conventional silicon solar cells. In the Energy Technology journal, researchers from KIT now present sunglasses with colored, semitransparent solar cells applied onto lenses that supply a microprocessor and two displays with electric power...