Lifeboat Foundation

Built Robotics has introduced an autonomous pile driving robot that will help build utility-scale solar farms in a faster, safer, more cost-effective way, and make solar viable in even the most remote locations. Called the RPD 35, or Robotic Pile Driver 35, the robot can survey the site, determine the distribution of piles, drive piles, and inspect them at a rate of up to 300 piles per day with a two-person crew. Traditional methods today typically can complete around 100 piles per day using manual labor.

The RPD 35 was unveiled today at CONEXPO-CON/AGG in Las Vegas, the largest construction trade show in North America and held every three years.

The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act “Building a Clean Energy Economy” section includes a goal to install 950 million solar panels by 2030. With solar farms requiring tens of thousands of 12-to 16-foot-long piles installed eight feet deep with less than an inch tolerance, piles are a critical component of meeting that target.

The Swiss startup’s pilot project will focus on the Western public rail system and cost around $437,240.

European startup Sun-Ways has devised a mechanical device to deploy removable solar panels along railway tracks.

Continue reading “World’s first solar panel ‘carpet’ on railway tracks may generate electricity” »

The Maerdang plant will have a total installed capacity of around 2.2 million kW.

In an effort to ramp up its renewable energy production, China is on course to begin operations of its highest-altitude hydropower.

A clean energy initiative to optimize resources

Continue reading “China nears completion of its highest hydroelectric project at 16,404 feet” »

Since the advent of quantum mechanics, the field of physics has been divided into two distinct areas: classical physics and quantum physics. Classical physics deals with the movements of everyday objects in the macroscopic world, while quantum physics explains the strange behaviors of tiny elementary particles in the microscopic world.

Many solids and liquids are made up of particles that interact with each other at close distances, leading to the creation of “quasiparticles.” Quasiparticles are stable excitations that act as weakly interacting particles. The concept of quasiparticles was introduced in 1941 by Soviet physicist Lev Landau and has since become a crucial tool in the study of quantum matter. Some well-known examples of quasiparticles include Bogoliubov quasiparticles in superconductivity, excitons in semiconductors.

Continue reading “Scientists Observe ‘Quasiparticles’ in Classical Systems for the First Time” »

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Researchers have discovered that channeling ions into defined pathways in perovskite materials improves the stability and operational performance of perovskite solar cells. The finding paves the way for a new generation of lighter, more flexible, and more efficient solar cell technologies suitable for practical use.

Perovskite materials, which are defined by their crystalline structure, are better at absorbing light than silicon is. That means that perovskite solar cells can be thinner and lighter than silicon solar cells without sacrificing the cell’s ability to convert light into electricity.

“That opens the door to a host of new technologies, such as flexible, lightweight solar cells, or layered solar cells (known as tandems) that can be far more efficient than the solar harvesting technology used today in so-called solar farms,” says Aram Amassian, corresponding author of a paper on the discovery. “There’s interest in integrating perovskite materials into silicon solar cell technologies, which would improve their efficiency from 25% to 40% while also making use of existing infrastructure.” Amassian is a professor of materials science and engineering at North Carolina State University.

Through a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing, aliens could be transmitting signals using the sun, but a quick scan for such signals has turned up nothing.

Dust is a common fact of life, and it’s more than just a daily nuisance—it can get into machinery and equipment, causing loss of efficiency or breakdowns.

Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin partnered with North Carolina-based company Smart Material Solutions Inc. to develop a new method to keep dust from sticking to surfaces. The result is the ability to make many types of materials dust resistant, from spacecraft to solar panels to household windows.

The research is published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Department of Chemistry have engineered silicon nanowires that can convert sunlight into electricity by splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen gas, a greener alternative to fossil fuels.

Fifty years ago, scientists first demonstrated that liquid water can be split into oxygen and hydrogen gas using electricity produced by illuminating a semiconductor electrode. Although hydrogen generated using solar power is a promising form of clean energy, low efficiencies and high costs have hindered the introduction of commercial solar-powered hydrogen plants.

An economic feasibility analysis suggests that using a slurry of electrodes made from nanoparticles instead of a rigid solar panel design could substantially lower costs, making solar-produced hydrogen competitive with fossil fuels. However, most existing particle-based light-activated catalysts, also referred to as photocatalysts, can absorb only ultraviolet radiation, limiting their energy-conversion efficiency under solar illumination.