Lifeboat Foundation

New advancements in technology frequently necessitate the development of novel materials – and thanks to supercomputers and advanced simulations, researchers can bypass the time-consuming and often inefficient process of trial-and-error.

The Materials Project, an open-access database founded at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) in 2011, computes the properties of both known and predicted materials. Researchers can focus on promising materials for future technologies – think lighter alloys that improve fuel economy in cars, more efficient solar cells to boost renewable energy, or faster transistors for the next generation of computers.

Companies say perovskite tandem solar cells are only a few years from bringing record efficiencies to a solar project near you.

In Swift Solar’s lab, more than a dozen pairs of elbow-length rubber gloves hover horizontally in midair, inflated like arms.

Artificial intelligence can accelerate the process of finding and testing new materials, and now researchers have used that ability to develop a battery that is less dependent on the costly mineral lithium.

Lithium-ion batteries power many devices that we use every day as well as electric vehicles. They would also be a necessary part of a green electric grid, as batteries are required to store renewable energy from wind turbines and solar panels. But lithium is expensive and mining it damages the environment. Finding a replacement for this crucial metal could be costly and time-consuming, requiring researchers to develop and test millions of candidates over the course of years. Using AI, Nathan Baker at Microsoft and his colleagues accomplished the task in months. They designed and built a battery that uses up to 70 per cent less lithium than some competing designs.

Scientists have unveiled a roadmap for bringing perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells to market, paving the way for a future powered by abundant, inexpensive clean energy in Saudi Arabia and the world.

The authors of the article, published in Science, include Prof. Stefaan De Wolf and his research team at King Abdullah University of Science (KAUST) and Technology Solar Center. The team is working on improving solar efficiency to meet Saudi Arabia’ solar targets.

Perovskite/silicon tandem technology combines the strengths of two materials— perovskite’s efficient light absorption and silicon’s long-term stability—to achieve record-breaking efficiency. In 2023, the De Wolf laboratory reported two world records for power conversion efficiency, with five achieved globally in the same year, showing rapid progress in perovskite/silicon tandem technology.

University of Michigan researchers have found that large additives could be the secret to making stable and long-lasting perovskite solar cells.

Researchers from the University of Michigan have found that large additives appear to prevent perovskite semiconductors from degrading quickly.

Zero-emissions long-distance aviation is absolutely possible… Provided you’re not in a hurry. Solar Airship One will take 20 days to fly all the way around the equator, some 40,000 km (~25,000 miles), in a single zero-emissions hop.

The 151-m (495-ft)-long airship will have its entire upper surface covered in solar film – some 4,800 square meters (51,700 sq ft) of it, or about nine-tenths of an NFL football field for those of you who prefer the standard units.

Continue reading “Solar-powered airship will circle the world non-stop without fuel” »

Solar panels are already an affordable energy solution since they generate enough power over their lifetimes to pay for themselves and then some. However, they do take some investment up front, and some people (and homeowners associations) dislike the way they look.

So what if you could get that power to make electricity from sunlight without having to install solar panels? That’s the beauty of solar paint, as reported by Solar Action Alliance.

The idea behind solar paint (aka photovoltaic paint) is simple: It’d be like ordinary paint but with billions of light-sensitive particles mixed in, as Understand Solar notes.

A team of scientists from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) has revealed their plan to bring a new type of solar cell to the market, one that could revolutionize the field of renewable energy. The solar cell, called a perovskite/silicon tandem, combines two different materials to capture more sunlight and convert it into electricity.

Perovskite is a material that can absorb light very efficiently, while silicon is a material that can maintain its performance for a long time. By stacking them together, the researchers have achieved record-breaking efficiency levels, surpassing the previous limits of single-material solar cells. In 2023, the KAUST team, led by Professor Stefaan De Wolf, reported two world records for power conversion efficiency and five other records achieved by other groups worldwide. This shows the rapid advancement of perovskite/silicon tandem technology and its potential to dominate the solar market.

The market for perovskite/silicon tandems is expected to exceed $10 billion within a decade,” said Dr. Stefaan De Wolf. “KAUST is at the forefront of this revolution, laying the groundwork for affordable, accessible clean energy for all.

The road towards a cleaner future has taken a massive step forward, as a team of researchers from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have successfully conducted laboratory tests of perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells, which offer greater efficiency than crystalline silicon solar cells, which have long been the standard for solar energy technology. This study, which was published today in Science, was conducted at the KAUST Solar Center and holds the potential to design and develop more efficient solar cells for both Saudi Arabia and the entire world.

While the study outlines the incredible advances in laboratory tests with perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells, most notably a 33 percent increase in power efficiency compared to other joint solar cells, the researchers emphasize that many steps must be accomplished before this technology can achieve real-world applications, like commercialization. While they note that challenges for scaling up the technology could only be a few years away, the cost is the primary challenge for the foreseeable future.

Continue reading “Towards a Sustainable Future: KAUST’s Solar Center Paves the Way for Affordable Clean Energy” »