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New research suggests a new solar energy design, inspired by nature, may pave the way for future renewable energy technologies.

Photovoltaic solar energy is obtained by converting sunshine into electricity —and researchers from Imperial have developed a new leaf-like design with increased efficiency.

The new photovoltaic leaf (PV-leaf) technology uses low-cost materials and could inspire the next generation of renewable energy technologies.

A satellite demonstrator showed that energy collected from solar panels in space can be beamed to Earth using diffuse microwaves.

It reduces water wastage and carbon emissions.

“When it comes to photovoltaics, dust is the enemy. This is not a trivial concept, even if it may seem so at first glance; actually, the problem of soiling – the accumulation of dust, dirt or sand on PV panels – can decrease, sometimes significantly, the performance of solar power systems,” stated an Enel Green Power press release published on Friday.

Desert areas

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Transparent electronic devices could have numerous valuable real-world applications. Among other things, they could enable the creation of new optical devices, smart gear or wearables, invisible solar panels and integrated communication systems.

Researchers at Xidian University, Southeast University and Wuhan University of Technology recently developed new, highly promising, transparent metadevices based on quasi-one-dimensional surface plasmon polariton (quasi-1D SPP) structures. These devices, introduced in a paper published in Nature Electronics, could be used to develop optically and radiofrequency transparent wireless communication systems and other promising technologies.

“Transparent and invisible electronic device is a fascinating goal that scientists and engineers are enthusiastically pursuing,” Prof. Bian Wu, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told Tech Xplore. “Currently, transparent electronics typically rely on the intrinsic properties of optically conductive materials, which are not radiofrequency transparent and have low operating efficiency. SSPs can be used to concentrate, channel and enhance energy. However, the use of SPPs in the development of optical and radiofrequency transparency remains blank.”

Perovskite-based light emitting diodes (LEDs) could be the key to developing internet bandwidths orders of magnitude faster than what is now available, while also keeping energy consumption and cost down, researchers have claimed. Other potential applications lie in laser technology.

Perovskite is a natural mineral first identified in Russia’s Ural Mountains in 1,839 and composed primarily of calcium, titanium, and oxygen – all in the 10 most common elements in the Earth’s crust. The mineral gave its name to a class of materials based on the same elements but doped with small quantities of others. For almost the first two centuries after their discovery, these perovskites were largely a curiosity of interest only to chemists.

More recently, however, the ability of perovskites to display different electrical properties depending on the atoms with which they are doped has turned them into a wonder material. Perovskites now represent one of the most efficient ways to trap energy from sunlight and are continuing to improve at unprecedented rates. Moreover, perovskites have the potential to be manufactured far more cheaply than traditional silicon-based solar cells, while a layer of perovskite over a silicon base could capture more light than either on their own.

In-cell engineering can be a powerful tool for synthesizing functional protein crystals with promising catalytic properties, show researchers at Tokyo Tech. Using genetically modified bacteria as an environmentally friendly synthesis platform, the researchers produced hybrid solid catalysts for artificial photosynthesis. These catalysts exhibit high activity, stability, and durability, highlighting the potential of the proposed innovative approach.

Protein crystals, like regular crystals, are well-ordered molecular structures with diverse properties and a huge potential for customization. They can assemble naturally from materials found within cells, which not only greatly reduces the synthesis costs but also lessens their environmental impact.

Although protein crystals are promising as catalysts because they can host various functional molecules, current techniques only enable the attachment of small molecules and simple proteins. Thus, it is imperative to find ways to produce protein crystals bearing both natural enzymes and synthetic functional molecules to tap their full potential for enzyme immobilization.

A collaborative effort between the University of Cordoba and the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research (Germany) is making progress on the design of a solar battery made from an abundant, non-toxic and easily synthesized material composed of 2D carbon nitride. The work is published in the journal Advanced Energy Materials.

Solar energy is booming. The improvement of solar technology’s capacity to capture as much light as possible, convert it into energy and make it available to meet energy needs is key in the ecological transition towards a more sustainable use of energy sources.

In the process between the collection of light by the solar cell and the on-demand use of energy by household appliances, for example, storage plays a crucial role since the availability of solar energy has an inherent intermittency.

Using the full capabilities of the Quantinuum H1-1 quantum computer, researchers from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory not only demonstrated best practices for scientific computing on current quantum systems but also produced an intriguing scientific result.

By modeling singlet fission —in which absorption of a single photon of light by a molecule produces two excited states —the team confirmed that the linear H₄ molecule’s energetic levels match the fission process’s requirements. The linear H₄ molecule is, simply, a molecule made of four hydrogen atoms arranged in a linear fashion.

A molecule’s energetic levels are the energies of each quantum state involved in a phenomenon, such as singlet fission, and how they relate and compare with one another. The fact that the linear molecule’s energetic levels are conducive to singlet fission could prove to be useful knowledge in the overall effort to develop more efficient solar panels.

With the aim of allowing astronauts to live off the land as much as possible when they return to the Moon, NASA has awarded Blue Origin a US$35-million Tipping Point contract to develop the company’s Blue Alchemist process to make solar cells out of lunar soil.

The biggest bottleneck to establishing a permanent human presence on the Moon and beyond is the staggering cost of sending equipment and supplies from Earth. NASA and other space agencies believe that the best way to overcome this is to use local resources as much as possible to manufacture what’s needed.

Under development since 2021, Blue Alchemist is an example of this. The basic concept is to develop a complete process that takes the lunar soil, more formally known as the regolith, at one end and spits out complete solar cells and other products at the other.