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Category: solar power – Page 8

The great state of Wisconsin is about to get enough clean energy to power 200,000 homes, as the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin has approved a new solar farm that will be the most powerful in the state, Electrek reported.

Vista Sands Solar Farm, which will be located on 8,500 acres of private farmland in Portage County that is being leased from its owners, is being developed by Doral Renewables LLC, a Philadelphia-based company.

The project is expected to take around two years to complete. It will cost $1 billion and generate around 500 jobs during construction and 50 permanent positions once the farm is open for business, per the company.

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The University of Liverpool has reported a significant advancement in engineering biology and clean energy. A team of researchers has developed an innovative light-driven hybrid nanoreactor that merges natural efficiency with cutting-edge synthetic precision to produce hydrogen—a clean and sustainable energy source.

Published in ACS Catalysis, the study demonstrates a pioneering approach to artificial photocatalysis, addressing a critical challenge in using solar energy for fuel production. While nature’s photosynthetic systems have evolved for optimal sunlight utilisation, artificial systems have struggled to achieve comparable performance.

The hybrid nanoreactor is the product of a novel integration of biological and synthetic materials. It combines recombinant α-carboxysome shells—natural microcompartments from bacteria—with a microporous organic semiconductor. These carboxysome shells protect sensitive hydrogenase enzymes, which are highly effective at producing hydrogen but prone to deactivation by oxygen. Encapsulating these enzymes ensures sustained activity and efficiency.

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The University of Liverpool has created a hybrid nanoreactor that uses sunlight to produce hydrogen efficiently, offering a sustainable and cost-effective alternative to traditional photocatalysts.

The University of Liverpool has announced a major breakthrough in engineering biology and clean energy. Researchers have developed a groundbreaking light-powered hybrid nanoreactor that combines the natural efficiency of biological processes with the precision of synthetic design to produce hydrogen, a clean and renewable energy source.

Detailed in ACS Catalysis, the study introduces an innovative solution to a longstanding challenge in solar energy utilization for fuel production. While nature’s photosynthesis systems excel at harnessing sunlight, artificial systems have historically fallen short. This new approach to artificial photocatalysis represents a significant step forward in bridging that performance gap.

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The International Renewable Energy Agency says breakthroughs like this, along with others such as solar panels that work at night or China’s flywheel energy storage project, are key to cutting back on dirty energy use and creating stronger and more reliable power systems.

“Further international cooperation is vital to deliver fit-for-purpose grids, sufficient energy storage and faster electrification, which are integral to move clean energy transitions quickly and securely,” Executive Director of the International Energy Agency Fatih Birol said in an IEA report.

This new way of storing energy could deliver cleaner, more affordable energy to cities, businesses, and homes. Researchers at Rice University believe it could be widely available in five to 10 years, making renewable energy more practical and accessible.

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DOI: Abstract We are living in a historical period in respect to the deterioration in public health, as we experience the rise of the catastrophic obesity epidemic and mental health crisis in recent decades, despite the great efforts from the scientific and medical community to seek health solutions and to try to find cures to the enormous human suffering and economic costs resulting by this collapse in public health. This trend has reached such a critical level that it jeopardizes society when over 40% of the population is obese in the United States, suffering grave medical health conditions, even as the expenditure on public health is rising exponentially to over 20% of gross domestic product. This should point to a monumental failure in our fundamental understanding of basic human biology and health. This article suggests that our current Western reductionist scientific paradigm in both biology and medicine has proved impotent and failed us completely. Therefore, the current cultural health crises require a more holistic approach to human biology and health in terms of chronobiological trends. The emerging neuroscience of brain energy metabolism will be considered as a holistic model for understanding how solar cycles affect our civilization and drive our sex and growth hormones and neurotransmitters that shape both our physical and mental health.

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A new solar cell process using Sn(II)-perovskite oxide material offers a promising pathway for green hydrogen production through water splitting, advancing sustainable energy technologies.

Experts in nanoscale chemistry have made significant progress toward sustainable and efficient hydrogen production from water using solar power.

An international collaborative study led by Flinders University, involving researchers from South Australia, the US, and Germany, has uncovered a novel solar cell process that could play a key role in future technologies for photocatalytic water splitting—a critical step in green hydrogen production.

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The researchers produced new materials with perovskite crystal structures and compared them with existing materials at the cell level, concluding that high efficiencies can only be achieved with lead perovskites. They then fabricated highly efficient demonstrators, such as a perovskite silicon tandem solar cell of more than 100 sq cm with screen-printed metallization.

The project also included the development of a scalable perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell that achieved a 31.6% power conversion efficiency, first announced in September. The Fraunhofer researchers used a combination of vapor deposition and wet-chemical deposition to ensure an even deposition of the perovskite layer on the textured silicon surface. “Close industrial cooperation is the next step in establishing this future technology in Europe,” said Professor Andreas Bett, coordinator of the project.

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