Archive for the ‘solar power’ category: Page 83
Oct 23, 2020
PV-powered drone for emergency services
Posted by Quinn Sena in categories: biotech/medical, drones, solar power
Netherlands-based technology companies Avy and Wattlab have conducted the first test flight of a drone prototype that is planned to be used in medical projects in Africa.
Wattlab, a Dutch clean-tech start-up founded by Sweden-based power utility Vattenfall and Delft University of Technology, and Netherlands-based drone manufacturer Avy have announced that a drone equipped with special solar foils produced by Wattlab has successfully performed its first test flight.
“The solar-powered prototype is designed to be used for urgent medical transportation, emergency services, and nature conservation,” the two companies stated, adding that the solar films were installed on the wings while maintaining aerodynamics and without increasing significantly the weight. “The solar technology developed in this project is fully integrated into the wing shape and adds no extra weight,” explained Bo Salet, founder of Wattlab.
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Oct 23, 2020
This white paint could reduce the need for air conditioning
Posted by Christopher Field in categories: solar power, space, sustainability
“We’re not moving heat from the surface to the atmosphere. We’re just dumping it all out into the universe, which is an infinite heat sink,” said Xiangyu Li, a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who worked on this project as a Ph.D. student in Ruan’s lab.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — What if paint could cool off a building enough to not need air conditioning?
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Oct 22, 2020
World’s Largest Solar Farm to Be Built in Australia — But They Won’t Get The Power
Posted by Raphael Ramos in categories: solar power, sustainability
It looks like Australia with be exporting solar power to other countries with less space.
A major renewable energy project in Australia billed as the world’s largest solar farm in development has had its proposed location revealed.
The AUD$20 billion facility – the heart of an ambitious electricity network called the Australia–ASEAN Power Link – will be built at a remote cattle station in the Northern Territory, roughly halfway between Darwin and Alice Springs.
Oct 22, 2020
Smart windows darken and become solar cells when heated
Posted by Raphael Ramos in categories: solar power, sustainability
Windows are great for letting in light, but in summer months that comes with an unwanted side order of heat, causing many people to run the air conditioning non-stop. Now, researchers have developed windows that can change color automatically when heated by sunlight, to keep buildings cool – and to top it off, they’re solar panels as well.
Color-changing glass has been around for a long time, most commonly as transition lenses for eyeglasses that tint automatically under bright light. More recent developments have made it electronic and switchable on demand, and scaled it up to window size. At the same time, transparent (or semi-transparent) solar cells are getting more efficient, to the point where they can be fitted into windows.
In the new study, researchers at the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has combined the two technologies into one window. The “thermochromic photovoltaic” tech, as they call it, can switch colors when heated up by sunlight to block glare and reduce the need for cooling, and when it does it also starts harvesting energy from that light.
Oct 20, 2020
Etching a Simple Pattern on Solar Panels Boosts Light Absorption
Posted by Raphael Ramos in categories: solar power, sustainability
A simple way to improve efficiency…
Solar panels offer huge potential to move more people away from electricity generated from burning coal, and a new innovation devised by scientists stands to more than double the amount of light captured by conventional solar cells.
In a new study, a team of scientists from the UK, Portugal, and Brazil discovered that etching a shallow pattern of grating lines in a checkerboard design on solar cells can enhance the current generated by crystalline silicon (c-Si) by as much as 125 percent.
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Oct 18, 2020
Elon Musk Says The Sun Can Power All of Civilization
Posted by Raphael Ramos in categories: Elon Musk, solar power, sustainability
All of Earth’s civilization could be powered purely on solar energy, says Elon Musk on Twitter. Discover the reason behind his love for solar energy.
Oct 18, 2020
America’s Largest Solar-Panel Maker Leads the World in Panel Recycling–Recovering 95% of Materials
Posted by Raphael Ramos in categories: solar power, sustainability
Solar panel recycling.
America’s largest solar panel maker is also the world’s largest recycler of panels, with their program recovering 95% of materials for reuse.
Oct 15, 2020
Solar power is now ‘lowest cost electricity ever seen’
Posted by Future Timeline in categories: solar power, sustainability
Oct 15, 2020
Turning Diamond Into Metal – For Improved Solar Cells, LEDs, and Power Electronics
Posted by Quinn Sena in categories: quantum physics, solar power, sustainability
Normally an insulator, diamond becomes a metallic conductor when subjected to large strain in a new theoretical model.
Long known as the hardest of all natural materials, diamonds are also exceptional thermal conductors and electrical insulators. Now, researchers have discovered a way to tweak tiny needles of diamond in a controlled way to transform their electronic properties, dialing them from insulating, through semiconducting, all the way to highly conductive, or metallic. This can be induced dynamically and reversed at will, with no degradation of the diamond material.
The research, though still at an early proof-of-concept stage, may open up a wide array of potential applications, including new kinds of broadband solar cells, highly efficient LEDs and power electronics, and new optical devices or quantum sensors, the researchers say.
