Solar Energy News

September 5, 2024

Top Headlines

New Nano-Device Could Mean Your Run Could Power Your Electrical Wearables

Aug. 22, 2024 — Your early morning run could soon help harvest enough electricity to power your wearable devices, thanks to new ...

Sharing Risk to Avoid Power Outages in an Era of Extreme Weather

Aug. 20, 2024 — Heat waves, droughts, and fires place growing stress on the West's electric grid. New research suggests that more integrated management of electricity resources across the region could significantly reduce the risk of power outages and accelerate ...

Stacking Molecules Like Plates Improves Organic Solar Device Performance

Aug. 6, 2024 — Researchers found that how well light-converting molecules stack together in a solid is important for how well they convert light into electric current. A rigid molecule that stacked well showed excellent electricity generation in an organic solar ...

Engineering Researchers Enhance Perovskite Solar Cells Durability With First-of-Its-Kind Chiral-Structured 'Springy' Interface

Aug. 9, 2024 — A research team has constructed an unprecedented chiral-structured interface in perovskite solar cells, which enhances the reliability and power conversion efficiency of this fast-advancing solar ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:37pm EDT

Insights from Satellite Data Pave the Way to Better Solar Power Generation

Aug. 27, 2024 — Fluctuations in solar radiation are a problem for solar power plants as they cause problems in the power grid and other reliability issues. In a recent study, scientists aimed to deepen our ...

Engineering Researchers Crack the Code to Boost Solar Cell Efficiency and Durability

Aug. 1, 2024 — Photovoltaic (PV) technologies, which convert light into electricity, are increasingly applied worldwide to generate renewable energy. Researchers ...

More Electricity from the Sun

July 31, 2024 — A coating of solar cells with special organic molecules could pave the way for a new generation of solar panels. This coating can increase the efficiency of monolithic tandem cells made of silicon ...

Fresh Light on the Path to Net Zero

July 26, 2024 — Researchers have used magnetic fields to reveal the mystery of how light particles split. Scientists are closer to giving the next generation of solar cells a powerful boost by integrating a process ...

Indoor Solar Cells That Maximize the Use of Light Energy

July 25, 2024 — Chemists have synthesized materials that can improve solar elements for indoor use. Such photovoltaic cells, which can also be integrated into various electronic devices, generate electricity even in ...

Manufacturing Perovskite Solar Panels With a Long-Term Vision

July 23, 2024 — Researchers working at the forefront of an emerging photovoltaic (PV) technology are thinking ahead about how to scale, deploy, and design future solar panels to be easily recyclable. Solar panels ...

3D-Printed Microstructure Forest Facilitates Solar Steam Generator Desalination

July 23, 2024 — Faced with the world's impending freshwater scarcity, researchers turned to solar steam generators, which are emerging as a promising device for ...

Solar Farms With Stormwater Controls Mitigate Runoff, Erosion, Study Finds

July 18, 2024 — As the number of major utility-scale ground solar panel installations grows, concerns about their impacts on natural hydrologic processes also have grown. However, a new study by Penn State ...

Researchers Show Promising Material for Solar Energy Gets Its Curious Boost from Entropy

July 10, 2024 — Researchers discovered a microscopic mechanism that solves in part the outstanding performance achieved by a new class of organic semiconductors ...

Cool Roofs Are Best at Beating Cities' Heat

July 4, 2024 — Painting roofs white or covering them with a reflective coating would be more effective at cooling cities like London than vegetation-covered 'green roofs,' street-level vegetation or solar panels, ...

'Secret' Hidden Structure Paves New Way of Making More Efficient and Stable Perovskite Solar Cells

July 19, 2024 — Researchers has revealed the existence of surface concavities on individual crystal grains -- which are the fundamental blocks -- of perovskite thin films, and have unraveled their significant ...

Giant Clams May Hold the Answers to Making Solar Energy More Efficient

July 2, 2024 — Solar panel and biorefinery designers could learn a thing or two from iridescent giant clams living near tropical coral reefs, according to a new study. This is because giant clams have precise ...

Moving Beyond the 80-Year-Old Solar Cell Equation

July 2, 2024 — Physicists have made a significant breakthrough in solar cell technology by developing a new analytical model that improves the understanding and efficiency of thin-film photovoltaic (PV) ...

Solar Technology: Innovative Light-Harvesting System Works Very Efficiently

June 26, 2024 — Researchers are reporting progress on the road to more efficient utilization of solar energy: They have developed an innovative light-harvesting ...

Promise Green Hydrogen May Not Always Be Fulfilled

June 21, 2024 — Green hydrogen often, but certainly not always, leads to CO2 ...

Lab Achieves Major Gains in Perovskite Solar Cell Stability

June 13, 2024 — Researchers have developed new chemistry to achieve commercially relevant stability and performance for perovskite solar ...

A 'Liquid Battery' Advance

June 12, 2024 — A team aims to improve options for renewable energy storage through work on an emerging technology -- liquids for hydrogen ...

Algae Offer Real Potential as a Renewable Electricity Source

June 11, 2024 — The need to transition away from fossil fuels to more sustainable energy production is critical. That's why a team of researchers is looking at a potential power source that not only produces no ...

Some Countries Could Meet Their Total Electricity Needs from Floating Solar Panels

June 4, 2024 — Floating solar photovoltaic panels could supply all the electricity needs of some countries, new research has shown. The researchers calculated the daily electrical output for floating photovoltaics ...

New Method Makes Hydrogen from Solar Power and Agricultural Waste

May 30, 2024 — Engineers have helped design a new method to make hydrogen gas from water using only solar power and agricultural waste such as manure or husks. The method reduces the energy needed to extract ...

Renewable Grid: Recovering Electricity from Heat Storage Hits 44% Efficiency

May 23, 2024 — Closing in on the theoretical maximum efficiency, devices for turning heat into electricity are edging closer to being practical for use on the grid, according to new ...

Promising New Development in Solar Cell Technology

May 15, 2024 — Researchers who contributed to the development of record-breaking solar cells a few years ago, expanded their invention. The self-assembled monolayers can now be applied not only in inverted but also ...

Scientists Generate Heat Over 1,000 Degrees Celsius With Solar Power Instead of Fossil Fuel

May 15, 2024 — Instead of burning fossil fuels to smelt steel and cook cement, researchers in Switzerland want to use heat from the sun. The proof-of-concept study uses synthetic quartz to trap solar energy at ...

Efficacy of Solar Panels Boosted

May 7, 2024 — Solar energy is a crucial asset in the fight against climate change, and researchers have now devised a smart approach to optimize its effectiveness. Their innovative method includes incorporating ...

Low-Energy Process for High-Performance Solar Cells

May 7, 2024 — Finding reliable, eco-friendly power sources is crucial as our world grapples with increasing energy needs and the urgent call to combat climate change. Solar energy offers one solution, with ...

Path to Easier Recycling of Solar Modules

May 2, 2024 — The use of femtosecond lasers to form glass-to-glass welds for solar modules would make the panels easier to recycle, according to a proof-of-concept ...

Physicists Show That Light Can Generate Electricity Even in Translucent Materials

Apr. 29, 2024 — Some materials are transparent to light of a certain frequency. When such light is shone on them, electrical currents can still be generated, contrary to previous assumptions. Scientists have managed ...

Key to Efficient and Stable Organic Solar Cells

Apr. 25, 2024 — A team of researchers has made a significant breakthrough in the field of organic ...

Positive Perceptions of Solar Projects

Apr. 24, 2024 — A new survey has found that for residents living within three miles of a large-scale solar development, positive attitudes outnumbered negative attitudes by almost a 3-to-1 margin. Researchers ...

A Flexible and Efficient DC Power Converter for Sustainable-Energy Microgrids

Apr. 19, 2024 — A new DC-DC power converter is superior to previous designs and paves the way for more efficient, reliable and sustainable energy storage and conversion solutions. The development can efficiently ...