Solar Technology & PV R&D News

The uptake of solar power around the world is certainly a good thing for the planet, but that doesn’t mean it is without environmental consequence either. Some solar panel components are more easily recycled than others, and scientists in Australia may have just figured out how to repurpose one of the trickiest and most valuable: the silicon that serves as its semiconductor.

The best of rigid and flexible solar panels combine in SunUp, a product for outdoor adventurers invented by Brunel University design graduate Bradley Brister.

A U.S. research team has used protein bacteriorhodopsin to improve the efficiency of what it called ‘bioperovskite’ solar cells. The scientists used Förster Resonance Energy Transfer to predict the strength of long-range excitonic transport between the perovskite and protein layers.

Research from the United States has demonstrated how PV technology can be used to kill cancer cells. Although still at an embryonic stage, the findings of the study and initial test results suggest solar power could be an effective tool in relation to light-activated fluorescent dyes for disease diagnosis, image-guided surgery and site-specific tumor treatment.

A study has estimated the cost of PV project soiling may increase from €3-5 billion last year to €4-7 billion by 2023 due to more extensive deployment in high insolation and soiling-affected regions, such as China and India. The authors of the paper outlined the potential of soiling mitigation technologies while stressing more R&D is needed to reduce costs and for the adoption of such measures on a larger scale.

The four-year-old Hangzhou-based business says it already has a 20 MW perovskite module pilot line and is working on a mass production facility in the city of Quzhou.

Using recently developed technology known as a streak camera, MIT engineers were able to visualize the propagation of light in super slow motion.

A German start-up achieved more than 99% efficiency when charging a vehicle developed by the Bochum University of Applied Sciences with electricity from solar cells. Ambibox’s DC charging technology was used in a research project in the Australian desert.

The Solar Team of the Eindhoven University of Technology won the World Solar Challenge in Australia in the cruiser category. This is the fourth year in a row that the Eindhoven team won gold in this category for family solar-powered cars, the university announced on Twitter.

Scientists at the Tokyo Institute of Technology have developed a carbon nanotube which forms a strong junction with a lead-halide perovskite, improving performance and stability.

A microscopic quantity of two-dimensional titanium carbide called MXene significantly improves collection of electrical charges in a perovskite solar cell.

Researchers in Chicago have developed a world first fully rechargeable lithium-carbon dioxide battery, an achievement they claim could pave the way for the use of the greenhouse gas in advanced energy storage systems.

Hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites have garnered significant interest in the solar cell community in light of their excellent optoelectronic properties and low manufacturing cost. Meanwhile, in efforts to produce perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with yet higher efficiencies, considerable steps have been made in developing monolithic tandem solar cells.

Scientists at the United States Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have discovered a root cause of dendrite formation, which can cause battery failure and even fires in lithium-ion technology. With this new knowledge, the group is now working on electrolyte recipes that eliminate dendrite growth entirely.

Scientists at Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research have developed a new method to produce lithium-sulfur based cathodes which exhibit stable performance and high storage capacity over 200 cycles. According to the agency, this represents “a promising step towards the commercialization of lithium-sulfur batteries.”