Energy

Solar Power

Access the latest advancements, technical briefs, and trending applications in solar power generation systems, essential to design engineers working in the renewable energy sectors.

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INSIDER: Energy

Developers of a “HI-Light” chemical reactor were awarded top honors in this year’s "Create the Future" Design Contest. The...

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INSIDER: Electronics & Computers

A new solar project, called SUNRISE, will develop printed photovoltaic cells and new manufacturing processes that can be used to construct solar energy products in India. These will then be integrated...

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INSIDER: Semiconductors & ICs

New eyeglasses from Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology generate solar power. Featuring semitransparent organic solar cells, the eyewear powers a microprocessor and two small displays...

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News: Energy
What’s New on Tech Briefs: Smart Devices, Powered by the Sun

New stories on TechBriefs.com shed light on smart windows, solar paint, and more.

News: Energy

A “smart window” from Princeton University uses a transparent solar cell to selectively absorb and harvest near-ultraviolet light. The advanced window controls the transmission of visible...

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INSIDER: Energy

A team from Australia’s RMIT University created a “solar paint” that generates its own energy. The sunlight-absorbing substance absorbs and splits water atoms, resulting in hydrogen that...

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Question of the Week: Energy
Can the Desolenator provide a solution for the global water crisis?

A new Tech Briefs Q&A highlighted an innovative water-purification system called the "Desolenator." Using only solar energy, the device provides clean water from any source. What do you think? Can the Desolenator provide a solution for the global water crisis?

News: Energy

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 780 million people do not have access to clean water sources. The inventor of a water-purification technology...

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INSIDER: Energy

Researchers from the University of Antwerp and KU Leuven have built a proof-of-concept device that performs two noble functions simultaneously: purifying polluted air and generating power. Read...

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INSIDER: Energy
Researchers Advance Printable Solar Cell Possibilities

By finding a new way to manufacture low-cost perovskite solar cells, a team at the University of Toronto believes that making solar cells could someday be as easy and inexpensive as printing a newspaper. The researchers' alternative solar technology supports the development of low-cost,...

INSIDER: Energy

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new strategy for fabricating more efficient plastic solar cells. The work has implications for...

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INSIDER: Materials
Flexible Solar Panels Absorb Diffused Light

Virginia Tech researchers have produced flexible solar panels that can become part of window shades or wallpaper. The material will capture light from the sun as well as light from sources inside buildings.

Articles: Energy
DESOLENATOR — WATER FROM SUNSHINE

William Janssen, Desolenator, London, UK

The Desolenator is a water-purification technology that decontaminates...

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Articles: Manufacturing & Prototyping

The technologies NASA develops don’t just blast off into space. They also improve our lives here on Earth. Life-saving search-and-rescue tools, implantable medical devices, advances in commercial aircraft safety,...

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INSIDER: Energy

As solar cells produce a greater proportion of total electric power, a fundamental limitation remains: the dark of night when solar cells go to sleep. Lithium-ion batteries, the commonplace...

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Question of the Week: Energy
Will solar road panels catch on?

This week's Question: Solar Roadways — a startup developing solar powered road panels — will soon install the first solar road tiles in Sandpoint, Idaho. The transparent solar road panels contain colorful LEDs, which can be controlled by a computer to create the impression of signs and lines, without the need...

Briefs: Energy
Selenium Interlayer for High-Efficiency Multi-Junction Solar Cell

Innovators at NASA’s Glenn Research Center have developed a low-cost, high-efficiency solar cell that uses a thin layer of selenium as the bonding material between wafers. Selenium is a semiconductor, and it is also transparent to light at photon energies below the band gap. The...

INSIDER: Energy
New Fabric Uses Sun to Power Devices

A new fabric developed at Georgia Institute of Technology uses sunlight and motion to harvest energy. Combining the two types of electricity generation into one textile paves the way for creating garments that could provide their own source of energy to power devices such as smartphones or global positioning...

INSIDER: Energy

A novel three-dimensional solar cell design developed at Georgia Tech will soon get its first testing in space aboard the International Space Station. An experimental module containing...

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INSIDER: Medical
Researchers Develop Self-Healing, Shape-Changing Smart Material

Washington State University researchers have created a multi-functional smart material that changes shape when subjected to heat or light; the material then assembles and disassembles itself.

Briefs: Physical Sciences

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center is developing a lightweight space-based solar power array with a high power-to-stowed-volume and weight ratio. The system provides power to small...

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Briefs: Energy

NASA’s Glenn Research Center has developed a method and apparatus for in-situ health monitoring of solar cells. The innovation is a novel approach to solar cell...

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INSIDER: Imaging

A new solar cell configuration developed by engineers at the University of New South Wales has pushed sunlight-to-electricity conversion efficiency to 34.5% – establishing a new...

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INSIDER: Energy

Chinese researchers have introduced a new approach for making an all-weather solar cell that is triggered by both sunlight and raindrops. To convert solar energy to electricity,...

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INSIDER: Motion Control

Testing has started at NASA on a concept called the Heliopause Electrostatic Rapid Transit System (HERTS), a propellant-less propulsion system that would harness solar wind to travel...

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INSIDER: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have demonstrated a solar cell so light and thin that it can rest atop a soap bubble.

Though it may take years before the device is...

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INSIDER: Imaging

A new paradigm for the development of photo-bioelectrochemical cells has been reported by researchers from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in...

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INSIDER: Energy

NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter broke the record to become humanity's most distant solar-powered emissary when Juno was about 493 million miles from the Sun. Launched in 2011, Juno is the...

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INSIDER: Energy

A layer-by-layer film developed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology could harvest sunlight and release heat on demand hours or days later.

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