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Articles: Green Design & Manufacturing
The Create the Future Design Contest has helped stimulate and reward engineering innovation over the past 16 years, drawing more than 14,000 product designs from engineers, students, and...
INSIDER: Energy
Sandia National Laboratories engineers have developed new fractal-like, concentrating solar power receivers for small- to medium-scale use that are up to 20 percent more effective...
INSIDER: Energy
In a report published in October, scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) used single-walled carbon nanotubes...
Question of the Week: Energy
Today's lead INSIDER story features a report on transparent solar cell technology. The authors believe see-through solar cells have the potential of supplying...
INSIDER: Energy
Michigan State University researchers say a new transparent solar panel technology is right outside your door. Or more precisely: inside your window. The completely clear...
INSIDER: Energy
Developers of a “HI-Light” chemical reactor were awarded top honors in this year’s "Create the Future" Design Contest. The grand-prize-winning...
INSIDER: Power
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 into...
INSIDER: Sensors/Data Acquisition
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...
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 light...
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...
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 hopes...
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...
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 developing...
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: Green Design & Manufacturing
DESOLENATOR — WATER FROM SUNSHINE
William Janssen, Desolenator, London, UK
The Desolenator is a water-purification technology that decontaminates water from...
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,...
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...
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 of...
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: Green Design & Manufacturing
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: Photonics/Optics
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 18...
INSIDER: Materials
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: Energy
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 satellites...
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...
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...
INSIDER: Materials
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, the...
Top Stories
Blog: Robotics, Automation & Control
Aerial Microrobots That Can Match a Bumblebee's Speed
Blog: Electronics & Computers
Turning Edible Fungi into Organic Memristors
Blog: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Revolutionizing the Production of Semiconductor Chips
News: Energy
INSIDER: Electronics & Computers
World’s Smallest Programmable, Autonomous Robots
INSIDER: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Webcasts
On-Demand Webinars: Power
E/E Architecture Redefined: Building Smarter, Safer, and Scalable Vehicles
Upcoming Webinars: Energy
Hydrogen Engines Are Heating Up for Heavy Duty
Upcoming Webinars: Electronics & Computers
Advantages of Smart Power Distribution Unit Design for Automotive...
Upcoming Webinars: Automotive
Quiet, Please: NVH Improvement Opportunities in the Early Design...
Upcoming Webinars: Power
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Podcasts: Defense
How Sift's Unified Observability Platform Accelerates Drone Innovation
