Energy & Green Tech
Humans can do lots of things that plants can't do. We can walk around, we can talk, we can hear and see and touch. But plants have one major advantage over humans: They can make energy directly from the sun.
Jun 15, 2021
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Energy & Green Tech
In an advance that makes a more flexible, inexpensive type of solar cell commercially viable, University of Michigan researchers have demonstrated organic solar cells that can achieve 15 percent efficiency.
Apr 23, 2018
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2690
Electronics & Semiconductors
Transistors are electronic components that amplify and control the flow of electricity inside most existing electronic devices. Researchers at Pohang University of Science and Technology and the University of Electronic ...
Energy & Green Tech
New solar energy research from Arizona State University demonstrates that silicon-based, tandem photovoltaic modules, which convert sunlight to electricity with higher efficiency than present modules, will become increasingly ...
Jul 30, 2018
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160
Engineering
The newest photovoltaic systems may promise to be the most efficient ever produced, but question marks about their longevity mean they risk proving to be a false economy.
Dec 13, 2023
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55
Energy & Green Tech
A research team at the University of Córdoba has designed a sustainable photovoltaic solar device that can heat water up to 80 degrees—just like a regular electric heater
Nov 5, 2021
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3451
Energy & Green Tech
The world's first solid-state photovoltaics were reported in 1883, and were composed of selenium, which eventually led to the development of the present-day photovoltaics, although the wide bandgap of selenium was limiting ...
Engineering
About 750 million people in the world do not have access to electricity at night. Solar cells provide power during the day, but saving energy for later use requires substantial battery storage.
Apr 5, 2022
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675
Energy & Green Tech
Recent extreme weather events have underscored the need to cut the CO₂ emissions that are driving up global temperatures. This requires a rapid transition of the energy economy to renewable energy sources, the cheapest ...
Aug 1, 2022
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32
Energy & Green Tech
A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in China has established a new efficiency record for organic photovoltaic cells. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes their approach ...
Photovoltaics (PV) is a method of generating electrical power by converting solar radiation into direct current electricity using semiconductors that exhibit the photovoltaic effect. Photovoltaic power generation employs solar panels composed of a number of solar cells containing a photovoltaic material. Materials presently used for photovoltaics include monocrystalline silicon, polycrystalline silicon, amorphous silicon, cadmium telluride, and copper indium gallium selenide/sulfide. Due to the growing demand for renewable energy sources, the manufacturing of solar cells and photovoltaic arrays has advanced considerably in recent years.
Solar photovoltaics is growing rapidly, albeit from a small base, to a total global capacity of 40,000 MW at the end of 2010. More than 100 countries use solar PV. Some 24 GW of solar is projected in November 2011 to be installed in that year, pushing up worldwide capacity to roughly 64 GW. Installations may be ground-mounted (and sometimes integrated with farming and grazing) or built into the roof or walls of a building (building-integrated photovoltaics).
Driven by advances in technology and increases in manufacturing scale and sophistication, the cost of photovoltaics has declined steadily since the first solar cells were manufactured. Net metering and financial incentives, such as preferential feed-in tariffs for solar-generated electricity, have supported solar PV installations in many countries.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
