Shady solar outhouses
Each outhouse costs $10, 000 and designed to use solar panels to power fans which pipe out smelly air. Unfortunately, some were built in areas that are frequently in the shade. The outhouses can be...
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Bright outlook for solar cells
Blue-sky thinking New developments in solar-cell technology could help us to harness even more of the Sun’s power. (Source: Maximilian Stock Ltd/Science Photo Library) The burning of skin on a hot...
View ArticleThin-film dyes boost solar cells
Scientists in the US have shown how to multiply the power output of photovoltaic (solar) cells by up to ten times using organic dyes to concentrate sunlight. They say that their work could be scaled up...
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‘Self-repairing’ photovoltaics not damaged by the Sun
Test cell Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have fabricated the first synthetic photovoltaic cell capable of repairing itself. The cell mimics the self-repair system naturally...
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Quirky solar cell sets new efficiency record
Researchers in the US have built a new type of solar cell that emits light as well as absorbs it, making it the most efficient single-junction device ever developed. The efficiency of their prototype...
View ArticleNew theory describes ultrathin solar cells
Physicists in the US have developed a new theoretical technique for calculating the properties of ultrathin solar cells. Their method suggests that designs that boost the amount of light absorbed by...
View ArticleMaking better solar cells with polychiral carbon nanotubes
A new solar cell made from carbon nanotubes (CNTs) that is twice as good at converting sunlight into power than the best previous such cells has been unveiled by a team of researchers in the US. The...
View ArticleKirigami solar cells follow the Sun
The ancient Japanese art of kirigami, or paper cutting, has been used by researchers in the US to improve the efficiency of solar-panel tracking systems. The researchers cut a pattern in thin-film...
View Article‘Solar glasses’ provide power as well as shade
The dark lenses of sunglasses have been replaced with organic solar cells by scientists in Germany. The cells are able to power a small mircocontroller that sends information on ambient conditions to a...
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Nanoflowers harness sunlight
Flower power: A one-pot production produces submicron flower-like structures with high photocatalytic activity for water splitting to produce hydrogen. Credit: ChemSusChem A one-pot production method...
View ArticleSubstrate exfoliation carves an opening for kesterite photovoltaics
The voltage of Cu2ZnSn(SxSe1−x)4 (CZTSSe) kesterite solar cells has so far limited their efficiency. But by carefully tweaking the composition of CZTSSe, Priscilla Antunez along with her co-workers at...
View ArticlePolymer nanofibre could help improve solar cells
Materials that can transport excitons (photo-generated electron-hole pairs) over distances of more than 100 nm are useful for a range of light-harvesting and optoelectronics devices, including solar...
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Seeing through a glass, darkly
Back in 2010 Oxford PV was a small start-up with a big dream: it wanted to pioneer the market in solar windows. The idea of integrating sources of renewable energy directly into the buildings they...
View ArticleCaffeine boosts perovskite solar cells
Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have succeeded in improving the performance and thermal stability of metal halide perovskite solar cells by adding an unexpected...
View ArticleEmerging photovoltaic technology efficiencies line up
What was the motivation behind publishing this table of efficiencies? Ten years ago the search for new materials that can bring additional advantages with respect to those we already have, started to...
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How have solar cells undercut coal?
In a recent perspective article you highlight potential production of a terawatt per year from photovoltaics worldwide within the next decade. What is the significance of a terawatt per year? The world...
View ArticleCan surface treatments enable commercial perovskite solar cells?
Lower costs, shorter pay back times and even higher efficiencies than pure silicon – the promise of perovskites for solar cells may sound too good to be true, and so far it has been. Perovskites are...
View ArticleTwo-dimensional MXenes improve perovskite solar cell efficiency
This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story. With the reality of climate change looming, the importance...
View ArticleMetallic tin ‘reduces’ limitations of perovskite solar cells
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...
View ArticleWide-band-gap semiconductors could harvest sunlight underwater
Solar cells based on wide-band-gap semiconductors work better under water than the narrow-band-gap ones used in conventional silicon photovoltaic devices. This finding by researchers at New York...
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