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Perovskite: abundant, cheap, printable solar cells demonstrated, ready to generate power

May 31, 2023 by David Beynon

Laboratories around the world are racing to make printable perovskite solar cells, produced in abundance and so thin they can be wrapped around almost anything. It’s a huge advantage over the typical silicon cell that is relatively big and fragile. And perovskite is much less expensive to produce. David Beynon at Swansea University describes research there that has demonstrated how a roll of plastic film can be loaded into a printing press to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Innovations, Renewables Tagged With: cells, chemistry, costs, efficiency, film, innovation, perovskite, printed, silicon, slotdie, solar, thin

Critical Minerals: will there be enough to meet the 2050 net-zero emissions target?

March 14, 2023 by Lilly Yejin Lee and James Glynn

If the production and processing of critical minerals cannot keep up with the accelerating adoption of batteries, EVs, wind turbines and solar PV technologies, the pace and success of the global energy system transformation will be put at risk. In this explainer, Lilly Yejin Lee and James Glynn at the Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University address the big questions, drawing on the data underlying the IEA’s “The Role of Critical … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Resources Tagged With: australia, batteries, Chile, China, chromium, cobalt, copper, critical, DRC, EVs, graphite, IEA, lithium, manganese, minerals, netzero, nickel, processing, production, REEs, silicon, solar, SouthAfrica, turbines, wind, Zinc

Comparing the efficiency and progress of the 5 leading Solar PV cell technologies

December 7, 2022 by Wayne Hicks and Harrison Dreves

NREL’s “Best Research-Cell Efficiency Chart” allows researchers to easily compare the performance of specific PV technologies, stretching back 50 years. It’s regularly updated and is free to use, explains Wayne Hicks and Harrison Dreves at NREL. A new “interactive” version is now available. The focus is on crystalline silicon cells, single-junction gallium arsenide cells, multijunction cells, thin films, and emerging PV. For example, you can … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Innovations, Renewables Tagged With: arsenide, crystalline, efficiency, gallium, multijunction, perovskite, PV, silicon, solar, ThinFilm

Perovskites: the next generation of solar cells and lighting?

September 23, 2020 by Sam Stranks

Enthusiasm about the discoveries being made about perovskite materials is spreading, explains Sam Stranks at the University of Cambridge. Perovskite solar cells hit 25.2% efficiency in 2019, not far off crystalline silicon cells at 26.7%. Research is suggesting that figure could rise higher still. Perovskite can be “tuned” to absorb particular frequencies of light, allowing different layers of perovskites to absorb different and therefore more … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Innovations, Renewables Tagged With: efficiency, electricity, LEDs, lighting, perovskite, silicon, solar

The search for “thin film” solar PV: stable, efficient, non-toxic, abundant

December 11, 2019 by Samantha Hood

Around 95% of the world’s solar modules are made with silicon. It’s stable against temperature and humidity fluctuations and we’ll never run out of it. But it’s quite inefficient at absorbing sunlight, and very brittle. So the silicon layers in PV have to be quite thick to capture sunlight and resist cracking, leading to heavy and bulky solar panels. The remaining 5% of solar modules are “thin film”, opening the way for game-changing lightweight … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Renewables Tagged With: buildings, efficiency, electricity, Kesterite, silicon, solar, ThinFilm, transport

New solar cell allows a photon to release two electrons, not just one

July 15, 2019 by David Chandler

In conventional silicon-based solar cells, each photon of light can only knock loose a single electron, creating electricity. That’s even if the photon carries more than enough energy to do so. One hammer, one nail. Now, for the first time researchers at MIT and Princeton University in the U.S. have got high-energy photons to strike silicon and kick out two electrons instead of one, opening the door for a new kind of solar cell with greater … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Innovations, Renewables Tagged With: efficiency, electrons, excitons, MIT, photons, Princeton, silicon, solar, solarPV

Most read this week

  • U.S. Inflation Reduction Act: one year on, a summary of impressive progress in the energy transition by Hannah Perkins | posted on September 19, 2023
  • 10 Carbon Capture methods compared: costs, scalability, permanence, cleanness by Ella Adlen | posted on November 11, 2019
  • Industry’s EU ETS reforms and CBAM: how firms can turn the rising cost of carbon into competitive advantage by Pablo Ruiz | posted on September 25, 2023
  • Sodium-ion batteries ready for commercialisation: for grids, homes, even compact EVs by Carlos Ruiz | posted on September 11, 2023
  • Understanding the new EU ETS (Part 2): Buildings, Road Transport, Fuels. And how the revenues will be spent by Simon Göss | posted on February 6, 2023
  • Affordable €25k EVs by 2025: Europe’s carmakers can do it. Instead they’re making more profitable SUVs by Transport & Environment | posted on September 22, 2023
  • Oil & Gas business is fatally flawed: Russia-Ukraine only delayed the relentless decline in prices by Clark Williams-Derry | posted on September 21, 2023
  • Micro-nuclear reactors: up to 20MW, portable, safer by Christina Nunez | posted on April 22, 2021
  • Though the price shocks hurt, Renewables installed between 2021-23 saved Europe €100bn by Joe Myers | posted on September 18, 2023
  • Concawe Symposium tackles climate and pollution as RED commits fuel companies to 29% renewable content from 2030 by Matthew James | posted on September 22, 2023
  • Agrivoltaics: GWs of solar power from farmland using strategically placed panels (and raising crop yields) by Joshua Pearce | posted on September 26, 2023
  • Space-Based Solar Power: getting closer as SpaceX and Blue Origin bring down the cost of heavy-lift launches? by Matteo Ceriotti | posted on September 20, 2023
  • What’s best for Hydrogen transport: ammonia, liquid hydrogen, LOHC or pipelines? by Herib Blanco | posted on May 5, 2022
  • EU Energy Outlook to 2060: how will power prices and revenues develop for wind, solar, gas, hydrogen + more by Alex Schmitt | posted on December 6, 2022
  • Gravity Batteries: any nation can do it at scale using rocks by Simon Read | posted on July 27, 2022
  • The 10 big problems with simply replacing fossil cars with electric by Schalk Cloete | posted on December 6, 2021
  • Farming Algae for Carbon Capture: new research cuts “fouling.” Scale-up in 3 years? by David Chandler | posted on June 21, 2023
  • Concrete supercapacitor: works like a battery, much cheaper, easy to make by David Chandler | posted on September 27, 2023
  • Can Aluminium-air batteries outperform Li-ion for EVs? by Helena Uhde | posted on September 8, 2021
  • EU Carbon Removal Certification Framework: new rules to turn greenwashing into genuine removals by Simon Göss | posted on May 16, 2023

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      Recent Posts

      Belgium: commercially viable Rooftop Solar for social housing. No installation subsidies, lower bills

      Concrete supercapacitor: works like a battery, much cheaper, easy to make

      Agrivoltaics: GWs of solar power from farmland using strategically placed panels (and raising crop yields)

      Industry’s EU ETS reforms and CBAM: how firms can turn the rising cost of carbon into competitive advantage

      Concawe Symposium tackles climate and pollution as RED commits fuel companies to 29% renewable content from 2030

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