Tag Archives: researchers
Virginia: Clean Energy Mecca?
Researchers assessing the state’s potential for renewable energy say Virginia could realistically meet half of its nearly 20,000-megawatt power demand by the year 2035 with clean, sustainable sources like solar, onshore and offshore wind, and biomass. The George Mason University study, prepared for the Virginia Conservation Network, a coalition of renewable energy advocates and environmental [...]
FUTUREWATCH: Self Assembling Plastic Nanofibers
A research team under the collective leadership of Nicolas Giuseppone and Bernard Doudin, successful created highly conductive plastic nanofibers that can self assemble. Giuseppone and his colleagues propelled the discovery by first determining the structure of nanowires. The team chemically altered triarylamines (synthetic molecules commonly used in Xerox processes) and observed some fascinating reactions. The [...]
Printable Liquid Solar Cells Developed at USC
What would we do without nanotechnology and its potential for great things? Allowing us to scale down products to teeny objects, this revolutionary technology is all set to pave the way for liquid solar cells that can literally be printed onto surfaces. Researchers at USC are the brains behind this technology that use nanocrystals to [...]
1st All Plastic Solar Cell Created at Georgia Tech
Researchers at Georgia Tech have developed a technique that could soon become a universal method to reduce a conductor’s work function. They used a thin layer of polymer (1 to 10mm thick) and spread it on the surface of a conductor to create a sturdy surface dipole. The result was an air-stable and efficient low [...]
In Focus: Photochemical Upconversion
In recent years, the efficiency of the traditional silicon solar cells has been improving, but the challenge technology faces is the natural theoretical limit at about 33 percent. The law of Physics doesn’t allow the cells to absorb photons below a certain level of energy, which means this low energy is simply lost as it [...]
Nanotube Electrodes: Improving Solar Cells
While we advocate the many benefits of solar energy to offset dependence on conventional fuel sources, it’s a fact that solar cells are expensive because of the materials used to create them. Also these cells don’t yield as much energy as they could owing to inefficient collection methods. All this seems set for a change [...]
Technological Breakthrough: Plastic Electronics
The field of plastic electronics has been given a boost with the invention of a new technology that could soon see the world using them in an array of applications from robotics to satellite navigation. The breakthrough was facilitated by a team of researchers at Cambridge University’s Cavendish Laboratory. Led by Prof Henning Sirringhaus, physicists [...]
Purdue Researchers Improve Solar Ink
A team of researchers at Purdue University in Indiana is working to develop a new solar ink that could be affordably printed on film and mass produced for a more affordable solar photovoltaic option. The team was recently awarded a $750,000 Sunshot grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. Rakesh Agrawal, Purdue’s Winthrop E. Stone [...]
3D: A New Dimension for Solar Energy
Research is on its way to improve performance of solar photovoltaic cells and bringing down cost has been the key issue. However, little importance has been given to the arrangements of these cells. Normally, PVs are placed in a flat position on rooftops and other surfaces. They’re also attached to vehicles and motorized structures where [...]