New technology generates power from polluted air

Sonder Agency

Researchers from the University of Antwerp and KU Leuven (University of Leuven), Belgium, have succeeded in developing a process that purifies air and, at the same time, generates power. The device must only be exposed to light in order to function. "We use a small device with two rooms separated by a membrane," explains professor… Read more

Photoluminescent display absorbs, converts light into energy

Sonder Agency

By replacing the phosphor screen in a laser phosphor display (LPD) with a luminescent solar concentrator (LSC), one can harvest energy from ambient light as well as display high-resolution images. "Energy-harvesting laser phosphor display and its design considerations," published recently by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, in the Journal of Photonics for… Read more

Solar cells with nanostripes

Sonder Agency

Solar cells based on perovskites reach high efficiencies: They convert more than 20 percent of the incident light directly into usable power. On their search for underlying physical mechanisms, researchers of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have now detected strips of nanostructures with alternating directions of polarization in the perovskite layers. These structures might… Read more

Thin diamond crystal reflects many colors of light in all directions

Sonder Agency

Through advanced calculations physicists and mathematicians at the University of Twente discovered that a thin, diamond-like photonic nanostructure reflects a surprisingly broad range of colors of light, from all angles. This causes the material to have great potential as a back reflector to enhance the efficiency of solar cells or tiny on-chip light sources. The… Read more

Light can improve perovskite solar cell performance

Sonder Agency

Publishing in Nature, EPFL scientists show how light affects perovskite film formation in solar cells, which is a critical factor in using them for cost-effective and energy-efficient photovoltaics. Perovskites are materials of immense interest in solar energy technology lately, as they promise to bring down the cost of solar cells to very low levels. Their… Read more

A more than 100% quantum step toward producing hydrogen fuel

Sonder Agency

Efforts to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels are advancing on various significant fronts. Such initiatives include research focused on more efficient production of gaseous hydrogen fuel by using solar energy to break water down into its components of hydrogen and oxygen. Recently, in an article published in the journal Nature Energy, lead author Yong… Read more

Modeling reveals how policy affects adoption of solar energy photovoltaics in California

Sonder Agency

One key goal for renewable energy in the United States is to promote the continued adoption of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create a clean energy workforce. Federal and state governments are working to strengthen U.S. solar manufacturing to help reduce installation costs, for example. But successfully promoting green energy… Read more

Pathway for generating up to 10 terawatts of power from sunlight by 2030

Sonder Agency

The annual potential of solar energy far exceeds the world's energy consumption, but the goal of using the sun to provide a significant fraction of global electricity demand is far from being realized. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), their counterparts from similar institutes in Japan and Germany, along… Read more

Bright future for self-charging batteries

Sonder Agency

Who hasn't lived through the frustrating experience of being without a phone after forgetting to recharge it? This could one day be a thing of the past thanks to technology being developed by Hydro-Québec and McGill University. Lithium-ion batteries have allowed the rapid proliferation of all kinds of mobile devices such as phones, tablets and… Read more

New breakthrough in battery charging technology

Sonder Agency

A team of researchers, affiliated with UNIST has developed a single-unit, photo-rechargeable portable power source based on high-efficiency silicon solar cells and lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). This newly-developed power source is designed to work under sunlight and indoor lighting, allowing users to power their portable electronics anywhere with access to light. In addition, the new device… Read more