Solar Energy News

October 25, 2016

Move over, solar: The next big renewable energy source could be at our feet
Madison WI (SPX) Oct 25, 2016
Flooring can be made from any number of sustainable materials, making it, generally, an eco-friendly feature in homes and businesses alike. Now, however, flooring could be even more "green," thanks to an inexpensive, simple method developed by University of Wisconsin-Madison materials engineers that allows them to convert footsteps into usable electricity. Xudong Wang, an associate professor of materials science and engineering at UW-Madison, his graduate student Chunhua Yao, and their collaborato ... read more

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New perovskite solar cell design could outperform existing commercial technologies A new design for solar cells that uses inexpensive, commonly available materials could rival and even outperform conventional cells made of silicon. Writing in Science, researchers from Stanford and ... more		Senegal in renewables drive as new solar park unveiled Senegal put into service one of sub-Saharan Africa's largest solar energy projects Saturday as it pushes to become a regional player in renewables on a continent where the majority remain off-grid. ... more		ABC Solar files lawsuit to enforce Solar Rights Act Today, ABC Solar Incorporated ("ABC Solar") filed a lawsuit to vindicate the rights of California homeowners to receive expedited approval of solar energy on their property. The California legislatu ... more
				Highly efficient organic solar cells with improved operation stability A new type of organic solar cells (OSCs) with 11.6% efficiency has been developed by a research team, affiliated with UNIST. This solar cell maintained almost 80% of its initial efficiency after 60 ... more		juwi Group announces expansion for Solar Power Plant in Fukushima Province juwi is expanding its international footprint with a new project in Japan. In the province of Fukushima, that still suffers from the catastrophic reactor accident in 2011, juwi is going to construct ... more

NREL model offers insights of higher wind and solar generation in US east A new study from the United States Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) used high-performance computing capabilities and innovative visualization tools to model, ... more		Energy hijacking pathway found within photosynthesis An unexpected source of inefficiency within a photosynthetic enzyme has been identified by scientists. The issue also adversely affects the performance of devices which are used to model artificial ... more		AI tool accelerates SAR image analysis with automated object detection Fossil energy 'significant' driver of climate-fuelled heatwaves: study Asteroid tells secrets of Earth's 'far wetter' building blocks		UMASS Amherst taps Con Edison solutions for large-scale solar power initiative The University of Massachusetts Amherst has retained ConEdison Solutions (CES) for a campus-wide solar power initiative expected to reduce university electric bills by $6.2 million over the next twe ... more
				X-ray vision reveals how polymer solar cells wear out Scientists from the Technical University of Munich have used the acurate X-ray vision provided by DESY's radiation source PETRA III to observe the degradation of plastic solar cells. Their study sug ... more		NREL report shows US solar photovoltaic costs continuing to fall in 2016 The modeled costs to install solar photovoltaic (PV) systems continued to decline in the first quarter of 2016 in the U.S. residential, commercial, and utility-scale sectors, according to updated be ... more

6th Annual Modular Construction Summit for Oil and Gas Agenda - December 7-9 - Houston

Nuclear Plant Digitalization Conference - Nov 15-16 - Charlotte NC USA

Nanoscale confinement leads to new all-inorganic solar cell Scientists with the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for the first time discovered how to make perovskite solar cells out of quantum dots and used the new material to ... more		Midsummer receives new order for its DUO thin film solar cell manufacturing system Midsummer has received a repeat order for its compact DUO solar cell manufacturing system from an undisclosed Asian customer. This new order was received in connection with Midsummer's first system ... more		NASA blocks Chinese citizens from working on space programs Black hole explosion may soon reveal origins of matter in the universe Surviving hostile Venus conditions with new alloy and sensor technologies		Efficient organic solar cells with very low driving force It was believed that efficient operation of organic solar cells requires a large driving force, which limits the efficiency of organic solar cells. Now, a large group of researchers led by Feng Gao, ... more
Toward 'greener,' inexpensive solar cells Solar panels are proliferating across the globe to help reduce the world's dependency on fossil fuels. But conventional panels are not without environmental costs, too. Now scientists are reporting ... more		Non-toxic solvent removes barrier to commercialization of perovskite solar cells Scientists at Oxford University have developed a solvent system with reduced toxicity that can be used in the manufacture of perovskite solar cells, clearing one of the barriers to the commercialisa ... more		Record for perovskite/CIGS tandem solar module Thin-film technologies can dramatically reduce the cost of next-generation solar modules. Whereas their production cost is low, it is in particular the combination of complementary absorber material ... more		Food waste could store solar and wind energy Saving up excess solar and wind energy for times when the sun is down or the air is still requires a storage device. Batteries get the most attention as a promising solution although pumped hydroele ... more

	S.Africa basks in continent's first solar-powered airport At first glance there's nothing out of the ordinary about the regional airport in George, a town of just 150,000 residents on South Africa's south coast. ... more		New advances in solar cell technology With the high environmental cost of conventional energy sources and the finite supply of fossil fuels, the importance of renewable energy sources has become much more apparent in recent years. Howev ... more

Chinese defence minister tells US counterpart containing China 'futile'

China chides 'economic pressure' over Trump threat of Russian oil tariffs

Russian drones in Poland put NATO to the test

Motion-directed robots on a micro scale		Alberta takes first look at solar		Global grand challenge strategy needed to develop clean energy		After Paris, India gets support for solar power		Researchers report advance in low-cost clean energy generation
Farewell Rosetta: ESA Mission to Conclude on Comet's Surface		Stacked Solar Module achieves unprecedented efficiency at 17.8 Percent		A cost-efficient compact hybrid system for solar-diesel microgrids		Huawei Solar expands European supply center		Columbia Chemists Find Key to Manufacturing More Efficient Solar Cells

Canadian Solar Subsidiary Recurrent Energy Completes 200 Megawatt Tranquillity Solar Project

OPDE begins construction of a new 5MWp solar farm in the UK

CleanFund closes 6 transactions for commercial buildings in California

More Mid West locations to get finance for home energy improvements

Tenaska's Second Large-scale Solar Project Begins Commercial Operation

New NOMAD sea buoy utilizes renewables for reliable data monitoring and transmitting from ocean to shore

New fabric uses sun and wind to power devices

Water helps assembly of biofibers that could capture sunlight

Rapid gene analysis method accelerates photosynthesis studies

Solar panels + lead-acid batteries to increase electricity self-sufficiency

US should act to support innovation in increasingly clean electric power technologies

DOE SunShot Initiative supports five ASU solar research projects

MiaSole aims to revolutionize flexible ultra-light solar technology

The Golden State gets greener with Interior decision

ARENA solar funding shines on - for now

ERC to revolutionize efficiency, cost and stability of thin-film solar cells

New perovskite research discoveries may lead to solar cell, LED advances

New tool can calculate renewable energy output anywhere in the world

NREL supercomputing provides insights from higher wind and solar generation in eastern grid

Recurrent Energy announces commercial operation of 100MW Mustang solar power project

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