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Category: solar power

Integrated strategy unlocks 29.76% efficiency for all-perovskite tandem solar cells

Two stacked layers comprise tandem solar cells (TSCs), with each subcell absorbing different wavelengths of sunlight, which makes TSCs more efficient than single-layer solar cells. All-perovskite TSCs hold great promise for next-generation photovoltaics, with a theoretical efficiency exceeding 40%. However, their practical performance is hampered by mismatched crystallization kinetics between their wide-bandgap (WBG) and narrow-bandgap (NBG) subcells, leading to phase segregation and defect accumulation.

To address this challenge, a research group led by Prof. Ge Ziyi and Prof. Liu Chang from the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed an innovative colloidal chemistry strategy to enhance the performance of these TSCs, achieving a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 29.76%. Their study is published in Joule.

The researchers designed a unified carboxylate-based modulator system using two graded carboxylate anions—tartrate (Ta-) and citrate (Cit-)—to precisely regulate the nucleation dynamics of the two subcells.

Scientists Just Broke the Solar Power Limit Everyone Thought Was Absolute

A new “energy-multiplying” solar breakthrough could push efficiency beyond 100% and transform how we capture sunlight.

Solar energy is widely seen as a key tool in reducing reliance on fossil fuels and slowing climate change. The Sun delivers a vast amount of energy to Earth every second, but today’s solar cells can only capture a small portion of it. This limitation comes from a so-called “physical ceiling” that has long been considered unavoidable.

Breakthrough spin-flip technology boosts solar efficiency.

Shrinking the carbon footprint of chemical manufacturing with lasers and solar radiation

Researchers have found a way to use solar energy to power a key chemical reaction that drives many manufacturing industries. This new method can significantly reduce the energy required to run these operations, eliminate harsh oxidizing byproducts and minimize carbon emissions.

Olefin epoxidation is not a process many are familiar with, but the epoxide chemicals it produces are the backbone of the textile, plastic, chemical and pharmaceutical industries. However, the current industry-standard process uses harsh peroxides to facilitate oxidation reactions, which are difficult to dispose of safely and emit carbon dioxide.

Water can be used as an oxidant instead of peroxides, but H2O bonds are difficult to break, requiring high-temperature conditions, making it highly energy-intensive and further contributing to CO2 emissions.

Amorphous passivation strategy creates efficient, durable and flexible perovskite solar cells

Solar cells, devices that convert sunlight into electricity, are helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, promoting a shift toward renewable energy sources. Most solar cells used today are based on silicon, yet researchers have recently been exploring the potential of other photovoltaic materials, particularly perovskites.

Perovskites are a class of photovoltaic materials with strong light absorption. In practical devices, perovskite thin films are typically polycrystalline, meaning they consist of many small crystalline grains. As perovskites absorb sunlight so efficiently, a film thinner than ~1 μm can capture most of the incident solar radiation, whereas conventional crystalline silicon usually requires hundreds of micrometers of active material.

This combination of strong absorption and ultrathin active layers makes perovskite thin-film solar cells particularly well suited for lightweight, flexible, high-efficiency photovoltaic devices. Despite these many advantages, perovskites still face inherent challenges, such as achieving true mechanical flexibility, operational stability, and maintaining high efficiency at large areas simultaneously.

Dust-resilient perovskite solar cells could cut manufacturing costs and expand green energy worldwide

Research appearing in Communications Materials has shown that perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are remarkably resilient to dust during production, challenging the industry belief that high-performance solar technology must be manufactured in sterile and expensive cleanrooms. This discovery could reduce the need for ultra-clean factories, making solar cell production cheaper and more accessible worldwide.

PSCs are a new type of technology that uses a unique crystal structure to harvest light. They are thinner, lighter, and potentially much cheaper to produce than the traditional silicon panels found on roofs today. However, traditional silicon cells are incredibly fragile during the making process; even a single microscopic dust particle can ruin a cell. This forces manufacturers to use expensive, energy-hungry cleanrooms, creating a massive barrier to production in developing nations.

Researchers at Swansea University’s Faculty of Science & Engineering have now found that perovskite technology has a unique tolerance to common dust and debris.

New bifacial solar cells yield efficiencies above 32%

Solar cells, devices that can convert sunlight into electricity, are now widely used in many countries worldwide. Over the past few years, energy engineers have been exploring alternative designs that could further boost these devices’ power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) and ensure that they continue operating reliably over time.

Researchers at Soochow University, Zhejiang Jinko Solar Co. Ltd. and other institutes introduced a new bifacial solar cell design that could overcome some of the limitations of a recently introduced type of solar cell that leverage components known as tunnel oxide passivating contacts (TOPCon). Their design, outlined in a paper published in Nature Energy, combines TOPCon structures with perovskites, a class of materials with a unique crystal structure that efficiently absorbs light.

“Our work is rooted in a fundamental limitation of current TOPCon solar cells,” Kun Gao and Prof. Xinbo Yang, first author and co-senior author of the paper, respectively, told Tech Xplore. “In industrial TOPCon devices, a boron-diffused p+ emitter is still used on the front side, which introduces significant recombination losses and limits further efficiency improvements. A natural strategy is to replace this emitter with localized TOPCon contact.”

Wind-powered robot could enable long-term exploration of hostile environments

Researchers at Cranfield University have created WANDER-bot, a low-cost, 3D-printed robot that is powered by wind energy. Designed to spend long durations in hostile, windy environments such as certain deserts, polar regions or even other planets, WANDER-bot doesn’t need a battery to power movement, enabling longer operations without having to pause and recharge.

Movement accounts for around 20% of battery use in most robots, so running on natural energy makes WANDER-bot an efficient solution for long-term exploration or mapping of unknown terrains. As a result, any electronic elements added to future versions for data collection or transmission purposes could have their own smaller, lighter power source. Using natural energy also counters the issue of performance degradation over time in traditional power sources, such as solar cells and radioisotope thermoelectric generators.

Designed by Dr. Saurabh Upadhyay and Sam Kurian, Research Associate in Space Engineering, the robot uses parts that are entirely 3D printed, with the design deliberately simple to allow for quick repair and replacement. This means that, in theory, you could print and construct WANDER-bot anywhere and make replacement parts in situ as needed, removing the need for time-consuming and costly resupply missions.

Space-grade perovskite solar cells can survive extreme temperature fluctuations

The Aydin Group at LMU Munich has unveiled a novel strategy for making perovskite solar cells more robust against extreme temperature fluctuations. To this end, the researchers led by Dr. Erkan Aydin, group leader at LMU’s Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy, combined two molecular approaches. Their goal was to stabilize both the grain structure within the perovskite material and the interfaces of the solar cells, with a particular focus on enhancing the interaction between the perovskite layer and the underlying substrate. This enables the solar cells to maintain stable performance under the extreme thermal cycling typical of Low Earth orbit (LEO), as well as in other harsh environmental conditions. Their results have been published in the journal Nature Communications.

Regarding the background: Perovskite solar cells are considered one of the most promising next-generation photovoltaic technologies. They are relatively inexpensive to manufacture and achieve high efficiencies.

However, their mechanical stability is an issue. In particular, when confronted with strong temperature fluctuations in LEO—for example, in the range between −80 and +80 degrees Celsius—materials inside the solar cell can expand and contract to varying extents. This creates mechanical stresses, which lead to cracks, delamination, or drops in performance.

China succeeds in mimicking photosynthesis and transforming CO₂ and water into fuel: the experiment that could revolutionize the production of synthetic gasoline

Could future gasoline come from thin air and sunlight instead of oil wells? A team of Chinese scientists has unveiled a lab system that imitates plant photosynthesis to turn carbon dioxide and water into gasoline building blocks using only sunlight. Their work hints at a way to recycle a major greenhouse gas while still using existing engines and fuel infrastructure.

In an artificial photosynthesis study, the researchers report a “charge reservoir” material that stores solar energy as electrical charge, then delivers it on demand to drive reactions. The system converts carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide, a key building block for synthetic fuels, and uses water as its only electron source instead of extra helper chemicals.

Although still a lab device, the setup works under natural sunlight and is meant to connect renewable energy to industry and transport.

Electron microscopy maps protein landscapes that drive photosynthesis

Research led by scientists at Washington State University has revealed insights on how plants form a microscopic landscape of proteins crucial to photosynthesis, the basis of Earth’s food and energy chain. The discovery provides a new view of the molecular engine that converts sunlight into bioenergy and could enable future fine-tuning of crops for higher yields and other useful traits.

Colleagues at WSU, the University of Texas at Austin, and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel used a novel, technology-powered approach to peer inside plant leaf cells and visualize the landscape of the photosynthetic membrane—the ribbon-like structure where plants harvest sunlight. The findings were recently published in the journal Science Advances.

“These membranes are highly efficient biological solar cells,” said the study’s principal investigator and corresponding author, Helmut Kirchhoff. “They convert sunlight energy into chemical energy that fuels not only the plant’s metabolism but that of most life on Earth.”

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