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Category: solar power

Exploring a space-based, scalable AI infrastructure system design

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a foundational technology that could reshape our world, driving new scientific discoveries and helping us tackle humanity’s greatest challenges. Now, we’re asking where we can go to unlock its fullest potential.

The Sun is the ultimate energy source in our solar system, emitting more power than 100 trillion times humanity’s total electricity production. In the right orbit, a solar panel can be up to 8 times more productive than on earth, and produce power nearly continuously, reducing the need for batteries. In the future, space may be the best place to scale AI compute. Working backwards from there, our new research moonshot, Project Suncatcher, envisions compact constellations of solar-powered satellites, carrying Google TPUs and connected by free-space optical links. This approach would have tremendous potential for scale, and also minimizes impact on terrestrial resources.

We’re excited about this growing area of exploration, and our early research, shared today in “Towards a future space-based, highly scalable AI infrastructure system design,” a preprint paper, which describes our progress toward tackling the foundational challenges of this ambitious endeavor — including high-bandwidth communication between satellites, orbital dynamics, and radiation effects on computing. By focusing on a modular design of smaller, interconnected satellites, we are laying the groundwork for a highly scalable, future space-based AI infrastructure.

Sunlight split in two: Organic layer promises leap in solar power efficiency

In the race to make solar energy cheaper and more efficient, a team of UNSW Sydney scientists and engineers have found a way to push past one of the biggest limits in renewable technology.

Singlet fission is a process where a single particle of light—a photon—can be split into two packets of energy, effectively doubling the electrical output when applied to technologies harnessing the sun.

In a study appearing in ACS Energy Letters, the UNSW team—known as “Omega Silicon”—showed how this works on an that could one day be mass-produced specifically for use with solar panels.

Scientists create new type of semiconductor that holds superconducting promise

Scientists have long sought to make semiconductors—vital components in computer chips and solar cells—that are also superconducting, thereby enhancing their speed and energy efficiency and enabling new quantum technologies. However, achieving superconductivity in semiconductor materials such as silicon and germanium has proved challenging due to difficulty in maintaining an optimal atomic structure with the desired conduction behavior.

In a paper published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, an international team of scientists reports producing a form of that is superconducting—able to conduct electricity with , which allows currents to flow indefinitely without , resulting in greater operational speed that requires less energy.

“Establishing superconductivity in germanium, which is already widely used in computer chips and , can potentially revolutionize scores of consumer products and industrial technologies,” says New York University physicist Javad Shabani, director of NYU’s Center of Quantum Information Physics and the university’s newly established Quantum Institute, one of the paper’s authors.

Molecular engineering strategy boosts efficiency of inverted perovskite solar cells

Solar cells, devices that can directly convert radiation emitted from the sun into electricity, have become increasingly widespread and are contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. While existing silicon-based solar cells have attained good performances, energy engineers have been exploring alternative designs that could be more efficient and affordable.

Perovskites, a class of materials with a characteristic crystal structure, have proved to be particularly promising for the development of low-cost and energy-efficient solar energy solutions. Recent studies specifically highlighted the potential of inverted perovskite solar cells, devices in which the extraction charge layers are arranged in the reverse order compared to traditional designs.

Inverted perovskite solar cells could be more stable and easier to manufacture on a large-scale than conventional perovskite-based cells. Nonetheless, most inverted cells developed so far were found to exhibit low energy-efficiencies, due to the uncontrolled formation of crystal grains that can produce defects and adversely impact the transport of charge carriers generated by sunlight.

Ultra-black nanoneedles absorb 99.5% of light for future solar towers

Using state-of-the-art equipment, researchers in the Thermophysical Properties of Materials group from the University of the Basque Country (EHU) have analyzed the capacity of ultra-black copper cobaltate nanoneedles to effectively absorb solar energy. They showed that the new nanoneedles have excellent thermal and optical properties and are particularly suited to absorbing energy. This will pave the way toward concentrated solar power in the field of renewable energies.

The tests were carried out in a specialized lab that has the capacity to undertake high temperature research. The results were published in the journal Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells.

Renewable energy of the future is concentrated solar power because it can be easily used to store thermal energy. Despite the fact that, historically, it is more expensive and complex than photovoltaic power, in recent years huge advances have taken place in this technology, and concentrated plants are spreading across more and more countries as a resource for a sustainable future.

Perovskites reveal ultrafast quantum light in new study

Halide perovskites—already a focus of major research into efficient, low-cost solar cells—have been shown to handle light faster than most semiconductors on the market.

A new paper, published in Nature Nanotechnology, reports quantum transients on the scale of ~2 picoseconds at low temperature in bulk formamidinium lead iodide films grown by scalable solution or vapor methods. That ultrafast timescale indicates use in very fast light sources and other photonic components. Crucially, these effects appear in films made by scalable processing rather than specialized growth in lab settings—suggesting a practical and affordable route to explore ultrafast quantum technology.

“Perovskites continue to surprise us,” said Professor Sam Stranks, who led the study. “This discovery shows how their intriguing nanoscale structure gives rise to intrinsic quantum properties that could be harnessed for future photonic technologies.”

Organic solar cells reach 21% efficiency with two-step crystallization process

While most solar cells on the market today are based on silicon, energy engineers have recently been assessing the performance of alternative cells based on other photovoltaic (PV) materials. These alternative options include so-called organic solar cells (OSCs), lightweight and flexible cells that are based on organic semiconducting materials.

The operation of OSCs relies on a so-called active layer, a structure made of two different types of materials, referred to as donor and acceptor materials. Both materials absorb sunlight and generate excitons which dissociate into electrons and holes at the interface between donor and acceptor materials. Then holes are transported in donor materials, while the acceptors transport electrons and facilitate their flow through the device to generate electricity.

Compared to conventional silicon-based solar cells, OSCs could be more flexible, lighter, more affordable and easier to tailor for specific applications, for instance by changing their color or transparency. Nonetheless, the efficiency with which they convert solar energy into electricity remains significantly lower than that of commercially available photovoltaics (PVs).

Scientists discover way to pause ultrafast melting in silicon using precisely timed laser pulses

A team of physicists has discovered a method to temporarily halt the ultrafast melting of silicon using a carefully timed sequence of laser pulses. This finding opens new possibilities for controlling material behavior under extreme conditions and could improve the accuracy of experiments that study how energy moves through solids.

The research, published in the journal Communications Physics, was led by Tobias Zier and David A. Strubbe of the University of California, Merced, in collaboration with Eeuwe S. Zijlstra and Martin E. Garcia from the University of Kassel in Germany. Their work focuses on how intense, affect the atomic structure of silicon—a material widely used in electronics and solar cells.

Using , the researchers showed that a single, high-energy laser pulse typically causes silicon to melt in a fraction of a trillionth of a second.

Heterostructure-Engineered Semiconductor Quantum Dots toward Photocatalyzed-Redox Cooperative Coupling Reaction

Semiconductor quantum dots have been emerging as one of the most ideal materials for artificial photosynthesis. Here, we report the assembled ZnS-CdS hybrid heterostructure for efficient coupling cooperative redox catalysis toward the oxidation of 1-phenylethanol to acetophenone/2,3-diphenyl-2,3-butanediol (pinacol) integrated with the reduction of protons to H2. The strong interaction and typical type-I band-position alignment between CdS quantum dots and ZnS quantum dots result in efficient separation and transfer of electron-hole pairs, thus distinctly enhancing the coupled photocatalyzed-redox activity and stability. The optimal ZnS-CdS hybrid also delivers a superior performance for various aromatic alcohol coupling photoredox reaction, and the ratio of electrons and holes consumed in such redox reaction is close to 1.0, indicating a high atom economy of cooperative coupling catalysis. In addition, by recycling the scattered light in the near field of a SiO2 sphere, the SiO2-supported ZnS-CdS (denoted as ZnS-CdS/SiO2) catalyst can further achieve a 3.5-fold higher yield than ZnS-CdS hybrid. Mechanistic research clarifies that the oxidation of 1-phenylethanol proceeds through the pivotal radical intermediates of • C(CH3)(OH)Ph. This work is expected to promote the rational design of semiconductor quantum dots-based heterostructured catalysts for coupling photoredox catalysis in organic synthesis and clean fuels production.

Copyright © 2023 Lin-Xing Zhang et al.

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Semi-transparent solar cells achieve record efficiency to advance building-integrated photovoltaics

A research team has developed an innovative parameter, FoMLUE, to evaluate the potential of photoactive materials for semi-transparent organic photovoltaics (ST-OPVs), paving the way for their widespread commercial applications.

A paper reporting the research, “Semitransparent organic photovoltaics with wide geographical adaptability as sustainable ,” has been published in Nature Communications.

Transparent solar cells can be integrated into windows, screens and other surfaces, with immense potential for them to revolutionize the renewable energy sector. However, there are challenges to overcome, one of which is balancing transparency with .

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