Lifeboat Foundation

Technology paves way for intelligent solar cells, other highly efficient devices programmed at the macro and nano scale.

Researchers at Tufts University School of Engineering have created light-activated composite devices able to execute precise, visible movements and form complex three-dimensional shapes without the need for wires or other actuating materials or energy sources. The design combines programmable photonic crystals with an elastomeric composite that can be engineered at the macro and nano scale to respond to illumination.

Continue reading “‘Photonic Sunflower’ – Controlled by Light Alone, New Smart Materials Twist, Bend and Move” »

Researchers at Tufts University School of Engineering have created light-activated composite devices able to execute precise, visible movements and form complex three-dimensional shapes without the need for wires or other actuating materials or energy sources. The design combines programmable photonic crystals with an elastomeric composite that can be engineered at the macro and nano scale to respond to illumination.

The research provides new avenues for the development of smart light-driven systems such as high-efficiency, self-aligning solar cells that automatically follow the sun’s direction and angle of light, light-actuated microfluidic valves or soft robots that move with light on demand. A “photonic sunflower,” whose petals curl towards and away from illumination and which tracks the path and angle of the light, demonstrates the technology in a paper that appears March 12th, 2021 in Nature Communications.

Color results from the absorption and reflection of light. Behind every flash of an iridescent butterfly wing or opal gemstone lie complex interactions in which natural photonic crystals embedded in the wing or stone absorb light of specific frequencies and reflect others. The angle at which the light meets the crystalline surface can affect which wavelengths are absorbed and the heat that is generated from that absorbed energy.

Two types of materials are better than one when it comes to solar cells, as revealed by an international team that has tested a new combination of materials and architecture to improve solar-cell efficiency.

Silicon has long dominated as the premier material for solar cells, helped by its abundance as a raw material. However, perovskites, a class of hybrid organic-inorganic material, are a viable alternative due to their low-cost and large-scale manufacture and potentially higher performance. While still too unstable for full commercialization, they might become available to the market by 2022.

KAUST’s Michele De Bastiani and Stefaan De Wolf, working with colleagues in Canada, Germany and Italy, now show that a combination of the two is the best approach. By optimizing the material composition and the architecture of a “tandem” device, the team has achieved efficiencies beyond commercial silicon solar panels.

Columbia researchers engineer first technique to exploit the tunable symmetry of 2D materials for nonlinear optical applications, including laser, optical spectroscopy, imaging, and metrology systems, as well as next-generation optical quantum information processing and computing.

Nonlinear optics, a study of how light interacts with matter, is critical to many photonic applications, from the green laser pointers we’re all familiar with to intense broadband (white) light sources for quantum photonics that enable optical quantum computing, super-resolution imaging, optical sensing and ranging, and more. Through nonlinear optics, researchers are discovering new ways to use light, from getting a closer look at ultrafast processes in physics, biology, and chemistry to enhancing communication and navigation, solar energy harvesting, medical testing, and cybersecurity.

Columbia Engineering researchers report that they developed a new, efficient way to modulate and enhance an important type of nonlinear optical process: optical second harmonic generation — where two input photons are combined in the material to produce one photon with twice the energy — from hexagonal boron nitride through micromechanical rotation and multilayer stacking. The study was published online on March 32021, by Science Advances.

Solar powered vehicle.

Electric vehicle that can be operated only with solar power.

More info: https://bit.ly/2LKaMsw

Its inventors hope it can be used by remote communities that have never had electricity before.

Apparently this solar electric vehicle needs no charging.

The unit has yet to actually send power directly back to Earth, but that technology has already been proven. If the project develops into huge kilometers-wide space solar antennae, it could beam microwaves that would then be converted into fuel-free electricity to any part of the planet at a moment’s notice.

Scientists working for the Pentagon have successfully tested a solar panel the size of a pizza box in space, designed as a prototype for a future system to send electricity from space back to any point on Earth.

Berlin –Berlin-based HPS Home Power Solutions is pleased to announce it has received the 2021 Handelsblatt Energy Award in the category of “Smart City” for its picea system, the first marketable independent, solar-hydrogen powered CO₂ free home energy system worldwide. The award was given by a top-class jury.

Based on a combination of solar energy and innovative hydrogen technology, the picea system is the first year-round, CO₂ free, independent power supply for one-and two-family houses. The picea system is highly effective with about 90% utilization rate and offers more than 100 times the storage capacity of standard household-storage batteries.

“We are extremely pleased to receive this award recognizing the development of our picea system into a marketable clean energy solution,” said Zeyad Abul-Ella, co-founder and managing director of HPS Home Power Solutions.” HPS has made hydrogen technology more widely available to household consumers for the first time. Our product will be indispensable in the smart cities of the future. The Handelsblatt award is a recognition of the considerable reduction of CO₂ emissions picea offers and the value of German innovation in the field of climate protection technology,“he added.