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Electricity-generating rooftop solar cells can save a significant amount of water. In some states, individual household water saving can reach up to 1,000%. 
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Joel Barker's insight:
Two important items: phosphorus has been turned into single atom thick material with special properties that make solar cells cheaper to make. How many other materials can become single atom, stable materials and what new properties might be manifested from that change? JB
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Technology is constantly advancing, making our lives easier, more sustainable and exciting. One of the major innovations of this time is the solar cells, enabling us to harness energy from the sun and decrease the greenhouse emissions.
Joel Barker's insight:
More technology to drive the price of solar cells downward. JB
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Scientists have created a solar cell of mutiple layers of different perovskite materials that has a claimed a peak efficiency of 26 percent. And can usefully convert light energy over much greater parts of the spectrum than standard silicon solar cells.
Joel Barker's insight:
Here comes the next generation of solar cells. 26% efficiency with inexpensive materials with easy, SPRAY-ON manufacturing. JB
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A new way of making perovskite crystals could bring them closer to use in the burgeoning solar power industry.
Joel Barker's insight:
And we have another discovery that will lower the price per watt of solar energy. JB
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A team of materials scientists have discovered a way to make organic semiconductors more powerful and more efficient, growing organic semiconductor crystals vertically for first time.
Joel Barker's insight:
This is one of theambiguous innovations -- almost a paradigm shift but clearly an direct outgrowth of the prevailing paradigm gone 3D. It is especially interesting because of its vertical structure. JB
AleksBlumentals's curator insight,
January 3, 2016 9:09 AM
“This technique enables us to pattern crystals wherever we want,” he said. “You could make electronic devices from these semiconductor crystals and grow them precisely in intricate patterns required for the device you want, such as thin-film transistors or light-emitting diodes.”
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Researchers have used a processed form of gallium phosphide to create a prototype solar fuel cell that boosts the hydrogen yield by a factor of 10, while requiring 10,000 times less of the precious material.
Joel Barker's insight:
This approach is really important because it frees hydrogen by splitting water. Hydrogen is an ideal fuel for combustion engines that don't produce CO2. Right now the yield numbers are low, but, as we have seen before, those are almost assuredly going up. JB
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Australian researchers have worked out a way to convert more than 40% of the sunlight hitting a solar system into electricity, the highest efficiency ever reported.
Joel Barker's insight:
This number is so amazing that it needed to be verified by an independent agency in the USA. They got the same results. 40% is a game changer. Think of it this way, If you were looking at 20% efficiency (which is still pretty good), now with half the technology and half the space you can get the same results. Double the efficiency. JB
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The developers of a new solar cell say they are four times more efficient and three times cheaper than current solar cells.
Joel Barker's insight:
Capture the electricity and the heat produced by the photons and you have a much more efficient solar system. That's what we have here. What are best uses of the heat? That will be interesting to see what they do with it. JB
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A new method of making perovskite cells for solar modules could be cheap and fast enough to make it scalable, researchers say.
Joel Barker's insight:
We have moved into the second phase of perovskite solar cells--steady small improvements. JB
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Researchers in Singapore, have developed a 3D printed sunflower that changes its shape in sunlight. According to the paper describing the work, it could impact development in various fields ranging from biomedical devices to soft robotics.
Joel Barker's insight:
Playing with a new paradigm. JB
James Schreier's curator insight,
August 28, 2017 10:57 AM
Joel Barker comments: "Playing with a new paradigm."
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It may not matter if politicians accept climate change -- cheap solar power could be inevitable.
Joel Barker's insight:
It is so classic to see the price of technology plummet even as it gets better. This is great news and a great trend. JB
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An Australian team has set a new record for squeezing as much electricity as possible out of direct, unfocused sunlight via a new solar cell configuration. The 34.5 percent sunlight-to-electricity conversion efficiency comes closer than ever to the theoretical limits of such a system.
Joel Barker's insight:
Please note the comment about when this level of conversion efficiency was expected. I will be watching for manufacturing breakthroughs that allow this type of solar cell to be produced as a commodity within five years. JB
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Engineers at the Vienna University of Technology foresee a future where platforms 100 m long and covered with solar panels float on even heavy seas thanks to a new floatation system called Heliofloat.
Joel Barker's insight:
I'm more impressed with the skupport system than I am with the solar cell arrays. If you can stabilize large platforms, you have a clear pathway to sea cities that build their own structures out of manangese and other metals extracted from the sea. JB
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Scientists at Northwestern University and the U.S. Department of Energy have found that perovskite cells, one of the most promising solar technologies of recent years, can repay their energy cost over 10 times faster than traditional silicon-based solar cells.
Joel Barker's insight:
This article also has a very strong negative critique of this material. But, the potential problems sound correctable, and if they are, this offers the next generation in solar power. JB
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By using the top electrode as the catalyst that turns plain silicon into valuable black silicon, scientists from Rice University have developed a way to simplify the production of solar cells.
Joel Barker's insight:
This new discovery highlights the difference between petroleum innovation and solar cell innovation. One is at its most sophisticated and expensive. Solar is just emerging toward an optimum state. Costs will continue, over the long haul, go up for the oil industry while they will continue to drop in solar. This is good news for the planet! JB
Scott J. Simmerman's comment,
June 3, 2015 1:52 PM
I wish something could be done on the innovation side of the petroleum spill side of things. We use absorbent pads and vacuums? Seriously?
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Using miniscule light-sensitive materials known as colloidal quantum dots, scientists from the University of Toronto have developed new technique for spraying solar cells onto products.
Joel Barker's insight:
Now we are seeing manufacturing breakthroughs for solar cells. This one is most intriguing because it is so cheap. Way to go, Canada! JB
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It makes sense when you factor in the efficient position solar cells take up and the heat they release to the atmosphere. Just another good example of capturing all the energy being released, JB