A device for simultaneously converting the sun’s light and heat into electricity

Researchers have demonstrated a new mechanism for converting both sunlight and heat into electricity.

A new type of device that uses both heat and light from the sun should be more efficient than conventional solar cells, which convert only the light into electricity.

The device relies on a physical principle discovered and demonstrated by researchers at Stanford University. In their prototype, the energy in sunlight excites electrons in an electrode, and heat from the sun coaxes the excited electrons to jump across a vacuum into another electrode, generating an electrical current. The device could be designed to send waste heat to a steam engine and convert 50 percent of the energy in sunlight into electricity–a huge improvement over conventional solar cells. Read the rest of this entry »

Light-Trapping Nanoparticles boost solar power’s prospects

In 1995, finishing her undergraduate degree in physics, Kylie Catchpole decided to take a risk on a field that was nearly moribund: photovoltaics. “There was a sense that I might have difficulty ever being employed,” she recalls. But her gamble paid off. In 2006 Catchpole, then a postdoc, discovered something that opened the door to making thin-film solar cells significantly more efficient at converting light into electricity. It’s an advance that could help make solar power more competitive with fossil fuels. Read the rest of this entry »

Solar Fuel

Designing the perfect renewable fuel.

When Noubar Afeyan, the CEO of Flagship Ventures in Cambridge, MA, set out to invent the ideal renewable fuel, he decided to eliminate the middleman. Biofuels ultimately come from carbon dioxide and water, so why persist in making them from biomass–corn or switchgrass or algae? “What we wanted to know,” Afeyan says, “is could we engineer a system that could convert carbon dioxide directly into any fuel that we wanted?” Read the rest of this entry »

Federal funds could help 15 gigawatts of solar projects

A massive $1.37 billion loan guarantee that the U.S. Department of Energy granted to Brightsource Energy last week could help clear the way for over 15 gigawatts of solar projects in California, and could be the key to launching a new solar thermal industry in the United States. Read the rest of this entry »

Cheaper Solar, Without Better Cells

Costs could drop 30 percent with other improvements.

Dow Chemical readies easy-to-install solar roofs

Dow Chemical is moving full speed ahead to develop roof shingles embedded with photovoltaic cells. To facilitate the move, the U.S. Department of Energy has backed Dow’s efforts with a $17.8 million tax credit that will help the company launch an initial market test of the product later this year.

In October 2009, the chemical giant unveiled its product, which can be nailed to a roof like ordinary shingles by roofers without the help of specially trained solar installers or electricians. The solar shingles will cost 30 to 40 percent less than other solar-embedded building materials and 10 percent less than the combined costs of conventional roofing materials and rack-mounted solar panels, according to company officials. Read the rest of this entry »

Mixing Solar with Coal to Cut Costs

A new strategy could reduce coal plant emissions and cut the cost of solar power.

A project that will add solar power to a coal-fired power plant could reduce the amount of coal required to generate electricity and dramatically cut the cost of solar power.

The approach, announced by Abengoa Solar, based in Lakewood, CO, and Xcel Energy, Colorado’s largest electrical utility, would make it easier for utilities in sunny states like California to meet impending state renewable-energy requirements. Read the rest of this entry »

Researcher Pushes Enormous Floating Solar Islands

Creating cheap, clean energy is a huge problem.

So, how’s this for a big solution: Swiss researcher Thomas Hinderling wants to build solar islands several miles across that he claims can produce hundreds of megawatts of relatively inexpensive power.

He’s the CEO of the Centre Suisse d’Electronique et de Microtechnique, a privately held R&D company, and he’s already received $5 million from the Ras al Khaimah emirate of the United Arab Emirates to start construction on a prototype facility in that country. Read the rest of this entry »

Think solar power is all about photovoltaic panels? Solar thermal could power the entire country—and the technology has been tested

The Other Solar

Solar technology is nothing new. For literal millennia, humans have been harnessing the sun’s rays for energy. Over the past few decades, the dream of a solar-powered future has mostly conjured up images of rooftops covered by photovoltaic panels, turning every house into a mini power plant. But a somewhat lower-tech and much older solar solution could well prove to offer the biggest gains in carbon-free energy production. I’m talking about concentrated solar power, or as many call it, “solar thermal.”

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MIT Chemist’s “Solar Fuel” – A breakthrough technology for clean source of fuel

A Cheaper Solar Concentrator

Follow link: A new light-guiding optic combines low cost with high efficiency.

Nicolas Morgan holds up a square piece of clear, molded acrylic about a centimeter thick and shines a penlight directly at its flat surface. A green beam enters the acrylic and bends toward the center of the square. Morgan repeats the process at different points on the surface, and each time, the beam darts toward the center.

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