Hasta La Gadget!

There have been more than a few solar power efficiency records set in the past few months, let alone years. What makes IBM, DelSolar, Solar Frontier and Tokyo Ohka Kogyo think they can just waltz in and claim a record of their own? By using more commonplace elements in the periodic table, that’s how. The partnership’s new photovoltaic cell based on copper, zinc and tin (CZTS for short) can convert light rays to electric power with a 11.1 percent efficiency rate — still nothing to upset traditional silicon power, but a large 10 percent more efficient than anything else in the class. In its early form, CZTS can already be manufactured through ink printing and could be produced in quantities equivalent to about 500 gigawatts of power per year, or five times more than some of the next-closest alternatives. The group wants to improve CZTS’ efficiency over the course of the next several years, ideally reaching the point where it’s useful as a truly cheap, ubiquitous source of power. We’re looking forward to the day when there’s a little slice of solar energy in just about everything, hopefully including a few more hybrid cars and private aircraft.

Filed under: Science

IBM alliance sets efficiency record for solar power cells using common materials originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Aug 2012 15:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Solar3D probably isn’t a company you’re particularly familiar with… at least not yet. The California-based manufacturer has just successfully fabricated a three dimensional solar panel that traps sun light in nano-scale wells on a silicon wafer. Perhaps most exciting, the prototype panel was built using off-the-shelf tech from Panasonic, meaning that the price of mass production shouldn’t be prohibitively high. More testing is needed, but the resulting panels should be up to 50 percent more efficient than current generation 2D ones. For a few more details, check out The PR after the break.

Continue reading 3D, light-trapping solar cells successfully fabricated by Solar3D

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

3D, light-trapping solar cells successfully fabricated by Solar3D originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Jul 2012 20:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Most solar panels today generate electricity by directly facing the sun. While these panels definitely reap the benefits of the direct sunlight, they are missing out on the reflected sunlight. Bsolar, an Israeli startup, plans on fixing this problem with its bifacial solar panels. Bsolar first showed off their product in a German trade show last month and has announced a 730W project in Japan that it will get involved in.

While bifacial solar cell research has been around for a while, bifacial solar panels are quite new on the market as it has been very difficult to find a cheap way to produce a double-sided solar panel, let alone a regular solar panel. Bsolar took the silicon wafers, which have decreased in price over the years, and engineered into the wafers the ability to collect reflected light on either side. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Scientists develop solar-panels thinner than a thread of spider’s silk, Blackfriars Bridge solar panel installation to be completed in 2012,