Flexible solar cell woven into fabric
Wearable electronics are quickly becoming the fashion. And there could soon be a way to power those electronics indefinitely, now that scientists in China have developed a solar cell 'textile' that could be woven into clothes. The textile retains a power-generation efficiency close to 1% even after been bent more than 200 times, and can be illuminated from both sides.
Scientists have been looking into flexible solar cells for decades, partly for coating irregularly shaped objects but also for integrating into wearable fabrics. One popular line of investigation has been dye-sensitized solar cells, in which a pigment absorbs sunlight to generate electrons and their positive counterparts, holes, before passing on those charges to inexpensive semiconductors. These solar cells are cheap and flexible, but the liquid nature of their pigments means that they must be well sealed. Bend a dye-sensitized solar cell more than a few times and the seals are likely to break, destroying its light-harvesting properties.
That is why Huisheng Peng at Fudan University in Shanghai and colleagues have been exploring another option: polymer solar cells. Although their maximum efficiencies fall below 10% - about half that of crystalline silicon, the most prevalent solar cell - polymer solar cells are lightweight, flexible and easy to manufacture. Peng and colleagues' solar cell textile consists of microscopic interwoven metal wires coated with an active polymer (to absorb the sunlight), titanium dioxide nanotubes (to conduct the electrons) and another active polymer (to conduct the holes). The researches coated each side of the textile with transparent, conductive sheets of carbon nanotubes, which complete the circuit.
Kitchen scraps and animal waste fuel green power boom
New figures show 8,000 tonnes of food refuse collected from households every year, boosting growth of sector, with Scottish Water Cumbernauld plant producing enough electricity to power equivalent of 2,000 homes.
Beaumont Solar Ranks High on Three 2014 Top Solar Contractor Lists
New national rankings place Beaumont Solar Company, a New Bedford, MA company that has shown ten-fold growth since its formation 8 years ago, among the top solar contractors nationally, including the #2 rank in the Massachusetts Solar Market.
NEC Energy Solutions to Install Energy Storage System in California
3.9MWh GSS™ to support a distributed energy storage integration project
SolarMax USA Inverters Achieve NYSERDA Listing
SolarMax MT A Series string inverters certified to be New York Standard Interconnection Requirements (SIR) compliant for use by New York utilities
Finalists announced and voting open for INDIASOL Indian Solar Company Abroad Award
VIkram Solar, Navsemi Energy, Larsen & Toubro Renew Sys and Tata Power Solar have been announced as finalists of the CSP Today and PV Insider INDIASOL 2014 Awards, and voting is now open for the unique award of Indian Solar Company Abroad.
Renewables Academy AG (RENAC) Expands Online Through New E-Learning Platform
RENAC is launching the Renewables Academy Online (RENAC Online) on the 1st of October.
HelioSage Energy Announces Sale of 12 Solar Projects in North Carolina
he portfolio is comprised of projects originated, sited, designed, and permitted by HelioSage.
Conti Group Purchases 11 MW of Canadian Solar Modules
The Conti Group has installed over 70 MW of solar projects throughout the United States.
Trina Solar Announces Acquisition of Majority Stake in Yunnan Metallurgical New Energy to Support Development of Solar Power Projects
Trina Solar obtained the stake by participating in a bidding process conducted through the Yunnan Public Resource Trading Center's online bidding platform after Yunnan Metallurgical New Energy posted an invitation to bid for the majority stake via the Yunnan Equity Exchange.
By Switching Catalyst From Silver to Copper, Natcore Finds Additional Solar Cell Savings.
Research is Published in the Royal Society of Chemistry's Journal of Materials Chemistry A.
Masdar Delivers Samoa's First Wind Farm
Grant financing from UAE-Pacific Partnership Fund
BIGFOOT comes to Michigan: a Huge Truck for a Great Show
BIGFOOT comes to Michigan
Michigan ranked 3rd in nation for clean energy jobs
TÜV SÜD PMSS ON POINT FOR WESTERMEERWIND
Multi year working partnership sees specialist renewable energy division deliver long-term benefits to largest nearshore Dutch wind energy project
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