3D Printing self-assembling solar panels
New research towards low cost 3d Printing of thin film solar panels.
Scientists from Imperial College London, working at the Institut Laue-Langevin, have presented a new way of positioning nanoparticles in plastics, with important applications in the production of photovoltaic material.
This will result in more low-cost tools for 3D printing of self-assembling, thin-film circuits.
Read more at:
Nano Tech StocksLabels: 3d printing, Nano Solar, Solar Energy, Thin film solar cells
Nanorod: Solar power reinvented?
More news involving solar energy and nanorods:
"
Scientists from UC Santa Barbara’s (USCB) have reinvented solar power with a new approach that captures energy using a “forest” of gold nanorods and some chemistry.
The researcher tested the technology with an experimental solar conversion device that ran for several weeks, and published their findings in the February edition of the journal
Nature Nanotechnology. The materials used for the design also promise much more durable solar devices than today’s solar panels, a
press release said."
Source: http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/solar-power-reinvented/13639
Labels: Nano Solar, nanotech
Solar power game-changer: 'Near perfect' absorption of sunlight, from all angles
A new anti-reflective coating developed by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute could help to overcome two major hurdles blocking the progress and wider use of solar power. The nanoengineered coating boosts the amount of sunlight captured by solar panels and allows those panels to absorb the entire spectrum of sunlight from any angle, regardless of the sun's position in the sky.
An untreated silicon solar cell only absorbs 67.4 percent of sunlight shone upon it — meaning that nearly one-third of that sunlight is reflected away and thus unharvestable.
After a silicon surface was treated with Lin's new nanoengineered reflective coating, however, the material absorbed 96.21 percent of sunlight shone upon it — meaning that only 3.79 percent of the sunlight was reflected and unharvested. This huge gain in absorption was consistent across the entire spectrum of sunlight, from UV to visible light and infrared, and moves solar power a significant step forward toward economic viability.
Source:
PhysOrgLabels: Nano Solar, solar efficiency, solar panels, Solar Technology
Light-absorbing nanowires
Light-absorbing nanowires may make better solar panelsBY DAVID ORENSTEIN
A century after German physicist Gustav Mie derived the math to explain why the colors in some stained glass windows look especially resplendent in the sunlight, a team of Stanford engineers has built upon his work to potentially improve a means of harvesting energy from the sun.
In 1907 Mie realized that tiny metal particles in stained glass scattered light in ways that produced beautiful colors. Now, a related interplay between light and matter explains why incredibly thin "nanowires" made of semiconductors like germanium may prove to be effective components for solar cells. Combining Mie's work with more recent theory, the Stanford team has discerned how to tune and improve the light absorption efficiency of the wires. Their research appears in the July 5 online edition of the journal Nature Materials.
SourceLabels: Nano Solar, nanowires, Solar News, solar panels, Solar Stocks, Solar Technology
