CleanTechnica » solar cell research http://cleantechnica.com Clean Tech News & Views: Solar Energy News. Wind Energy News. EV News. & More. Tue, 30 Dec 2014 18:48:25 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.1 Plastic Solar Cells Get Boost From Disorder http://cleantechnica.com/2013/08/07/plastic-solar-cells-get-boost-from-disorder/ http://cleantechnica.com/2013/08/07/plastic-solar-cells-get-boost-from-disorder/#comments Wed, 07 Aug 2013 13:59:15 +0000 http://cleantechnica.com/?p=54815 Original article posted on Stanford News. By Mark Shwartz Scientists have spent decades trying to build flexible plastic solar cells efficient enough to compete with conventional cells made of silicon. To boost performance, research groups have tried creating new plastic materials that enhance the flow of electricity through the solar cell. Several groups expected to

Plastic Solar Cells Get Boost From Disorder was originally published on CleanTechnica.

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]]> http://cleantechnica.com/2013/08/07/plastic-solar-cells-get-boost-from-disorder/feed/ 0 Fluorescent Solar Cells The Future? http://cleantechnica.com/2013/05/19/fluorescent-solar-cells-the-future/ http://cleantechnica.com/2013/05/19/fluorescent-solar-cells-the-future/#comments Sun, 19 May 2013 13:00:50 +0000 http://cleantechnica.com/?p=51844 This article was originally published on the Yale News website. For some solar cells, the future may be fluorescent. Scientists at Yale have improved the ability of a promising type of solar cell to absorb light and convert it into electrical power by adding a fluorescent organic dye to the cell layer. This squaraine dye

Fluorescent Solar Cells The Future? was originally published on CleanTechnica.

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]]> http://cleantechnica.com/2013/05/19/fluorescent-solar-cells-the-future/feed/ 4 Printing Australia’s Largest Solar Cells http://cleantechnica.com/2013/05/19/printing-australias-largest-solar-cells/ http://cleantechnica.com/2013/05/19/printing-australias-largest-solar-cells/#comments Sun, 19 May 2013 11:00:06 +0000 http://cleantechnica.com/?p=51838 This article was originally published on the website of CSIRO. Scientists have produced the largest flexible, plastic solar cells in Australia – 10 times the size of what they were previously able to – thanks to a new solar cell printer that has been installed at CSIRO. The printer has allowed researchers from the Victorian

Printing Australia’s Largest Solar Cells was originally published on CleanTechnica.

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]]> http://cleantechnica.com/2013/05/19/printing-australias-largest-solar-cells/feed/ 12 Solar Cell Material Created From Microwave Oven http://cleantechnica.com/2013/05/11/solar-cell-material-created-from-microwave-oven/ http://cleantechnica.com/2013/05/11/solar-cell-material-created-from-microwave-oven/#comments Sat, 11 May 2013 13:00:13 +0000 http://cleantechnica.com/?p=51624 Another fun solar science story, this one via the University of Utah: University of Utah metallurgists used an old microwave oven to produce a nanocrystal semiconductor rapidly using cheap, abundant and less toxic metals than other semiconductors. They hope it will be used for more efficient photovoltaic solar cells and LED lights, biological sensors and

Solar Cell Material Created From Microwave Oven was originally published on CleanTechnica.

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]]> http://cleantechnica.com/2013/05/11/solar-cell-material-created-from-microwave-oven/feed/ 1 New Plasmonic Polymer Solar Cells Achieve Record Efficiency Of 8.92% http://cleantechnica.com/2013/05/10/new-plasmonic-polymer-solar-cells-achieve-record-efficiency-of-8-92-highest-for-any-plasmonic-polymer-solar-cells-utilizing-metal-nanoparticles/ http://cleantechnica.com/2013/05/10/new-plasmonic-polymer-solar-cells-achieve-record-efficiency-of-8-92-highest-for-any-plasmonic-polymer-solar-cells-utilizing-metal-nanoparticles/#comments Fri, 10 May 2013 08:52:00 +0000 http://cleantechnica.com/?p=51554 A new polymer solar cells designed by researchers at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology has achieved a record for the highest efficiency of any plasmonic PSCs that utilize metal nanoparticles. The new record is not far off of the 10% conversion efficiency level that the researchers think will allow the technology to

New Plasmonic Polymer Solar Cells Achieve Record Efficiency Of 8.92% was originally published on CleanTechnica.

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]]> http://cleantechnica.com/2013/05/10/new-plasmonic-polymer-solar-cells-achieve-record-efficiency-of-8-92-highest-for-any-plasmonic-polymer-solar-cells-utilizing-metal-nanoparticles/feed/ 4 First All-Carbon Solar Cell Created http://cleantechnica.com/2012/11/01/first-all-carbon-solar-cell-created/ http://cleantechnica.com/2012/11/01/first-all-carbon-solar-cell-created/#comments Thu, 01 Nov 2012 21:50:38 +0000 http://cleantechnica.com/?p=44686   The first solar cell made entirely out of carbon has been created by researchers from Stanford University. This technological breakthrough is offering the possibility of cheap, practical alternatives to the sometimes rather expensive materials used in current solar cells. “Carbon has the potential to deliver high performance at a low cost,” said study senior

First All-Carbon Solar Cell Created was originally published on CleanTechnica.

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]]> http://cleantechnica.com/2012/11/01/first-all-carbon-solar-cell-created/feed/ 1 New High-Efficiency Quantum Dot Solar Cells Developed http://cleantechnica.com/2012/10/27/new-high-efficiency-quantum-dot-solar-cells-developed/ http://cleantechnica.com/2012/10/27/new-high-efficiency-quantum-dot-solar-cells-developed/#comments Sat, 27 Oct 2012 10:07:04 +0000 http://cleantechnica.com/?p=44494   The first solar cell with an external quantum efficiency (EQE) that exceeds 100 percent for photons with energies in the solar range has been created. With these new solar cells, every blue photon that is absorbed can generate up to 30 percent more current than with current technologies. The external quantum efficiency is the

New High-Efficiency Quantum Dot Solar Cells Developed was originally published on CleanTechnica.

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]]> http://cleantechnica.com/2012/10/27/new-high-efficiency-quantum-dot-solar-cells-developed/feed/ 7 Solar Cells Could Receive Huge Boost in Efficiency Thanks to Next-Gen Antireflection Coatings http://cleantechnica.com/2012/10/27/solar-cells-could-receive-huge-boost-in-efficiency-thanks-to-next-gen-antireflection-coatings/ http://cleantechnica.com/2012/10/27/solar-cells-could-receive-huge-boost-in-efficiency-thanks-to-next-gen-antireflection-coatings/#comments Sat, 27 Oct 2012 08:17:00 +0000 http://cleantechnica.com/?p=44490   Solar cell efficiency is set to greatly increase in the next few years thanks to newly created next-gen antireflection coatings. The new nanomaterial coatings will help to limit the amount of light that is reflected away by the surfaces of solar cells. In the past few years, materials with a ‘tunable’ refractive index have

Solar Cells Could Receive Huge Boost in Efficiency Thanks to Next-Gen Antireflection Coatings was originally published on CleanTechnica.

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]]> http://cleantechnica.com/2012/10/27/solar-cells-could-receive-huge-boost-in-efficiency-thanks-to-next-gen-antireflection-coatings/feed/ 2 Solar Cell Degradation Research Can Improve Thin Film Solar Panels http://cleantechnica.com/2012/10/13/solar-cell-degradation-research-can-improve-thin-film-solar-panels/ http://cleantechnica.com/2012/10/13/solar-cell-degradation-research-can-improve-thin-film-solar-panels/#comments Sat, 13 Oct 2012 06:53:21 +0000 http://cleantechnica.com/?p=43951   The Laboratory for Photovoltaics at the University of Luxembourg has recently devised a new method to observe the causes of and prevent solar cell degradation before solar cell production is even finished. This will have huge effects on the solar cell manufacturing industry because of how fast chemical damage to solar cells can happen,

Solar Cell Degradation Research Can Improve Thin Film Solar Panels was originally published on CleanTechnica.

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]]> http://cleantechnica.com/2012/10/13/solar-cell-degradation-research-can-improve-thin-film-solar-panels/feed/ 0 Microwave Heating Lowering Solar Cell Production Costs http://cleantechnica.com/2012/08/28/microwave-heating-lowering-solar-cell-production-costs/ http://cleantechnica.com/2012/08/28/microwave-heating-lowering-solar-cell-production-costs/#comments Tue, 28 Aug 2012 11:40:44 +0000 http://cleantechnica.com/?p=41762   You might use a microwave oven to warm up that cup of tea you left stewing just a little too long, or tonight’s dinner (because work ran late again), but engineers at Oregon State University have discovered that the same technology you used to bring that lasagna back to life is also great for

Microwave Heating Lowering Solar Cell Production Costs was originally published on CleanTechnica.

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]]> http://cleantechnica.com/2012/08/28/microwave-heating-lowering-solar-cell-production-costs/feed/ 0 Harvard Crowd-Sources Organic Solar Cell Research Project http://cleantechnica.com/2012/04/24/harvard-crowd-sources-organic-solar-cell-research-project/ http://cleantechnica.com/2012/04/24/harvard-crowd-sources-organic-solar-cell-research-project/#comments Wed, 25 Apr 2012 02:00:26 +0000 http://cleantechnica.com/?p=37381 A crowd-sourced solar cell research initiative at Harvard University called the Clean Energy Project is about to get a big boost: the initiative, which has relied on a network of home and office personal computers,  is scheduled for a block of time on the Trestles supercomputer at the University of California, San Diego. The project

Harvard Crowd-Sources Organic Solar Cell Research Project was originally published on CleanTechnica.

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