Green Energy
- Artificial Photosynthesis: Developing New Technology To Use A Very Old Process
Credit: Joint Center for Artificial PhotosynthesisBy Andrea Lang, Energy Fellow By far the most abundant source of potential renewable energy is the Sun, which puts out roughly enough energy in one hour to power all human activity on earth for one year,...
- Conference On The Algerian-german Partnership
The Algerian-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (AHK) announced that a conference concerning the Algerian-German partnership in the solar energy field will be held next Tuesday 15/11/11 in Algiers. The conference deals with the Algerian existing...
- Researchers Create Efficient, Recyclable Solar Cells From Trees
Researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology‘s Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics (COPE), in collaboration with Purdue University have unveiled a new efficient, recyclable organic solar cell made from trees—or, more specifically, from...
- Mirrors, Pods, Printed Panels: Solar Innovation Heats Up
Article originally published on www.greenbiz.com in July 8th 2015. When it comes to solar energy, much of the emphasis of late has been on declining prices. And with good reason; the closer to cost parity with fossil fuels, the more likely...
- Global Solar Photovoltaic Industry Is Likely Now A Net Energy Producer
Article published on www.sciencedaily.com, on April, 8th 2013 The rapid growth of the solar power industry over the past decade may have exacerbated the global warming situation it was meant to soothe, simply because most of the energy...
Green Energy
Solar Power: Is It Time for the Big Push?
Article published on www.sciencedaily.com
Jan. 31, 2013 — There are great expectations for solar power, especially in the coming years, when the International Energy Agency projects solar to grow faster than any other renewable power. But what does science need to do to more fully respond to the opportunities ahead?
Recently, three researchers discussed this with fellow scientist Harry A. Atwater, Jr., director of the DOE Energy Frontier Research Center on Light-Material Interactions in Solar Energy Conversion, as well as member of the Kavli Nanoscience Institute (KNI) at the California Institute of Technology. To really give solar power a push, the scientists raised advancing how new materials are created, developed and brought to industry.
"We need to engage with manufacturers and end-users of the technology as soon as possible, rather than spend years doing lab demonstrations before anyone talks with industry," said Michael Wasielewski, director of the Argonne-Northwestern Solar Energy Research Center and professor at Northwestern University. "We need to take advantage of manufacturers' expertise in how things are really done. On our part, we need to let them know about promising materials sooner, so they start to think about commercialization pathways earlier in the process."
It was also pointed out that barriers in the laboratory needed breaking. "I work more on the physics side, but there is a separation between what I do and the chemistry needed to make this work," said Albert Polman, director of the Dutch Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter's Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. "To make things happen faster, we need to have the disciplines talk to one another more than in the past."
Another challenge is making new technology more affordable. Nathan Lewis is principal investigator of the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Innovation Hub in Fuels from Sunlight at the California Institute of Technology, where he is also a member of KNI. Said Lewis, "[W]e need to really scale up manufacturing to make this technology cheap. Right now, making solar cells is like making other highly engineered technologies, such as silicon chips. What we need are technologies that let us churn it out inexpensively, like newspaper or bubble wrap."
Scaling up means bridging a financial gulf, noted Atwater. "[T]o commercialize solar technologies, we must get past the valley of death -- that big gap between demonstrating a technology and finding someone to invest $100 million for large-scale manufacturing," he said.
Find more information concerning our solar innovations on Ciel&Terre's website.
- Artificial Photosynthesis: Developing New Technology To Use A Very Old Process
Credit: Joint Center for Artificial PhotosynthesisBy Andrea Lang, Energy Fellow By far the most abundant source of potential renewable energy is the Sun, which puts out roughly enough energy in one hour to power all human activity on earth for one year,...
- Conference On The Algerian-german Partnership
The Algerian-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (AHK) announced that a conference concerning the Algerian-German partnership in the solar energy field will be held next Tuesday 15/11/11 in Algiers. The conference deals with the Algerian existing...
- Researchers Create Efficient, Recyclable Solar Cells From Trees
Researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology‘s Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics (COPE), in collaboration with Purdue University have unveiled a new efficient, recyclable organic solar cell made from trees—or, more specifically, from...
- Mirrors, Pods, Printed Panels: Solar Innovation Heats Up
Article originally published on www.greenbiz.com in July 8th 2015. When it comes to solar energy, much of the emphasis of late has been on declining prices. And with good reason; the closer to cost parity with fossil fuels, the more likely...
- Global Solar Photovoltaic Industry Is Likely Now A Net Energy Producer
Article published on www.sciencedaily.com, on April, 8th 2013 The rapid growth of the solar power industry over the past decade may have exacerbated the global warming situation it was meant to soothe, simply because most of the energy...