Renewable Energy

July 2019
A Material that can Make Solar Cells More Efficient
Researchers at Siberian Federal University, together with colleagues from the Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden), discovered new properties of material based on palladium, which can increase the performance of solar cells. Palladium diselenide is a promising material whose properties have not
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Date:
07/31/2019

'Deforming' Solar Cells Could be clue to Improved Efficiency
Deformations and defects in structures of photoelectric technologies shown to improve their efficiency University of Warwick physicists demonstrate that strain gradient can prevent recombination of photo-excited carriers in solar energy conversion Increasingly important as devices become miniatu
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Date:
07/29/2019
Energy from Seawater

The Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant on Santa Monica Bay in Los Angeles is an example of a coastal wastewater treatment operation that could potentially recover energy from the mixing of seawater and treated effluent.

Salt is power. It might sound like alchemy, but the energy in places where salty ocean water and freshwater mingle could provide a massive source of renewable power. Stanford researchers have developed an affordable, durable technology that could harness this so-called blue energy. The paper, recently published
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Date:
07/29/2019
Solar Energy Becomes Biofuel Without Solar Cells

This is professor Peter Lindblad

Soon we will be able to replace fossil fuels with a carbon-neutral product created from solar energy, carbon dioxide and water. Researchers at Uppsala University have successfully produced microorganisms that can efficiently produce the alcohol butanol using carbon dioxide and solar energy, without needing to us
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Date:
07/26/2019
Screw Terminal Capacitors w/ Better Ripple Current Handling
MALVERN, Pa. — Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. today launched a new series of miniaturized screw terminal aluminum capacitors that deliver 10 % higher capacitance and 10 % better ripple current handling for a given can size than previous-generation devices, allowing designers to pack more energy storage into le
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Date:
07/24/2019
15 Mbps Photocouplers for Harsh Industrial Applications
TOKYO, Japan – Renesas Electronics Corporation announced three new 15 Mbps photocouplers designed to withstand the harsh operating environments of industrial and factory automation equipment. The trend toward higher voltage, compact systems is driving stricter International safety standards and eco-friendly so
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Date:
07/24/2019
Preparing the way for Wind Power

Click image to enlarge

Figure 1: Typical wind turbines

Wind power in the United States is booming and vast farms of turbines are sprouting across large parts of the country. While this trend isn’t representative of every US state, the country’s use of wind power is on the up and it’s showing no signs of anchoring just yet. Indeed, wind power is on track to overtake hydropower as the U.S. grid’s largest source of renewable electricity in 2019, according to dat
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Date:
07/23/2019
Atomically Precise Models Improve Fuel Cell Understanding

The initial positions of the atoms in this computer model of a solid-oxide fuel cell were based on observations of the actual atomic configuration using electron microscopy. Simulations using this model revealed a previously unreported reaction (red path) in which an oxygen molecule from the yttria-stabilized zirconia layer (layer of red and light blue balls) moves through the bulk nickel layer (dark blue balls) before forming OH on the nickel surface.

Simulations from researchers in Japan provide new insights into the reactions occurring in solid-oxide fuel cells by using realistic atomic-scale models of the active site at the electrode based on microscope observations as the starting point. This better understanding could give clues on ways to improve performance an
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Date:
07/19/2019
Research Shows Black Plastics Could Create Renewable Energy

The process by which plastics are converted to carbon nanotube material.

Research from Swansea University has found how plastics commonly found in food packaging can be recycled to create new materials like wires for electricity - and could help to reduce the amount of plastic waste in the future. While a small proportion of the hundreds of types of plastics can be recycled by conven
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Date:
07/16/2019
How to Finance Solar Power

Cover for 'Solar Power Finance without the Jargo'.

To borrow a quote from the famous 2011 publication, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, "3,766,800 exajoules of solar energy arrive on earth each year"--but how much of it are we using? And since Earth receives such a huge dose every year for free almost everywhere, why does it still only make up l
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Date:
07/08/2019
Activity of Fuel Cell Catalysts Doubled

An interdisciplinary research team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has succeeded in optimizing the size of platinum nanoparticles for fuel cell catalysis so that the new catalysts are twice as good as the currently best commercially available processes. The picture shows the first authors: Dr. Batyr Garlyyev, Kathrin Kratzl, and Marlon Rueck (f.l.t.r.).

An interdisciplinary research team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has built platinum nanoparticles for catalysis in fuel cells: The new size-optimized catalysts are twice as good as the best process commercially available today. Fuel cells may well replace batteries as the power source for elect
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Date:
07/03/2019
Danish Researchers Create Worldwide Solar Energy Model

The graphic shows the total solar energy production for all European countries in the period 2013-2017. Each tiny field represents a week's energy production: The brighter the color the more energy was produced.

Solar cells are currently the world's most talked-about renewable energy source, and for any future sustainable energy system, it is crucial to know about the performance of photovoltaic systems at local, regional and global levels. Danish researchers have just set up an historically accurate model, and all the
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Date:
07/01/2019
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