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Category: solar power

Notably in April, Sierra Space announced the completion of successful hypervelocity impact trials conducted at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, to optimize the structural integrity of Sierra Space’s LIFE habitat space station technology. This included the use of NASA’s .50 caliber two-stage light gas gun to replicate micrometeoroid and orbital debris (MMOD) impacts to LIFE’s outer shield, to prepare the space station of use in orbit.

About Sierra Space.

Sierra Space is a leading commercial space company and emerging defense tech prime that is building an end-to-end business and technology platform in space to benefit and protect life on Earth. With more than 30 years and 500 missions of space flight heritage, the company is reinventing both space transportation with Dream Chaser®, the world’s only commercial spaceplane, and the future of space destinations with the company’s expandable space station technology. Using commercial business models, the company is also delivering orbital services to commercial, DoD and national security organizations, expanding production capacity to meet the needs of constellation programs. In addition, Sierra Space builds a host of systems and subsystems across solar power, mechanics and motion control, environmental control, life support, propulsion and thermal control, offering myriad space-as-a-service solutions for the new space economy.

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All-perovskite tandem solar cells (TSCs) are a class of solar cells comprised of two or more sub-cells that absorb light with different wavelengths, all of which are made of perovskites (i.e., materials with a characteristic crystal structure known to efficiently absorb light). These solar cells have been found to be highly promising energy solutions, as they could convert sunlight into electricity more efficiently than existing silicon-based solar cells.

Despite their potential, most all-perovskite TSCs developed to date only perform well when they are small and their performance rapidly declines as their size increases. This has ultimately prevented them from being manufactured and deployed on a large-scale.

Researchers at Wuhan University and other institutes in China recently introduced a new strategy for enhancing the performance of all-perovskite TSCs irrespective of their size, which could in turn contribute to their future commercialization. Their proposed approach for fabricating these cells, outlined in a paper published in Nature Nanotechnology, entails the use of piracetam, a chemical additive that can help to control the initial phase of crystal formation (i.e., nucleation) in wide-bandgap perovskites.

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A new study led by Tohoku University has revealed that rooftop solar panels, when combined with electric vehicles (EVs) as batteries, could supply 85% of Japan’s electricity demand and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 87%. The research provides a promising pathway for Japan’s local governments to achieve carbon neutrality by taking advantage of existing infrastructure—rooftops and vehicles—rather than relying solely on large-scale energy systems.

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IN A NUTSHELL 🌱 Researchers at the University of Tokyo developed a method to produce ammonia using artificial photosynthesis. 🔬 The process mimics natural nitrogen fixation by cyanobacteria, utilizing atmospheric nitrogen, water, and sunlight. ⚙️ This method uses a combination of iridium and molybdenum catalysts to enhance reaction efficiency. 🌍 The innovation promises to reduce

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A new sponge-like material uses sunlight to harvest water from air, offering an efficient, low-cost solution for water scarcity. Engineers from Australia and China have developed a sponge-like device that captures moisture from the air and releases it into a cup using solar energy. Unlike other t

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Solar power has long been a beacon of hope in our pursuit of clean energy. However, the road to sustainable, high-efficiency photovoltaics has been riddled with roadblocks such as toxicity and instability in widely used lead halide perovskites. Could we engineer a solar cell that delivers not just high performance, but also durability, stability and environmental safety?

That question led us to (Ca, Ba)ZrS3, a chalcogenide perovskite with immense promise. Unlike its lead-based counterparts, this material boasts strong thermal and chemical stability. More importantly, its bandgap can be finely tuned down to 1.26 eV with less than 2% calcium doping, placing it squarely within the Shockley-Queisser limit for optimal photovoltaic conversion.

For the first time, my research team at the Autonomous University of Querétaro explored an innovative idea of pairing (Ca, Ba)ZrS3 with next-generation inorganic spinel hole transport layers (HTLs). We integrated NiCo2O4, ZnCo2O4, CuCo2O4, and SrFe2O4 into solar cells and simulated their performance using SCAPS-1D.

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Perovskite solar cells are among the most promising candidates for the next generation of photovoltaics: lightweight, flexible, and potentially very low-cost. However, their tendency to degrade under sunlight and heat has so far limited widespread adoption. Now, a new study published in Joule presents an innovative and scalable strategy to overcome this key limitation.

A research team led by the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), in collaboration with the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland (HES⁠-⁠SO) and the Politecnico di Milano, has developed a bulk passivation technique that involves adding the molecule TEMPO (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl) to the perovskite film and applying a brief infrared heating pulse lasting just half a second.

This approach enables the repair of near-invisible crystalline defects inside the material, boosting solar cell efficiency beyond 20% and maintaining that performance for several months under operating conditions. Using positron annihilation spectroscopy—a method involving antimatter particles that probe atomic-scale defects—the researchers confirmed a significant reduction in vacancy-type defects.

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When we think about renewable energy, images of sprawling solar farms or towering coastal wind turbines usually come to mind. Yet, there is a quieter, more compact option: a slender strip of material fluttering in the breeze, capable of converting ambient airflow into usable electrical energy.

In our research group, we have been exploring how flexible structures—thin polymer sheets—can convert the energy of ambient flow into electricity using piezoelectric materials. These materials generate an electrical signal when mechanically deformed. Think of them as energy translators—converting flutter and vibration into voltage.

Our work focuses on a simple idea: attach a flexible plate with a piezoelectric sheet to the downstream side of a cylinder and expose it to wind. As wind flows past the cylinder, it causes the attached plate to flutter—much like a flag.

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Engineers have developed a water-based battery that could help Australian households store rooftop solar energy more safely, cheaply and efficiently than ever before.

Their next-generation “flow battery” opens the door to compact, high-performance battery systems for homes and is expected to be much cheaper than current $10,000 lithium-ion systems.

Flow batteries have been around for decades but have traditionally been used in large-scale energy storage due to their large size and slow charge speeds.

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A novel thin-film material capable of simultaneously enhancing the efficiency and durability of tandem solar cells has been developed.

Led by Professor BongSoo Kim from the Department of Chemistry at UNIST, in collaboration with Professors Jin Young Kim and Dong Suk Kim from the Graduate School of Carbon Neutrality at UNIST, the team developed a multi-functional hole-selective layer (mHSL) designed to significantly improve the performance of perovskite/organic tandem solar cells (POTSCs). Their study is published in Advanced Energy Materials.

Tandem solar cells are advanced photovoltaic devices that stack two different types of cells to absorb a broader spectrum of sunlight, thereby increasing overall energy conversion efficiency. Among these, combinations of perovskite and organic materials are particularly promising for producing thin, flexible solar panels suitable for wearable devices and building-integrated photovoltaics, positioning them as next-generation energy sources.

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