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Archive for the ‘solar power’ category: Page 46

Aug 26, 2022

3D-printed solar cells are cheaper, easier to produce, and deployable at speed

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, solar power, sustainability

99 percent of the panels were made of PET.

Do you remember the solar panels that Prof. Paul Dastoor from the University of New Castle and his team produced with a 3D printer? If you don’t, it’s an evergreen story worth remembering. Let’s dive in…

Continue reading “3D-printed solar cells are cheaper, easier to produce, and deployable at speed” »

Aug 25, 2022

Preparing for water scarcity using hybrid desalination technologies

Posted by in categories: climatology, solar power, sustainability

Clean water is essential for human survival. However, less than 3% of fresh water can be used as drinking water. According to a report published by the World Meteorological Organization, there is scarcity of drinking water for approximately 1 billion people worldwide, which is expected to rise to 1.4 billion by 2050.

Seawater desalination technology, which produces from seawater, could solve the problem of water scarcity. At the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), a research team led by Dr. Kyung Guen Song from the Center for Water Cycle Research, have developed a hybrid distillation module that combines with hydrothermal heat pumps to reduce consumption during the desalination process. Their results are published in Energy Conversion and Management.

Reverse osmosis and evaporation methods are relatively common seawater desalination processes; however, these methods can operate only at high pressures and temperatures. In comparison, the membrane distillation method produces fresh water by utilizing the vapor pressure generated by the temperature difference between the flowing raw water and treated water separated by a membrane. This approach has the advantage of low energy consumption, as fresh water can be generated at pressures of 0.2–0.8 bar, which is lower than atmospheric pressure, and temperatures of 50–60℃. However, large scale operation requires more thermal energy. Thus, research studies are required to reduce the use of thermal energy for commercial operation.

Aug 25, 2022

Nontoxic material found to be ultra-strong solar energy harvester

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, robotics/AI, satellites, solar power

Solar cells are vital for the green energy transition. They can be used not only on rooftops and solar farms but also for powering autonomous vehicles, such as planes and satellites. However, photovoltaic solar cells are currently heavy and bulky, making them difficult to transport to remote locations off-grid, where they are much needed.

In a collaboration led by Imperial College London, alongside researchers from Cambridge, UCL, Oxford, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin in Germany, and others, researchers have produced that can absorb comparable levels of sunlight as conventional silicon , but with 10,000 times lower thickness.

The material is sodium bismuth sulfide (NaBiS2), which is grown as nanocrystals and deposited from solution to make films 30 nanometers in thickness. NaBiS2 is comprised of nontoxic elements that are sufficiently abundant in the earth’s crust for use commercially. For example, bismuth-based compounds are used as a nontoxic lead replacement in solder, or in over-the-counter stomach medicine.

Aug 25, 2022

A new concept for low-cost batteries

Posted by in categories: solar power, sustainability

As the world builds out ever larger installations of wind and solar power systems, the need is growing fast for economical, large-scale backup systems to provide power when the sun is down and the air is calm. Today’s lithium-ion batteries are still too expensive for most such applications, and other options such as pumped hydro require specific topography that’s not always available.

Now, researchers at MIT and elsewhere have developed a new kind of battery, made entirely from abundant and inexpensive materials, that could help to fill that gap.

The new battery architecture, which uses aluminum and sulfur as its two electrode materials, with a molten salt electrolyte in between, is described today in the journal Nature, in a paper by MIT Professor Donald Sadoway, along with 15 others at MIT and in China, Canada, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

Aug 24, 2022

Software Turns Promise Up for Offshore Wind

Posted by in categories: employment, government, solar power, space, sustainability

A radical new idea for offshore wind turbines would replace tall unwieldy towers that had blades on top with lightweight, towerless machines whose blades resemble the loops of a whisk. Now new software can help optimize these unusual designs to help make them a reality, researchers say.

This new work comes as the U.S. government plans to boost offshore wind energy. In March, the White House announced a national goal to deploy 30 gigawatts of new offshore wind power by 2030. The federal government suggested this initiative could help power more than 10 million homes, support roughly 77,000 jobs, cut 78 million tonnes in carbon emissions, and spur US $12 billion in private investment per year. As part of this new plan, in June, the White House and eleven governors from along the East Coast launched a Federal-State Offshore Wind Implementation Partnership to further develop the offshore wind supply chain, including manufacturing facilities and port capabilities.

One reason offshore wind is attractive is the high demand for electricity on the coasts. People often live far away from where onshore wind is the strongest, and there is not enough space in cities for enough solar panels to power them, says Ryan Coe, a mechanical engineer in Sandia National Laboratories’ water-power group in Albuquerque.

Aug 23, 2022

Dubai solar site still aiming for 5 GW by 2030

Posted by in categories: solar power, sustainability

It was designed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by over 6.5 million tons each year.

The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) is aiming for 5 GW by 2030 in the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park — the largest single-site solar park in the world.

Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park project constitutes one of the key pillars of the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 and the Dubai Net Zero Carbon Emissions Strategy to provide 100 percent of Dubai’s total power capacity from clean energy sources by 2050.

Continue reading “Dubai solar site still aiming for 5 GW by 2030” »

Aug 22, 2022

Ingenuity Team Spun Up for Upcoming Flight 30

Posted by in categories: health, solar power, space, sustainability

It’s been over a month since we last updated our blog about our winter warrior, currently around 96 million miles away. At present the team is preparing for Ingenuity’s next flight, which could take place as early as this weekend. This 30th sortie will be a short hop – which will check out our system’s health after surviving 101 sols of winter, collect landing delivery data in support of NASA’s Mars Sample Return Campaign, and potentially clear off dust that has settled on our solar panel since Flight 29.

What’s Happened Lately

It’s still winter at Jezero Crater, which means overnight temperatures are as low as -124 degrees Fahrenheit (−86 Celsius). Winter at Mars also means the amount of solar energy hitting our solar panel remains below what is needed to maintain charge in our batteries both day and night. However, during the day the panel continues to create enough charge to make shorter hops possible. That’s what we did on Flight 29 and is our plan for Flight 30.

Aug 22, 2022

Controlling the crystals for a 17.96% efficient perovskite solar cell

Posted by in categories: solar power, sustainability

Scientists in Taiwan demonstrated a new way to produce high-purity lead-iodide, as a precursor material for a perovskite solar cell. By using temperature to better control the orientation of crystals, the group was able to show much higher efficiencies when the precursor was used to fabricate a perovskite layer and subsequently a working solar cell.

Aug 21, 2022

Europe is seriously considering a major investment in space-based solar power

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, solar power, space, sustainability

“It’s the stupidest thing ever,” Elon Musk said several years ago.

European Space Agency’s (ESA) director general has proposed the development of Europe’s first space-based solar power system to be constructed in 2025.

ESA, an intergovernmental conglomerate of 22 member states, will decide on the director’s plan in November this year, according to a report published in Ars Technica.

Continue reading “Europe is seriously considering a major investment in space-based solar power” »

Aug 16, 2022

Solar Integration: Distributed Energy Resources and Microgrids

Posted by in categories: business, robotics/AI, solar power, sustainability

Simply put, we need a reliable and secure energy grid. Two ways to ensure continuous electricity regardless of the weather or an unforeseen event are by using distributed energy resources (DER) and microgrids. DER produce and supply electricity on a small scale and are spread out over a wide area. Rooftop solar panels, backup batteries, and emergency diesel generators are examples of DER. While traditional generators are connected to the high-voltage transmission grid, DER are connected to the lower-voltage distribution grid, like residences and businesses are.

Microgrids are localized electric grids that can disconnect from the main grid to operate autonomously. Because they can operate while the main grid is down, microgrids can strengthen grid resilience, help mitigate grid disturbances, and function as a grid resource for faster system response and recovery.

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