Solar energy news and discussion

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weatheriscool
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Researchers create new materials that might increase the stability of perovskite solar cells
https://phys.org/news/2022-09-materials ... cells.html
by Kaunas University of Technology
A group of chemists from Kaunas University of Technology in Lithuania, the developers of numerous breakthrough innovations in the solar energy field, proposed yet another solution to increase the stability and performance of perovskite solar elements. They synthesized a new class of carbazole-based cross-linkable materials, which are resistant to various environmental effects, including strong solvents used in the production of solar cells.

When applied as hole transporting layers, the new materials helped achieve the 16.9% efficiency of the inverted-architecture perovskite cells at the first attempt. It is expected to reach higher efficiency upon optimization.

New materials thermally polymerized to provide resistance

Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells have been attracting worldwide attention as a competitive alternative to conventional silicon-based solar technologies. They are cheaper, more flexible and have higher power conversion efficiency. Scientists all over the world are working to solve challenges related to improving the stability and other features of the perovskite solar elements. These layered, new generation solar cells can have two architectonic structures—regular (n-i-p) and inverted (p-i-n) structures. In the latter, the hole transporting materials are deposited under the perovskite absorber layer.
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Yuli Ban
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And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
weatheriscool
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A strategy to create more efficient narrow bandgap (NBG) perovskite films for tandem solar cells
https://techxplore.com/news/2022-09-str ... p-nbg.html
by Ingrid Fadelli , Tech Xplore

All-perovskite tandem solar cells, solar cells comprised of stacked wide-bandgap (WBG) and narrow-bandgap (NBG) perovskites, could be particularly promising energy solutions. Compared to other existing photovoltaic systems, these cells could achieve good energy-efficiencies while significantly lowering fabrication costs.

Researchers at University of North Carolina at Chapell Hill and University of Rochester have recently devised a new hot gas-assisted method that could improve the fabrication of NBG perovskite films for tandem solar cells. This strategy combined with an anti-oxidation material added in the film, both of which were introduced in a paper published in Nature Energy, could increase the solar cells' carrier recombination lifetime (i.e., the time it takes for excess charge carriers to decay).

"All-perovskite tandem perovskite solar cells are promising to reduce the cost of photovoltaic systems, due to their potential to reach a much higher efficiency than their single-junction counterparts, while maintaining the solution fabrication processes," Jinsong Huang, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told TechXplore. "Also, compared to single junction perovskite modules, the application of tandem structures, which have much smaller photocurrents but higher photovoltage, can also reduce the cell-to-module efficiency derate, and thus enable the realization of higher module efficiencies for monolithically interconnected modules in a series."

In all-perovskite tandem solar cells, both the WBG and NBG perovskite layers are deposited using a method called blade coating. Blade coating, also known as knife coating or doctor blading, is a scalable coating technique that entails applying an excess of coating material to a substrate and then removing some using a blade, until one reaches the desired coating.
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Todd proposes 400 MW solar farm for New Zealand’s North Island

SEPTEMBER 20, 2022 DAVID CARROLL

New Zealand’s large-scale solar PV market is poised for a momentous shift with energy company Todd Generation pursuing plans to establish a 400 MW solar farm at Rangitāiki on the North Island.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/09/20/ ... th-island/


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This week, the US Department of Energy's Berkeley Lab released its annual analysis of solar energy in the US. It found that nearly half the generating capacity was installed in the US during 2021 and is poised to dominate future installs. That's in part because costs have dropped by more than 75 percent since 2010; it's now often cheaper to build and operate a solar plant than it is to simply buy fuel for an existing natural gas plant.

The analysis was performed before the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which contains many incentives and tax breaks that should expand solar's advantages in the coming years.

In terms of large, utility-scale solar installs, the US added over 12.5 gigawatts of new capacity last year, bringing the total installed capacity to over 50 gigawatts. Texas led the way, with about a third of the total capacity added (3.9 GW) going online in the Lone Star State. Combined with residential and other distributed solar installations, solar alone accounted for 45 percent of the new generating capacity added to the grid last year.
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weatheriscool
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First single-crystal organometallic perovskite optical fibers
https://phys.org/news/2022-09-single-cr ... ibers.html
by Queen Mary, University of London
Due to their very high efficiency in transporting electric charges from light, perovskites are known as the next generation material for solar panels and LED displays. A team led by Dr. Lei Su at Queen Mary University of London now have invented a brand-new application of perovskites as optical fibers. The results are published in Science Advances.

Optical fibers are tiny wires as thin as a human hair, in which light travels at a superfast speed—100 times faster than electrons in cables. These tiny optical fibers transmit the majority of our internet data. At present, most optical fibers are made of glass. The perovskite optical fiber made by Dr. Su's team consists of just one piece of a perovskite crystal. The optical fibers have a core width as low as 50 μm (the size of a human hair) and are very flexible—they can be bent to a radius of 3.5 mm

Compared to their polycrystal counterparts, single-crystal organometallic perovskites are more stable, more efficient, more durable and have fewer defects. Scientists have therefore been seeking to make single-crystal perovskite optical fibers that can bring this high efficiency to fiber optics.

Dr. Su, Reader in Photonics at Queen Mary University of London, said, "Single-crystal perovskite fibers could be integrated into current fiber-optical networks, to substitute key components in this system—for example in more efficient lasing and energy conversions, improving the speed and quality of our broadband networks."

Dr. Su's team were able to grow and precisely control the length and diameter of single-crystal organometallic perovskite fibers in liquid solution (which is very cheap to run) by using a new temperature growth method. They gradually changed the heating position, line contact and temperature during the process to ensure continuous growth in the length while preventing random growth in the width. With their method, the length of the fiber can be controlled, and the cross section of the perovskite fiber core can be varied.
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Romania could soon house Europe’s largest photovoltaic park

By Bogdan Neagu | EURACTIV
6:04 (updated: 9:39)

Independent clean energy producer Rezolv Energy has acquired the rights to build and operate a 1,044 Megawatt solar photovoltaic plant in western Romania, which, if constructed, is expected to become Europe’s largest solar PV plant.

Rezolv Energy, which acquired the rights from the Monsson Group, is investing in around 1.6 million new solar panels expected to generate about 1,500,000 Megawatt-hour (Mwh) a year capable of powering more than 370,000 households.

The project is already in the late-stage development phase, and Rezolv Energy is already appraising technology solutions and debt financing options.

Construction is due to start in the first half of next year, meaning the plant should be online by 2025.

https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy ... taic-park/
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New insights into energy loss open doors for up-and-coming solar tech
https://techxplore.com/news/2022-11-ins ... oming.html
by Princeton University
Organic solar cells are an emerging technology with a lot of promise. Unlike the ubiquitous silicon solar panel, they have the potential to be lightweight, flexible, and present a variety of colors, making them particularly attractive for urban or façade applications. However, continued advancements in device performance have been sluggish as researchers work to understand the fundamental processes underlying how organic solar cells operate.

Now, engineers at Princeton University and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology have described a new way to express energy loss in organic solar cells and have extended that description to make recommendations for engineering the best devices. This breakthrough could reimagine the conventional approach to constructing organic solar cells. Their work was published on November 18 in Joule.

"There was a way that energy loss in organic solar cells was traditionally described and defined. And it turns out that that description was not wholly correct," said Barry Rand, co-author of the study and associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment.
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Researchers optimize performance and stability of multi-layer organic solar cells
https://techxplore.com/news/2022-11-opt ... cells.html
by Friedrich–Alexander University Erlangen–Nurnberg

Acceptor layers made of oligomers can increase the performance of organic solar cells and ensure a long operating life at the same time. This is the result of a series of complex laboratory experiments conducted by materials scientists at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU). Organic solar cells are less complex to manufacture than conventional silicon modules and are considerably more versatile as they can be flexible and transparent. The researchers' findings have been published in the journal Nature Energy.

The war in Ukraine continues to serve as a stark reminder of how important it is for us to cease our dependency on fossil fuels as quickly as possible. The rapid expansion of regenerative energy sources is one of the keys to success in this respect. In the case of photovoltaics, for example, the difficulties not only involve the struggle for higher output, but also the development of new applications as the surface area available for solar panels is limited in densely-populated industrial nations such as Germany.

This is the reason why so much research is currently being carried out on organic photovoltaics. In contrast to the silicon used in conventional systems, organic solar cells consist of carbon-based semi-conductors that are directly applied from a solution onto a supporting film. This means the modules are flexible and can be translucent or completely transparent, which opens up a wide range of potential applications in urban spaces, including use in window panes.
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