WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

Increasingly we are creating solar panels that are insanely efficient at generating electricity from all types of light, from sunlight to moonlight to ambient light, and they just got better.

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Today most commercial solar panels are only 20% energy efficient, even though we have 48%, 80%, and even 132% energy efficient solar panels, including solar panels that generate energy at night and in all weathers, in the labs. But now even the 132% record appears to have been smashed after researchers from Lehigh University have developed a material that demonstrates the potential for drastically increasing the efficiency of solar panels.

A prototype using the material as the active layer in a solar cell exhibits an average photovoltaic absorption of 80%, a high generation rate of photoexcited carriers, and an External Quantum Efficiency (EQE) up to an unprecedented 190% – a measure that far exceeds the theoretical Shockley-Queisser efficiency limit for silicon-based materials and pushes the field of quantum materials for photovoltaics to new heights.

“This work represents a significant leap forward in our understanding and development of sustainable energy solutions, highlighting innovative approaches that could redefine solar energy efficiency and accessibility in the near future,” said Chinedu Ekuma, professor of physics, who published a paper on the development of the material with Lehigh doctoral student Srihari Kastuar in the journal Science Advances.

The material’s efficiency leap is attributable largely to its distinctive “intermediate band states,” specific energy levels that are positioned within the material’s electronic structure in a way that makes them ideal for solar energy conversion.

These states have energy levels within the optimal sub band gaps – energy ranges where the material can efficiently absorb sunlight and produce charge carriers – of around 0.78 and 1.26 electron volts. In addition, the material performs especially well with high levels of absorption in the infrared and visible regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

In traditional solar cells, the maximum EQE is 100%, representing the generation and collection of one electron for each photon absorbed from sunlight. However, some advanced materials and configurations developed over the past several years have demonstrated the capability of generating and collecting more than one electron from high-energy photons, representing an EQE of over 100%.

While such Multiple Exciton Generation (MEG) materials are yet to be broadly commercialized, they hold the potential to greatly increase the efficiency of solar power systems. In the Lehigh-developed material, the intermediate band states enable the capture of photon energy that is lost by traditional solar cells, including through reflection and the production of heat.

The researchers developed the novel material by taking advantage of “van der Waals gaps,” atomically small gaps between layered two-dimensional materials. These gaps can confine molecules or ions, and materials scientists commonly use them to insert, or “intercalate,” other elements to tune material properties.

To develop their novel material, the Lehigh researchers inserted atoms of zerovalent copper between layers of a two-dimensional material made of germanium selenide (GeSe) and tin sulfide (SnS).

Ekuma, an expert in computational condensed matter physics, developed the prototype as a proof of concept after extensive computer modelling of the system demonstrated theoretical promise.

“Its rapid response and enhanced efficiency strongly indicate the potential of Cu-intercalated GeSe/SnS as a quantum material for use in advanced photovoltaic applications, offering an avenue for efficiency improvements in solar energy conversion,” he said. “It’s a promising candidate for the development of next-generation, high-efficient solar cells, which will play a crucial role in addressing global energy needs.”

Although integrating the newly designed quantum material into current solar energy systems will need further research and development, Ekuma points out that the experimental technique used to create these materials is already highly advanced. Scientists have, over time, mastered a method that precisely inserts atoms, ions, and molecules into materials.

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WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

What happens when we can turn every surface into an energy generating system … ?

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A new solar panel coating 100 times thinner than a human hair could be “ink-jetted” onto your backpack, cell phone or car roof to harness the sun’s ambient energy, new research shows, in a development that could reduce the world’s need for solar farms that take up huge swaths of land.

Scientists from Oxford University’s physics department have developed a micro-thin, light-absorbing material flexible enough to apply to the surface of almost any building or object — with the potential to generate up to nearly twice the amount of energy of current solar panels.

The technology comes at a critical time for the solar power boom as human-caused climate change is rapidly warming the planet, forcing the world to accelerate its transition to clean energy.

Here’s how it works: The solar coating is made of materials called perovskites, which are more efficient at absorbing the sun’s energy than the silicon-based panels widely used today. That because its light-absorbing layers can capture a wider range of light from the sun’s spectrum than traditional panels. And more light means more energy.

The Oxford scientists aren’t the only ones who have produced this type of coating, but theirs is notably efficient, capturing around 27% of the energy in sunlight. Today’s solar panels that use silicon cells, by comparison, typically covert up to 22% of sunlight into power.

The researchers believe that over time, perovskites will be able to deliver efficiency exceeding 45%, pointing to the increase in yield they were able to achieve during just five years of experimenting, from 6% to 27%.

“This is important because it promises more solar power without the need for silicon-based panels or specially-built solar farms,” Junke Wang, one of the Oxford scientists said. “We can envisage perovskite coatings being applied to broader types of surfaces to generate cheap solar power, such as the roof of cars and buildings and even the backs of mobile phones.”

At just over one micron thick, the coating is 150 times thinner than a silicon wafter used in today’s solar panels. And unlike existing silicon panels, the perovskites can be applied to almost any surface, including plastics and paper, using tools like an inkjet printer.

Globally, solar panel installations have skyrocketed, growing by 80% in 2023 compared to 2022, according to Wood Mackenzie, a company specializing in data and analytics for the clean energy transition. Solar was the fastest-growing source of electricity in 2023 for the 19th consecutive year, according to climate think tank Ember’s 2024 Global Electricity Review.

A major driver of this boom is the falling cost of solar, which has now become cheaper to produce than any other form of energy, including fossil fuels. Another important factor fuelling solar’s rise is its growing efficiency in converting the sun’s energy, the record for which is now a staggering 132%.

But ground-based solar farms take up a lot of land and lake real estate, and they are often at the heart of conflict between the agricultural industry and the governments and companies behind the renewable installations.

Oxford’s researchers say their technology could offer a solution to that problem, while driving down energy costs. But Wang noted that the research group is not advocating for the end of solar farms.

“I wouldn’t say we want to eliminate solar farms because obviously we need lots of areas or surfaces to generate sufficient amount of solar energy,” he told reporters.

A persistent problem with perovskites, however, is stability, which has prevented its developers from commercializing the technology. Some coatings in lab settings have dissolved or broken down over short periods of time, so are regarded as less durable than today’s solar panels. Scientists are working toward improving its lifespan.

Henry Snaith, the Oxford team’s lead researcher, said their work has strong commercial potential and could be used in industries like construction and car manufacturing.

“The latest innovations in photovoltaic materials and techniques demonstrated in our labs could become a platform for a new industry, manufacturing materials to generate solar energy more sustainably and cheaply by using existing buildings, vehicles, and objects,” he said.

Snaith is also the head of Oxford PV, a company spun out of Oxford University Physics, who has recently started large-scale manufacturing of perovskite solar panels at its factory in Germany.

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WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

Urban mining is the new term being given to the recycling of urban materials, which include everything from cars to solar panels.

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As the world pivots from planet-warming fossil fuels to renewable energy, a new pollution problem is rearing its head: What to do with old or worn-out solar panels and wind turbines, and while we have some solutions to recycle wind turbines there aren’t many – and the same is true for recycling Lithium Ion batteries. However, when it comes to the thousands of photovoltaic slabs that are being installed across the US every day, particularly in the sunny west and south of the country, as states like California race to towards greener energy production.

But with an expected lifespan of around 30 years, the first wave of solar installations is now coming to the end of its usefulness, sparking a rush to recycle things that might otherwise end up in the landfill.

“What is about to happen is a tsunami of solar panels coming back into the supply chain,” said Adam Saghei, Chief Executive of Arizona-based We Recycle Solar.

“One of the challenges with any industry is, there hasn’t been that much planning for a circular economy. Solar is a sustainable form of energy; there needs to be a plan for the retirement of those assets.”

Saghei’s plan involves, among other things, reusing panels. Anywhere up to five percent of panels either have a minor production defect or get damaged during transport or installation. These still-working panels can be refurbished and diverted to other markets, often abroad, Saghei says.

But for the panels that no longer function – either because they’re decrepit, or because they were damaged beyond use during installation, or smashed by hailstones – there’s treasure to be found.

“We’re doing what’s called urban mining,” says Saghei, referring to a process that took his engineers three years to perfect. That mining recovers silver, copper, aluminium, glass and silicone – all commodities that have a value on the open market.

While the uses for the metals might be obvious, what to do with silicone and glass is less so, but nonetheless intriguing.

“You can use it for sand traps on golf courses, you can refine it for sandblast mix, you can also use it for the stones or the glass mix that you get for outdoor fireplaces,” says Saghei.

With capacity to process up to 7,500 panels every day at the plant in Yuma, a surprisingly small amount goes to waste.

“Depending on the make and model of the panels… we’re able to get up to 99 percent recovery rate.”

For Meng Tao, who specializes in sustainable energy infrastructure at Arizona State University, developing an efficient lifecycle for solar panels is a pressing issue.

With the United States among countries committed to weaning itself off fossil fuels following a landmark COP28 climate agreement, solar panel installation looks set to increase to a peak two decades from now.

“Once it matures, then the annual installation and the decommissioning will be about the same,” he told AFP. “But for the next 20 years… at least for the next 10 years… we’ll just have more installations than retirements.”

The problem with recycling, he says, is not just that the value of recovered materials from panels can be relatively low, but also the logistics.

With panels distributed to thousands of sometimes far-flung rooftops, it can cost a lot of money just to get them to a recycling center.

And unlike some jurisdictions, the United States imposes the cost of removal and recycling on the end user — making it more attractive for households just to dump their old units at the local landfill.

“There has to be some policy support” to plug the gap between what consumers will pay and the total lifecycle cost of the panels, says Tao.

For Saghei, as for any business leaders, profitability is important. “You don’t see too many getting into the business because recycling has a cost. It’s not free. It’s labor intensive. It’s energy intensive,” he says. But he does see a way forward.

Recovering materials from old solar panels that can be put back into new solar panels is — he is convinced — a winning proposition.

“These are markets that are growing,” he says. “Right through this process we are able, once the industry scales to even larger figures, to put those raw commodities back into the supply chain. What’s exciting is we’re at the forefront.”

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Everything is made of compounds and materials, and by discovering and inventing almost 400,000 new ones this news could revolutionise …. everything.

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New technology often calls for new materials – and with supercomputers and simulations, researchers no longer have to wade through mountains of inefficient guesswork to invent them from scratch.

The Materials Project, an open-access database founded at the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 2011, computes the properties of both known and predicted materials. Researchers can focus on promising materials for future technologies – think lighter alloys that improve fuel economy in cars, more efficient solar cells to boost renewable energy, or faster transistors for the next generation of computers.

Now, with the arrival of advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) Google DeepMind – Google’s AI lab – has announced that it’s contributing a whopping 400,000 new compounds to the Materials Project, expanding the amount of information researchers can draw upon. The dataset includes how the atoms of a material are arranged – the crystal structure – and how stable it is – or “Formation energy.”

“We have to create new materials if we are going to address the global environmental and climate challenges,” said Kristin Persson, the founder and director of the Materials Project at Berkeley Lab and a professor at UC Berkeley. “With innovation in materials, we can potentially develop recyclable plastics, harness waste energy, make better batteries, and build cheaper solar panels that last longer, among many other things.”

To generate the new data, Google DeepMind developed a deep learning tool called Graph Networks for Materials Exploration, or GNoME for short. Researchers trained GNoME using workflows and data that were developed over a decade by the Materials Project, and improved the GNoME algorithm through active learning. GNoME researchers ultimately produced 2.2 million crystal structures, including 380,000 that they are adding to the Materials Project and predict are stable, making them potentially useful in future technologies. The new results from Google DeepMind are published today in the journal Nature.

Some of the computations from GNoME were used alongside data from the Materials Project to test A-Lab, a facility at Berkeley Lab where AI guides robots in making new materials. A-Lab’s first paper, also published today in Nature, showed that the autonomous robo-lab can quickly discover novel materials with minimal human input.

Over 17 days of independent operation, A-Lab successfully produced 41 new compounds out of an attempted 58 – a rate of more than two new materials per day. For comparison, it can take a human researcher months of guesswork and experimentation to create just one new material, if they ever reach the desired material at all.

To make the novel compounds predicted by the Materials Project, A-Lab’s AI created new recipes by combing through scientific papers and using active learning to make adjustments. Data from the Materials Project and GNoME were used to evaluate the materials’ predicted stability.

“We had this staggering 71% success rate, and we already have a few ways to improve it,” said Gerd Ceder, the principal investigator for A-Lab and a scientist at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley. “We’ve shown that combining the theory and data side with automation has incredible results. We can make and test materials faster than ever before, and adding more data points to the Materials Project means we can make even smarter choices.”

The Materials Project is the most widely used open-access repository of information on inorganic materials in the world. The database holds millions of properties on hundreds of thousands of structures and molecules, information primarily processed at Berkeley Lab’s National Energy Research Science Computing Center. More than 400,000 people are registered as users of the site and, on average, more than four papers citing the Materials Project are published every day. The contribution from Google DeepMind is the biggest addition of structure-stability data from a group since the Materials Project began.

“We hope that the GNoME project will drive forward research into inorganic crystals,” said Ekin Dogus Cubuk, lead of Google DeepMind’s Materials Discovery team. “External researchers have already verified more than 736 of GNoME’s new materials through concurrent, independent physical experiments, demonstrating that our model’s discoveries can be realized in laboratories.”

The Materials Project is now processing the compounds from Google DeepMind and adding them into the online database. The new data will be freely available to researchers, and also feed into projects such as A-Lab that partner with the Materials Project.

“I’m really excited that people are using the work we’ve done to produce an unprecedented amount of materials information,” said Persson, who is also the director of Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry. “This is what I set out to do with the Materials Project: To not only make the data that I produced free and available to accelerate materials design for the world, but also to teach the world what computations can do for you. They can scan large spaces for new compounds and properties more efficiently and rapidly than experiments alone can.”

“Making a material is not for the faint of heart,” Persson said. “It takes a long time to take a material from computation to commercialization. It has to have the right properties, work within devices, be able to scale, and have the right cost efficiency and performance. The goal with the Materials Project and facilities like A-Lab is to harness data, enable data-driven exploration, and ultimately give companies more viable shots on goal.”

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Radiation destroys electronics, but what if they could heal themselves to run forever?

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A few years ago I talked about a suite of new technologies out of the US that would let the electronics on deep space nano satellites and spacecraft self-heal after they’d been fried by the incessant and damaging radiation that’s found everywhere in space – a very clever trick. Now though, an offshoot of this technology has found an application closer to home after a new type of solar panel has achieved nine percent efficiency in converting water into hydrogen and oxygen through a process known as artificial photosynthesis.

This is a major breakthrough as it is nearly ten times more efficient than previous solar water-splitting experiments, according to a press release by the University of Michigan published on Wednesday.

“In the end, we believe that artificial photosynthesis devices will be much more efficient than natural photosynthesis, which will provide a path toward carbon neutrality,” said Zetian Mi, U-M professor of electrical and computer engineering.

The Future of Computing, the FanaticalFuturist Podcast!

The team behind the study, led by Mi, was able to shrink the size of the semiconductor, typically the most expensive part of the device, and developed a self-healing semiconductor that can withstand concentrated light equivalent to 160 suns.

Asides from having roots in deep space this technology has the potential to significantly decrease the cost of sustainable hydrogen which is needed for many chemical processes and can be used as a standalone fuel or as a component in sustainable so called Solar Fuels made with recycled carbon dioxide.

The exceptional outcome is the product of two developments. The first is the capacity to focus sunlight without damaging the semiconductor used to capture it. The second method involves splitting water using the higher energy portion of the sun spectrum and heating the reaction by using the lower energy portion of the spectrum.

A semiconductor catalyst, which powers the magic, becomes better with usage and withstands the deterioration that typically occurs when using sunlight to fuel chemical reactions, claims the press release.

“We reduced the size of the semiconductor by more than 100 times compared to some semiconductors only working at low light intensity,” said Peng Zhou, the first author of the study, a U-M research fellow in electrical and computer engineering.

“Hydrogen produced by our technology could be very cheap.”

The semiconductor can survive high temperatures that are punitive to computer chips in addition to enduring high light intensities, and more heat promotes the hydrogen and oxygen to stay apart rather than re-forming their bonds and splitting the water, which speeds up the water-splitting process. The team was able to gather extra hydrogen because of these.

On a silicon surface, nanostructures of indium gallium nitride were grown to form the catalyst. The light was then captured by the semiconductor wafer and transformed into free electrons and holes, which are the positively charged spaces left behind when electrons are released by the light. Nanoscale metal balls that are 1/2000th of a millimeter across are scattered throughout the nanostructures and make use of the electrons and holes in the environment to drive the reaction.

The temperature is maintained at a toasty 75 degrees Celsius, or 167 degrees Fahrenheit, by a straightforward insulating layer on top of the screen. This temperature is heated enough to aid in promoting the reaction while remaining cool enough for the semiconductor catalyst to function effectively.

The effectiveness of converting solar energy into hydrogen fuel in the outside experiment, which had less consistent temperatures and sunlight, was 6.1 percent. However, the system’s efficiency indoors was nine percent.

The team plans to continue improving the efficiency of the technology and to produce ultrahigh-purity hydrogen that can be directly used in fuel cells.

The study was first published in Nature.

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When humans start inhabiting space they won’t be able to get everything shipped from Earth so things like food and electronics will have to somehow be made in space.

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As NASA prepares to send astronauts back to the Moon to live and explore it’s going to be  critical that they can manufacture circuitry, sensors, and other electronics in space. To achieve this aim there have been several microgravity flights recently to develop the cutting-edge methods for 3D printing all these things, and more, led by teams from California based Space Foundry and Iowa State University in Ames, supported by NASA’s Flight Opportunities and Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programs.

There are a vast range of future scenarios which could benefit from electronics printed in space – from radiation sensors printed onto the walls of lunar habitats, to printing solar panels on the Moon’s surface, to gas and biosensors for use on the International Space Station (ISS). Space based manufacturing is therefore critical to the NASA mission and testing the ability to print electronics in microgravity on Earth first is an important step in the maturation of technology.

The Future of Space, by Keynote Matthew Griffin

“In terms of electronics, there are so many critical needs for which we must enable reliable in-space manufacturing, because we simply cannot anticipate and carry with us all of the sensors and circuits that we might need for a given mission,” said Curtis Hill, senior materials engineer at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and principal investigator for NASA’s On-Demand Manufacturing of Electronics (ODME) project, part of the agency’s Game Changing Development program. ODME will select electronics manufacturing technologies among systems from Space Foundry, Iowa State, and other organizations for 2024 demonstrations on the space station.

But first, the innovations are being tested on parabolic flights. These flights take place on modified aircraft that perform a series of manoeuvres called parabolas, resulting in brief intervals of reduced and zero gravity.

“Technology maturation is done in steps, and a very important step is parabolic flights and the microgravity testing they provide,” said Hill. “These flights help us take technologies to higher technology readiness levels and allow us to evaluate them for potential infusion in lunar and Gateway missions, among others.”

Parabolic flights from Zero Gravity Corporation in late 2021 and June 2022 enabled Space Foundry researchers to test a system licensed from NASA’s Ames Research Center designed for high-throughput plasma jet printing of conductive metal inks. The process addresses challenges of space-based 3D printing, including the time-consuming curing processes that most methods require. By contrast, Space Foundry’s process leverages a single-step approach that doesn’t require heat or ultraviolet curing. These advantages could lessen impact on astronauts’ time, lower costs, and improve the versatility of printing electronics for a wide range of applications.

“A single-step process is ideal, especially when printing electronics for large structures in space,” said Dr. Ram Prasad Gandhiraman, founder and CEO of Space Foundry and former research scientist at NASA Ames, where he led the technology’s initial development. “For example, if you wanted to print sensors on an aircraft wing, having a single-step process could allow for simplified printing directly on the structure, without removing it for more complicated, multi-step curing.”

November 2021 parabolic flights proved instrumental in helping Space Foundry work out some hardware glitches and fix them between successive flights over multiple days. That troubleshooting led to successful printing of silver electrodes and a Wi-Fi antenna during December 2021 flights, and allowed the company to take their work further.

“After resolving hardware challenges and a successful demonstration printing silver, we were keen to print copper as well,” said Dr. Gandhiraman.

Dr. Gandhiraman noted that copper is beneficial for space-based electronics because it is highly conductive, and they wanted to try printing copper with a Space Foundry-developed ink designed to overcome the shelf-life concerns of other off-the-shelf inks. During two flights in June 2022, the company successfully used the proprietary ink to print a copper electrode.

Recent flights also provided testing for Iowa State’s system for electrohydrodynamic inkjet printing, which addresses another challenge of space-based 3D printing, namely the lack of gravity needed to drive the flow of liquid inks. The university’s system leverages electrical force to drive ink flow, replacing the need for gravity to accomplish this task.

The team’s first printer was flown back in December 2021 and successfully printed microelectronics including a humidity sensor – but the team found the system to be less stable and robust than they expected. They then made key upgrades, including increased process automation and modification of the inks to withstand vibration, and flew the new hardware successfully in May 2022.

“My impression of these flights is that they are full of challenges, especially the first flights when you don’t know exactly what will happen,” said Iowa State’s Dr. Hantang Qin, principal investigator for the project. “Flying multiple times, we resolved the challenges and improved the technology to show that it is ready to integrate with other printing platforms.”

As ODME tracks the progress of these electronics printing methods, Hill said that parabolic flight testing is key to helping NASA understand the best electronics applications for each printing method.

“As results come in, we start to see how the specific materials respond to microgravity, and we are able to identify which methods match up best with various uses in space. This will ultimately help us prepare for demonstration of specific capabilities on the station,” said Hill.

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If solar is already the world’s cheapest form of energy what happens when the tech gets multiple times better?! Energy generation costs go to zero …

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After reading the title of this article I know what you’re thinking … what’s the maximum efficiency we can get from a solar panel? Well, I’ll give you two clues – first it’s not 32% and second you have to add a 1 in front of the 32%. Yep it’s a crazy 132% thanks to a technology called Black Silicon.

However, while commercially available solar panels with that kind of energy efficiency are a way off this week Sharp Corporation has achieved a conversion efficiency of 32.65% in a lightweight, flexible, practically sized solar module developed as part of the “Research and Development of Solar Cells for Use in Vehicles” project, which is administered by Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). And the fact it’s flexible means it’s a great candidate to help us get rid of Lithium Ion (LiON) batteries in, for example, electric vehicles some of which are already running on solar.

The Future of Energy, Keynote by Matthew Griffin

Furthermore, as we think of the oil and gas energy giants strangle hold on the “old” automotive industry when combined with peer to peer vehicle charging this will let car manufacturers “generate and sell” their own energy to other road users and disintermediate companies like Shell and VW who are already investing billions in building out and owning the next generation of super charger networks …

The Future of Mobility, Keynote by Matthew Griffin

The module’s conversion efficiency — currently the world’s highest, according to the company — bests that of a similar Sharp module developed under another NEDO project in 2016, which achieved an efficiency of 31.17%, at the time a world record.

The new prototype uses a triple-junction compound design that sandwiches the solar cell between layers of film. The module is expected to be used in a variety of vehicles, an application that demands high efficiency and lightweight construction. Modules measuring about 29 by 34 centimeters (for an area of 965 square centimeters), a size which is large enough to be commercially viable, weigh only about 56 grams (0.58 kilograms per square meter).

Sharp’s triple-junction compound solar cell adopts a proprietary structure that comprises three photo-absorption layers with indium gallium arsenide as the bottom layer so that sunlight can be efficiently converted into electricity. Smaller cells using this structure (with an area of 1.047 square centimeters) achieved a conversion efficiency of 37.9% in April 2013. In 2016, Sharp used practically sized cells (with an area of 27.86 square centimeters) to create a composite module (with an area of 968 square centimeters) to achieve a conversion efficiency of 31.17%, at the time the world’s highest.

In this current project, Sharp increased the average conversion efficiency of its triple-junction compound solar cells (with an area of 22.88 square centimeters) from the 2016 modules (from about 34.5% to about 36%) and improved the cell fill factor on each module to improve the conversion efficiency for a practically sized module (with an area of 965 square centimeters) to 32.65%.

Sharp said it would continue to conduct R&D into more efficient, lower-cost solar modules with a view to their use in such applications as electric vehicles (EVs) and aerospace.

Solar cells for EVs that provide direct electricity promise to make electric cars more convenient for users due to lower fuel costs and less time required for charging.

“Against this backdrop, Sharp has been developing high-efficiency, low-cost solar modules that can conform to the curved surfaces of vehicles for use in a broad range of vehicles, including in standard EV and aerospace applications, by 2050,” the company added.

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We are told solar panels only generate electricity when it’s sunny, but for researchers around the world that hasn’t been true for years.

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Solar panels are an excellent alternative to more traditional fossil fuel energy sources but today, even though in the future they will work when it’s cloudy, raining, snowing, and more, as well as be up to 132 percent energy efficient, they come with a massive caveat – they can only be used during the day. While we have lunar solar panel prototypes that can generate electricity at night thanks to the development of a new kind of nanophotonic material, Sid Assawaworrarit, an electrical engineer and PhD candidate at Stanford University, has taken a different approach to create a solar panel that works 24-7.

He and his colleagues have created a device that helps regular solar panels generate electricity using the fluctuating temperature of ambient air – something we’ve seen before but only as part of a futuristic battery pack system from MIT.

The Future of Energy by Keynote Speaker Matthew Griffin

As it turns out, solar panels can kind of work in reverse; solar panels emit infrared radiation even in the absence of light. This takes the form of protons carrying heat away from the solar panel via wavelengths invisible to the human eye. On a clear day, when there aren’t any clouds in the sky to reflect infrared light back toward Earth, this heat transfer creates a temperature difference of a few degrees, which is the secret sauce to Assaworrarit’s device.

The device, called a thermoelectric generator, which are also used in new wearables to generate electricity from our skin, catches the heat that flows between the warm air and the solar panel and turns it into energy. Assaworrarit’s team is currently able to obtain about 50 milliwatts per square meter of solar panel. Though this is a small fraction of the amount of electricity a solar panel can generate during the day, most are capable of about 150 watts per square meter, Assaworrarit says the right location and a few tweaks to the technology may allow the device to pick up “about one or two watts per square meter,” which is far more than solar panels were previously able to generate at night.

Assaworrarit’s team isn’t the first to use a thermoelectric generator to capture heat from the night, but their approach looks promising when it comes to using solar panels that already exist for daytime use. By using an aluminum plate to reduce the amount of heat that could escape from the edges of their solar panels, the team was able to multiply their technology’s generated energy nearly ten times.

Night-effective solar panels carry a significant amount of potential. Scientists who use solar-powered equipment, like meteorologists and wildlife researchers or anti-poaching rangers, could benefit from more reliable power sources and lighter backup battery loads. And those who rely on solar power and other off-grid solutions for daily life, which amounts to over one billion people globally, could also benefit from panels capable of providing a more consistent stream of electricity.

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Hydropanels are a new kind of solar panel that generate electricity and water – and they could be game changing.

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For billions of people on this planet we get our water from what’s known as potable water sources like aquifers, or desalinated water factories, which then spills out of our taps. But ironically that’s one of the most inefficient ways to do it because water is all around us – always. Even in deserts. And if you’re wondering where then look around you at the air.

As the world faces extreme water stress in 2030, according to the United Nations, as over 129 countries face increasingly chronic shortages it’s important that we solve the so called water crisis that governments increasingly believe will cause future “Water Wars.”

One of the ways to do this, as I’ve discussed before, is to pull water straight out of the air using what’s known as Direct Air Capture (DAC) systems, like the 3D printed heat exchanger I showed off recently from GE which can pull 500 litres of pure water from the air every day.

Hear more about the concept

Furthermore, by using these kinds of systems you no longer need to bother with complex and expensive water infrastructure – which is why I say today’s system of water purification and distribution is inefficient and basically flawed. But now there’s another DAC on the market.

We know of solar panels, but have you heard of hydropanels? The concept isn’t too disparate from the revolutionary technology. In fact, as we’ve seen before, hydropanels harvest sunlight, and generate solar power, to collect water from air — about five litres per day. Once it is stored in the reservoir, the condensed water vapour is filtered and mineralised with magnesium and calcium for drinking.

A select few got to taste a little bit of his “sunshine and air” combo at the USA Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai. Masafi, a pioneer of “Deep-Earth drinking water” in the UAE, in partnership with SOURCE Global, presented its new line of eco-friendly water ‘SOURCE’ for the first time.

“This UAE based partnership will truly revolutionise the way we produce sustainable drinking water, which is simply made from the sky,” Dani Afiouni, Chief Commercial Officer of Masafi Group, told the audience. He also told Gulf News that SOURCE Water would break ground at local retail stores by mid-2022.

Using SOURCE Global’s Hydropanel patented technology, SOURCE UAE will become the world’s first renewable bottled water – where their use of the term “renewable” is odd because all water is essentially “renewable” thanks to the Earth’s water cycle.

Anyway, back to the topic. The treated water vapour comes in a sleek glass bottle that is itself 100 per cent recyclable and refillable, offering “sustainable options for still, sparkling and naturally flavoured water.” Not only the contents of the bottle leave no carbon footprint behind but the packaging takes a circular economy approach as well.

“In 1977, we witnessed the first natural water bottling plant in the UAE by Masafi. We are inspired by the government’s lead and endeavour for a more sustainable future through the initiation of Vision 2030 and the Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals,” said Afiouni.

Afiouni added that the technology is “a gift that keeps on giving”. It is completely self-sufficient and off-grid. Unplugged, the hydropanels are left to do their magic in remote lands, and in turn, you are left with an abundance of fresh renewable water straight from the skies. What’s more, 91 per cent of the material used to build these panels are mass bulk-recyclable.

But where exactly does the water come from? Neil Grimmer, brand president of SOURCE Global, said the troposphere holds the key to endless supply. According to Grimmer, the lowest layer of the Earth’s atmosphere, which is home to weather phenomena, holds six times the total volume of all the rivers on the planet.

“Tapping into the [troposphere] and doing it in a very sustainable way — without harming Nature — led to the innovative breakthrough of the hydropanel,” Grimmer added.

Straddling the border between Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah, the underground wells of the Hajar mountain range are a natural reservoir of drinking water, which Masafi was the first to tap into. And now, the area will see another record-breaking achievement in the UAE — the region’s first and the world’s largest water farm.

Soon, a cluster of 5,000-plus hydropanels – a hydrofarm – will be seen sprouting across the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah at Masafi’s local factory. Much like the giant 6GW Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in Dubai, the water farm will be open to the public.

“The field is going to be a museum. You can take your kids and your family for a visit, for them to see what the future looks like. What we want them to do is really think about these things once they embark on new endeavours,” he said of the sprawling water farm, which is scheduled for construction in the coming three months.

Once the sustainable water farm is up and running, the Masafi factory will pick up supply from the field for bottling.

Extracting water from air is not a novelty at Expo 2020 Dubai, though. There is a vertical farm irrigated by the solar-powered Rainmaker in the Netherlands Pavilion, and at Czech Republic, the pavilion is growing a verdant garden on arid land, using a home-grown water-from-air solution. Afiouni looks forward to exchanging know-how in the field at the fair, but remains meticulous in his vision.

“The prerequisite for all of this is that the technology has to be completely off-grid. Otherwise, it just defeats the purpose of what we’re trying to do,” he added.

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WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

Materials form the foundation of every product and thing in the universe, so the more kinds of materials we have the more possibilities we have.

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The world of materials is changing faster than most people realise and there are innovations everywhere – from new Polymorphic materials that could one day be embedded with liquid computers to create the sci-fiction shape-shifting T-1000 Terminator robot, to new classes of living materials that can not only self-heal but also self-replicate. And so on. At a slightly less sci-fi level though these kinds of shape shifting materials can also help athletes cool down in new ways and even pouring your morning cup of tea more interesting.

Now, in the latest materials development which could be used to improve the energy conversion efficiency of space based solar power stations, among other applications, researchers at Tufts University have created light-activated composite materials and devices that are able to execute precise, visible movements and form complex three-dimensional shapes without the need for wires or other actuating materials or energy sources. The design combines programmable photonic crystals with an elastomeric composite that can be engineered at the macro and nanoscale to respond to illumination.

The research provides new avenues for the development of smart light-driven systems such as high-efficiency, self-aligning solar cells that automatically follow the sun’s direction and angle of light, light-actuated microfluidic valves or soft robots that move with light on demand. A “photonic sunflower,” whose petals curl towards and away from illumination and which tracks the path and angle of the light, demonstrates the technology in a paper that appeared earlier this month in Nature Communications.

Colour results from the absorption and reflection of light. Behind every flash of an iridescent butterfly wing or opal gemstone lie complex interactions in which natural photonic crystals embedded in the wing or stone absorb light of specific frequencies and reflect others. The angle at which the light meets the crystalline surface can affect which wavelengths are absorbed and the heat that is generated from that absorbed energy.

See the new material in action

The photonic material designed by the Tufts team joins two layers – an opal-like film made of silk fibroin doped with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), forming photonic crystals, and an underlying substrate of Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a silicon-based polymer. In addition to remarkable flexibility, durability, and optical properties, silk fibroin is unusual in having a negative coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), meaning that it contracts when heated and expands when cooled. PDMS, in contrast, has a high CTE and expands rapidly when heated. As a result, when the novel material is exposed to light, one layer heats up much more rapidly than the other, so the material bends as one side expands and the other contracts or expands more slowly.

“With our approach, we can pattern these opal-like films at multiple scales to design the way they absorb and reflect light. When the light moves and the quantity of energy that’s absorbed changes, the material folds and moves differently as a function of its relative position to that light,” said Fiorenzo Omenetto, corresponding author of the study and the Frank Doble Professor of Engineering at Tufts.

Whereas most opto-mechanical devices that convert light to movement involve complex and energy-intensive fabrication or setups, “We are able to achieve exquisite control of light-energy conversion and generate ‘macro motion’ of these materials without the need for any electricity or wires,” Omenetto said.

The researchers programmed the photonic crystal films by applying stencils and then exposing them to water vapor to generate specific patterns. The pattern of surface water altered the wavelength of absorbed and reflected light from the film, thus causing the material to bend, fold and twist in different ways, depending on the geometry of the pattern, when exposed to laser light.

The authors demonstrated in their study a “photonic sunflower,” with integrated solar cells in the bilayer film so that the cells tracked the light source. The photonic sunflower kept the angle between the solar cells and the laser beam nearly constant, maximizing the cells’ efficiency as the light moved. The system would work as well with white light as it does with laser light. Such wireless, light-responsive, heliotropic, or sun-following, systems could potentially enhance light-to-energy conversion efficiency for the solar power industry.

The team’s demonstrations of the material also included a butterfly whose wings opened and closed in response to light and a self-folding box.

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