Bismuth-based crystalline material can boost solar cell efficiency, chip design

August 27th, 2009 SYDNEY - A team of Australian and US researchers has set a new record for solar cell efficiency, by developing a multi-cell array that achieved an efficiency of 43 percent, beating the previous world record by 0.3 percent. According to a report by ABC News, University of New South Wales (UNSW) Professor Martin Green, who led the record-breaking effort, said that solar cells only convert a fraction of the energy from sunlight into electricity.

July 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of scientists has developed a low-cost solution processing method for CIGS (copper-indium-gallium-selenide) based solar cells that could provide an answer to the problem of their production on a commercial scale. CIGS panels have a high efficiency potential, may be cheaper to produce and would use less raw materials than silicon solar panels.

September 26th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Samsung Electronics have announced that it has begun mass production of a new kind of memory chip that stores information by melting and freezing tiny crystals. Called the phase-change memory (PCM), the idea was first proposed by physicists in the 1960s, but it took long for them to develop the chip.

August 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - If scientists have their way, solar cells could soon be produced more cheaply using nanoparticle "inks" that allow them to be printed like newspaper or painted onto the sides of buildings or rooftops to absorb electricity-producing sunlight. For the past two years, Brian Korgel, a University of Texas at Austin chemical engineer and his team have been working on this low-cost, nanomaterials solution to photovoltaics - or solar cell - manufacturing.

October 6th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new study, researchers at Ohio State University have discovered that adding silver nanoparticles to polymer solar cells boosts the materials' electrical current generation. The study was carried out by Paul Berger, professor of electrical and computer engineering and professor of physics at Ohio State.

June 26th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A physicist has presented a way of increasing the efficiency of concentrator solar cells, in which light is concentrated 400-fold through lenses onto solar cells. The concentrator technology enables expensive semi-conductor material to be replaced with cheaper lens systems, and greater efficiency to be achieved.

September 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Using a carbon nanotube instead of traditional silicon, Cornell University researchers have created the basic elements of a solar cell that hopefully will lead to much more efficient ways of converting light to electricity than now used in calculators and on rooftops. The researchers fabricated, tested and measured a simple solar cell called a photodiode, formed from an individual carbon nanotube.

April 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Engineers at Oregon State University (OSU) in the US are using an ancient life form called diatom to create one of the newest technologies for solar energy, in systems that may be simple enough to build compared to existing silicon-based solar cells. These tiny, single-celled marine life forms have existed for at least 100 million years and are the basis for much of the life in the oceans, but they also have rigid shells that can be used to create order in a natural way at the extraordinarily small level of nanotechnology.

August 15th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology (S and T), US, have developed microscopic, spear-shaped zinc oxide crystals on a surface of single-crystal silicon, which may be used to make more efficient solar cells. According to Dr.

February 27th, 2009 SYDNEY - A thin and flexible solar cell developed by researchers can also be mass produced with the help of banknote printing technology. The first of such polymer solar cells have rolled off the presses at the Melbourne-based plant that prints polymer banknotes and currency for 26 countries.

July 15th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists are hopeful that future Air Force unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will be powered by dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), which appear to be an optimum energy harvesting source, and thus may lead to longer flight times without refuelling. Led by Dr. Minoru Taya, the University of Washington's Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) project team is working on airborne solar cells by using a flexible film and a thin glass coating with transparent conductive electrodes.

September 1st, 2009 BANGALORE - State-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) and Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) will form a Rs.20 billion (Rs.2000 crore) joint venture by March 2010 to manufacture 250mw solar photovoltaic (PV) production facility for processing silicon wafers, solar cells and PV modules, a top company official said Tuesday. "The joint venture with 50:50 equity holding will be set up where abundant power will be available.

August 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of scientists has found a way to make nanostructured plastic solar cells, which are roughly 10,000 times smaller than a human hair. A research team headed by David Ginger, a University of Washington associate professor of chemistry, has developed the new technology.

September 14th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Researchers from the Eindhoven University of Technology and the University of Ulm in Germany have made the first high-resolution 3D images of the inside of a polymer solar cell. This gives them important new insights in the nanoscale structure of polymer solar cells and its effect on the performance.

June 14th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A group of engineering researchers at McMaster University in Canada has installed a new flexible solar cell technology to power lighting for night-time transit users. The bus shelter is located on the west side of University Avenue between the John Hodgins Engineering Building and the Life Sciences Building.