Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) say that replacing flat solar panels with three-dimensional structures could make photovoltaic systems as much as 20 times more effective.

In a series of tests, the researchers found that such 3D structures are able to pick up light even when the sun is at lower angles, and that internal reflections within the 3D panels help increase the amount of captured light.

The structures also can double the number of peak hours of generation. Scientists say even a simple cube shape, open at the top and covered with photovoltaic cells, could produce 3.8 times more power than a flat panel covering the same area. (By comparison, costly solar-tracking mount technology — which moves photovoltaic panels to follow the path of the sun — generates only 1.8 times more energy).

While the more complex structures would be more expensive than typical flat panels, researcher Marco Bernardi says the extra power would compensate for the cost difference.

Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.

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Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) say they have created a new class of transparent photovoltaic cells that can turn windows into solar panels.

Richard Lunt, a postdoctoral researcher at MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics, says the new photovoltaic cells have the potential to turn skyscrapers into enormous solar collectors that could supply much of the electricity needed in modern office buildings. Previous attempts to make transparent solar cells have either failed to achieve high efficiency or blocked too much light.

But Lunt and his colleagues say the new transparent cells are built to absorb only the near-infrared spectrum and have the potential to transform light to electricity at relatively high efficiency.

The biggest challenge, said Lunt, is creating photovoltaic cells that would last as long as the windows themselves, since the best way to use the cells would be to package them in the middle of double-pane windows.

But Lunt and his colleagues said that the solar cell longevity problem is a basic engineering challenge that can probably be solved within a decade.

Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.

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Green transportation as a whole covers a wide range of transportation concepts. Green vehicles powered by electricity or hydrogen take much of the media’s focus while others prefer to look at the changes being made to public transit around the globe. The changes to the aviation industry have also taken a great deal of attention in the last week or so with Lufthansa’s announcement about their decision to begin running a biofuel powered plane. However, one area of green transportation that doesn’t seem to get enough attention is seaborne green projects.

A team of researchers over at PlanetSolar have decided to take the idea of green transportation and apply it to the sea when they built a solar powered catamaran that is meant to sail around the world. Called the TÛRANOR, a name pulled from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings meaning “the power of the sun”, the solar powered vessel is the $17.5 million realization of a team of researchers who wished to see how far solar energy could be pushed. The TÛRANOR runs entirely on electricity that is generated from over 38,000 photovoltaic solar cells that is in turn stored in a giant lithium ion battery allowing the vessel to essentially power itself forever on the sunlight alone. The craft itself is roughly thirty one meters long and is piloted by a six man crew while having the capacity to hold around forty crew members at any given time. The vessel is also equipped with fold out flaps that allow it to increase the amount of solar cells that can be exposed to the sun at any given time and increasing the size of the ship. According to PlanetSolar, the TÛRANOR is the largest solar powered sea-faring vessel in the world.

Currently, the TÛRANOR is on a trip to circumnavigate the globe in hopes of spreading the word for how successful green transportation can be while also becoming the first solar powered vessel to achieve such a goal. The PlanetSolar team has specifically chosen certain areas of the world to stop over in so that they can spread the word about the effectiveness of solar power. They are also intending on using the TÛRANOR as a way of meeting with what PlanetSolar calls leading minds in the solar energy field in order to have a round table discussion about solar power.

The TÛRANOR was launched earlier this year on March 31st in Monaco and is currently working on moving down the Mexican coast. Though the sun may not always shine down on the TÛRANOR, the lithium ion battery does allow up to three days of travel without the collection of solar energy. With a top speed of only around eight knots, the trip has taken a great deal of time and is expected to take much more, though PlanetSolar says that the speed of the mission is not the point of the trip. Instead, they are hoping that by the time they finish their trip they will have spread the concept of solar energy far enough around the world to make a difference.

Article by Richard Cooke, appearing courtesy Justmeans.

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BioSolar Inc., a publicly traded California company, says it’s come up with a way to build a better solar panel, with plastics made from plants.

I sat down recently with company CEO David Lee, both of us at keyboards, to discuss BioSolar’s plans for a plastic revolution in sun power manufacturing.

Lee’s protective backing is derived from cotton and castor beans, and costs 25 percent less than Tedlar, the petroleum-based film made by rival DuPont, company officials say. Lee, an electrical engineer, founded the company in 2006.

Q: What makes BioSolar different from other solar companies in the United States?

Lee: BioSolar is developing a technology to produce bio-based photovoltaic (PV) components from renewable plant sources that will reduce the cost per watt of PV modules. BioSolar will gradually replace the petroleum-based portions of the PV module and do so at a substantial cost savings.

While most of the PV industry is focused on photovoltaic efficiency to reduce cost, we are introducing a new dimension of cost reduction by replacing petroleum-based plastic solar cell components with durable bio-based plastics.

Q: What is the cost difference between petroleum- and bio-based plastics for making solar panels? Can you make a less-expensive solar panel with bio-based plastics versus petroleum?

Lee: BioBacksheet, which will be the first commercially available PV module component made from renewable materials, will be initially priced 25 percent below comparable petroleum-based backsheets, with the potential to be more than 50 percent cheaper in high volume production later. This is just one of many PV module components that currently use petro-based materials, and BioSolar intends to expand this technology to other remaining PV module components in the future.

Q: How long before your developments in solar go to market? Are you in discussions with manufacturing companies?

Lee: BioSolar is in the later stage of pre-production for BioBacksheet-C, the company’s first bio-based PV module component to be commercialized. We expect to be ready for full-scale production some time during the second half of 2009. We have established relationships with contract manufacturers including Rowland Technologies at Wallingford, Connecticut.

Q: How do bio-plastics reduce the carbon footprint of solar power?

Lee: Most solar cells currently require components made from petroleum-based plastics. New solar panel installation was about 25 million square feet in 2006, and an annual increase of 40 percent was expected. Though the recent worldwide recession reduced the number of actual new installations to below the predicted rate, we still expect to see a significant increase of new solar installation going forward.

The large volume of demand for petroleum-based plastics needed to manufacture PV modules will disqualify solar energy as a true green energy. By replacing these petroleum based plastics with bio-based materials, we believe we can make the solar energy a true green energy.

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The Australian government plans to build the world’s largest solar power station, a 1,000-megawatt plant that would generate three times as much electricity as the world’s largest solar electric plant, now located in California, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced.

Preliminary plans call for the construction of four individual plants — two solar thermal plants that use mirrors to focus the sun’s heat on steam-generating pipes or towers and two plants that use photovoltaic cells. Over all, the proposed facility would cost about U.S. $1 billion, Rudd said, and would generate electricity equivalent to a large coal-fired power plant.

Calling solar energy “Australia’s biggest natural resource,” the prime minister said he hopes the plants will be the first in a network of solar installations across Australia, making the nation a global leader in solar power. Construction plans will be developed over the next six months and the government hopes to open the new solar power power station by 2015.

This article originally appeared on Yale Environment 360 at http://e360.yale.edu

[photo: flickr/Richard Gifford]

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