solar

As consumers and businesses, alike, move toward solar power as a way to reduce electric costs and live more sustainably, one challenge has been the efficiency of today’s solar panel designs. Now, researchers at the University of Waterloo…

University of Warwick chemists have developed an innovative way to pattern metals— which could make the next generation of solar panels more sustainable and cheaper—by using cheap organofluorine compounds without toxic chemicals. The…

Multi-junction solar cells are both the most efficient type of solar cell on the market today and the most expensive type of solar cell to produce. But now, researchers from North Carolina State University put together a proof-of-concept…

Carbon-neutral fuels are crucial for making aviation and maritime transport sustainable. ETH researchers have developed a solar plant to produce synthetic liquid fuels that release as much CO2 during their combustion as previously extracted…

Solar steaming for water production uses energy from sunlight to separate salt and other impurities from water through evaporation. Current solar-steaming technologies are usually expensive, bulky, and produce limited results. A team led…

A durable transparent surface coated with gold nanoparticles embedded in titanium oxide can clear fogged surfaces four times faster than surfaces treated with other anti-fog agents, says the lead author of a recent ETH study. The coating…

As advanced as our world is today, access to clean water still remains one of the biggest challenges facing humankind. Now, a breakthrough by engineers at The University of Texas at Austin may offer a new solution through solar-powered…

Currently, batteries are responsible for powering most of our devices, and even some of our cars. But what if we could power our electronics with light from a lamp? Researchers have reported a big step toward running electronic devices…

Looking at your cell phone, you realize the battery is low, which means you have to make another long walk into town to pay money to charge the device. By the time you get home, it's getting dark. You light the kerosene lamp that casts a…

Scientists have created flags that can generate electrical energy using wind and solar power. These flags were developed using flexible piezoelectric strips and flexible photovoltaic cells. Piezoelectric strips allow the flags to…