News tagged with solar cells

New kind of solar cell could capture significantly more energy than current cells

New solar cells could increase the maximum efficiency of solar panels by over 25%, according to scientists from the University of Cambridge.

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Feb 08, 2012 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (10) | comments 14 | with audio podcast

Solar start-ups set new efficiency records

(PhysOrg.com) -- Although Alta Devices and Semprius make different types of solar panels, both start-ups have been breaking records in the past few days. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Alta Devices announced that ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Feb 08, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (14) | comments 11 | with audio podcast report

New tool for analyzing solar-cell materials

To make a silicon solar cell, you start with a slice of highly purified silicon crystal, and then process it through several stages involving gradual heating and cooling. But figuring out the tradeoffs involved ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Feb 07, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Harnessing plasmonics, engineers weld nanowires with light

At the nano level, researchers at Stanford have discovered a new way to weld together meshes of tiny wires. Their work could lead to exciting new electronics and solar applications. To succeed, they called ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Feb 06, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (11) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Photovoltaic panels made from plant material could become a cheap alternative to traditional solar cells

Within a few years, people in remote villages in the developing world may be able to make their own solar panels, at low cost, using otherwise worthless agricultural waste as their raw material.

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Feb 03, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (9) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Self-assembling nanorods: Researchers obtain 1-, 2- and 3-D nanorod arrays and networks

(PhysOrg.com) -- A relatively fast, easy and inexpensive technique for inducing nanorods - rod-shaped semiconductor nanocrystals - to self-assemble into one-, two- and even three-dimensional macroscopic structures ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Feb 01, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

No future without scarce metals

It is not just in laptop computers, mobile telephones and LED screens that scarce metals are to be found but also in solar cells, batteries for mobile technologies and many other similar applications. The ...

Technology / Other

created Jan 31, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 2

Blunt nanostructures could make high-efficiency solar cells easier to fabricate

(PhysOrg.com) -- One of the most promising methods for increasing the efficiency of solar cells consists of coating the cells’ surfaces with a thin layer of metal nanoparticles. The nanoparticles scatter ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Jan 24, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 9 | with audio podcast feature

Researchers boost solar concentrator efficiency

A team of researchers at the University of California, Merced, has redesigned luminescent solar concentrators to be more efficient at sending sunlight to solar cells.

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Jan 23, 2012 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (7) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

Cambridge team uses solar cells in OLED screen to power smartphones

(PhysOrg.com) -- With the world's showroom floors crammed with prototype smartphones promising advanced functions, bigger displays, stunning resolution, wouldn’t you think the biggest crowd-pleasers would ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Jan 22, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (9) | comments 14 | with audio podcast report

In solar cells, tweaking the tiniest of parts yields big jump in efficiency

(PhysOrg.com) -- By tweaking the smallest of parts, a trio of University at Buffalo engineers is hoping to dramatically increase the amount of sunlight that solar cells convert into electricity.

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Jan 20, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (11) | comments 27 | with audio podcast

Scientists design solar cells that exceed the conventional light-trapping limit

(PhysOrg.com) -- The best performing solar cells are those that are thick enough to absorb light from the entire solar spectrum, while the cheapest solar cells are thin ones, since they require less, and potentially ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Jan 20, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (36) | comments 27 | with audio podcast feature

BASF, Philips develop OLED lighting for use as transparent car roof

(PhysOrg.com) -- BASF and Philips have achieved a practical breakthrough in the development of OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) technology that allows it to be integrated in car roofs. The OLEDs are transparent ...

Technology / Hi Tech & Innovation

created Jan 19, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

Researchers uncover transparency limits on transparent conducting oxides

Researchers in the Computational Materials Group at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) have uncovered the fundamental limits on optical transparency in the class of materials known as transparent ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created Jan 18, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Comparing energy conversion of plants and solar cells

Scientists now have a way to more accurately compare how efficiently plants and photovoltaic, or solar, cells convert sunlight into energy, thanks to findings by a research consortium that included a U.S. ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Jan 16, 2012 | popularity 2.3 / 5 (3) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Solar cell

A solar cell or photovoltaic cell is a device that converts light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect. Sometimes the term solar cell is reserved for devices intended specifically to capture energy from sunlight, while the term photovoltaic cell is used when the light source is unspecified. Assemblies of cells are used to make solar panels, solar modules, or photovoltaic arrays. Photovoltaics is the field of technology and research related to the application of solar cells in producing electricity for practical use. The energy generated this way is an example of solar energy (also called solar power).

For more information about Solar cell, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Related topics: solar power , energy , silicon , thin films , graphene