Solar Power Category Archives
How to Build a $3 Solar-Powered Water Purification System
2 January 2011 | Solar Power | No Comments
Last year we talked several times about many water purification devices, but none of them wasn’t as cheap as this new solar powered water purification system developed by UW students.
The idea of using solar rays to clean water is an old one. Usually when solar rays pass through a plastic bottle filled with water, it removes more than 99.9 percent of bacteria and viruses. Sun rays can be very efficient in cleaning water, but to do this it takes some time (the water can not be instantaneous purified) and we don’t know when their job is done.
Sony’s New Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells for Energy Generating Windows
21 December 2010 | Solar Power | No Comments
Look at this picture and try to Imagine your house having green colored windows. Having such windows it may look weird, but what you’ll say if those green pieces of glass could produce electricity for your home? Saving energy would be enough for you to leave behind the initial design of your house? Think about it.
If you ask me, I would definitely choose to use such dye-sensitized solar cells instead of regular windows, for two main reasons: first, I will be able to save energy and money, and second, I think those green colored windows would bring a relaxing green light in my room.
Konarka Improved the Efficiency of Plastic Solar Cells by 8.3 Percent
8 December 2010 | Solar Power | 1 Comment
One of the world’s most famous plastic solar cell developers, Konarka, managed to improve the efficiency of their modules by 8.3 percent. Even with a reduced light conversion capacity, these plastic solar cells are cheaper and we can easily attach them on windows, awnings, bus shelters, backpacks or clothes.
Proud with their new record, achieving a 8.3 percent efficiency rate in converting solar rays into electricity, Konarka stated that this is a great opportunity to start the commercial production of these plastic solar cells. Moreover, NREL certified the efficiency of those plastic cells, so Konarka’s chief executive became even more optimistic regarding their future sales.
Scientists Managed to Extract Hydrogen from Water Using Solar Power
30 November 2010 | Solar Power | No Comments
MIT professor Daniel Nocera came up with a new way to use solar energy during night (a solar power system that converts solar energy to hydrogen). Instead of storing the energy in batteries, he found a way to split water into hydrogen and oxygen in order to use hydrogen in a fuel cell for night use.
Solar energy has become a real star among today’s alternative energy sources. Using solar power at night involves some issues and most of them are related to those high costs of batteries. Now, it seems that Daniel Nocera found the Holy Grail. “We have the capability to power a household with just two bottles of water from any source” he said.
Self cleaning solar panels can harvest more solar power
24 August 2010 | Solar Power | No Comments
Trying to come up with a solution for dusty solar panels today, researchers have presented a new technology, simply called dust-cleaning technology, able to increase solar power production.
Most of today’s solar power plants are placed in large sunny areas where rains are very rare. In these places photovoltaic panels get often covered with a layer of dust, so their efficiency decreases.