Author: Energy Matters

Yet another technological development could significantly increase the sunlight conversion efficiency of solar cells.

U.S. solar energy company Semprius has utilised funding and expertise from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Sunshot Incubator program to develop a high-efficiency solar cell less than 600 microns in diameter – smaller than the dot made by a ballpoint pen.

Reactions to the recently released Australian Government’s Draft Energy White Paper have been many and varied – and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson’s enthusiasm for nuclear power didn’t go unnoticed.

A report from the Intelligent Grid Research Cluster (iGrid) says distributed energy generation, such as that provided by PV solar power systems, has the potential to defer or reduce expenditure on transmission and distribution networks.

The U.S. solar energy market continues to go from strength to strength, achieving a record 140 percent growth rate in the third quarter of 2011.

Said to be Australia’s largest Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) project, installation of the solar panels for Queensland’s Carrara Stadium (now known as Metricon Stadium) has now been completed.

The USA’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) says the American electricity grid is in dire need of a tune-up as new generation technologies such as wind and solar power come on line in greater numbers and smart meters are rolled out across the country.

Virginia covers the release of the Australian Government’s Draft Energy White Paper, the cost of solar power often overestimated, major electricity price increases loom for Australian households and how a solar panel system can knock four years off a mortgage.

Researchers at North Carolina State University (NCSU) have developed a new dye that will allow dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSCs) to more efficiently harvest ambient and direct sunlight.

New findings from Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry into the nature of the jet stream that flows around the Earth’s upper atmosphere may put an end to hopes of harvesting its high-speed winds as an endless supply of renewable energy.