Photovoltaics

Recycling Perovskite Solar Cells With Water

February 25, 2025
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

In recent years, solar cells incorporating crystals known as perovskites have repeatedly broken records of how well they convert sunlight to electricity, suggesting they might help revolutionize photovoltaics. Now, a group of scientists have developed a way to recycle all parts of these solar cells in a more environmentally friendly…

September 11, 2024
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

For decades, progress on organic solar cells has been stymied by how quickly light can break them down. Now AI has discovered organic light-harvesting molecules with a five-fold improvement in stability over their predecessors. Moreover, the new system can explain what makes these novel compounds more stable, to help scientists…

August 8, 2024
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

The idea has always been, well, out there. What if we put giant arrays of solar panels in space, where the sun never sets and clouds never form, to collect limitless electricity to beam to Earth? For a world badly in need of clean, continuous energy, space-based solar power seems…

May 9, 2024
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

Solar panels are built to last 25 years or more in all kinds of weather. Key to this longevity is a tight seal of the photovoltaic materials. Manufacturers achieve the seal by laminating a panel’s silicon cells with polymer sheets between glass panes. But the sticky polymer is hard to…

01 Apr 24

Blink to Generate Power for Smart Contact Lenses

Computer & Information Technology

The potential use cases for smart contacts are compelling and varied. Pop a lens on your eye and monitor health metrics like glucose levels; receive targeted drug delivery for ocular diseases; experience augmented reality and read news updates with displays of information literally in your face. But the eye is…

16 Jan 24

Vertical Panels Let Solar and Farming Coexist

Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

The German startup Next2Sun is on a mission to install vertical solar panels alongside some unlikely neighbors, including crops like potatoes and hay. With several projects in Germany complete and a new installation in Vermont in the works, the company hopes to combine traditional farming with solar power—and use land…

09 Jan 24

X-rays Reveal a New Phase of Matter

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Metallurgy & Material Science

In a scientific breakthrough that could reshape our understanding of how light interacts with matter, researchers from the Attoscience and Ultrafast Optics group at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in Barcelona, Spain have discovered a new phase of matter, aptly named a “light-matter hybrid”. The findings, published in Nature…

25 Nov 23

Generating Power on Earth From the Coldness of Deep Space

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

It’s a summer night. On the rooftop of a quiet building, a set of panels cools the rooms within and keeps the lights on, removing heat and generating electricity using the coldness of the sky. That cold isn’t in the air around the building—the night is warm. Rather, the panels…

01 Aug 23

The Solar Cell Discovery Machine

Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

With the aid of crystals known as perovskites, solar cells are increasingly breaking records in how well they convert sunlight to electricity. Now a new automated system could make those records fall even faster. North Carolina State University’s RoboMapper can analyze how well perovskites might perform in solar cells, using…

21 Jul 23

Where There’s Smoke, There’s Wiggly Solar Output

Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

This article is part of our exclusive IEEE Journal Watch series in partnership with IEEE Xplore. Last month, as smoke from wildfires burning in Canada smothered the U.S. Northeast, it turned skies red and the air unhealthy to breathe. The hazy skies also dimmed solar power output. Solar farms in…

Recycling Perovskite Solar Cells With Water

AI Makes Effective Solar Cells—And Explains the Results

Space-Based Solar Power Gets Practical

Femtosecond Lasers Solve Solar Panels’ Recycling Issue

Blink to Generate Power for Smart Contact Lenses

Vertical Panels Let Solar and Farming Coexist

X-rays Reveal a New Phase of Matter

Generating Power on Earth From the Coldness of Deep Space

The Solar Cell Discovery Machine

Where There’s Smoke, There’s Wiggly Solar Output

Google won two major awards at MWC Barcelona 2025.

Expanding AI Overviews and introducing AI Mode

This MRI Can Run on Batteries

The Tiny Star Explosions Powering Moore’s Law