Electricity

Perovskite is quickly gaining on silicon in the solar cell field, but it has one major drawback – durability. Now, a new treatment has been shown to keep perovskite solar cells working at 99% of their efficiency after 1,000 hours of use.

As anyone who's ever seen a bolt of lightning knows, the air around us can be filled with an astonishing amount of energy. A new study shows a way to harvest this power using a perforated nanofilm that can be made from a vast variety of materials.

Sleeping on a cliff face is one way to soak up the great outdoors, but most of us like a little comfort at the campsite. That's why portable power stations are such a great piece of kit. We've been putting Bluetti's latest offering to the test.

In diabetics, wounds tend to progress quickly and heal slowly. Researchers have used electricity to heal diabetic wounds three times faster, which offers great potential for treating those with diseases that lead to reduced wound healing.

UK researchers have created the first smart fabric that can change shape and color in response to two different stimuli: heat and electricity. The development opens up new possibilities in various fields, including virtual reality and robotics.

The dynamic duo of silicon and perovskite continue their rampage through the solar cell industry. Researchers at KAUST have developed a new silicon/perovskite tandem solar cell with a record-breaking efficiency.

Studying how bacteria interacts with the environment, a microbiology team discovered a powerhouse of an enzyme that consumes hydrogen and turns it into electricity. Researcher Rhys Grinter told New Atlas what the findings could mean for clean energy.

Solar farms and agriculture are competing for land. UCLA Scientists have now tested a way to combine the two by placing semi-transparent solar cells on the glass roofs of greenhouses, finding that they actually improve the growth of plants inside.

Georgia Tech scientists have discovered a new quantum state in a quirky material. In a phenomenon never before seen in anything else, the team found that applying a magnetic field increased the material’s electrical conductivity by a billion percent.

Scientists have demonstrated a more advanced lightning rod than a humble metal stick. Beaming a high-powered laser into the sky was shown to deflect lightning bolts, enabling laser lightning rods that protect a wider area from dangerous strikes.

Perovskite and silicon are proving to be a formidable duo in the world of solar cells, and now they’ve hit a new record efficiency. A team at Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin (HZB) have developed solar cells with an efficiency of over 32%.

By tinkering with fine details within wood, engineers in Sweden have come up with an interesting new way of harvesting electricity that leverages natural processes that already take place in drying wood.