Photovoltaic

The International Space Station (ISS) is getting a major upgrade starting this year, as Boeing is tapped to deliver six new solar arrays. They will provide the orbital laboratory with up to 30 percent more electricity for research and commercial applications.

Sono Motors has shown the second-gen Sion vehicle prototype at CES 2021, which features 248 photovoltaic panels integrated into the vehicle's body that will top up its battery pack during daylight hours, for up to 20 miles of extra range per day.

In summer months sunlight comes with an unwanted side order of heat. Now, researchers have developed windows that can change color automatically when heated by sunlight, to keep buildings cool – and to top it off, they’re solar panels as well.

Worksport has decided the flat surface on the back of a pickup truck is a great place for a solar array, so it's launching TerraVis, a photovoltaic, folding tonneau cover that takes power from the sun and stores it bed-mounted and removable batteries.

Researchers have developed a photovoltaic device that has an external quantum efficiency of 132 percent. This impossible-sounding feat was achieved using nanostructured black silicon, and could represent a major breakthrough for solar cells.

One of the problems with implants such as pacemakers is the fact that when their batteries run out, they have to be surgically replaced. It may someday be possible, though, to recharge those batteries by shining light through the patient's skin.

We've been following the progress of German startup Sono Motors since the first renders of its solar cell-packing Sion electric family car appeared in 2016. With a new prototype coming later this year, we emailed CEO Jona Christians for a catch up.

Given that solar panels lie in direct sunlight, it goes without saying that they can get pretty hot. Unfortunately, though, they also get less efficient as they heat up. That said, a new gel could help cool them … without using any electricity.

It sounds counterintuitive to put solar cells indoors, but there’s light energy inside that’s largely going to waste. Now a team of engineers has created flexible perovskite solar cells with the highest efficiency of any indoor flexible solar cells.

While we're used to seeing buildings with photovoltaic panels on their roofs, the fronts of those buildings are typically panel-free. German researchers are working on putting that space to use, with facade-based solar panels.

The community funding push that Sono Motors launched in early December, 2019, went on a little longer than originally advertised, but the company behind the PV-packed Sion family EV has come out of the other side with more money than was hoped for.

Germany's Sono Motors has given us a taste of what we can expect the production Sion to look like inside and out, and is now looking to future buyers to help raise €50 million to secure production facilities and more.