Solar Power

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 Sun is a great source of energy, but of course those rays can be damaging as well. Engineers in Korea have now developed a new way to make perovskite solar cells to protect them from the elements without reducing their efficiency.

Stacking perovskite solar cells on top of silicon ones is one way to increase the amount of sunlight harnessed. Now researchers at Australian National University (ANU) have broken a new efficiency record for these tandem solar cells.

Crossbars, bike racks, cargo boxes, roof-top tents and solar panels are just a few things jostling for limited car roof space when venturing outdoors. With the new CBX Solar, Yakima combines two of those into one to better optimize roof storage.

Semi-transparent solar cells could be built into the glass roof panels of greenhouses, capturing light at wavelengths that plants don’t use anyway. Models suggest that in some cases these greenhouses could become completely self-sufficient.

Back in 2017, a former racing catamaran was turned into a floating clean energy laboratory. Powered by a mix of renewable energies, the striking vessel is now the first recipient of Toyota's new fuel cell system for maritime applications.

A new molecule developed by Ohio State University scientists can harvest energy from the entire visible spectrum of light, harnessing up to 50 percent more solar energy than current solar cells, and can also catalyze that energy into hydrogen.

Scientists at Berkeley Lab have developed a sort of “solar umbrella” which could radically reduce the amount of land needed for industrial evaporation ponds.

Audio giant JBL has turned to crowdfunding platform Indiegogo with a new set of solar-powered headphones that promise “virtually unlimited” playtime, owing to a Powerfoyle material built into the headband that generates power from the sun.

Scientists in Korea believe they’ve found a way around the opaque nature of conventional solar cells, with a new technique that involves punching carefully placed holes right through them to make them transparent.

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.

Stefano Boeri Architetti has completed a new project in the firm's native Italy, and for once it's not covered in greenery. That's not to say that Matera Centrale has no element of green design, as the train station is partly powered by solar panels.