Solar Power Advancements May Lead to Dream Home in Solar City
Household Solar Power Improvements
Buildings or Houses Lit By Solar Skylights
Chinese researchers demonstrated a pane of glass that generates enough solar power to use in place of a lamp. The pane produces more energy, the more cloudy they make it.[1]
Personal Solar Power Improvements
Clothing or Posters Inked with Organic Photovoltaic Harvest Indoor Light to Power Personal Devices
Plexcore PV2000 is an organic photovoltaic ink that delivers better performance harvesting indoor light in store energy in solar power batters and could be used to power personal devices or in the work world, point of sale cash registers.[2] Alternatively, a technique developed by MIT to print thin film solar cells on paper, or maybe plastic or metal foil could be used.[3]
City Solar Power Improvements
Waste Management Collections May Generate Battery Power
Research students at Harvard were able to store power produced by bacteria in soil that help decompose plant matter. Wouldn't it be wonderful if all the collected yard waste made electricity as well as mulch?[4]
Solar Powered Streetlight
A product from Vinaccia Integral Design created a tree-structured street lamp that uses monocrystalline silicon solar cells to harvest day time light to power night time light use.[5]
Roads that Power the City
Solar Roadways is working on 12'x12' photovoltaic panels that may someday replace the use of asphalt and have the added effects of longer durability and the ability to provide power. [6]
Grid Power Improvements
California is testing a pseudo-tie connection to the Copper Mountain Solar generating plant. Typically, solar and wind power is difficult to tie into the traditional grid, this test will evaluate how well it works.[7]
Solar Cell Efficiency Improvements
Scientists at Cambridge Massachusetts are working on a solar cell with reduced cost and maybe improved efficiency by reducing the amount of silicone by using silicon microwire arrays embedded in polymers of alumina nanoparticles.[8]
A technique developed by researchers at the University of Texas are improving the efficiency of solar cells by making quantum dots from lead selenide that collect energy from "hot electrons" which are currently reflected by most solar cells.[9]
Other improvements dealt with making efficient use of solar panels in shady conditions and coatings that improve the efficiency of the solar cell.
Solar Power Gets Greener by Protecting the Environment
Apparently some water insects think that solar power panels look like a lake and try to lay their eggs on them with fried results because, like a lake, the reflected light becomes polarized. To deter the insects, scientists from MSU's Kellogg Biological Station decided to think like bugs. By using nonpolarizing white marks on the grids, the surface can look like a fragmented habitat, and not a good place to lay eggs. [10]
Overall, the future of solar energy keeps looking brighter the longer the problem is worked.
[1] "Let sunshine in through solar windows that produce energy." Instablogs.com, 10 Jun 2010
[2]"Plexcore PV 2000 for Energy Harvesting", Space Daily, June 7, 2010
[3] "MIT researchers succeed in printing solar cells on paper", Instablogs.com, 6 May 2010
[4] "Harvard students harness electric power from bacteria in soil." Instablogs.com 12 June 2010
[5] "Trees harvest energy during the day to illuminate the night." Instablogs.com, 10 July 2010
[6] Bradley, John "The solar roadrunner: highways baking in the hot sun are wasted energy", Popular Science, July 2010
[7]"Pseudo-Tie Pilot Sends More Renewable Power to California", Transmission and Distribution World, June 16, 2010
[8] "Saving silicon in solar cells: a microwire composite could help reduce the cost of solar power", Technology Review, July 2010
[9] "Highly Efficient Solar Cells Could Result from Quantum Dot Research", Space Daily, June 25, 2010
[10] "Solar Panels Can Attract Breeding Bugs", Space Daily, June 2, 2010
Published by Sheri Fresonke Harper
Sheri works as a freelance writer, novelist and poet. She worked in the aviation industry at the Port of Seattle and Boeing Company for 20 years as a systems analyst/architect where she edited and wrote over... View profile
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15 Comments
Post a CommentCan't wait to see how they come with these advancements in the future
I hope these advancements continue and at a quick pace. Nicely done!
In the meantime we really missed the boat by neglecting nuclear power! It is fascinating to think that the development of solar power would perhaps be even more useful in out of the way places like a hilltop in the hinterlands. You could have all your power needs taken care of by something that didn't need twenty miles or more of power lines. Very interesting article!
Ok 2 a.m. and I'm nearly brain dead so choices are either read or write but can't do both and get done all I want/need to. So am resorting to - copy/paste comments - if you get this message please know I read/viewed your content and liked it. If you don't get this then chances are I just messed up - only leaving comments on 1 piece of work per person I'm following so don't panic if this is the only one you get from me today - you got pv for any others you may have submitted in the last month...
Sending you some page love.
Wow, I'm glad to see all the high tech advancements using solar power.
Solar roadways sound pretty awesome. I enjoyed this article. Thanks.
T'would be nice indeed.
Intriguing stuff.
You have to start somewhere: we have a solar water heater, and I hang the laundry out to dry on my solar clothes dryer.