[amor de cosmos]

The fluorescent future of solar cells
7 hours ago by Eric Gershon

(Phys.org) —For some solar cells, the future may be fluorescent. Scientists at Yale have improved the ability of a promising type of solar cell to absorb light and convert it into electrical power by adding a fluorescent organic dye to the cell layer. This squaraine dye boosts light absorption and recycles electrons, improving the conversion of light into energy. The results suggest a new route for the development of lower-cost, higher-efficiency photovoltaics, the scientists said.

"People can apply our approach in designing advanced solar cells with higher efficiencies," said André D. Taylor, the assistant professor of chemical and environmental engineering at Yale who led the research, published May 5 online in the journal Nature Photonics.

Solar cells are a renewable energy technology for directly converting light into electricity. Polymer solar cells, the type involved in the research, are appealing for their low cost, low weight, large area, and mechanical flexibility. But they are inefficient—nearly 50 percent of their absorbed light energy never transmits as electrical power, mainly because their polymer networks are not sufficiently lined up at the nanoscale to enable energy to exit the cell.

By introducing a squaraine dye into polymer solar cells that are based on a well established biochemical mechanism—Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET)—researchers achieved a 38 percent increase in power conversion efficiency, they said.

In this type of solar cell—FRET-based heterojunction polymer solar cells—extra energy is able to migrate from one molecule to another over long distances. The dye, which is highly absorbent in the near-infrared region, both broadens the spectral absorption of solar cells and enhances electricity transmission.

http://phys.org/news/2013-05-fluores...lar-cells.html
http://inhabitat.com/fluorescent-dye...ng-38-percent/

SER Energia planning 960 MW of PV projects in Brazil
09. May 2013 | Applications & Installations, Global PV markets, Industry & Suppliers | By: Becky Beetz

SER Energia is aiming to install 960 MW worth of photovoltaics in Brazil. Already, it has registered 930 MW with the country’s electricity regulatory agency, spread across 31 projects. An investment of around US$1.5 billion is expected.

Igor Fukushiro, in charge of business development at Sistemas de Energia Renovável, or SER Energia, tells pv magazine the Brazil-based company is planning to develop nearly one GW worth of large-scale photovoltaic projects in the northeast of Brazil, where the highest solar radiation is said to be.

He says the plan is to keep some of the projects under SER’s portfolio, while the remainder will either be jointly developed with other partners or sold. Meanwhile, the generated electricity is expected to be sold via an energy auction (expected in 2014), or on the free market.

Currently, SER has registered 930 MW of projects with ANEEL, Brazil’s national electricity regulatory agency. A total of 17 special purpose companies have been established to develop them; each will be 30 MW in size.

Overall, 270 MW are already in the environmental licensing phase which, says Fukushiro, is the last step before a project can participate in an auction, or to be available for construction on the free market segment.

http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/deta...zil_100011223/

Solar Incentives Are Dead, Long Live Solar
PV incentives for California homeowners are effectively gone, and it won’t cause even a blip in California’s solar growth rates.
Barry Cinnamon: May 8, 2013

The California Solar Initiative (CSI) program, which provides rebates for homes and businesses, is no longer providing rebates for homeowners in PG&E territory. That's terrific news. PG&E solar incentives are dead! Long live solar!

As a solar enthusiast, you may think I'm crazy for celebrating the upcoming demise of the single most effective state solar policy in the U.S., but it's true. The California Solar Initiative was the vehicle for accomplishing the goal of a million solar rooftops in California, established by Governor Schwarzenegger in 2005. The CSI program kicked off at the beginning of 2007 to encourage the installation of 2,000 megawatts of customer-owned solar in the state, leveraging about $2 billion in ratepayer "public goods" funds.

To be clear, there are still some rebates available for commercial systems in PG&E territory, as well as lower incentive level rebates in SCE territory. There are also plenty of rebates available for solar thermal systems. But PV incentives for homeowners are effectively gone -- and it won't cause even a blip in California's solar growth rates.

From the start, it was all about energy, jobs and the environment. The CSI program has been a rousing success in every one of these dimensions. As of the beginning of May 2013, California had installed 148,989 solar projects (including both the CSI and earlier California Energy Commission incentive programs) and 1,548 megawatts of solar, at an average cost per watt of $5.40 per watt (DC). And these figures do not include the state's utility-scale solar, which has 1,190 megawatts of operating capacity and 3,063 megawatts of capacity under construction.

The Solar Foundation has tallied up 43,700 solar jobs in California and 1,703 solar companies. The Foundation also points out that there are "only" 32,300 paid film and TV actors in California; unfortunately, it did not compare the lifestyle differences between Hollywood actors and rooftop solar installers.

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articl...ong-Live-Solar

Power plants: UGA researchers explore how to harvest electricity directly from plants
May 9, 2013

Athens, Ga. - The sun provides the most abundant source of energy on the planet. However, only a tiny fraction of the solar radiation on Earth is converted into useful energy.

To help solve this problem, researchers at the University of Georgia looked to nature for inspiration, and they are now developing a new technology that makes it possible to use plants to generate electricity.

"Clean energy is the need of the century," said Ramaraja Ramasamy, assistant professor in the UGA College of Engineering and the corresponding author of a paper describing the process in the Journal of Energy and Environmental Science. "This approach may one day transform our ability to generate cleaner power from sunlight using plant-based systems."

Plants are the undisputed champions of solar power. After billions of years of evolution, most of them operate at nearly 100 percent quantum efficiency, meaning that for every photon of sunlight a plant captures, it produces an equal number of electrons. Converting even a fraction of this into electricity would improve upon the efficiency seen with solar panels, which generally operate at efficiency levels between 12 and 17 percent.

During photosynthesis, plants use sunlight to split water atoms into hydrogen and oxygen, which produces electrons. These newly freed electrons go on to help create sugars that plants use much like food to support growth and reproduction.

"We have developed a way to interrupt photosynthesis so that we can capture the electrons before the plant uses them to make these sugars," said Ramasamy, who is also a member of UGA's Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center.

http://news.uga.edu/releases/article...ricity-direct/

IKEA expands US solar footprint with 38th PV project
By Julia Chan - 09 May 2013, 11:35
In News, Power Generation, Project Focus

Swedish furniture retailer IKEA is continuing to expand its solar footprint in the US and has announced the completion of its 38th solar project at its store in Stoughton, Massachusetts.

The 590.8 kW customised PV system has been built on 10,962 square metres of roof space with 4,220 thin-film modules which will help to generate approximately 695,000 kWh of electricity every year.

http://www.pv-tech.org/news/ikea_exp...8th_pv_project