Credit: MariaGodfrida/Pixabay. Rooftop solar panels are up to 79% cheaper than they were in 2010. These plummeting costs have made rooftop solar photovoltaics even more attractive to households and businesses who want to reduce their reliance on electricity grids while reducing their carbon footprints. But are there enough rooftop surfaces

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Credit: Dr Rebecca R. Hernandez/ UC Davis. Scientists using satellite technologies have discovered for the first time that large scale solar parks have a cooling effect on the land surrounding them. As more countries pledge to achieve net zero carbon emissions there will be a greater reliance on renewable energy

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Lasers in the Optoelectronics Lab. Credit: Akshay Rao. Researchers have identified a key mechanism responsible for the lower efficiencies of organic solar cells and shown a way that this hurdle might be overcome. The international group of researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, identified a loss pathway in organic

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Credit: UC San Diego. Engineers created a new type of battery that weaves two promising battery sub-fields into a single battery. The battery uses both a solid state electrolyte and an all-silicon anode, making it a silicon all-solid-state battery. The initial rounds of tests show that the new battery is

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Credit: Robert Coelius/ Michigan Engineering. A new transparency-friendly solar cell design could marry high efficiencies with 30-year estimated lifetimes, researchers report. It may pave the way for windows that also provide solar power. “Solar energy is about the cheapest form of energy that mankind has ever produced since the industrial

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Credit: Public Domain CC0. Unplanned discovery could lead to future pivotal discoveries in batteries, fuel cells, devices for converting heat to electricity and more. Scientists normally conduct their research by carefully selecting a research problem, devising an appropriate plan to solve it and executing that plan. But unplanned discoveries can

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Credit: Max Esterhuizen/Virginia Tech. What do apple cores, spent grain, and walnut shells have in common? They could one day be used to power a data center. As the world works toward economically and environmentally friendly ways to power these devices, two Virginia Tech researchers investigate how food waste and

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Microbattery fabricated on the backside of a Si chip. Credit: Public Domain CC0. Fitbits, car windows, oil refineries—the roll call of devices and technologies that rely on ultra-small sensors already numbers in the hundreds of billions. Sensors measure changing conditions and report the data electronically—say, to heat up a bedroom

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