The first real-life study to provide data on the potential of powering medical implants with solar cells has been done by some Swiss researchers. The notion of using solar cells placed under the skin to continuously recharge implanted electronic medical devices is a viable one. Swiss researchers have done the Read more…
The US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has captured the record for highest efficiency in solar hydrogen production via a photoelectrochemical (PEC) water-splitting process. The new solar-tohydrogen efficiency record is 16.2 per cent, topping a reported 14 per cent efficiency in 2015 by a team made up Read more…
Solar cells based on perovskites reach high efficiencies as they convert more than 20 per cent of the incident light directly into usable power. On their search for underlying physical mechanisms, researchers of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have now detected strips of nanostructures with alternating directions of polarization Read more…
Helping India’s Climate Change Pledge I ndia is at a complex stage with respect to the energy scenario. The demand for energy is increasing rapidly. It is expected that India will contribute the maximum amount of addition to the energy requirement in the world in the next 25 years. On Read more…
Naturally occurring pigment found in jamun as an inexpensive photosensitizer for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) or Gratzel cells have been used to create more efficient solar cells. Scientists at IIT Roorkee have used jamun fruit to create inexpensive and more efficient solar cells. Gratzel cells are thin-film solar cells composed Read more…
The Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Centre has developed an android app for computing the solar energy potential of a place. Developed at the behest of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, the app is considered to be a ‘very useful’ tool for the installation of Read more…
Recently, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India, had stressed to strengthen India’s manufacturing capabilities. For this MNRE released a concept note to upgrade country’s solar manufacturing supply chain. In this concept note, MNRE proposed to reduce dependency on foreign imports and create demands for local Read more…
The Indian solar sector has shown incredible growth trajectory. The industry doubled its solar capacity in the last few years (5 GW in 2015, 10 GW in 2016, and ~16.6 GW in 2017), which is really very inspiring considering the country lacks enhanced industrial infrastructure that China, the US, and Read more…
Energy systems around the world are witnessing transformations at an unprecedented rate. There has been a very rapid increase in renewable energy technology, costs of which have been falling at an average of 60% since 2001. In terms of demand composition, more and more demand has been electrified; some of Read more…
The Government of India has embarked upon an ambitious journey on the green energy front with scaling up of target of installing renewable energy capacity to 175 GW by the year 2022, which includes 100 GW from solar, 60 GW from wind, 10 GW from bio-power, and 5 GW from Read more…