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    Array Technologies increased revenue 35% to US$872.7 million in 2020

    Array Technologies increased revenue 35% to US$872.7 million in 2020

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    Nordex Group: half-year sales rise to EUR 2 billion, earnings impacted by COVID-19

    GE Renewable Energy connects the world's most powerful hydro unit to the grid in Wudongde, China

    GE Renewable Energy connects the world’s most powerful hydro unit to the grid in Wudongde, China

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    Ferroglobe completes sale of Spanish hydro facilities to TPG Sixth Street Partners

    Intersolar, EES and Power2drive NA Acquired by Diversified Communications

    Intersolar, EES and Power2drive NA Acquired by Diversified Communications

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    SeaMade secures €250m European loan for Belgian offshore wind farms

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    Intersolar Europe 2022: Solar Energy in Germany Takes Center Stage

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    SPI Energy Develops Utility Scale Solar Project in Maryland

    Lightsource BP pioneers UK's first night-time solar service

    Altus Power and Heliene Establish Strategic Partnership to Support U.S. Solar Module Manufacturing

    EDP signs a Build & Transfer Agreement for a 200 MWac solar project in the U.S.

    I&M is Powering the Next Tomorrow with Plans to Add More than 2,000 MW of Solar

    WindEurope Annual Event 2022 in Bilbao - Registrations Open, Conference Programme Available

    WindEurope Annual Event 2022 in Bilbao – Registrations Open, Conference Programme Available

    RWE chooses Chantiers de l'Atlantique as key supplier for its F.E.W Baltic II wind farm - design, construction and installation of the electrical offshore substation

    RWE chooses Chantiers de l’Atlantique as key supplier for its F.E.W Baltic II wind farm – design, construction and installation of the electrical offshore substation

    EGAT deploys Siemens software solutions for the worlds largest Hydro-Floating Solar Hybrid Project

    EGAT deploys Siemens software solutions for the world’s largest Hydro-Floating Solar Hybrid Project

    Protermosolar adds value to the Spanish concentrated solar power industry in China

    Abengoa completes construction of three solar fields at the world’s largest concentrated solar power complex in Dubai

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    GE’s digital power transformers selected for multiple projects across the globe

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    bp to invest up to £18 billion in UK energy system by 2030

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    Kier to deliver onshore converter station for offshore wind project in the north east

    Statkraft seeks planning nod for 49.9-MW Scottish wind farm

    VSB Group Expands in France with Acquisition of 143.5 MW Wind Power Portfolio

    Norway to invest in renewable projects in developing countries

    Italian Solar Farms, Matrix in Strategic Partnership with Energia Aljaval

    China installed 48.2 GW of new solar capacity in 2020

    Solek Group signs deal to build solar power plants in Chile

    Trina Solar betting on largest wafer size and third cut cells for 500W-plus modules

    TotalEnergies to Acquire SunPowers Commercial & Industrial Solar Business

    Vattenfall Wind

    UK Government grants consent for Vattenfall’s Norfolk Vanguard Offshore Wind Farm

    New DNV GL class rules for floating offshore wind energy expands industry horizon

    Norway to launch 1.5 gigawatt offshore wind tender

    Atlas and Hitachi to develop energy storage systems for renewable projects

    Velto Renewables supports the 360 MW offshore wind farm London Array

  • Market Moves
    Array Technologies increased revenue 35% to US$872.7 million in 2020

    Array Technologies increased revenue 35% to US$872.7 million in 2020

    Nordex Group: half-year sales rise to EUR 2 billion, earnings impacted by COVID-19

    Nordex Group: half-year sales rise to EUR 2 billion, earnings impacted by COVID-19

    GE Renewable Energy connects the world's most powerful hydro unit to the grid in Wudongde, China

    GE Renewable Energy connects the world’s most powerful hydro unit to the grid in Wudongde, China

    Ferroglobe Hydro power

    Ferroglobe completes sale of Spanish hydro facilities to TPG Sixth Street Partners

    Intersolar, EES and Power2drive NA Acquired by Diversified Communications

    Intersolar, EES and Power2drive NA Acquired by Diversified Communications

    Summit Energy Services Announces Merger with Schneider Energy Consulting

    SeaMade secures €250m European loan for Belgian offshore wind farms

    SeaMade secures €250m European loan for Belgian offshore wind farms

    Xcel Energy agrees to buy Mankato Energy Center for $650m

    UK renewable energy overtakes fossil fuels, despite Brexit fears

  • Press Statements
    Intersolar Europe 2022: Solar Energy in Germany Takes Center Stage

    Intersolar Europe 2022: Solar Energy in Germany Takes Center Stage

    Protermosolar adds value to the Spanish concentrated solar power industry in China

    SPI Energy Develops Utility Scale Solar Project in Maryland

    Lightsource BP pioneers UK's first night-time solar service

    Altus Power and Heliene Establish Strategic Partnership to Support U.S. Solar Module Manufacturing

    EDP signs a Build & Transfer Agreement for a 200 MWac solar project in the U.S.

    I&M is Powering the Next Tomorrow with Plans to Add More than 2,000 MW of Solar

    WindEurope Annual Event 2022 in Bilbao - Registrations Open, Conference Programme Available

    WindEurope Annual Event 2022 in Bilbao – Registrations Open, Conference Programme Available

    RWE chooses Chantiers de l'Atlantique as key supplier for its F.E.W Baltic II wind farm - design, construction and installation of the electrical offshore substation

    RWE chooses Chantiers de l’Atlantique as key supplier for its F.E.W Baltic II wind farm – design, construction and installation of the electrical offshore substation

    EGAT deploys Siemens software solutions for the worlds largest Hydro-Floating Solar Hybrid Project

    EGAT deploys Siemens software solutions for the world’s largest Hydro-Floating Solar Hybrid Project

    Protermosolar adds value to the Spanish concentrated solar power industry in China

    Abengoa completes construction of three solar fields at the world’s largest concentrated solar power complex in Dubai

    GE's digital power transformers selected for multiple projects across the globe

    GE’s digital power transformers selected for multiple projects across the globe

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Every time you stroll outside you emit energy into the universe: Heat from the top of your head radiates into space as infrared light.

in News, Renewable Power, Solar Energy

Now three Stanford engineers have developed a technology that improves on solar panel performance by exploiting this basic phenomenon. Their invention shunts away the heat generated by a solar cell under sunlight and cools it in a way that allows it to convert more photons into electricity.

The work by Shanhui Fan, a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford, research associate Aaswath P. Raman and doctoral candidate Linxiao Zhu is described in the current issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The group’s discovery, tested on a Stanford rooftop, addresses a problem that has long bedeviled the solar industry: The hotter solar cells get, the less efficient they become at converting the photons in light into useful electricity.

The Stanford solution is based on a thin, patterned silica material laid on top of a traditional solar cell. The material is transparent to the visible sunlight that powers solar cells, but captures and emits thermal radiation, or heat, from infrared rays.

“Solar arrays must face the sun to function, even though that heat is detrimental to efficiency,” Fan said. “Our thermal overlay allows sunlight to pass through, preserving or even enhancing sunlight absorption, but it also cools the cell by radiating the heat out and improving the cell efficiency.”

A cool way to improve solar efficiency

In 2014, the same trio of inventors developed an ultrathin material that radiated infrared heat directly back toward space without warming the atmosphere. They presented that work in Nature, describing it as “radiative cooling” because it shunted thermal energy directly into the deep, cold void of space.

In their new paper, the researchers applied that work to improve solar array performance when the sun is beating down.

The Stanford team tested their technology on a custom-made solar absorber — a device that mimics the properties of a solar cell without producing electricity — covered with a micron-scale pattern designed to maximize the capability to dump heat, in the form of infrared light, into space. Their experiments showed that the overlay allowed visible light to pass through to the solar cells, but that it also cooled the underlying absorber by as much as 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

For a typical crystalline silicon solar cell with an efficiency of 20 percent, 55 F of cooling would improve absolute cell efficiency by over 1 percent, a figure that represents a significant gain in energy production.

The researchers said the new transparent thermal overlays work best in dry, clear environments, which are also preferred sites for large solar arrays. They believe they can scale things up so commercial and industrial applications are feasible, perhaps using nanoprint lithography, which is a common technique for producing nanometer-scale patterns.

“That’s not necessarily the only way,” said Raman, a co-first-author of the paper. “New techniques and machines for manufacturing these kinds of patterns will continue to advance. I’m optimistic.”

Cooler cars

Zhu said the technology has significant potential for any outdoor device or system that demands cooling but requires the preservation of the visible spectrum of sunlight for either practical or aesthetic reasons.

“Say you have a car that is bright red,” Zhu said. “You really like that color, but you’d also like to take advantage of anything that could aid in cooling your vehicle during hot days. Thermal overlays can help with passive cooling, but it’s a problem if they’re not fully transparent.”

That’s because the perception of color requires objects to reflect visible light, so any overlay would need to be transparent, or else tuned such that it would absorb only light outside the visible spectrum.

“Our photonic crystal thermal overlay optimizes use of the thermal portions of the electromagnetic spectrum without affecting visible light,” Zhu said, “so you can radiate heat efficiently without affecting color.”

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Mother Nature will be delivering a future gift of 2 percent more wind energy in the Midwest if regional climate models are correct, according to research from Wake Forest University.

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Hydrogen could be the ideal fuel: Whether used to make electricity in a fuel cell or burned to make heat, the only byproduct is water; there is no climate-altering carbon dioxide.

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News

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May 14, 2022
Intersolar Europe 2022: Solar Energy in Germany Takes Center Stage
Press Statements

Intersolar Europe 2022: Solar Energy in Germany Takes Center Stage

February 19, 2022
Giant offshore wind energy projects to be built in Irelands seas
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Kier to deliver onshore converter station for offshore wind project in the north east

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Next Post

Hydrogen could be the ideal fuel: Whether used to make electricity in a fuel cell or burned to make heat, the only byproduct is water; there is no climate-altering carbon dioxide.

LatestNews

News

bp to invest up to £18 billion in UK energy system by 2030

May 14, 2022
Giant offshore wind energy projects to be built in Irelands seas
News

Kier to deliver onshore converter station for offshore wind project in the north east

February 19, 2022
Statkraft seeks planning nod for 49.9-MW Scottish wind farm
News

VSB Group Expands in France with Acquisition of 143.5 MW Wind Power Portfolio

February 19, 2022
Norway to invest in renewable projects in developing countries
News

Italian Solar Farms, Matrix in Strategic Partnership with Energia Aljaval

February 19, 2022
China installed 48.2 GW of new solar capacity in 2020
News

Solek Group signs deal to build solar power plants in Chile

February 19, 2022
Trina Solar betting on largest wafer size and third cut cells for 500W-plus modules
News

TotalEnergies to Acquire SunPowers Commercial & Industrial Solar Business

February 19, 2022
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