Sci-Tech Energy

Researchers make stunning discovery while testing crops grown under solar panels — here’s how it could change how we grow food – The Cool Down
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A team of researchers at the University of Córdoba in Spain discovered a way for solar energy generation and crop production to coexist on the same land without competing for resources.

In a recent study published in the Journal of Cleaner Production, researchers tested a model that integrates solar collectors with hedgerow olive plantations. The mission: to produce solar energy without disrupting crop production. In theory, solar panels would generate electricity while the olives grow below them. This model is known as agrivoltaics, a technique that balances solar energy generation with food production on the same land.

The results were promising. Using simulation models, the scientists found that combining photovoltaic plants with olive plantations boosted overall productivity. The solar panels provided shade and wind protection for the crops, increasing agricultural yields. At the same time, the plants’ natural evapotranspiration cooled the solar panels, improving their efficiency.

If the technology is commercialized, farmers can simultaneously produce solar energy and crops without compromising either. It’s a win-win strategy that shows how land can be optimized for multiple uses.

Spain’s Institute of Phototonic Sciences has created an ultra-thin nanocrystal solar cell made with a cheap, environmentally material that is more efficient and lasts longer than anything available today.

Scientists achieve record-breaking efficiency with smooth and improved solar tech — here’s how it could change the energy industry – MSN
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Researchers have developed ultra-thin nanocrystal solar cells with record efficiency while utilizing eco-friendly materials and new processes, advancing possibilities for the green tech sector.

By using a post-deposition in situ passivation strategy, the team at Spain’s Institute of Photonic Sciences has been able to smooth the way toward increased solar energy collection, as Interesting Engineering reported.

“Imagine a bumpy road that slows down cars. Surface passivation is like repaving the road, making it smoother so cars can move without getting stuck,” said Dr. Jae Taek Oh, first author of the study.

It’s all about removing surface defects that inhibit power conversion efficiency in order to facilitate the transport of electrical charge carriers across the ultra-thin solar film.

The nanocrystal ink is made from abundant and environmentally friendly colloidal silver bismuth sulfide, as IE explained. This has a high light absorption coefficient — making it ideal for optoelectronic applications — and can be fully dissolved in water.

“We show that, upon improved colloidal dispersibility and surface passivation, [these nanocrystals] yield thin films free from morphological defects with low trap-state density and balanced charge carrier mobilities,” per the original study.

“As a result, this process leads to ultrathin-film solar cells with a fill-factor of 72% and a power conversion efficiency in excess of 10%, setting a new record for eco-friendly, solution-processed ultrathin solar cells.”

More efficient solar cells of this type could help this renewable source become even more ubiquitous across the globe. Their slim size and flexibility make them ideal for a variety of applications where larger, more rigid solar panels wouldn’t work.

Renewable energy sources generate around 20% of all U.S. electricity, and they’re slowly helping us phase out dirty fuels that spew planet-heating gases into the atmosphere.

Scientists create revolutionary tool to help power over 20 million homes: ‘Developers can spend more of their time building better devices’ – MSN
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The new device, the marine and hydrokinetic toolkit, was developed jointly by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories. It offers validation and standardized analysis tools to help researchers figure out whether their wave energy-gathering technologies are going to be viable without forcing them to undergo expensive and difficult real-world testing.

The tool was deployed in 2020 and has been used by around 29,000 researchers.

“Before, most [marine renewable energy] developers were forced to build their own tools for data processing and analysis,” said Andrew Simms, a data scientist at NREL and one of the developers of the tool. “Now, MHKiT gives everyone a head start on data analysis. If we can make analysis as easy and painless as possible, developers can spend more of their time building better devices.”

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Excerpt from news.google.com

New projects are underway that, if proved successful, could greatly expand the areas considered viable for solar power.

Until recently, it wasn’t considered possible to have a solar array on farmland where crops are grown. Solar arrays on farmland were relegated to grazing land or pollinator habitats, but, according to CleanTechnica, things are quickly changing.

The revolutionary new belief that crops and agrivoltaic arrays can live in harmony is in no small part thanks to the Biden administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Energy for America Program. The program provides funding for hundreds of projects, including a $713,000 grant for Talbott Farms, a peach farm in western Colorado, as reported by CleanTechnica.

Those funds will go toward building a one-acre, 420-kilowatt agrivoltaic array on a peach orchard and will power the farm’s entire peach packing and processing operation, according to the Daily Sentinel (via CleanTechnica). That’s significant for a family farm.

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Excerpt from news.google.com

An incredible sight has overtaken a field near Guazhou County in China’s Gansu Province: almost 30,000 moving mirrors pointed at two huge central towers. This is China’s new dual-tower solar thermal plant, Interesting Engineering reports.

Solar panels that convert sunlight into electricity are becoming a familiar sight all over the world. Solar thermal energy is a little different.

Instead of using solar panels, this new plant uses its thousands of mirrors — each reflecting up to 94% of the light that hits them — to focus a huge amount of sunlight onto the relatively small area of the towers, Interesting Engineering explains. That produces an incredible amount of heat — so much that similar solar-gathering methods can be used for smelting.

Like coal-fired and nuclear power plants, the solar thermal power plant uses the heat to turn water into steam. The rising steam then turns turbines, which generate electricity.

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Excerpt from www.nationalfisherman.com

A broken turbine blade on one of the Vineyard Wind generators shed more fiberglass material into the water 15 miles off Nantucket, Mass., prompting project CEO Klaus Skoust Møller to abruptly leave a tense meeting with the island community Wednesday evening.

In the midst of the meeting with the Nantucket Select Board carried online via Zoom, Møller apologized that he had to leave to deal with “a development to the integrity of the blade” that had been hanging off turbine AW38 since its initial failure July 13.

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Excerpt from technave.com

Last month China opened the world’s largest solar farm with an area of 100,000 on a football field in Xinjiang. Now according to an ABC report, China is building solar and wind power infrastructure equivalent to building 5 nuclear power stations every week. This is based on the report of Climate Energy Finance (CEF) which also shows that China managed to reach their sustainable energy target 6.5 years early.

In total new solar and wind power stations in China generate 10 gigawatts of electricity every week. It is estimated that by the end of 2024, China’s energy needs generated through sustainable sources will surpass those generated by fossil fuels. China has an advantage over other countries because government policies, high investment and hardware for sustainable energy sources are all built domestically.

In addition, China also has a large space to build solar and wind farms on a giant scale. The desert areas in Xinjiang and Mongolia are ideal locations to build both sustainable infrastructures. Malaysia now does not have the same advantage but the government has started using the surface of the dam to build solar power farms like in Manjung.

 

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Excerpt from www.barrons.com

China is building almost twice as much wind and solar energy capacity as every other country combined, research published Thursday showed.

The world’s second-largest economy is the biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases that drive climate change.

China has committed to bring carbon emissions to a peak by 2030 and to net zero by 2060.

It has endured several waves of extreme weather in recent months that scientists say are rendered more severe by climate change.

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Excerpt from abcnews.go.com

The investigation will focus on wind power, photovoltaics, security equipment and electric trains, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said.

The EU has used a new regulation to investigate companies bidding for projects within the European Union. These include a probe into whether Chinese subsidies give wind turbine companies an unfair advantage in the competition for projects in Spain, Greece, France, Romania and Bulgaria.

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Excerpt from www.eastman.com

Longview facility key to sustainability goals

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) funding comes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act as part of the Industrial Demonstrations Program. The Longview project is part of Eastman’s commitment to invest more than $2 billion in molecular recycling facilities that process hard-to-recycle plastics. Eastman began operating the world’s largest material-to-material molecular recycling facility in Kingsport, Tennessee, earlier this year.

The Longview facility will have the capacity to process approximately 110,000 metric tons of hard-to-recycle plastic waste, and both the Kingsport and Longview plants will put Eastman on the path to achieving ambitious goals of recycling 250 million pounds of plastic annually by 2025 and double that volume by 2030.