Roofing company GAF Energy has announced Timberline Solar, a new solar roof option for consumers who want to decrease their dependence on the electrical grid and their home's carbon footprint. Timberline Solar is a new product poised to take on Tesla's Solar Roof in a big way, not the least of which is due to GAF Energy's massive presence in the roofing industry.
Smart home company Wyze has announced two new products to kick off its birthday week celebration: the Wyze Solar Panel and Wyze Lamp Socket. These two new products are designed for use with the company's Wyze Cam v3 and Wyze Cam Outdoor security cameras. The solar panel features a micro USB cable for powering the Wyze outdoor camera, while the Lamp Socket is exactly what it sounds like: a smart socket for existing light fixtures.
Portable power stations, sometimes called solar generators, are great sources of quiet, safe, and efficient emergency power. Sooner or later, however, they too will need to be refilled in order to someday provide power to your appliances, whether at home or off the grid. While an AC power source might be the most convenient at home, these outlets aren't readily available outside, nor are they that eco-friendly. That's where Bluetti's new PV200 200W and PV120 120W Solar Panels come in, completing the circle of an energy-efficient and environment-friendly source of power, especially when paired with the new AC300 or AC200 MAX power stations.
Engineers at the University of Michigan and other institutions have created a new solar panel that is transparent enough to be used for windows in homes and businesses. In addition to being transparent, the new solar panels are also highly efficient and have estimated lifespans of 30 years. The team believes their new solar panel could be used to create commercial buildings with surfaces made entirely of solar panels.
Scientists at Empa confirmed that they have crushed the record for efficiency when it comes to flexible solar cells. Their new record is an efficiency of 21.4 percent for a flexible CIGS solar cell on a polymer film. This type of solar cell has particular usage applications, including designing solar panels for use on the roof of structures, mobile devices, and vehicles.
Scientists in China have created a new type of glass that is harder than a diamond. Diamond is one of the hardest known materials and is often used to cut harder materials. Typically diamond can cut glass, but the new glass developed by researchers in northern China could scratch a diamond.
Climate change concerns combined with the growing availability and affordability of green tech have driven many consumers to explore solar-powered home energy systems, including solar panels that can be installed on one's roof. The Department of Energy has announced a new fast-track tool that is designed to help get consumers automatic permits to install residential solar panels, making the entire process easier.
There seems to be an abundance of portable power stations these days coming in all shapes and sizes. While the different competing brands offer a wide variety of options, they all come with fixed sizes and capacities, burdening the buyer with making a hard decision upfront. Bluetti, however, has been pioneering different systems that let owners connect two power stations together. It is taking that flexibility to the next level with the AC300 and AC200 MAX Portable Power Station systems that give you the freedom to select how many Battery Packs you want or, if needed, even double the maximum power output to run a whole house off the grid.
Engineers at Rice University have created what they call microscopic seeds for growing incredibly uniform two-dimensional perovskite crystals that are stable and highly energy-efficient at harvesting electricity from sunlight. Perovskites are a class of materials that are extremely useful in building solar panels and are being investigated as a potential replacement for conventional solar panel materials. Halide perovskites are an organic material made from abundant and inexpensive ingredients.
Researchers from Penn State University have created a new ultrathin metal electrode enabling the creation of semitransparent perovskite solar cells that are highly efficient. The new solar cells can be coupled with traditional silicon cells to boost the performance of both devices significantly. Scientists on the project say their research is a step towards developing completely transparent solar cells.
One of the materials being investigated for use in making new types of solar cells is perovskite. The are several drawbacks to the material that researchers are working to overcome, and one of those drawbacks is reliability. A study conducted at Brown University has brought the perovskite solar cell one step closer to commercial use after the team found a way to strengthen one of the main weak points in this type of cell.
Researchers worldwide have been working to optimize solar panels to allow more free clean energy to be gathered from the sun. One of the materials that researchers have been investigating as a potential replacement for conventional solar panels is perovskite. So far, the problem with perovskite solar panels and hybrid compounds is that they are less efficient than conventional solar panels.