Ultra-Low Power LiPo Charger via Energy Harvesting from a Solar Cell What is it? This is a small (0.5 x 0.5 inch) breakout board for Texas Instrument’s BQ25504Ultra Low Power Boost Converter with Battery Management for Energy Harvesting Applications. From the datasheet: “The bq25504 device is the first of a new family of intelligent integrated energy …
MUNICH, Germany – June 20, 2016 – Imec, the world-leading nano-electronics research center and partner in Energyville, will present at this week’s Intersolar Europe/EU PVSEC a highly efficient bifacial n-PERT (BiPERT) solar cell featuring a bifaciality value close to 100%. With a rear cell efficiency close to the efficiency measured from the front of the …
Imec Demonstrates Highly Efficient Bifacial Solar Cells with near 100% Bifaciality Read More »
![Research team showing off their quantum-dot doped nanomaterial (back to front: Chang-Yong Nam and Mircea Cotlet of Brookhaven Lab's Center for Functional Nanomaterials with Stony Brook University graduate students Prahlad Routh and Jia-Shiang Chen). (Source: Brookhaven) "Our particular 2-D material system (SnS2) [tin disulfide] is similar to Si [silicon], in that it has an indirect band gap, not providing sufficient electroluminescence for light-emitting diodes, but there are other 2-D materials with high luminescence such as MoS2 [molybdenum sulfide] WS2 [tungsten disulfide] which can be used in view of the Qdot-2D hybrid architectures for LEDs," Mircea Cotlet, the physical chemist who led this work at Brookhaven Lab's Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN ), a Department of Energy (DoE) Office of Science User Facility, told EE Times in an exclusive interview. Instead of emitters, Brookhaven concentrated on receivers of optical energy in layered metal dichalcogenide semiconductors—dual chalcogen anions (ions with more electrons than protons) plus one or more electropositive elements usually sulfides, selenides, and tellurides, rather than oxides—in Brookhaven's case sulfide). Brookhaven did the work with Stony Brook University (including doctoral candidate Prahlad Routh) and the University of Nebraska. The researchers call their material a hybrid because they dope the electrical conductivity of layered tin disulfide semiconductor with the light harvesting of different spectrums of light from various sized quantum dots. In more detail, the quantum dots absorb the frequency of light corresponding to its diameter, then transfer their energy to the tin disulfide semiconductor. As a result, they prove to be a good candidate for solar light conversion and other similar light sensors.](https://pic-microcontroller.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Quantum-Dots-Boost-Solar-Cells.jpeg)
Research team showing off their quantum-dot doped nanomaterial (back to front: Chang-Yong Nam and Mircea Cotlet of Brookhaven Lab’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials with Stony Brook University graduate students Prahlad Routh and Jia-Shiang Chen). (Source: Brookhaven) “Our particular 2-D material system (SnS2) [tin disulfide] is similar to Si [silicon], in that it has an indirect …
17.03.16 – EPFL scientists achieve the highest yet reproducibility for perovskite solar cells combined with a boundary-pushing 21.1% efficiency at normal operating conditions. Perovskite solar cells hold much promise for cost-effective solar energy. However, heat stability is an issue, and can significantly limit the solar cell’s long-term efficiency. A team of scientists led by Michael …
Perovskite solar cells hit 21.1% efficiency and record reproduciblity Read More »
Step 1: ​Introduction The PV applications could be grouped according to the scheme of interaction with utility grid: grid connected, stand alone, and hybrid. PV systems consist of a PV generator (cell, module, and array), energy storage devices (such as batteries), AC and DC consumers and elements for power conditioning. The most common method uses …
Electronic loads, programmable and with a recovery function are the best choice for dynamic testing simulating real conditions. Usually you don´t test your power supply and you assume it is working well with your equipment. But what if not? Sometimes your equipment fails without any evident reason and it might be because your power supply …
PORTLAND, Ore.–Now before you get all excited by the headline, which is not click-bait according to the researchers, a new kind of nanoscale rectenna (half antenna and half rectifier) can convert solar and infrared into electricity, plus be tuned to nearly any other frequency as a detector. The invention was made at Georgia Tech (Atlanta) …
A team of Michigan State University (MSU) researchers has created a transparent solar concentrator able to turn any window (or other sheet of glass, such as the screen for a smartphone) into a photovoltaic solar cell. What makes this development different? The panel is truly transparent. A new solar cell recently developed by a team …
See-through solar concentrator harvests energy from sunlight Read More »
This is a simple PIC microcontroller based Solar Tracking system, only basic electronics skills are required. It uses 2 unipolar stepper motors and 4 IR-850nm LEDs as sensors to follow the sun maximizing solar panel illumination. The entire prototype frame was built from simple, cheap and widely available strip board. Just cut it to a …
A while back I started working on a solar charge controller, it was based on a PIC microcontroller, a 20×4 characters display and the code was written in Assembly language. It did work well and was still working when I decided I wanted to add more to this controller. My new controller uses a standalone …
Arduino solar charge controller + output control and data logging online with Xbee WiFi Read More »
