semiconductor

None of the solar cells produced to date shows external photocurrent quantum efficiencies greater than 100 percent from any portion of the solar spectral irradiance band.   

On December 14, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, or NREL, announced that it had confirmed an efficiency rating greater than 41 percent for solar cells made by Durham, North Carolina-based Semprius.

Research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) has demonstrated a completely counter-intuitive result for thin-film solar photovoltaic (PV) efficiencies, namely that the most efficient solar cells emit more photons than their competitors.

It’s a stunning entrance, and one made even more surprising by the fact that Dow’s Solar Shingles look, and act, like regular shingles.

First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) has announced it will not meet the statutory deadline for the Topaz Solar Farm which would enable it to take advantage of the federal conditional loan guarantee extended on June 30 of this year from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

Researchers from the University of Toronto, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Saudi Arabia), and Pennsylvania State University have created the most efficient colloidal quantum dot solar cell of all time. An additional contributor was Huazhong University of Wuhan, China.

With the solar photovoltaic (PV) industry in a downturn on the heels of the worst recession in U.S. history, and the price of PV module parts plummeting, it’s good to read some positive news for a change.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, or NREL, one of more than a dozen national laboratories vested in renewable energy research under the auspices of the U.S.

Applied Materials Inc. (Nasdaq: AMAT), the world's largest provider of equipment used to manufacture both solar photovoltaic panels and computer chips, has announced plans to purchase Gloucester, Mass.-based Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, a leading maker of ion-implantation systems—which are used to build the transistors for solar panels, long-lasting, energy-efficient LED technology and mobile device chips—for $4.9 billion.

A collaboration between researchers from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Boston College has delivered a solar thermoelectric generator, or STEG, with a peak efficiency of 4.6 percent.