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Light Powers Levitating Magnets

Magnetic levitation is old hat these days, with maglev trains operating in China and planned systems taking shape in other countries. But they run by manipulating the train, which is "floating" on a magnetic field, with electricity. Now a team of researchers in Japan have found a way to manipulate magnetically levitating objects using light. The technique could lead to new forms of powered maglev transportation systems and could make solar-powered generators more efficient.

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To make the levitating graphite device, Masayuki Kobayashi and professor Jiro Abe of Aoyama Gakuin University in Kanagawa arranged a set of magnets made of neodymium, iron and boron in a grid. They then put a piece of graphite on top of the grid. When exposed to an external magnetic field, graphite -- specifically an artificial type called pyrolitic graphite -- generates its own field that repels the external one, a property called diamagnetism. That makes graphite levitate when it's placed on top of permanent magnets.

The researchers then hit the graphite with a laser. The laser heated up part of the graphite and changed its susceptibility to the surrounding magnetic field. Hitting the graphite in the center made it sink, as the heating was more even. Aiming the laser at the edge made it move in the direction of the beam.

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Next, they put the graphite on top of a tower of cylindrical magnets and hit the edge of it with the laser beam. The result was a little graphite disc spinning at up to 200 rpm when it was exposed to the laser -- or sunlight.

The researchers published the results of their study in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Being able to generate useful mechanical motion this way could change the way solar power setups are made. A spinning disk could run a generator directly rather than extracting the energy in several steps such as converting the DC current from a photovoltaic cell or using solar power to make steam.

Via Physorg, Journal of the American Chemical Society

Credit: Masayuki Kobayashi and Jiro Abe

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Stick-On Solar Cells Power Your Device

Solar cells are getting better at harvesting energy from the sun and turning that into electricity. But because they're made from plastic or glass, solar cells are bulky and stiff, which limits where they can be used. That's about to change. A group at Stanford University has made a photovoltaic cell that can be peeled off of a backing like a sticker and attached to any surface.

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The researchers, lead Xiaolin Zheng, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, started with the foundational material for conventional solar cells -- the silicon dioxide wafer. Silicon releases electrons when light hits it and its those electrons that are captured and used for electricity. Typically, the wafers are thick and stiff and not flexible at all. But Zheng and her team had a plan.

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First, they laid down a 300-nanometer film of nickel on top of the wafer. Next, they coated it with a protective plastic. The result was a super-thin layer of nickel and plastic on top of the silicon dioxide wafer. Those three layers are the necessary active ingredients of a working solar cell. But in this stage, the solar cell is still thick and rigid.

So, the research put a layer of thermal release tape on top. Then they then dipped the whole thing in room-temperature water. By tugging back on the thermal release tape, they were able to peel back a very thin, three-layered "sandwich" of plastic, nickel and silicon dioxide -- leaving behind most of the silicon dioxide wafer.

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The ultrathin three-layered sandwich was so thin that it could flex. And because the process removed only a nanometer-scale layer of silicon dioxide, the wafer could be used again in the same process to make more super-thin solar cell sandwiches. That would reduce waste at solar cell manufacturing plants.

But the researchers didn't stop there. Zheng's group then heated the solar cell to about 194 degrees Fahrenheit to make it soft enough to take on any shape and attach to any surface. In order to work, it would still need to be connected to electrodes and other components that would ultimately allow the harvested sunlight to be used as electricity.

The method Zheng and her team came up with would work on conventional electronics as well as unconventional ones, such as clothing. In the meantime, it will be nice to fuel a phone from the sun rather than worrying about battery life.

via Stanford University

Credit: Chi Hwan Lee, Stanford University

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Next Gen Power Suits Woven from Silicon Fiber

In the future, power suits may do more than command attention and exude confidence. They may actually charge your electronic devices.

A team of scientists led by John Badding, a chemistry professor at Pennsylvania State University has made a solar cell into the shape of a fiber, which can be woven into fabric. That fabric could be turned into a garment that harnesses energy from the sun and turns it into renewable electricity.

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The researchers combined glass optical fibers with traditional photovoltaics normally used for rooftop solar panels. Both of these components are typically rigid and stiff. But Pier Sazio, a research fellow in optoelectronics at the University of Southampton and one of the co-authors, told Discovery News that silicon becomes flexible when it's very thin, while also retaining its strength. 

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To make the fiber, they mixed silicon with other elements, including boron and helium and then turned it into a hot, high-pressure gas. Next, they filled a thin, hollow fiber optic with the gas mixture. As it cooled, the silicon mixture formed three concentric layers.

The innermost layer, called the "p" layer, was positively charged and accepted electrons. The outermost layer, called the "n" layer, was negatively charged and had an excess of electrons. A middle layer between the two, called the "i" layer, was neutral.

As sunlight hits the fiber, photons knock electrons from the outermost "n" layer and send them into the "p" layer. That generates current, just like an ordinary solar celm, except this one is cylindrical rather than flat.

By attaching two small electrodes, one to the "p" layer and the other on the "n" layer, one would be able to extract the charge for power.

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Because the fiber is round, it's able to pick up sunlight from any angle. The thinness of the fiber -- on the order of 15 micrometers, which is about the same as acrylic -- allows it to be woven and twisted and turned into clothing that could power or charge a small electronic device. No surprisingly, the military has been interested: modern soldiers carry a lot of electronic gear and batteries are heavy.

The work appeared online on Dec. 4 and wil be in an upcoming print issue of Advanced Materials.

via Penn State, Advanced Materials

Credit: Badding, et. al, Pennsylvania State University

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Solar 'Funnel' Could Boost Energy Efficiency

Typical solar cells made of silicon miss out on a wide swath of energy shining from the sun.

But according to calculations made by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and China's Peking University and Xi'an Jiaotong University, poking a sheet of material just a molecule thin changes the material's atomic structure and improves its ability to harvest a broader spectrum of sunlight.

Conventional solar panels made of crystalline silicon are most sensitive to wavelengths of sunlight in the red end of the visible range or the near-infrared. Panels made of amorphous silicon are more sensitive to wavelengths of light in the blue range.

But the sun's peak wavelength is in the green part of the spectrum. Photons (light particles) from that wavelength of light do the best job at hitting atoms inside solar panels and knocking out the electrons that ultimately generate an electric current. If solar panels could be tuned to harvest a larger spectrum of sunlight, they'd generate more electricity and be more efficient.

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In this week's issue Nature Photonics, MIT professor Ji Lu and his colleagues have proposed a radical idea that turns a very thin sheet of material into a kind of “solar energy funnel” that takes advantage of elastic strain. The material is molybdenum disulfide, which is not typically made into a solar panel but has been experimented with as a semiconductor material for transistors. It's also in a certain class of substances called 'ultrastrength materials,' which can be stretched out of shape for long periods of time without breaking.

The technique involves poking the sheet of molybdenum disulfide with a microscopic needle. The pressure from the needle causes an elastic strain that not only takes on the shape of a funnel but increases in intensity toward the center.

Like silicon, molybdenum disulfide releases electrons when hit by sunlight. Stretching the material into a funnel shape varies its atomic structure from the edge to the center, and allows different parts of the sheet to respond to photons from different wavelengths of sunlight.

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This means a single sheet of material can actually work harder to collect more energy from the sun. In addition, because the sheet is funnel-shaped, the charged particles will tend to gather at the bottom of it -- moved there by electrostatic energy and not gravity. Having the electric charges all end up in one place is a lot more efficient than having them simply bouncing randomly around the sheet.

All this sounds good, but it hasn't been confirmed by real-world experiments; the calculations are all mathematical models. But the principle has been used before. IBM and Intel have both done experiments with elastic strains in silicon channels in transistors with some success.

Via MIT News

Credit: MIT News/ Yan Liang

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First All-Carbon Solar Cell: DNews Nugget

First All-Carbon Solar Cell: Nearly everyone is familiar with what a rooftop solar panel looks like. It's a big, rigid square panel. But now scientists have developed a thin film prototype made entirely of carbon that can be coated from liquid. "Every component in our solar cell, from top to bottom, is made of carbon materials," said Stanford graduate student Michael Vosgueritchian, who was on the research team. "Other groups have reported making all-carbon solar cells, but they were referring to just the active layer in the middle, not the electrodes."

Since carbon is abundant, the material is cheap and because the process involves coating, the manufacturing is inexpensive. Right now, the scientists are working on making the solar cells more efficient, but in the future cheap, flexible solar cells made from carbon could be coated on everything from buildings to cars to generate power. via Physorg.com

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Backyard Inventors Print Mini Solar Panels

Two inventors have figured out how to print their own miniature solar panels that can be used for charging up cell phones and kids' toys to almost any small consumer electronic device. Their "solar pocket factory" uses 3-D printing techniques and inexpensive PV material.

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The pair recently raised $77,000 on Kickstarter and are now hoping to actually build a miniature factory using a laser cutter to speed up production. Shawn Frayne and Alex Hornstein, two MIT grads, said they came up with the idea after finding micro-sized solar panels that were too expensive, tended to break and didn't last very long.

"This simple question led us on a voyage of investigation and discovery through the world of small, low-cost solar; through rotting solar factories in Southern China to shivering, soaked motorcycle trips across unelectrified tropical islands in the Philippines and countless late nights working on prototypes in an industrial building in Hong Kong," the pair write on their Kickstarter page. "And all along the way, we kept asking questions, and started to find answers."

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The inventors say their small printing machine is cheaper than large-scale factory production of micro-solar panels. That means that rather than outsourcing labor to poorer countries, they can use the device to make the panels right where they will be used.

Via GigaOm

Credit: Solar Pocket Factory

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Solar Power Morphs Into Cones and More

All of a sudden everyone seems to be getting funky with the solar cells. From glass for balconies to spinning cells shaped like ice cream cones, solar power is looking slicker and holding more promise than ever.

An LA-based company called V3Solar just made a splash with designs for sapphire blue "Spin Cells" that it says can produce 20 times more electricity than traditional flat, static photovoltaic panels. A cone containing triangular PV cells spins underneath a static shell lens to concentrate the solar power, Ubergizmo's Latif Salman explained.

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This YouTube video shows a prototype in action. "Like a spinning discoball, we make the photons dance," the video says. While the cost per watt wasn't readily available, the company's CEO has said that he thinks removing the inverter and increasing efficiency will lower the overall cost of ownership.

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Sharp recently came out with interesting solar cells as well. In a Japanese press release, the company said it created semi-transparent black glass photovoltaic panels that could be used as a green building material. A series of 4.5 feet by 3.2 feet thin panels could add a heat barrier and privacy to balconies in high rise buildings. The panels went on sale in Japan this week.

Although Sharp's panels have a maximum output of 95 watts with a conversion rate that seems lackluster, they are commercially available and see-through, CNET's Christopher McManus pointed out. We've got to start somewhere.

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Meanwhile, Dow's Powerhouse Solar Shingles, which protect houses from the elements and offset electric costs, were just named one of the top 10 tech breakthroughs of the year by Popular Mechanics.

Dow's solar cells are made from copper indium gallium diselenide and covered in glass. They can be nailed right into a roof, just like normal shingles, Rachel Z. Arndt of Popular Mechanics noted, except they happen to be photovoltaic. According to Dow, the shingles are available from authorized dealers in central Texas, Northern California and Colorado.

All this new solar power tech makes me think that the hardware store is going to be an even more exciting place to visit in the future.

Image: A rendering of V3Solar's cone-shaped spinning solar cells. Credit: V3Solar via Ubergizmo

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Giant Marble Harvests Energy from Sun and Moon

It looks like a giant, glass marble. But this globe is no game. It's a sun-tracking, solar energy concentrator created by Barcelona-based architects and, according to the designers, is able to collect not just sunlight but moonlight as well.

The Rawlemon project revolves around a weatherproof sphere that's designed to rotate and follow the sun across the sky. It's so sensitive to light that at night, it can even harvest moonlight and convert it into electricity.

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Andre Broessel, the architect and designer, says his spherical, sun-tracking glass globe is able to concentrate sunlight and moonlight up to 10,000 times and that the system is 35 percent more efficient than photovoltaic designs that track the sun. One of Rawlemon's idea is to build these globes into the exterior walls of buildings and use them to generate electricity. For other uses and beautiful images of the globes, click here. 

via Design Boom and Inhabitat

Credit: Andre Rawlemon

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Mirrored Troughs Could Power Remote Clinics

About 1.4 billion people in the world have absolutely no access to electricity at all and even more have extremely unreliable access. Additionally, there are some 30,000 clinics and 60,000 schools around the world that lack access to electricity.

A nonprofit start-up company, called Solar Turbine Group or STG International, run by MIT engineering PhD candidate Matthew Orosz and his colleagues has developed an alternative: a heat-powered generator that gets its energy from the sun. It's a system that uses mirrored parabolic troughs (see photo above) to capture sunlight and concentrate it on pipes at the center of the troughs. Fluid running through the pipes get heated to 320 degrees Fahrenheit.

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The heated fluid is pumped into a chamber where it expands and drives a generator that produces electricity. The hot fluid can also be used to heat water, which means the extra step of an electric heater isn't necessary. After the heat from the fluid is exhausted, the cooled fluid condenses and gets recirculated to the pipes in the trough to be heated by the sun again.

The principle behind this system is actually quite old -- it was discovered in the 19th century. But only recently have engineers looked at using the sun to power it.

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The system is being tested in Lesotho, in southern Africa. Hot water is a big issue there, because in winter it gets quite cold. Without hot water, health care workers are unwilling to wash their hands.

Matthew Orosz, one of the founders, said the idea for the system came when he worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in Lesotho, and that’s where the company plans to have five fully operational systems in place for field-testing at remote health clinics. It will be, he said, a good alternative for such clinics which are too far away from cities to get reliable fuel or where there isn’t enough sunlight to power solar panels.

The research will published in an ASME Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power.

Image: STG International

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Island Nation First at Fully Solar: DNews Nugget

Island Nation First at Fully Solar: The island nation of Tokelau, a non-self-governing territory of New Zealand in the South Pacific, is making history by becoming the first inhabited place on Earth to completely rely on solar for energy. The islands will receive a total of 4,000 solar panels, 392 solar inverters and 1,344 batteries. Until now, the three coral atolls -- Atafu, Nukunonu, and Fakaofo -- that make up the nation have run on diesel fuel, but with funding from New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade the islands will be making the switch. The roughly 1,400 residents are happy to make the switch away from diesel to an energy solution that helps them preserve their island habitat. via Dvice

 

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