Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 11, 2025 Overview Energy has revealed an airborne power-beaming demonstration that transmitted energy from a moving aircraft to a ground receiver 5 kilometers below, marking its second major step toward delivering grid-scale solar power from space. The test used the same optics and laser chain planned for space operations and showed that the system can send power via near-infrared light from an air

Brussels, Belgium (SPX) Dec 09, 2025 Researchers at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and partners have mapped how emerging chalcogenide semiconductor absorbers behave in photoelectrochemical systems that convert sunlight and CO2 into chemical fuels. They examined how the electronic band structure of these materials governs charge generation, separation, and transfer at the semiconductor - electrolyte interface, and how these processe

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Dec 16, 2025 Flexible perovskite solar modules are emerging as a candidate for lightweight, bendable photovoltaics, but maintaining high efficiency while preserving long term stability and low cost remains difficult. A research team from the Institute of Metal Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Zhengzhou University reports flexible perovskite solar modules with power conversion efficiency exceed

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Dec 14, 2025 Researchers from Beijing Normal University and Qingdao University have developed a nonfused ring electron acceptor (NFREA) called TT-Ph-C6 that improves the performance of thick-film organic solar cells. The material targets limitations in film-thickness tolerance and fill factor that have held back NFREAs compared with fused-ring acceptors. The team, led by Prof. Zhishan Bo, Prof. Cuihong

Torrance CA (SPX) Dec 16, 2025 In 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry sailed four coal-powered warships into Edo Bay and pointed their cannons at Japan. The ships belched black smoke, rattled the shoreline, and terrified a nation that had never seen industrial warfare up close. Perry called it diplomacy. The Japanese called them the Kurofune - the Black Ships. They worked. Japan opened its ports, not because it agreed,

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Dec 14, 2025 Researchers in Munich and international partners have raised the efficiency of perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells to 31.4 percent by tailoring the molecular contacts at the interface between the absorber and charge collection layers. The team reports the result in the journal Joule and notes that the tandem cell was manufactured entirely in the Munich region on crystalline silicon bottom cell

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 16, 2025 Mounting solar panels above crop fields can improve working conditions for farmworkers as well as produce food and electricity on the same land, according to research to be presented at the AGU 2025 Annual Meeting in New Orleans. Worker interviews and field measurements indicate that agrivoltaic systems provide shade, reduce exposure to extreme heat, and help farms avoid conditions associated wi

Lambres-Lez-Douai, France (AFP) Dec 10, 2025 France is developing domestic production of electric vehicle batteries with an eye on industrial independence but Asian experts are proving key in launching operations. In the Verkor factory outside the northern city of Dunkirk, which will be inaugurated on Thursday, foreign specialists, notably from South Korea and Malaysia, are training the local staff. Verkor is the third battery giga

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Dec 11, 2025 Perovskite solar cells can be made more robust, efficient, scalable and cheaper to manufacture by replacing indium tin oxide with single-walled carbon nanotubes in the device architecture, according to research led by the University of Surrey. The team reports that substituting indium tin oxide, a fragile and costly photovoltaic material, with single-walled carbon nanotubes could support flexibl

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Dec 05, 2025 A research team at Wuhan University of Technology led by Professor Tao Wang has developed a vacuum-assisted thermal annealing (VTA) process that tackles the linked challenges of efficiency and stability in organic solar cells. The method engineers the internal structure of the photovoltaic active layer so that devices maintain strong performance over long operating times. The work focuses

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Dec 04, 2025 Perovskite solar cells are under development as candidates for next generation photovoltaic modules, but commercial use remains limited by long term instability driven in part by migrating ions in the absorber layer. A team from Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and the University of Potsdam has now measured ion densities in four widely used perovskite compounds and found substantial differences be

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Dec 03, 2025 A study published in Science Bulletin describes a solar-driven system that produces freshwater while capturing boron from seawater and brine using a composite gel identified as (MXene-MgO)@sodium alginate (MMS). The work targets the interlinked pressures on water, food, and energy supplies in regions such as Yemen, Pakistan, and Haiti, where demand is rising and water scarcity and hunger are sev