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Category: solar power – Page 2

Elon Musk Holds Surprise Talk At The World Economic Forum In Davos

The musk blueprint: navigating the supersonic tsunami to hyperabundance when exponential curves multiply: understanding the triple acceleration.

On January 22, 2026, Elon Musk sat down with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink at the World Economic Forum in Davos and delivered what may be the most important articulation of humanity’s near-term trajectory since the invention of the internet.

Not because Musk said anything fundamentally new—his companies have been demonstrating this reality for years—but because he connected the dots in a way that makes the path to hyperabundance undeniable.

[Watch Elon Musk’s full WEF interview]

This is not visionary speculation.

This is engineering analysis from someone building the physical infrastructure of abundance in real-time.

Continue reading “Elon Musk Holds Surprise Talk At The World Economic Forum In Davos” | >

Forget solar panels in summer: Here’s why winter Is the best time to switch your home to solar

Regardless of which U.S. state you live in, we can all agree that electricity in the U.S. is quite expensive. Of course, prices may vary depending on where you live, but in general, investing in clean energy has never been more desirable than it is now. But with so many options to choose from, when are solar panels, for example, your best option? Well, if you live in a region with colder weather, your best option may be to invest in solar energy, as a PV expert believes that solar panels are more efficient in cold weather.

Investing in clean energy: Your options

The majority of Americans most likely got quite the fright when they opened their last utility bill, and things may not look up just yet this month. Beyond the fact that one’s heating and thus electricity bill skyrockets during the winter due to increased usage, other factors also play a significant role in driving up electricity prices.

Overcoming symmetry limits in photovoltaics through surface engineering

A recent study carried out by researchers from EHU, the Materials Physics Center, nanoGUNE, and DIPC introduces a novel approach to solar energy conversion and spintronics. The work tackles a long-standing limitation in the bulk photovoltaic effect—the need for non-centrosymmetric crystals—by demonstrating that even perfectly symmetric materials can generate significant photocurrents through engineered surface electronic states. This discovery opens new pathways for designing efficient light-to-electricity conversion systems and ultrafast spintronic devices.

The work is published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Conventional solar cells rely on carefully engineered interfaces, such as p–n junctions, to turn light into electricity. A more exotic mechanism—the bulk photovoltaic effect —can generate electrical current directly in a material without such junctions, but only if its crystal structure lacks inversion symmetry. This strict requirement has long restricted the search for practical materials.

Quantum simulator reveals how vibrations steer energy flow in molecules

Researchers led by Rice University’s Guido Pagano used a specialized quantum device to simulate a vibrating molecule and track how energy moves within it. The work, published Dec. 5 in Nature Communications, could improve understanding of basic mechanisms behind phenomena such as photosynthesis and solar energy conversion.

The researchers modeled a simple two-site molecule with one part supplying energy and the other receiving it, both shaped by vibrations and their environment. By tuning the system, they could directly observe energy moving from donor to acceptor and study how vibrations and energy loss influence that transfer, providing a controlled way to test theories of energy flow in complex materials.

“We can now observe how energy moves in a synthetic molecule while independently adjusting each variable to see what truly matters,” said Pagano, assistant professor of physics and astronomy.

Artificial photosynthesis catalyst converts carbon dioxide into fuel using sunlight

A joint research team has developed a highly efficient photocatalyst that can convert carbon dioxide into the high-value-added fuel, methane, using sunlight, while explaining its operating principles. The work is published in the journal ACS Catalysis.

Carbon dioxide is a typical greenhouse gas, considered a major cause of climate change, and developing technologies to effectively reduce it is an important challenge worldwide.

The photocatalyst technology that caught the interest of the research team is a type of artificial photosynthesis technology that uses solar energy to convert carbon dioxide into fuel. It has garnered significant attention for its potential to contribute to carbon neutrality and eco-friendly energy production.

New green homes in the UK put less strain on the grid than models predicted

A study of some of the first net-zero-ready homes in the UK has found that their peak grid power demand is far lower than planners had anticipated. The research confirms that these all-electric homes can significantly cut energy use and emissions.

Buildings account for around 37% of global energy-related emissions, with residential properties making up approximately 17% of that total. In 2019, the UK government set an ambitious target to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. To help meet it, the Future Homes Standard requires all new homes built from 2025 to cut their by 75% to 80%.

Fully electric homes use technologies like air-source heat pumps (ASHPs) for heating (by extracting heat from outdoor air) and solar PV panels for electricity generation. But the big question has been whether they work as promised and achieve their energy efficiency goals in the real world.

Perovskite solar cells maintain 95% of power conversion efficiency after 1,100 hours at 85°C with new molecular coating

Scientists have found a way to make perovskite solar cells not only highly efficient but also remarkably stable, addressing one of the main challenges holding the technology back from widespread use.

Perovskite has long been hailed as a game-changer for the next generation of solar power. However, advances in material design are still needed to boost the efficiency and durability of solar panels that convert sunlight into electricity.

New 3D-printed solar cells for windows offer semi-transparency

These flexible cells achieve 9.2 percent energy efficiency while maintaining 35 percent transparency.

Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have created semi-transparent, color-tunable solar cells.

Interestingly, these can be 3D-printed onto windows, building façades, and flexible surfaces.

These panels shed the bulky, industrial look of solar arrays, giving designers the choice between a slightly transparent window or a vibrant, color-tinted architectural feature.

Peering inside perovskite: 3D imaging reveals how passivation boosts solar cell efficiency

Perovskite solar cells have garnered widespread attention as a low-cost, high-efficiency alternative to conventional silicon photovoltaics. However, defects in perovskite films impede charge transport, resulting in energy loss and compromised operational stability.

One solution to this problem is “passivation treatment”—a process that adds chemicals such as simple salts or organic molecules to the film. These small molecules or ions latch onto defects in the perovskite material, preventing the defects from interfering with electrical flow. Unfortunately, verifying the internal efficacy of various passivation treatments remains challenging since most characterization techniques only probe the surface or provide averaged macroscopic information.

Now, however, researchers at the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering (NIMTE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have made an important breakthrough by developing a three-dimensional (3D) electrical imaging technique that directly reveals how defect passivation treatments work in perovskite films. The study was published in Newton on December 31.

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