Alternative Solar Cells Ramp up Efficiency and Stability

Solar cells are formed of light-absorbing materials that convert sunlight into electricity. The panels we are used to seeing covering fields or roofs of houses are made primarily from silicon.

However, silicon panels are energy-intensive to produce, heavy and inflexible. Research groups around the world are working on alternatives based on flexible ‘organic’ materials – plastics – that can be printed from inks. This research could lead to transparent solar modules in windows, as well as large scale electricity-generators or even integration into clothing.

Organic solar materials offer a lot of promise, but there are still challenges to overcome before they can compete with silicon panels. For example, solar cells made from organic ‘perovskite’ materials have poor stability – the cells often break down in sunlight in a matter of hours – and include toxic elements like lead.

PhD student Andrew Wadsworth, from the Department of Chemistry at Imperial, is part of a team developing organic solar cells. Hayley Dunning talked to him about how they are tackling the obstacles and improving device performance.

Read the STRN story - “Alternative Solar Cells Ramp up Efficiency and Stability.”

Sundrop Farms pioneering solar-powered greenhouse to grow food without fresh water

Sundrop Farms head grower
Adrian Simkins says the
tomato project is a world-first.

A groundbreaking greenhouse that relies on sunlight and seawater to grow tomatoes officially opens next week, 300 kilometres north of Adelaide.

The company Sundrop Farms spent several years developing the idea at a pilot plant on the outskirts of Port Augusta, before building a commercial facility that is 100 times larger.

"This is a very special project," head grower Adrian Simkins said.

The 20-hectare futuristic-looking facility includes a field of more than 23,000 mirrors that capture the sunlight and direct it to a central receiver at the top of a 127-metre "power" tower.

Read the ABC story - “Sundrop Farms pioneering solar-powered greenhouse to grow food without fresh water.”

We need sunlight, but it seems our government prefers darkness

Environment Minster, Greg Hunt.

Sunlight will be one of Australia’s future power sources, but Tony Abbott and his coalition cohort prefer to keep the country in the dark.

Using the perverse machinations of politics, the Prime Minister, through the agency of agency of his Environmental Minister, Greg Hunt, has successfully dragged his cloudy Direct Action scheme onto centre stage.

Writing in today’s Melbourne Age, Mark Kenny, has said: “The federal government is crowing about the deal it stitched up to get its friendless Direct Action policy through a hostile Senate while killing off forever Labor's carbon price-cum-emissions trading scheme”.

His analysis: “Deal on Direct Action spells end to emissions trading” throws some light on this rather complex deal, a deal many would argue is most certainly not in Australia’s best interests.