Quantum technologies, i.e. technological devices obtained by building and manipulating quantum mechanical systems, are becoming a reality in recent days. The most prominent example is certainly given by quantum computers, where the unit of information, the bit, is replaced by its quantum mechanical counterpart, informally called the qubit. Contrary to classical computers, quantum computers […]
Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), in collaboration with Malta Inc. has completed assembly and commissioning of the first-of-its-kind pumped heat (or thermal) energy storage (PTES) demonstration facility. Long-duration, large-scale storage capabilities, like PTES, can help balance energy volatility and reliability issues caused by high market penetration of variable renewable energy resources such as solar and […]
As the world builds out ever larger installations of wind and solar power systems, the need is growing fast for economical, large-scale backup systems to provide power when the sun is down and the air is calm. Today’s lithium-ion batteries are still too expensive for most such applications, and other options such as pumped […]
A relatively new kind of semiconductor, layered atop a mirror-like structure, can mimic the way that leaves move energy from the sun over relatively long distances before using it to fuel chemical reactions. The approach may one day improve the efficiency of solar cells. “Energy transport is one of the crucial steps […]
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) made a technological breakthrough and constructed a perovskite solar cell with the dual benefits of being both highly efficient and highly stable. The work was done in collaboration with scientists from the University of Toledo, the University of Colorado-Boulder, […]
Solar cells manufactured from materials known as “perovskites” are catching up with the efficiency of traditional silicon-based solar cells. At the same time, they have advantages of low cost and short energy payback time. However, such solar cells have problems with stability – something that researchers at Linkoping University, together with international collaborators, have […]
