Flexible solar cells. The Victorian Organic Solar Cell Consortium (VICOSC), CSIRO, and the University of Melbourne has developed a new printer that has allowed researchers at the university to print solar cells up to the size of an A3 sheet of paper.  The solar cell printer makes renewable energy even easier to source.  

 Lab demonstration of the group’s new lithium-polysulfide flow battery contained in a simple flask. The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University scientists have developed a relatively cheap, long-life “flow” battery that can be used to mitigate power fluctuations from solar and wind energy plants, therefore enabling them to become major suppliers [...]

For several years Scott and Julie Brusaw have been working on their Solar Roadway, a road made of solar panels. And, now, they’re finally ready with their first full trial: a 12 by 36 foot parking lot in north Idaho, about an hour from the Canadian border. Funded with a $750,000 grant from the Federal Highway [...]

Solar Impulse The goal of Solar Impulse is to fly around the world using no fuel other than sunlight. But before the solar plane circumnavigates the globe they will fly across the U.S. Solar Impulse took off on May 3 proving that airplanes can fly long distances on nothing more than sunshine. (Photos)  

US solar installations jumped 76% in 2012. There has been a dramatic fall in the cost of solar power generation. Solar is at grid parity in many countries such as Italy, Spain, Germany, Portugal, and in parts of the US such as the Southwest. That means it is as inexpensive to build a solar plant as [...]

SolarCopter A team of masters students from the U.K. have built what they call the world’s first “solar copter.”  It is a quadrotor that flies solely on solar power.  It is only capable of short flights at the moment. But once the team adds a storage system they say it should fly longer. (Video)    

Solar wins again. If you like the idea of getting free energy from the sun, but don’t want to deal with the complications of installing a solar array on your roof, Umbrosa has created a lovely backyard sun shade that does double-duty—turning those rays into electricity. As umbrellas go the Eclipse’s design is striking, but [...]

Scientists create blackest silicon solar cell. Scientists at Natcore Technology have created a black silicon solar cell with an average reflectance of 0.3%, making it the “blackest” solar cell ever designed. Natcore’s development offers a tenfold decrease in reflectance over the solar spectrum. The result is an increase in energy efficiency that could help solar [...]

Solar cells thinner than a thread of spider silk. On Wednesday, researchers from Austria and Japan unveiled solar cells thinner than a thread of spider silk that are flexible enough to be wrapped around a single human hair.

Kyosemi’s Sphelar cells Solar cell designs need to be aimed directly at the sun to be most efficient. But a company in Japan has come up with a clever new approach using spherical micro cells that can harness the sun’s rays from any direction.