National Renewable Energy Laboratory NREL

Researchers set world record in solar energy efficiency

Researchers have converted over 40% of the sunlight hitting a solar system into electricity, the highest efficiency ever reported.

Engineer to build 'hot' solar cells with $2.5 million grant

Associate professor of electrical engineering Minjoo Larry Lee has been awarded $2,540,000 to develop dual-junction solar cells that can operate efficiently at extreme temperatures above 750 degrees Fahrenheit.

Hanergy completes acquisition of Alta Devices

Hanergy Holding Group Limited announced that it has completed the acquisition of Alta Devices, whose thin film solar technology has a conversion efficiency of 30.8 percent, the highest among the solar energy technologies currently available in the world.

EV Battery and Supercapacitor

IDTechEx has visited many supercapacitor manufacturers and interviewed several professors who have presented at IDTechEx events on the subject. This article highlights some of our findings from those interviews.

The Rise of Thin, Flexible and Printed Batteries

IDTechEx has studied the technologies and markets for thin film, flexible and/or printed batteries. IDTechEx will disseminate its key findings. Here, IDTechEx will qualitatively benchmark the different technologies that fall under its categorization including single use zinc batteries, printed zinc-based rechargeable batteries, thin film lithium ion and lithium metal batteries.

New Energy Technologies Inc

New Energy Technologies (NET) develops patent portfolios around renewable energy technologies and seeks to license them out. They are a small operation but are a publicly-traded company. NET is primarily focused on developing and commercializing IP around the use of organic photovoltaics in the BIPV sector.

Partnership to reduce cost of automotive fuel cells

The Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory and General Motors are partnering on a multiyear, multimillion dollar joint effort to accelerate the reduction of automotive fuel cell stack costs through fuel cell material and manufacturing research and development.

New optical element sorts sunlight for solar cell efficiency

Electrical engineers have designed a thin layer made of a transparent plastic or glass that sorts and concentrates sunlight to boost the overall efficiency of solar cells by up to 50 percent.

Batteries bolstered with nanotubes

Researchers are turning to extremely tiny tubes and rods to boost power and durability in lithium-ion batteries, the energy sources for cell phones, laptops, and electric vehicles. If successful, the batteries will last longer and perform better, leading to a cost advantage for electric vehicles.

Fuel cell powered buses delivered

The unveiling and delivery of two new fuel cell buses, each powered by a Ballard FCvelocity®-HD6 fuel cell module.

Creeping nanocrystals behind lithium-ion battery degradation

Batteries do not age gracefully. The lithium ions that power portable electronics cause lingering structural damage with each cycle of charge and discharge, making devices from smartphones to tablets tick toward zero faster and faster over time.

Atomic switcheroo explains origins of thin-film solar cell mystery

Treating cadmium-telluride (CdTe) solar cell materials with cadmium-chloride improves their efficiency, but researchers have not fully understood why.

Unlocking secrets of new solar material

A new solar material that has the same crystal structure as a mineral first found in the Ural Mountains in 1839 is shooting up the efficiency charts faster than almost anything researchers have seen before—and it is generating optimism that a less expensive way of using sunlight to generate electricity may be in our planet's future.

Smart Window material may make better batteries

High-tech "smart windows," which darken to filter out sunlight in response to electric current, function much like batteries. Now, X-ray studies provide a crystal-clear view into how the color-changing material in these windows behaves in a working battery - information that could benefit next-generation rechargeable batteries.

See-through SolarWindow capable of generating electricity on glass

New Energy Technologies Inc, developer of see-through SolarWindow™ coatings, capable of generating electricity on glass and flexible plastics, has made public never-before-seen images of the Company's largest area, high-performance SolarWindow™ arrays.

Battery with liquid electrodes can be recharged or refilled

A new kind of battery stores energy in what researchers are calling "rechargeable fuel"—electrodes in liquid form. The result can be either recharged like a conventional battery or replaced by pumping in new fuel like gasoline.

ASU engineers to help develop next generation of power electronics

Arizona State University electrical engineers Srabanti Chowdhury and Raja Ayyanar will lead research for the university's role in a new national consortium formed to develop the next generation of power electronics for electric vehicles and electronic devices.

EV Battery and Supercapacitor

Lessons from PE USA Supercapacitor Conference and Visits End 2013

$24.9 million to put more zero-emission buses into service

The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has announced the availability of $24.9 million through its brand new Low or No Emission Vehicle Deployment Program (LoNo) that will put a new generation of advanced, non-polluting transit buses on the road in communities nationwide.