☀️ Ultra-light fabric solar cells

MIT researchers have created ultra-light fabric solar cells that can be easily attached to any surface to generate electricity. These thin, flexible solar cells are much lighter than traditional solar panels and can be easily transported and installed on various surfaces, including fabric. They are made using printing processes and semiconducting inks, which makes them scalable for large-area manufacturing.

These solar cells can be used as wearable power sources or quickly deployed in emergency situations. For example, it can be attached to the sails of a boat to provide electricity while at sea, or applied to the wings of drones to extend their flying range. It can also be used in disaster recovery operations by attaching it to tents and tarps. This technology is easy to install and can be integrated into built environments with minimal effort.

The team recently published a paper on their new organic cell technology, titled "Printed Organic Photovoltaic Modules on Transferable Ultra-thin Substrates as Additive Power Sources," in the journal Small Methods. The paper describes the use of ultra-thin substrates as a means of adding power to existing sources using printed organic photovoltaic modules. The module's cells are built using a specific process involving several different materials. Vapor-deposited parylene is used as the in-situ formed releasable substrate, which means it is used as a base to build on. A hole-transporting material called PEDOT:PSS is also used. PV2000:PC60BM is a molecule that helps with the transfer of electrons. Nanowire films coated with tin-oxide nanoparticles are used as an electron transport layer, which helps to move electrons through the module.

⚡ 18 times more power than conventional solar cells

According MIT researchers, the lightweight fabric solar cell that is extremely efficient at generating electricity. When freestanding, it can generate 730 watts of power per kilogram, and when attached to a high-strength fabric called Dyneema, it can generate 370 watts per kilogram. This is about 18 times more power-per-kilogram than conventional solar cells. The researchers also found that these fabric solar cells are very lightweight, with the ability to generate the same amount of power as a typical rooftop solar installation in Massachusetts (8,000 watts) while only weighing about 44 pounds (20 kilograms).

☀️ Solar PV

Solar photovoltaics, or PV, are a type of technology that converts sunlight into electricity. They are the most popular form of renewable energy in the world and have the potential to generate large amounts of carbon-free electricity in the future. Currently, most PV systems are made from crystalline silicon, or c-Si, which is a type of material that is efficient at converting sunlight into electricity. However, these systems can be expensive, and in order to reduce costs, researchers are looking for ways to create lightweight and flexible PV modules that are cheaper to manufacture and easier to install.

Emerging thin-film PV technologies are a new type of solar technology that have the potential to revolutionize the way we generate electricity from sunlight. These technologies are made from nanomaterials such as perovskites, organics, and quantum dots, and they have several advantages over traditional PV technologies.

For example, they can be made transparent, which allows them to be used in a wider range of applications, and they can be processed at low temperatures, which makes them lightweight and flexible. This makes them easier to transport, store, and install, and they are also cheaper to manufacture. In the long term, these technologies have the potential to generate electricity more efficiently and at a lower cost than traditional PV technologies, and they could help to meet global energy needs without using up large amounts of resources.