Berlin, Germany (SPX) Apr 29, 2026 Researchers at LMU Munich have developed a targeted surface treatment for perovskite solar cell electrodes that improves molecular contact, boosting device efficiency, reproducibility, and long-term stability. The findings, published in Advanced Energy Materials, challenge a widely held assumption about electrode preparation and open new pathways for engineering high-performance photovoltaic con

London, UK (SPX) Apr 29, 2026 Reliable electricity supply is critical in desert environments, where cooling systems must function continuously during heatwaves to protect human health. Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have demonstrated that explicitly accounting for extreme weather events during the design phase of community-scale renewable energy systems can prevent dangerous electri

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Apr 29, 2026 A new study describes a perovskite diode that achieves 26.7% power-conversion efficiency when operated as a solar cell and 31% external quantum efficiency when operated as a light-emitting diode, performance levels that would be considered strong for a device designed to do only one of those things. Metal-halide perovskites are a class of semiconductor materials named for their distinctive

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Apr 23, 2026 A computer vision system developed at Columbia Engineering can determine how much energy a solar panel will generate over a year - and how much more it could generate if repositioned - using nothing more than a single 360-degree photograph taken from the panel's location. Graduate student Jeremy Klotz and professor Shree Nayar, T.C. Chang Professor of Computer Science at Columbia Engineeri

London, United Kingdom (SPX) Apr 23, 2026 A technique that improves the performance and stability of next-generation solar cells - without adding any chemicals or coatings - has been demonstrated by researchers from Korea University and the University of Surrey. The study, published in Nature Energy, details a method that works by placing two types of perovskite film in contact with each other. That contact alone triggers a molecular in

Seoul, South Korea (SPX) Apr 23, 2026 Sungkyunkwan University has published a comprehensive report analyzing technological advances and global research trends in perovskite solar cells, prepared jointly by the research group of Professor Nam-Gyu Park from the Department of Chemical Engineering and the university's Performance Analysis Team, in collaboration with global academic data company Clarivate. The report traces the dev

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Apr 28, 2026 A new study published in the journal Biochar demonstrates that combining biochar with advanced polyzwitterionic hydrogels can sharply improve the performance of solar-driven water evaporation systems, offering a practical pathway toward low-energy desalination and water purification. Freshwater scarcity continues to intensify globally, with the vast majority of Earth's water locked in ocea

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Apr 28, 2026 Researchers from Ocean University of China and Huzhou University have developed a phase-change photothermal foam that continues to produce freshwater after sunlight fades, addressing one of the core limitations of solar-driven desalination technology. The material, designated PPy-CS/PF@DDA, is constructed by confining dodecylamine inside a polypyrrole-coated chitosan/phenolic resin foam. P

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Apr 16, 2026 Perovskite solar cells have emerged as one of the most promising next-generation photovoltaic technologies, but their development still depends heavily on time-consuming trial-and-error synthesis and labor-intensive device fabrication. Researchers from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and collaborating institutions have now reported an agentic robotics system that carries out the full cycle

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Apr 16, 2026 Inverted perovskite solar cells are widely considered the future of next-generation photovoltaics due to their high efficiency, low cost, and ease of manufacturing. A collaborative research team from the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has proposed a new approach to stabilizing the delicate interfaces inside these devices,

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Apr 16, 2026 Researchers have developed a fast prediction and suppression method for transient piston displacement overshoot in free piston Stirling generators, addressing a fault condition that can quickly escalate into mechanical damage in solar thermal power systems. The new approach detects dangerous overshoot without relying on displacement sensors and suppresses the fault response early enough to maint

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Apr 16, 2026 Using three-dimensional electron diffraction (3D ED), researchers at Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat (FAU) Erlangen-Nurnberg have demonstrated that electrons can provide the averaged structural information previously accessible only with X-rays. For the first time, this allows a comprehensive structural characterization of organic solar cells within a single instrument - a transmission electron