Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 19, 2026 Surveys at one of the largest solar energy facilities in the Mojave Desert indicate that a rare annual plant is not only persisting but flourishing under a construction approach designed to preserve desert soils and seedbanks. Researchers monitoring the Gemini Solar Project northeast of Las Vegas documented a sharp increase in the number and size of threecorner milkvetch plants two years after p

Paris, France (SPX) Jan 14, 2026 A new solar cell that is designed to work in locations like windows and flexible surfaces where traditional panels cannot has been developed by nanotechnology researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The device targets installations on building facades, architectural glass and curved structures where rigid modules are difficult to deploy. The research, led by Prof. Shlomo Magdass

Jinan, China (SPX) Jan 13, 2026 As global energy transitions accelerate, distributed photovoltaic systems have become a cornerstone of rural energy transformation in China, shifting many rural households from passive energy consumers to active prosumers. A research team from the School of Economics at Shandong Technology and Business University has developed a multi agent dynamic game model to analyze how key stakeholder

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jan 13, 2026 A research team at DGIST has developed a perovskite based self powered betavoltaic battery that achieves what they report as the worlds highest conversion efficiency for this class of device while maintaining long term operational stability. The work targets applications that require continuous reliable power without external charging, such as artificial intelligence systems, internet of things

London, UK (SPX) Jan 13, 2026 Physicists at Trinity College Dublin have developed a new theoretical framework that connects photon condensation in optical microstructures with the fundamental limits of heat engines, potentially offering new routes to harvest more useful energy from sunlight and other light sources. The work suggests that devices which trap light in tiny cavities could concentrate diffuse radiation into laser

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 13, 2026 Southwest Research Institute has carried out a series of large scale fire tests to examine how flames spread beneath photovoltaic panel installations on flat commercial and industrial rooftops. The program is intended to give fire safety organizations the data they need to refine standards and improve mitigation strategies for rooftop solar systems. Engineers built full scale test decks de

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jan 19, 2026 The Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) has reported a materials breakthrough that moves oxide based all solid state batteries closer to commercial deployment. The work targets the high cost and fabrication challenges of garnet type solid electrolytes, a key component in non flammable next generation lithium batteries designed to eliminate fire and explosion risks. Al

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jan 19, 2026 Researchers at the School of Engineering at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology have developed a robust coating layer that significantly improves the operational stability of perovskite solar cells while maintaining high efficiency. In accelerated tests simulating intense midday sunlight at 85 C, the coated cells retained more than 95 percent of their initial power conversion effi

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jan 19, 2026 A new study shows that perfectly symmetric materials can generate strong photocurrents when their surfaces are engineered to host special electronic states, overturning a long held limitation in photovoltaic design. The work points to fresh strategies for both solar energy conversion and ultrafast spintronic technologies by exploiting the physics of surfaces rather than relying only on bulk crys

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jan 15, 2026 The performance of single component organic solar cells depends strongly on the spacer units built into their molecular design. Spacer attachment position on a double cable polymer backbone has received much less attention than other structural parameters, even though it can influence how the material arranges and operates in a device. To close this gap, researchers adopted a spacer isomer

Houston, TX (SPX) Jan 15, 2026 Researchers led by Rice University's Guido Pagano used a specialized quantum device to simulate a vibrating molecule and track how energy moves within it. The work, published Dec. 5 in Nature Communications, could improve understanding of basic mechanisms behind phenomena such as photosynthesis and solar energy conversion. The researchers modeled a simple two-site molecule with one part su

London, UK (SPX) Jan 14, 2026 Scientists have reported a new way to make perovskite solar cells both highly efficient and markedly more stable, directly tackling one of the main obstacles to bringing this emerging photovoltaic technology into large scale deployment. Perovskite semiconductors have been widely promoted as candidates for the next generation of solar power because they can be processed at low temperatures