Halfway through April this year, scientists at Harvard and MIT announced something extraordinary: they had found a way to create solar cells that can store accumulated energy from sunlight, and then -- with no more than a burst of a few photons -- release that energy in a steady and continuous form. These new types of solar cells -- called photoswitches -- are made from a form of carbon nanotube called azobenzene, which can exist in two different configurations. One collects energy from the photons that hit it and stores it, another releases it. Because they can be switched from one form to another, the cell is essentially a battery, and this solves many of the problems of storage that arise with a weather-dependent system such as solar. Meanwhile in a country not too distant from where I am posting this...coal is the goal crikey.au/2014/04/22/rundle-renewables-changing-the-nature-of-power-and-manufacturing/
Posted on: Tue, 22 Apr 2014 04:06:14 +0000
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