Solar Energy

Iraq inches toward solar-powered future

Published

1 year ago

November 4, 2023

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Iraq inches toward solar-powered future

By Salam FARAJ

Hazar Merd, Iraq (AFP) Nov 2, 2023

In a small village in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, solar panels adorn most homes, part of a small but growing effort to harness the sun’s energy in Iraq, where electricity is scarce.

“Solar covers all our needs: the refrigerator, television, air cooler, washing machine, vacuum cleaner,” said Daniar Abdallah, 33, a resident of Hazar Merd who converted to solar and hasn’t looked back.

“It has helped us a lot,” said the father of two, who spent $2,800 in 2018 to install photovoltaic panels for his family home.

Despite its vast oil wealth, Iraq struggles to provide enough electricity to its 43 million people after decades of conflict and sanctions, as well as rampant corruption and crumbling infrastructure.

And even though it is blessed with more sunshine than most other countries, it has proved difficult to wean Iraq’s economy off fossil fuels – one of the themes of the upcoming COP28 climate talks in Dubai.

Although it receives a third of its energy needs from neighbouring Iran, there are still daily power cuts, which worsen in the hot summer months when temperatures approach 50 degrees Celsius (120 Fahrenheit).

The tranquil silence of Hazar Merd is striking in a country where the roar of large neighbourhood generators used to provide back-up power is ever-present.

“Before, we had a generator that broke down all the time” to overcome power cuts which can sometimes last 12 or 13 hours a day, said Abdallah, who works as a soldier for local Kurdish forces.

Several friends have swiftly followed his example and now 17 out of the 25 homes in his village boast solar panels.

– Fossil fuels dominate –

Nationwide, however, the use of solar power remains scarce.

In nearby Sulaymaniyah, the second-largest city in northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, only 500 out of the 600,000 households are equipped with solar panels, said Sirwan Mahmud, a spokesman for the province’s electricity department.

Solar power had seen “rapid progression”, he said, after the region’s parliament adopted incentives in 2021 to compensate households for any excess electricity that they generate.

The region aims to build three commercial solar power plants with a total capacity of 75 megawatts (MW), he added.

But that would only represent a small boost to the 24,000 MW that Iraqi power plants produce.

To end power outages, the country would need to produce at least 32,000 MW.

Despite its huge potential, renewable energy remains under-used in Iraq, even though it experiences more than 3,000 hours of sunlight across the 8,760 hours in a year.

“The worst solar site in Iraq has resources that are almost two-thirds higher than the best site in Germany,” said Ali al-Saffar, climate director at the New York-based Rockefeller Foundation.

A recent World Bank report highlighted that more than 98 percent of Iraq’s electricity is still generated from fossil fuels.

Authorities say they aim to harness green energy to meet a third of the country’s needs by 2030. But despite several major projects being announced with great fanfare, that has yet to materialise.

TotalEnergies says it hopes to deliver “the first phase” of a 1,000 MW solar plant within two years.

In 2021, Baghdad signed an agreement with the Emirati company Masdar to build five solar plants with a combined capacity of 1,000 MW.

– ‘Lack of solar culture’ –

To encourage renewable energy, Iraq’s Central Bank in 2022 announced the allocation of $750 million in almost zero-interest loans for individuals and private companies adopting solar power.

But the initiative is “stalling due to a lack of cooperation from banks”, according to Mohamed al-Duleimi, an expert in renewable energies.

Iraq lacks a “solar culture”, said Ali al-Ameri, the executive director of Solar Energy Universe, which installs solar infrastructure.

This year, however, more people are turning to solar, he said, with his company installing photovoltaic panels at about a dozen sites.

“Prices start at $4,500 and can go up to $6,000,” he said.

Among his clients are academics and doctors, but also humanitarian agencies and farmers.

Since 2020, he has installed panels on 70 buildings, mainly houses, in Baghdad, the neighbouring province of Anbar and the south.

Despite the slow progress, Iraq’s solar potential could be an “opportunity to resolve once and for all its chronic electricity shortages,” he added.

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Solar Energy

Scientists Probe Declining Earbud Battery Longevity

Published

2 hours ago

February 5, 2025

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Scientists Probe Declining Earbud Battery Longevity

by Clarence Oxford

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 05, 2025

Have you ever noticed how electronic devices, including wireless earbuds, seem to lose battery capacity faster the longer you use them? An international research team from The University of Texas at Austin set out to examine this familiar issue, known as battery degradation, by focusing on the earbuds that many people rely on daily. Through a series of x-ray, infrared, and other imaging approaches, the researchers investigated the hidden complexities behind these tiny devices and revealed why their battery life declines over time.

“This started with my personal headphones; I only wear the right one, and I found that after two years, the left earbud had a much longer battery life,” said Yijin Liu, an associate professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering’s Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, who led the new research published in Advanced Materials. “So, we decided to look into it and see what we could find.”

Their analysis showed that crucial earbud features – like the Bluetooth antenna, microphones, and circuits – compete with the battery in a very confined space, producing a microenvironment that is less than ideal. This situation results in a temperature gradient that damages the battery over time, with different sections of the cell experiencing variable temperatures.

Real-world factors also complicate matters. Frequent changes in climate, shifts in air quality, and a host of other environmental variables challenge the battery’s resilience. While cells are generally designed to endure harsh conditions, constant fluctuations can take their toll.

These discoveries highlight the importance of considering how batteries interact with devices such as phones, laptops, and even electric vehicles. Packaging solutions, strategic design decisions, and adaptations for user habits may all play a role in extending battery performance.

“Using devices differently changes how the battery behaves and performs,” said Guannan Qian, the first author of this paper and a postdoctoral researcher in Liu’s lab. “They could be exposed to different temperatures; one person has different charging habits than another; and every electric vehicle owner has their own driving style. This all matters.”

In conducting this study, Liu and his team worked closely with UT’s Fire Research Group, led by mechanical engineer Ofodike Ezekoye. They paired infrared imaging methods with their in-house x-ray technology at UT Austin and Sigray Inc. To expand their scope, they then teamed up with some of the world’s most advanced x-ray facilities.

Their collaborators included researchers from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory’s Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, Brookhaven National Laboratory’s National Synchrotron Light Source II, Argonne National Laboratory’s Advanced Photon Source, and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in France. These partnerships allowed them to observe battery behavior under more authentic operating conditions.

“Most of the time, in the lab, we’re looking at either pristine and stable conditions or extremes,” said Xiaojing Huang, a physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory. “As we discover and develop new types of batteries, we must understand the differences between lab conditions and the unpredictability of the real world and react accordingly. X-ray imaging can offer valuable insights for this.”

Looking ahead, Liu says his team will continue analyzing battery performance in the settings people experience every day. They plan to expand their approach to larger batteries, such as those in smartphones, laptops, and electric vehicles, to learn more about their degradation patterns.

Research Report:In-device Battery Failure Analysis

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Quantum factors elevate plant energy transport efficiency

Published

2 hours ago

February 5, 2025

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Quantum factors elevate plant energy transport efficiency

by Robert Schreiber

Munich, Germany (SPX) Feb 05, 2025

For countless engineers, converting sunlight into easily stored chemical energy stands as an enduring goal. Yet nature perfected this challenge billions of years ago. A recent study reveals that quantum mechanics, once thought to be limited to physics, is also essential for key biological processes.

Green plants and other photosynthetic organisms draw on quantum mechanical mechanisms to capture the sun’s energy. According to Prof. Jurgen Hauer: “When light is absorbed in a leaf, for example, the electronic excitation energy is distributed over several states of each excited chlorophyll molecule; this is called a superposition of excited states. It is the first stage of an almost loss-free energy transfer within and between the molecules and makes the efficient onward transport of solar energy possible. Quantum mechanics is therefore central to understanding the first steps of energy transfer and charge separation.”

Classical physics alone cannot completely describe how this phenomenon unfolds throughout green plants and in certain photosynthetic bacteria. Although the exact details remain only partly understood, Prof. Hauer and first author Erika Keil consider their new findings an important step toward uncovering how chlorophyll, the pigment behind leaf coloration, functions. Applying these insights to engineered photosynthesis devices could unlock unprecedented solar energy conversion efficiencies for both power production and photochemical applications.

In their investigation, the researchers focused on two portions of the light spectrum absorbed by chlorophyll: the low-energy Q band (yellow to red) and the high-energy B band (blue to green). In the Q region, two electronic states are quantum mechanically coupled, promoting virtually loss-free energy movement. The system subsequently relaxes via “cooling”, i.e. by releasing energy in the form of heat. These observations demonstrate that quantum mechanical processes can play a major role in shaping key biological functions.

Research Report:Reassessing the role and lifetime of Qx in the energy transfer dynamics of chlorophyll a

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HZB sets new efficiency record for CIGS perovskite tandem solar cells

Published

3 hours ago

February 5, 2025

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HZB sets new efficiency record for CIGS perovskite tandem solar cells

by Robert Schreiber

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Feb 05, 2025

Researchers at Helmholtz Center Berlin for Materials and Energy (HZB) and Humboldt University Berlin have developed a CIGS-perovskite tandem solar cell that has set a new world record for efficiency, achieving 24.6%. The performance of the cell has been officially certified by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems.

Thin-film solar cells, such as those based on copper, indium, gallium, and selenium (CIGS), require minimal material and energy to manufacture, making them an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional silicon-based solar cells. CIGS thin films can also be applied to flexible substrates, expanding their potential applications.

The new tandem solar cell developed by HZB and Humboldt University combines a CIGS bottom cell with a perovskite top cell. By optimizing the contact layers between these two components, the research team successfully increased efficiency to a record-breaking 24.6%. This milestone was confirmed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in Freiburg, Germany.

This achievement was made possible through a collaborative effort among researchers. The top cell was developed by Thede Mehlhop, a master’s student at TU Berlin, under the supervision of Stefan Gall. The perovskite absorber layer was created in the joint laboratory of HZB and Humboldt University Berlin, while the CIGS sub-cell and contact layers were fabricated by HZB researcher Guillermo Farias Basulto. Additionally, the KOALA high-performance cluster system at HZB was used to deposit the perovskite and contact layers in a vacuum.

“At HZB, we have highly specialized laboratories and experts who are top performers in their fields. With this world record tandem cell, they have once again shown how fruitfully they work together,” said Prof. Rutger Schlatmann, spokesman for the Solar Energy Department at HZB.

HZB has a strong track record in achieving world records in solar cell efficiency, including past accomplishments in silicon-perovskite tandem cells and now in CIGS-perovskite tandem technology.

“We are confident that CIGS-perovskite tandem cells can achieve much higher efficiencies, probably more than 30%,” said Prof. Rutger Schlatmann.