Solar Energy

Space-starved Singapore builds floating solar farms in climate fight

Published

4 years ago

March 8, 2021

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Space-starved Singapore builds floating solar farms in climate fight

Thousands of panels glinting in the sun stretch into the sea off Singapore, part of the land-scarce city-state’s push to build floating solar farms to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

It may be one of the world’s smallest countries, but the prosperous financial hub is among the biggest per capita carbon dioxide emitters in Asia.

And while authorities have been pushing to change that, renewable energy is a challenge in a country with no rivers for hydro-electricity and where the wind is not strong enough to power turbines.

So the tropical country turned to solar power — however, with little land space in a place half the size of Los Angeles, it has resorted to setting up energy plants off its coasts and on reservoirs.

“”After exhausting the rooftops and the available land, which is very scarce, the next big potential is actually our water area,” said Jen Tan, senior vice president and head of solar in Southeast Asia at conglomerate Sembcorp Industries, which is building a project.

An island-state threatened by rising sea levels because of climate change, Singapore is aware of the urgency of cutting emissions, although critics say authorities’ environmental commitments have thus far fallen short.

The government last month unveiled a wide-ranging “green plan” that included steps such as planting more trees, reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills and building more charging points to encourage the use of electric cars.

Among the measures is increasing solar energy use four-fold to around two percent of the nation’s power needs by 2025, and to three percent by 2030 — enough for 350,000 households per year.

As well as on water, solar power plants have already been built on rooftops and on the ground.

– ‘New frontier’ –

One newly built solar farm spreads out from the coast into the Johor Strait, which separates Singapore from Malaysia.

The 13,000 panels are anchored to the seabed and can produce five megawatts of electricity, enough to power 1,400 flats for an entire year.

“The sea is a new frontier for solar to be installed,” said Shawn Tan, vice president for engineering at Singaporean firm Sunseap Group, which completed the project in January.

“We hope that this will set a precedent to have more floating projects in the sea in Singapore and neighbouring countries.”

Under development at Tengeh Reservoir is a far bigger project — once completed later this year, the 122,000-panel solar farm will be one of the biggest in Southeast Asia covering an area the size of 45 football pitches.

The project, developed by Sembcorp and the national water agency Public Utilities Board, will generate enough power to meet the energy needs of Singapore’s water treatment plants, said the agency’s senior planner Sharon Zheng.

This will lead to a reduction in carbon emissions equivalent to removing 7,000 cars from the roads.

The solar panels are imported from China, the world’s largest manufacturer of the technology, and anchored to the floor of the reservoir with blocks of concrete.

– ‘Insufficient’ targets –

But the maritime hub could even face some space constraints when it comes to floating solar, said Subhod Mhaisalkar, executive director of the Energy Research Institute at the city-state’s Nanyang Technological University.

“Do you use the ocean waters for deploying solar, or do you use it for shipping?” he told AFP.

And despite the push for green power, the city-state will struggle to wean itself off a reliance on climate-damaging natural gas, and to cut emissions without impacting its refining and petrochemical sectors.

In addition, projects such as floating solar farms are not enough unless backed up with a greater official commitment to cut emissions, said Red Constantino, executive director of the Philippines-based Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities.

Singapore has pledged to halve its 2030 peak greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and achieve net zero emissions “as soon as viable” in the second half of the century.

But this is behind other developed economies, and the Climate Action Tracker, which tracks governments’ commitments, has classified its targets as “highly insufficient”.

Singapore is not doing its “fair share”, Constantino told AFP, adding the solar farms risked becoming “mere bling” unless the government moved faster.

“They need to set a higher absolute target. Such a target sends a signal to the very business community by which Singapore’s economy thrives.”

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Solar Energy

Buried interface engineering drives advances in tin-lead perovskite solar cell efficiency

Published

2 days ago

December 20, 2024

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Buried interface engineering drives advances in tin-lead perovskite solar cell efficiency

by Simon Mansfield

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Dec 20, 2024

A team led by Prof. Meng Li from Henan University’s School of Nanoscience and Materials Engineering has unveiled an innovative approach to overcoming stability and efficiency challenges in tin-lead (Sn-Pb) perovskite solar cells. The researchers’ work focuses on optimizing the buried hole-selective interface using a specially designed self-assembled material, offering major implications for single-junction and tandem solar cell technologies.

Tin-lead perovskites are valued for their narrow bandgap properties, which position them as key materials for producing high-efficiency solar cells. However, energy level mismatches and degradation at the buried interface have constrained both their performance and long-term stability. Addressing these issues, Prof. Meng’s team designed a boronic acid-anchored hole-selective contact material, 4-(9H-carbazole-9-yl)phenylboronic acid (4PBA).

Compared to conventional materials, 4PBA demonstrated superior stability and compatibility at the substrate surface. Its high adsorption energy of -5.24 eV and significant molecular dipole moment (4.524 D) improved energy level alignment between the substrate and perovskite layer, facilitating efficient charge extraction. Additionally, the interface engineered using 4PBA improved perovskite crystallization and substrate contact, reducing defects and non-radiative recombination.

These advancements enabled Sn-Pb perovskite solar cells incorporating 4PBA to achieve a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 23.45%. The material’s reduced corrosiveness also mitigated the degradation effects typically caused by PEDOT:PSS, a widely used hole-transport material, enhancing chemical stability and storage durability. The cells retained 93.5% of their initial efficiency after 2,000 hours of shelf storage.

“This approach offers a practical path to enhancing both the efficiency and stability of Sn-Pb perovskite solar cells, addressing energy level mismatches and interfacial stability concerns,” the research team commented.

The findings provide a foundation for advancing efficient and stable Sn-Pb perovskite solar cells and highlight the importance of interface engineering in next-generation photovoltaic technologies.

Research Report:Buried Hole-Selective Interface Engineering for High-Efficiency Tin-Lead Perovskite Solar Cells with Enhanced Interfacial Chemical Stability

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Solar Energy

New solar material advances green hydrogen production

Published

2 days ago

December 20, 2024

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New solar material advances green hydrogen production

by Simon Mansfield

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Dec 20, 2024

Researchers in nano-scale chemistry have made a significant stride in advancing the sustainable and efficient production of hydrogen from water using solar energy.

A collaborative international study led by Flinders University, with partners in South Australia, the US, and Germany, has identified a novel solar cell process that could play a crucial role in photocatalytic water splitting for green hydrogen production.

The research introduces a new class of kinetically stable ‘core and shell Sn(II)-perovskite’ oxide solar material. Paired with a catalyst developed by US researchers under Professor Paul Maggard, this material shows potential as a catalyst for the essential oxygen evolution reaction, a key step in generating pollution-free hydrogen energy.

The findings, published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, offer new insights into the development of carbon-free hydrogen technologies, leveraging renewable and greenhouse-gas-free power sources for high-performing and cost-effective electrolysis processes.

“This latest study is an important step forwards in understanding how these tin compounds can be stabilised and effective in water,” said Professor Gunther Andersson, lead author from the Flinders Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology.

Professor Paul Maggard, from Baylor University, added, “Our reported material points to a novel chemical strategy for absorbing the broad energy range of sunlight and using it to drive fuel-producing reactions at its surfaces.”

Tin and oxygen compounds like those used in the study are already applied in diverse fields such as catalysis, diagnostic imaging, and therapeutic drugs. However, Sn(II) compounds are typically reactive with water and dioxygen, limiting their technological potential.

Global solar photovoltaic research continues to focus on developing cost-effective, high-performance perovskite-based systems as alternatives to conventional silicon and other existing technologies.

Hydrogen, often touted as a clean fuel, can be produced through various processes, including electrolysis powered by renewable energy, thermochemical water splitting using concentrated solar power, or waste heat from nuclear reactors. While fossil fuels and biomass can also generate hydrogen, the environmental and energy efficiency depends largely on the production method.

Solar-driven hydrogen production, which uses light to initiate the process, is emerging as a promising alternative for industrial-scale hydrogen generation.

This study builds on earlier research led by Professor Maggard, initially at North Carolina State University and now at Baylor University, and includes contributions from University of Adelaide experts such as Professor Greg Metha and collaborators from Universitat Munster in Germany. Professor Metha’s work explores the photocatalytic activity of metal clusters on oxide surfaces for reactor technologies.

Research Report:Chemical and Valence Electron Structure of the Core and Shell of Sn(II)-Perovskite Oxide Nanoshells

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Solar Energy

University of Houston scientists solving meteorological mysteries on Mars

Published

2 days ago

December 20, 2024

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University of Houston scientists solving meteorological mysteries on Mars

by Bryan Luhn for UH News

Houston TX (SPX) Dec 20, 2024

A groundbreaking achievement by scientists at the University of Houston is changing our understanding of climate and weather on Mars and providing critical insights into Earth’s atmospheric processes as well.

The study, led by Larry Guan, a graduate student in the Department of Physics at UH’s College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, under the guidance of his advisors, Professor Liming Li from the Department of Physics and Professor Xun Jiang from the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and several world-renowned planetary scientists, generated the first-ever meridional profile of Mars’ radiant energy budget, or REB, which represents the balance or imbalance between absorbed solar energy and emitted thermal energy across the latitudes. On a global scale, an energy surplus leads to global warming, while a deficit results in global cooling. Furthermore, the meridional profile of Mars’ REB fundamentally influences weather and climate patterns on the red planet.

The findings are in a new paper just published in AGU Advances and will be featured in AGU’s prestigious science magazine EOS.

“The work in establishing Mars’ first meridional radiant energy budget profile is noteworthy,” Guan said. “Understanding Earth’s large-scale climate and atmospheric circulation relies heavily on REB profiles, so having one for Mars allows critical climatological comparisons and lays the groundwork for Martian meteorology.”

The profile, based on long-term observations from orbiting spacecraft, offers a detailed comparison of Mars’ REB to that of Earth, uncovering striking differences in the way each planet receives and radiates energy. While Earth exhibits an energy surplus in the tropics and a deficit in the polar regions, Mars displays the opposite configuration.

“On Earth, the tropical energy surplus drives warming and upward atmospheric motion, while the polar energy deficit causes cooling and downward atmospheric motion,” Jiang explained. “These atmospheric motions significantly influence weather and climate on our home planet. However, on Mars, we observe a polar energy surplus and a tropical energy deficit.”

That surplus, Guan says, is especially pronounced in Mars’ southern hemisphere during spring, playing a critical role in driving the planet’s atmospheric circulation and triggering global dust storms, the most prominent feature of Martian weather. These massive storms, which can envelop the entire planet, significantly alter the distribution of energy, providing a dynamic element that affects Mars’ weather patterns and climate.

“The interaction between dust storms and the REB, as well as with polar ice dynamics, brings to light the complex feedback processes that likely shape Martian weather patterns and long-term climate stability,” Guan said.

Earth’s global-scale energy imbalance has been recently discovered, which significantly contributes to global warming at a magnitude comparable to that caused by increasing greenhouse gases. Mars presents a distinct environment due to its thinner atmosphere and lack of anthropogenic effects. The research team is now examining potential long-term energy imbalances on Mars and their implications for the planet’s climate evolution.

“The REB difference between the two planets is truly fascinating, so continued monitoring will deepen our understanding of Mars’ climate dynamics,” Li said. “This research not only deepens our knowledge of the red planet but also provides critical insights into planetary atmospheric processes.”

Research Report:Distinct Energy Budgets of Mars and Earth