Solar Energy

Toward new solar cells with active learning

Published

4 years ago

April 25, 2021

sarosh

Toward new solar cells with active learning

How can I prepare myself for something I do not yet know? Scientists from the Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin and from the Technical University of Munich have addressed this almost philosophical question in the context of machine learning. Learning is no more than drawing on prior experience. In order to deal with a new situation, one needs to have dealt with roughly similar situations before.

In machine learning, this correspondingly means that a learning algorithm needs to have been exposed to roughly similar data. But what can we do if there is a nearly infinite amount of possibilities so that it is simply impossible to generate data that covers all situations?

This problem comes up a lot when dealing with an endless number of possible candidate molecules. Organic semiconductors enable important future technologies such as portable solar cells or rollable displays.

For such applications, improved organic molecules – which make up these materials – need to be discovered. Tasks of this nature are increasingly using methods of machine learning, while training on data from computer simulations or experiments.

The number of potentially possible small organic molecules is, however, estimated to be on the order of 1033. This overwhelming number of possibilities makes it practically impossible to generate enough data to reflect such a large material diversity. In addition, many of those molecules are not even suitable for organic semiconductors. One is essentially looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack.

In their work published recently in Nature Communications the team around Prof. Karsten Reuter, Director of the Theory Department at the Fritz-Haber-Institute, addressed this problem using so-called active learning. Instead of learning from existing data, the machine learning algorithm iteratively decides for itself which data it actually needs to learn about the problem.

The scientists first carry out simulations on a few smaller molecules, and obtain data related to the molecules’ electrical conductivity – a measure of their usefulness when looking at possible solar cell materials. Based on this data, the algorithm decides if small modifications to these molecules could already lead to useful properties or whether it is uncertain due to a lack of similar data.

In both cases, it automatically requests new simulations, improves itself through the newly generated data, considers new molecules, and goes on to repeat this procedure.

In their work, the scientists show how new and promising molecules can efficiently be identified this way, while the algorithm continues its exploration into the vast molecular space, even now, at this very moment. Every week new molecules are being proposed that could usher in the next generation of solar cells and the algorithm just keeps getting better and better.

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Solar Energy

Rocket Lab launches tailored solar arrays for next gen satellite missions

Published

1 day ago

April 10, 2025

sarosh

Rocket Lab launches tailored solar arrays for next gen satellite missions

by Clarence Oxford

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Apr 10, 2025

USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) has unveiled a new suite of customizable solar arrays, branded as STARRAY, aimed at addressing the broad spectrum of satellite power demands across all orbital environments. The official debut took place during the 40th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

STARRAY systems are engineered for adaptability, delivering power outputs ranging from around 100 watts to over 2,000 watts. This is achieved through modular configurations of up to four panels per wing and Rocket Lab’s highest-performing radiation-hardened quadruple junction solar cells. The design provides customers with a plug-and-play option that balances rapid deployment, mission-specific tuning, and cost-efficiency without extensive redesign.

Rocket Lab is uniquely positioned with the industry’s only fully vertically integrated solar array production line. The company manages every stage of the process in-house, from fabricating solar cells and CICs (cell interconnect covers) to assembling complete panels and integrated arrays.

“Our objective is to offer the industry mission-specific customization with short lead times and lower costs,” said Brad Clevenger, Vice President of Space Systems at Rocket Lab. “Customers can choose from a range of pre-engineered solar array configurations to meet the needs of their application while leveraging the flight-proven reliability, performance, and speed of Rocket Lab’s vertically-integrated manufacturing.”

Rocket Lab’s heritage in solar technology spans over two decades, having supported a wide array of high-profile missions. These include contributions to national security platforms, deep space science ventures like the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA’s Artemis lunar initiatives, and Mars explorers such as Ingenuity and the Insight Lander. Commercially, Rocket Lab’s arrays are also powering over 1,100 satellites in orbit today, notably OneWeb’s GEN1 constellation, which delivers broadband internet from low Earth orbit.

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Solar Energy

Solar panels from Moon dust may revolutionize lunar energy supply

Published

1 day ago

April 10, 2025

sarosh

Solar panels from Moon dust may revolutionize lunar energy supply

by Clarence Oxford

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Apr 10, 2025

In a significant advance for lunar sustainability, scientists have fabricated solar cells using simulated Moon dust, offering a lightweight, radiation-resistant energy source for future Moon missions. The research, published April 3 in Device, a journal from Cell Press, outlines a new approach that could drastically reduce the need to ship bulky materials from Earth.

“Current space-grade solar cells can hit 30% to 40% efficiency, but they come with a hefty cost in both dollars and mass,” explained Felix Lang of the University of Potsdam. “These cells rely on heavy glass or thick foils, and the expense of launching them into orbit is substantial.”

Lang and his team propose bypassing these constraints by sourcing materials directly from the Moon. Their concept replaces terrestrial glass with moonglass-glass made from lunar regolith. According to their calculations, this switch could lower a mission’s payload mass by up to 99.4% and reduce related transport expenses by 99%, paving the way for scalable energy infrastructure on the lunar surface.

To test their hypothesis, the researchers melted a synthetic version of Moon dust to create moonglass, then used it as the base for solar panels built with perovskite crystals. These materials are known for their low cost, ease of manufacture, and strong solar-to-electricity conversion capabilities. The resulting panels outperformed conventional ones in energy output per gram, delivering up to 100 times more energy for every unit of mass deployed.

“If you can reduce the weight by 99%, ultra-efficient 30% cells are no longer a requirement-you can just manufacture more of them on the Moon,” said Lang. “And our prototypes are also more resilient to radiation, unlike conventional cells that degrade over time.”

The team subjected the new solar cells to radiation levels typical of space environments. The results were promising: while standard glass darkens with exposure-hindering light transmission and efficiency-moonglass retains its performance. Its natural impurities give it a brown tint that resists further discoloration and stabilizes the material against radiation damage.

Fabricating moonglass proved to be straightforward. The process demands no complex purification steps, and the high temperatures needed for melting can be achieved using concentrated sunlight-an abundant resource on the Moon. With careful adjustments to glass thickness and the solar cell’s internal structure, the team reached 10% efficiency. They project that more transparent moonglass could boost this to 23%.

Nevertheless, lunar manufacturing poses unique hurdles. The Moon’s low gravity may alter how molten regolith solidifies. Existing perovskite processing techniques rely on solvents that evaporate poorly in a vacuum. Moreover, extreme temperature swings threaten material stability. To address these variables, the researchers plan to launch a small demonstration to the Moon, where their solar cells can be tested under actual lunar conditions.

“From building structures to extracting fuel, Moon dust is becoming a versatile tool for future missions,” Lang noted. “Now, we may be able to turn it into solar cells as well, laying the groundwork for a self-sustaining lunar base.”

Research Report:Moon photovoltaics utilizing lunar regolith and halide perovskites

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Solar Energy

Cuba looks to sun to solve its energy crisis

Published

4 days ago

April 7, 2025

sarosh

Cuba looks to sun to solve its energy crisis

By Leticia PINEDA

Cienfuegos, Cuba (AFP) April 4, 2025

Not far from the ruins of an unfinished nuclear power plant in the Cuban province of Cienfuegos, hundreds of workers are hastily installing 44,000 solar panels as the island seeks once again to reduce its reliance on oil to escape an energy crisis.

Forty years ago, the solution was thought to be Russian nuclear energy. This time, it is the sun. With help from China.

Dozens of containers with Chinese inscriptions are lined up at the “La Yuca” photovoltaic park, where forklifts loaded with solar panels weave between the concrete frames that will hold them.

“We are laying wires, digging trenches and installing panels,” a worker on the project, to be completed in May, explained of the frenetic activity.

Cuba, an island of some 10 million inhabitants, remains highly dependent on fossil fuels to operate its eight outdated thermoelectric power plants, most of them online since the 1980s and ’90s and prone to frequent breakdowns.

The communist government has approved the construction of 55 solar parks by 2025.

Five of them will be in the central province of Cienfuegos, that also hosts an industrial port and a refinery, and was chosen in the 1980s to host a Soviet-funded nuclear power plant that was aborted half-built when the USSR collapsed.

Cuba’s fragile electric grid has gone offline four times in the past six months, plunging the majority of the country into darkness, sometimes for days on end.

Most of the country faces near-daily outages blamed mainly on fuel shortages.

“More than half of all the fuel consumed by the country goes towards electricity production,” Energy and Mines Minister Vicente de la O Levy recently told state-run newspaper Granma.

– Millions of dollars –

Most of the oil has come from Venezuela which, like Cuba, is under US sanctions and has seen the administration of President Donald Trump recently revoke licenses that allowed transnational companies to extract crude there.

The country also uses floating electric plants rented from a Turkish company, and generators fueled by crude oil even as there is not enough petrol for the island’s cars, tractors and ambulances.

The country produces about a third of the fuel it consumes from domestic oil fields, and imports the rest.

De la O Levy has said solar parks are at the heart of Cuba’s renewable energy goals because the “investments are cheaper, they are built more quickly, and can be spread throughout the country.”

The communist island, grappling with its worst economic crisis in decades, aims to generate 12 percent of its energy from renewable sources by the end of 2025 and 37 percent by 2030.

By the end of this year, it hopes to produce 1,200 MW per day from solar energy — almost equal to its daily electricity deficit of 1,500 MW.

The ambitious project requires investment of several million dollars, and with few Western friends, Cuba has gladly accepted support from what the presidency described in February as “the sister nation of #China.”

A total cost estimate has not been made public.

– ‘The quickest way’ –

Just 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) from “La Yuca” stands an imposing steel dome designed to protect what was going to be a nuclear reactor — the last large-scale attempt to change Cuba’s energy mix.

Russian inscriptions are still visible on its thick concrete walls.

The project was canceled in 1992 by then-president Fidel Castro after the fall of the USSR, a Cuban ally, which had largely financed the project and provided physicists and engineers.

Eliecer Machin, a thermophysicist trained in the USSR who still lives in the “nuclear city” built to house the would-be power plant’s personnel, recalls the “hard blow” when it was shuttered.

The 60-year-old now makes a living as a pig farmer.

Today, as a result of mistakes made in the past, he said, solar is “the quickest way to obtain energy.”

University of Texas researcher Jorge Pinon said the solar energy would mean little if Cuba doesn’t have batteries to store it for use in periods of darkness.

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