Photovoltaic

Implanting tiny solar panels into people's eyeballs may sound like science fiction, but that's exactly what a team of Australian scientists are working on. The next-gen tech could vastly improve quality of life for people with incurable eye diseases.

A new pacemaker is thinner than a human hair, wireless and operated entirely by light from an optic fiber. The non-invasive device could help regulate heart activity or even stimulate neurons in a set pattern to treat conditions like Parkinson’s.

The Dutch love to cycle. So much so that there are more than 35,000 km of cycle paths snaking through the Netherlands. Two of those bike routes have now been topped with photovoltaic cells to produce renewable energy while they face skyward.

Ordinarily, water is used to clean off the layer of dust that continuously accumulates on solar panels. In arid regions, however, doing so can be challenging. A new system addresses this problem, by substituting electrostatic repulsion for water.

While solar farms are a source of green energy, many people don't like the fact that they occupy land which could be otherwise utilized. A new project is exploring an alternative, by placing solar panels over canals that will benefit from the shade.

One of the problems with implants such as pacemakers is the fact that when their batteries run out, they have to be surgically replaced. It may someday be possible, though, to recharge those batteries by shining light through the patient's skin.

Budapest startup Platio has spent the last couple of years developing a modular, self-contained paving panel that harvests the sun's energy to produce electricity. The panels have recently been rolled out in front of a shopping mall, at a harbor and integrated into outdoor seating.

French Minister Ségolène Royal has today officially launched a kilometer long solar road project in Normandy. Nearly 3,000 Wattway panels are expected to produce an average of 767 kWh of electricity per day, peaking in summer months to as much as 1,500 kWh.

​Over 2 years after the laying a bunch of solar harvesting hexagonal panels at its Idaho electronics lab Solar Roadways has completed its first public installation. The City of Sandpoint, Idaho, is playing host to the proof of concept roll out, with 30 tiles now brightening up a town square.

A 33.4 MW photovoltaic solar array in the Dominican Republic has gone live this week. The installation at the Monte Plata solar facility is claimed to be the largest in the Caribbean and a planned second phase of the project is expected to take it to a capacity of 67 MW.

German solar technology firm Heliatek claims to have outdone themselves by setting a new world record for directly converting sunlight into electricity using organic photovoltaic cells.

The largest operational solar power plants in Australia have officially opened. The Nyngan and Broken Hill solar plants that were originally announced in 2013 are located in western New South Wales and boast a combined power output of 155 MW.