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Perovskite-silicon solar cell combination helps researchers achieve high efficiency in photovoltaic power generation Scientists developed a tandem cell pairing two materials to convert sunlight into electricity. Their technique could help increase the amount of energy generated at a reasonable cost. © CHEOPS Photovoltaic systems, which harvest sustainable and clean energy from the sun, continue expanding faster than any other renewable energy source thanks to ever-reducing costs. In that regard, silicon-based solar cells dominate the market due to their high efficiency and stability at low processing costs. But other devices, based on the emerging perovskite technology, have also entered the spotlight. This technology appears especially promising as it may be used to boost the efficiency of silicon cells further. A team of researchers partially supported by the EU-funded CHEOPS project have combined silicon and perovskite-based cells in a ‘tandem’ formation to deliver mor...

Volvo Jump-Starts Polestar As Performance Electric Car Brand Volvo’s indelible print on the history of cars has earned it a good place in the eyes of many. Volvo was the carmaker that invented the three-point seatbelt found in every car today. Instead of keeping the IP, it opened it up to everyone — the right thing to do. But Volvo and electric haven’t mixed too much so far … yet. Volvo Polestar Is EV Performance So far, in the world of EV performance, Tesla stands almost alone. Of course, Tesla has plenty of car companies nibbling at its heels. But for the most part, these companies are startups or overwhelmed traditional carmakers. Germany is boisterous about EVs in the future and most likely Porsche can capture hearts as it always has. So will Jaguar Land Rover and a few others. It seems as though  Volvo  is one of those brands as well. Volvo is mostly about safety, but over the past few decades has shed its Californian Berkley or upper East Coast look and f...

Arun – III Hydropower Project The Arun-III hydropower plant will be developed on the Arun River in Sankhuwasabha District of Province 1, East Nepal. It is an export-oriented project with a power generation capacity of 900MW. Estimated to cost $1.04bn, the hydropower plant will produce 4,018.87 million units of electricity a year. It is being developed on a build-own-operate and transfer (BOOT) basis by Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) Arun 3 Power Development Company (SAPDC), a joint venture of the Government of India and the Government of Himachal Pradesh. SJVN was established in 2013 with an aim to plan, promote, organise and execute the Arun-III power plant. SJVN signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the execution of the project with the Government of Nepal (GoN) in March 2008. SJVN will operate the power plant for a concession period of 30 years, following which the ownership will be transferred to the GoN. It will provide 21.9% of free power to Nepal during the c...

Gujarat farmers can now produce, sell solar power under Suryashakti Kishan Yojana Gujarat is poised to become the first state in the country to roll out a scheme where farmers can generate electricity using solar energy and sell the surplus to the electric grid. Chief minister Vijay Rupani on Saturday announced Suryashakti Kishan Yojana or SKY as it’s called as per which farmers, besides producing electricity for farm and irrigation purposes, can also sell surplus power to the state owned power companies at Rs7 per unit for a period of seven years under this scheme. The state government today launched a pilot project for the scheme which aims to cover 33 districts by setting up 137 feeders, covering 12,400 farmers. The cost of the pilot project is estimated to be about Rs870 crore, according to a state government statement. To produce 1,42,000 horse power of energy for irrigation through water pumps will require 177 megawatts of solar power generation in the pilot stag...

First Tesla Model SP100D stripped-down and race-ready is delivered to electric GT team After a few delays and setback over the last year, Electric GT, the Tesla racing championship, is now pushing ahead for the first season to start at the end of the year. Now they have delivered the first Tesla Model S P100D stripped-down and race-ready to one of the Electric GT teams that will be competing in the championship. The company first planned to launch its championship with the Tesla Model S P85+, but they instead decided to use the Tesla Model S P100D with ‘Ludicrous+’ after it was announced. They claim that  a stripped-down racetrack-ready Tesla Model S P100D   can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 2.0 seconds (0 to 100 km/h in 2.1 seconds). The change turned out to be a good decision since they ended up  crashing their original Tesla Model S prototype race car during testing. As for their modified Model S P100D, they have cl...

MIT engineers replace chefs with machines with "world's first" robotic kitchen Four engineers from  MIT  have opened a fast-food restaurant in Boston that uses mechanical woks to autonomously prepare meals in under three minutes Billed as the "world's first"  robotic  kitchen, the  Spyce  restaurant employs a series of seven automated cooking woks in place of human chefs. These robots are designed to simultaneously prepare  food  in three minutes or less. The project was born from four MIT engineering graduates' dissatisfaction with the high price tag placed on quality, fast food. In a bid to "reinvent" fast-food dining, they came up with the Spyce: a robotic kitchen that can serve up to 200 meals per hour costing around £5.60 each (approximately $7.50). "Spyce is at the intersection of hospitality and technology," said MIT graduates and founders Michael Farid, Kale Rogers, Luke Schlueter and Brady Knight, w...