Researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (California, United States) have developed a material that under the influence of light converts carbon dioxide (CO2) chemically into carbon monoxide (CO). By itself this is not really remarkable; however, the exceptional part is that this reaction does not create any undesirable byproducts. This discovery therefore means an important step in the direction of developing a technology that can produce fuels and other energy-dense compounds with the aid of a catalyst that operates from solar energy; at the same time this method would reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere (one of the infamous greenhouse gases)...

Decomposition of water using solar energy offers interesting possibilities for efficient large-scale conversion and storage of renewable energy. Researchers from the TU Delft and AMOLF have built an efficient and stable photo-electrode that absorbs light and directly decomposes water into hydrogen and oxygen. Silicon wafers are used for the light-absorbing material, so that the system is cheap as well.

At the Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT) research is being conducted under the framework of the EU subsidized PEGASUS-project to make renewable energy more suitable for baseload energy provision. Solar energy is a prime example of renewable energy, but the sun doesn't shine at night. So some kind of energy storage is required, which can be accumulated during the day and then used at night, before solar energy can provide a substantial contribution to baseload energy demand...

During a visit from some friends recently I was trying to think of some interesting activity for the older children in the party who seemed to be looking a bit bored. It dawned on me that they were about the right age for the Velleman Solar Energy Experiment Kit I had bought recently. The prospect of actually making some physical experiments definitely got a positive reaction, they stopped swiping their screens…

Sometimes a small, simple project posted on Elektor Labs may lead to new discoveries. Take this one, a converter for connecting an eBUS to a Raspberry Pi. eBUS? Never heard of it. Searching the internet reveals that the eBUS is a multi-master, two-wire communication bus intended for heating and solar energy appliances. The bus is based on RS-232 but has the data signals superposed on a DC voltage, allowing connected devices to be powered from the bus.

Wi-Fi is great, when the signal strength is good. Indoors this is usually the case, but if you want to extend your network to cover for instance the garden all the way down to the shed, you will probably run into problems at some point. This is where Wi-Fi range extenders come in, or repeaters. Some Wi-Fi routers can also be configured as a repeater, but they often need a finger to push the power button before they will switch on. Here is a project to work around this silly problem. It allows you to have a repeater that remains on all the time, and, what’s more, it is solar-powered too. No need to dig trenches to bury the power cable in, and always a good connection.

Build your own eBUS converter for a few bucks. Only 13 components are necessary.

Always on, solar powered, stand-alone 24/7 Wi-Fi repeater.

Researchers at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and the Centre Suisse d’Electronique et de Microtechnique have made a prototype solar panel which converts solar energy directly into hydrogen. They have succeeded in designing a robust and effective system using three crystalline solar cells that are connected to an electrolysis system that has an efficiency of 14.2%. An important feature is that no rare metals are required and that the team used only proven parts to assemble the system.

The TUDelft has been working on a wireless charging station for electric bicycles that operates from solar energy. The charging station derives its energy requirements from eight solar panels which transfer their energy via a DC-net directly to the battery in the bicycle.