Tootfinder

"What actually happened was that a minor instability, possibly caused by a solar farm, spiraled into a bigger problem when conventional generators (most of them gas-fired) failed to supply the grid-balancing services they’d been paid for. That in turn caused swaths of power plants to disconnect to protect themselves, similar to what happens in your home when the fuse box trips."
#Spain

"2025: A landmark year for solar energy"
#SolarPower #Energy #Renewables

2025: A landmark year for solar energy
The IEA-PVPS 2025 Snapshot of Global PV Markets reveals a pivotal moment for solar power: global PV capacity surpassed 2.2 TW, with more than 600 GW installed in 2024 alone. As module prices fell due to oversupply, installation volumes continued to grow, highlighting both the strength and volatility of the global PV industry.

On G83-Lite: Solar Nanogeneration For Everyone (2009) - Learn how plug-in solar curtain linings could trim your home power bill and footprint... #solar #balconySolar #nanogeneration -

On G83-Lite: Solar Nanogeneration For Everyone (2009)
Learn how plug-in solar curtain linings could trim your home power bill and footprint... #solar #balconySolar #nanogeneration

High-efficiency WSe$_2$ photovoltaics enabled by ultra-clean van der Waals contacts
Kamal Kumar Paul, Cullen Chosy, Soumya Sarkar, Zhuangnan Li, Han Yan, Ye Wang, Leyi Loh, Lixin Liu, Hu Young Jeong, Samuel D. Stranks, Yan Wang, Manish Chhowalla
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.14733

High-efficiency WSe$_2$ photovoltaics enabled by ultra-clean van der Waals contacts
Layered transition metal dichalcogenide semiconductors are interesting for photovoltaics owing to their high solar absorbance and efficient carrier diffusion. Tungsten diselenide (WSe$_2$), in particular, has emerged as a promising solar cell absorber. However, defective metal-semiconductor interfaces have restricted the power conversion efficiency (PCE) to approximately 6%. Here we report WSe$_2$ photovoltaics with a record-high PCE of approximately 11% enabled by ultra-clean indium/gold (In/A…

Uh, World Bank, solar?
World Bank Lifts Ban on Nuclear Power, Considers Upstream Gas | Financial Post
https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/world-bank-lifts-ban-on-nuclear-power-considers-upstream-gas

"Brunei to host 30 MW solar plant"
#Brunei #Solar #SolarPower #Energy

Brunei to host 30 MW solar plant
A joint venture partly owned by a subsidiary of Malaysia’s Solarvest will build Brunei’s first utility-scale solar plant under a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Brunei government.

The world's data centers already consume three times as much electricity as Dutch national consumption. And this is expected to grow to 8 times within five years.
https://mastodon.green/@solar_chase/114556281180000861

Total Power and Low-energy Cut-off Time Evolution of Solar Flare Accelerated Electrons Using X-Ray Observations and Warm-Target Model
Debesh Bhattacharjee (School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK), Eduard P. Kontar (School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK), Yingjie Luo (School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK)

Total Power and Low-energy Cut-off Time Evolution of Solar Flare Accelerated Electrons Using X-Ray Observations and Warm-Target Model
A primary characteristic of solar flares is the efficient acceleration of electrons to nonthermal deka-keV energies. While hard X-Ray (HXR) observation of bremsstrahlung emission serves as the key diagnostic of these electrons. In this study, we investigate the time evolution of flare-accelerated electrons using the warm-target model. This model, unlike the commonly used cold-target model, can determine the low-energy cut-off in the nonthermal electron distribution, so that the energetics of no…

I wouldn't over-claim re China's emissions reduction.
The reduction is only 1% and still likely to change to an increase.
Moreover, "Many wind and solar power projects have been halted across multiple Chinese regions "after a shift to market pricing. …

Chinese Wind, Solar Projects Shut Amid Shift to Market‐Based Pricing

Investment Risk for Energy Infrastructure Construction Is Highest for #NuclearPower Plants, Lowest for #Solar

Investment Risk for Energy Infrastructure Construction Is Highest for Nuclear Power Plants, Lowest for Solar - CleanTechnica
A new study from the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability finds that construction costs run over budget for more than 60% of energy infrastructure projects worldwide. By Laura Hurley Between now and 2050, the International Energy Agency projects that more than $100 trillion will be spent on building net-zero energy infrastructure globally. ... [continued]

State constrained stochastic optimal control of a PV system with battery storage via Fokker-Planck and Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations
Alfredo Berm\'udez, Iago Pad\'in
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.11765

State constrained stochastic optimal control of a PV system with battery storage via Fokker-Planck and Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations
With the growing global emphasis on sustainability and the implementation of contemporary environmental policies, the penetration of renewable energy sources has significantly increased --primarily due to their inexhaustible nature. In this context, integrating photovoltaic (PV) modules with energy storage systems offers a means to mitigate the inherent variability of solar energy. This paper proposes an optimal methodology for power management and market bidding strategies tailored to PV power…

Grist.org: Balcony solar took off in Germany. Why not the US?
https://grist.org/energy/balcony-solar-took-off-in-germany-why-not-the-us/

Balcony solar took off in Germany. Why not the US?
From breaker-masking to voltage mismatches to building safety codes, America’s grid isn’t ready for balcony solar power — yet.

The Economic Dispatch of Power-to-Gas Systems with Deep Reinforcement Learning:Tackling the Challenge of Delayed Rewards with Long-Term Energy Storage
Manuel Sage, Khalil Al Handawi, Yaoyao Fiona Zhao
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.06484

The Economic Dispatch of Power-to-Gas Systems with Deep Reinforcement Learning:Tackling the Challenge of Delayed Rewards with Long-Term Energy Storage
Power-to-Gas (P2G) technologies gain recognition for enabling the integration of intermittent renewables, such as wind and solar, into electricity grids. However, determining the most cost-effective operation of these systems is complex due to the volatile nature of renewable energy, electricity prices, and loads. Additionally, P2G systems are less efficient in converting and storing energy compared to battery energy storage systems (BESs), and the benefits of converting electricity into gas ar…

I got myself a portable solar panel, which I can use while camping and at home for charging power banks. I’m very impressed with how well it works, even on a cloudy day! The purpose of the panel is basically to power my power banks so I have green energy to charge my phone, tablet, headphones, USB lights, and electric toothbrush. It’s not much, but every bit helps to keep the bill lower.
#PortableSolarPanel

Variations in Dominant Wave Period in the Solar Atmosphere
Pradeep Kayshap, K. Murawski, Z. E. Musielak, Suresh Babu
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.07493 https…

Variations in Dominant Wave Period in the Solar Atmosphere
Waves are an integral part of the solar atmosphere, and their characteristics (e.g., dominant period, range of periods, power, and phase angle) change on a diverse spatio-temporal scale. It is well well-established observationally that the dominant periods of solar oscillations are 5-min and 3-min in the photosphere and chromosphere, respectively. This shows that the wave spectra and their dominant periods evolve between these two layers. We present observational results that demonstrate variat…

"Brazil generates 88% of power from renewables in 2024"
#Brazil #Energy #Renewables

Brazil generates 88% of power from renewables in 2024
Brazil’s electricity mix was 88% renewable in 2024, with wind and solar supplying about 24% of total demand, according to new data from state-owned energy agency Empresa de Pesquisa Energetica (EPE).

£13.2bn fund to fix draughty homes and install heat pumps and solar panels.
Nothing else that I can see on reduction of energy demand.
And here is the money being wasted:
'£30bn in investment in nuclear power, about half on the Sizewell C reactor'
Small tidal schemes in the Mersey, Severn and other estuaries would give a better, and safer, approach to "always on" energy supply.

It's funny how these old closed down coal power plants are coming back online since PJM won't allow crypto mining onto the electric grid. Solar farms are popping up all over (confused because they could do so much better in other places than where it's cloudier than Seattle), but they aren't allowed to connect because a national company forgot to obtain a permit by some hillbilly township with a population of 3.

Might be a shot in the dark, but is there anyone out there self-hosting Navidrome on a Raspberry Pi (or other device), and powering it using solar power?
#navidrome #raspberrypi #solarpower

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.01643 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arX…

A Polarimetry-based Field-deployable Non-interruptive Mirror Soiling Detection Method
The soiling level of heliostat mirrors in Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) fields is one of the key factors that significantly influences optical efficiency. State-of-the-art methods of monitoring heliostats soiling levels still face various challenges, including slow speed, labor-intensive operations, resolution and accuracy constraints or interruptions to solar field operations. We present a rapid, cost-effective, and non-intrusive method for mirror soiling detection based on polarimetric imagi…

Superstrate structured Sb$_2$S$_3$ thin-film solar cells by magnetron sputtering of Sb and post-sulfurization
Evgeniia Gilshtein, Harshvardhan Maheshkant Gupta, Andrea Maria Pierri Enevoldsen, Cristina Besleaga, Aurelian Catalin Galca, Stela Canulescu
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.01170

Superstrate structured Sb$_2$S$_3$ thin-film solar cells by magnetron sputtering of Sb and post-sulfurization
We report on the fabrication and optimization of semi-transparent antimony sulfide (Sb$_2$S$_3$) thin-film solar cells in a superstrate configuration, using RF magnetron sputtering of metallic antimony followed by post-deposition sulfurization. The influence of absorber and buffer layer thicknesses on device performance was systematically studied in FTO/CdS/Sb$_2$S$_3$/Spiro-OMeTAD/Au architectures. Optimizing the Sb$_2$S$_3$ absorber thickness to 100 nm yielded a champion device with a power c…

"Analysis: UK’s solar power surges 42% after sunniest spring on record"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #Solar #SolarPower

Analysis: UK’s solar power surges 42% after sunniest spring on record - Carbon Brief
The UK’s solar farms and rooftops generated more electricity than ever before in the first five months of 2025.

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.10053 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_…

De-Biasing Structure Function Estimates From Sparse Time Series of the Solar Wind: A Data-Driven Approach
Structure functions, which represent the moments of the increments of a stochastic process, are essential complementary statistics to power spectra for analysing the self-similar behaviour of a time series. However, many real-world environmental datasets, such as those collected by spacecraft monitoring the solar wind, contain gaps, which inevitably corrupt the statistics. The nature of this corruption for structure functions remains poorly understood - indeed, often overlooked. Here we simulat…

Time path of turbulence and multi-fractality of magnetic field in the evolution of an active region
Valentina Abramenko
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.02586 ht…

Time path of turbulence and multi-fractality of magnetic field in the evolution of an active region
Magnetograms acquired with the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) were used to calculate and analyze time variations of turbulence and multifractality in the photosphere during the development and flaring of a mature active region NOAA 13354 during its passage across the solar disk. Turbulence was explored with 2D magnetic power spectra from magnetograms, and multifractality was analyzed using the structure functions of magnetograms. Time vari…

"US adds 7.4 GW of clean power in Q1 2025, led by solar and storage"
#US #USA #America #SolarPOwer

US adds 7.4 GW of clean power in Q1 2025, led by solar and storage
The United States also installed a record 1.6 GW of grid-scale energy storage in the first quarter of 2025, according to a report from the American Clean Power Association (ACP).

Heliostat Optical Error Inspection with Polarimetric Imaging Drone
Mo Tian, Kolappan Chidambaranathan, Md Zubair Ebne Rafique, Neel Desai, Jing Bai, Randy Brost, Daniel Small, David Novick, Julius Yellowhair, Yu Yao
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.02333

Heliostat Optical Error Inspection with Polarimetric Imaging Drone
On a Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) field, optical errors have significant impacts on the collection efficiency of heliostats. Fast, cost-effective, labor-efficient, and non-intrusive autonomous field inspection remains a challenge. Approaches using imaging drone, i.e., Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) system integrated with high resolution visible imaging sensors, have been developed to address these challenges; however, these approaches are often limited by insufficient imaging contrast. Here we…

"Composite material keeps solar panels cool, boosting longevity by more than 200%"
#Solar #SolarPower #Energy #Renewables

Composite material keeps solar panels cool, boosting longevity by more than 200%
A team of international researchers led by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia has developed a new composite material made of acrylate that enhances the performance of solar cells. Adhering the composite material to solar cells deployed in Saudi Arabia for weeks significantly raised the power output and longevity while reducing the electricity consumed by the cells. The study can be read in Materials Science and Engineering: R: Reports.

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.00493 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_…

Asteroseismology of the G8 subgiant beta Aquilae with SONG-Tenerife, SONG-Australia and TESS
We present radial velocities of the G8 subgiant star beta Aql obtained in 2022 and 2023 using SONG-Tenerife and SONG-Australia. We also analysed a sector of TESS photometry that overlapped with the 2022 SONG data. We processed the time series to assign weights and to remove bad data points. The power spectrum clearly shows solar-like oscillations centred at 430 muHz. The TESS data show the oscillations at lower signal-to-noise because photometric measurements are much more affected by the granu…

Asteroseismology of the G8 subgiant beta Aquilae with SONG-Tenerife, SONG-Australia and TESS
Hans Kjeldsen, Timothy R. Bedding, Yaguang Li, Frank Grundahl, Mads Fredslund Andersen, Duncan J. Wright, Jack Soutter, Robert Wittenmyer, Claudia Reyes, Dennis Stello, Courtney Crawford, Yixiao Zhou, Mathieu Clerte, Pere L. Palle, Sergio Simon-Diaz, Joergen Christensen-Dalsgaard, Rasmus Handberg, Hasse Hansen, Paul Heeren, Jens Jessen-Hansen, Mikkel Lund, Mia S. Lundkvist, Karsten Brogaard, Re…

Asteroseismology of the G8 subgiant beta Aquilae with SONG-Tenerife, SONG-Australia and TESS
We present radial velocities of the G8 subgiant star beta Aql obtained in 2022 and 2023 using SONG-Tenerife and SONG-Australia. We also analysed a sector of TESS photometry that overlapped with the 2022 SONG data. We processed the time series to assign weights and to remove bad data points. The power spectrum clearly shows solar-like oscillations centred at 430 muHz. The TESS data show the oscillations at lower signal-to-noise because photometric measurements are much more affected by the granu…

"Meta adds another 650 MW of solar power to its AI push"
#Meta #SolarPower #Energy #Renewables

Meta adds another 650 MW of solar power to its AI push | TechCrunch
The company already has more than 12 gigawatts of capacity in its renewable power portfolio.