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Solar power

Latest guides, news and information

The environmental benefits of solar power are driving more and more people to explore the installation of solar panels for homes and businesses. With improvements in technology, solar power systems are a reliable and cost-efficient alternative to fossil fuel consumption.

<p>Combining solar panels with ‘shadow-friendly’ crops can significantly increase a land’s production potential, researchers say</p>

New solar panel concept reduces payback time to five years

<p>An illustration of how solar energy could be beamed to Earth via satellites</p>

First ever space-to-Earth solar power mission succeeds

<p>Ambient Photonics has commercialised a low-light photovoltaic cell that can harvest electricity indoors</p>

Indoor solar panel breakthrough offers endless power source

<p>We can expect technologies that will help and hinder our existence in 2024 </p>

Five tech predictions for the year ahead

<p>Solar panels floating in reservoirs could prevent evaporation and generate power</p>

Floating solar panels could power a third of the world - study

<p>Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, the world’s largest solar thermal power station, in the Mojave Desert near Nipton, California on February 27, 2022</p>

Solar will make up more than half of new US grid power in 2023

<p>Perovskite has been hailed as a ‘miracle material’ for its potential to radically transform everything from solar energy harvesting to internet speeds</p>

Scientists use ‘miracle material’ to convert plastic into fuel

Car makes record-breaking trip on single solar-powered charge

<p>Researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin announced on 19 December, 2022, that they had achieved a world record tandem solar cell efficiency of 32.5 per cent </p>

Solar power world record broken in ‘really big leap’ for renewables

<p>Solar panels in Shanghai. China is on course to build nearly half of all new global renewable power capacity over the next five years</p>

Renewable energy ‘turbocharged’ by global energy crisis, says IEA

<p>Solar panels resistant to space radiation will allow exploration to distant planets</p>

Solar panel discovery paves way for exploration of distant planets

<p>Huge solar energy output from Egypt will help provide clean energy to Europe via a massive undersea power cable</p>

Solar energy from Sahara to power European homes via undersea cable

<p>A silicon solar cell and perovskite cell developed by researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology</p>

‘Miracle material’ breaks solar cell efficiency record

<p>The mineral perovskite has been hailed for its potential to transform the solar power industry</p>

‘Miracle material’ breakthrough could revolutionise solar power

<p>Molecular Solar Thermal Energy Storage system can store the Sun’s energy on a chip for 18 years before releasing it as electricity</p>

Scientists figure out how to store solar energy for 18 years

<p>A space-based solar power station in orbit would catch the sun’s rays 24 hours a day and so could generate electricity continuously</p>

How exactly would a solar power station in space work?

<p>The Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project in Nevada, US, as seen from an airliner</p>

World passes 1TW of solar installations, enough to power Europe

<p>Peabody’s Shoal Creek in Alabama. Some 2.1 million tons of coal were sold from the mine in 2019 </p>

America’s biggest coal producer is getting into solar power

<p>Lorde performs at Radio City Music Hall on 26 January 2018 in New York City</p>

Lorde’s new song Solar Power released early in apparent mishap

A solar plant near El Salvador, in the Atacama desert, northern Chile. A massive project, to be located on public land in Southern California, has passed final approvals this week

Vast solar project in California desert gets green light

Households can earn beer for excess energy

Brewer offers beer in exchange for solar power

TV-Q&A-Jonathan Scott

One half of the ‘Property Brothers’ praises solar in doc

The HS1 line runs from St Pancras until it goes underground in Kent

HS1 to become first UK railway to run on renewable energy

A portable version of the device could be used to harvest water on expeditions in extreme environments

Solar energy breakthrough extracts drinkable water from ‘dry’ air

A solar thermal power plant in Dunhuang in China’s northwestern Gansu province. The World Energy Outlook 2020 from the International Energy Agency reported that solar power is now providing among the cheapest electricity in history

Solar is the ‘new king’ and offers ‘cheapest electricity in history’

'At least' 3GW of wind and 1.4GW of solar power must come online every year until 2050, the National Grid has said

UK electricity network emissions ‘could turn negative by 2033’