// energy

Source: Slashdot: Hardware

A team at the University of [institution] has engineered tin-based perovskite solar cells that retain thermal energy 1,000 times longer than conventional silicon cells, potentially circumventing the Shockley-Queisser limit that has capped single-junction solar efficiency at 33% for decades. Using tin instead of lead reduces heat loss—addressing the largest source of wasted power in current photovoltaic design, where phonons (heat energy) escape before conversion. At scale and with viable manufacturing costs, this approach could deliver 40%+ efficiency gains.

Source: Christopherchico

Western battery startups promised production capacities they couldn't engineer or finance, collapsing under the gap between announcement and execution. The failures expose a structural problem in battery funding: investors reward headline tonnage capacity rather than unit economics, manufacturing feasibility, or path to profitability. This gap between what venture capital rewards and what makes a company viable has pushed founders toward overstatement before the underlying technology matures.

Source: Ars Technica

Researchers have created photovoltaic cells that convert bioluminescent light and other wavelengths into electricity in aquatic environments. The technology could power deep-sea sensors, underwater drones, and remote monitoring systems that currently rely on batteries or tethered power. Most deep-sea operations lose power capacity quickly, limiting deployment time and requiring expensive service missions. Persistent underwater networks for climate monitoring, mineral extraction sites, and submarine infrastructure would reduce that constraint. Scaling and efficiency gains remain the engineering hurdle between lab demo and commercial deployment.