BioSolar announces the Production of BioBackSheet

           BioSolar Inc., a manufacturing company specialized in creating solar panel components, has discovered a technological technique that can help improve solar panels in a drastic way. Solar photovoltaic panels are originally equipped with a clear lamination coating, known as a backsheet, which protects the sensitive solar cells underneath. Generally, this coating would be developed from non-biodegradeable petroleum-based plastic and glass. However, BioSolar has developed a product, BioBackSheet, which is the coating made from cotton and castor beans.
          In some cases, while trying to use renewable energy resources, it can develop waste or pollution when creating and harvesting them. For instance, solar panels have increasingly been used and had produced an extreme amount of toxic and pollution, created by the production of the traditional backsheet. With this problematic issue, BioSolar has developed a solution, whereas a new era in solar power collection may be dawning in that materials, used to harvest energy, will be as clean as its energy source.
           To develop the BioBackSheet, BioSolar processes and uses cotton rags to provide the strength needed to withstand the harsh outdoor environment. Castor beans provide resin, which after processing, can be used to create a material similar to nylon. When combined, the result is a transparent material very similar to currently produced backsheets, excluding the use of petroleum-based materials. BioSolar notes that backsheets are easy to produce, cost-efficient, and are toxic-free from the chemicals needed to traditionally produce backsheets. BioSolar also remarks that the newly produced product has a high degree of thermal conductivity and has electromagnetic properties equivalent to conventional materials as well as the mechanical strength and stability needed for solar panel applications--all in addition to the obvious advantages of using a biodegradable material for manufacturing purposes, particularly as a component in a so-called "green" technology.
           The reason for late widespread adoption of the new biodegradable backsheet can possibly be because of the availability of the caster seeds, which are not grown in the United States due to its natural state being toxic and highly allergenic. For this reason and others, other research efforts are undergoing development in creating caster seeds that do not produce any negative effect.

5 innovations that will CHANGE the world! not the IPHONE

According to the reports of REN21 (Renewable Energy Network for the 21st Century), it was shown that global investments in renewable energy jumped 32% bringing an all time high of $211 billion, despite the current downturn of the economy. However, in many regions there is a big competition between the two odds of renewable & coal energy. But with the advancement of solar technology increasing every year with the latest solar development researched currently at MIT, it is likely coal will be going against it anytime soon. Here is a list of 5 development that could make a big impact towards our society as well as our economy that could also be safely executed against the burning of coal.
1. Nano-templated molecules that store energy
A professor named Jeffrey Grossman, associated with MIT, discovered and created a new molecule called azobenzene  that uses carbon nanotubes structuring the molecules that locks in and stores clean solar thermal energy. These molecules so called, "azobenzen", converts solar energy to a density of a lithium ion battery. Like what people say, "kill two birds with one stone", you have yourself a object that converts and stores infinite energy. 
2.Printing solar cells on possibly anything
A team led by Professor Karen Gleason discovered a way to imprint a solar cell into just about anything you could think of, using low temperature and vapor as opposed to liquid solutions. The paper imprinted with the solar cell is also highly durable withstanding it being folded a 1000 times with no change in performance. Imagine having solar cells imprinted all over your shirt and having to charge your mobile phone that remains in your pocket, that would be pretty awesome don't you think? 

Photo by Patrick Gillooly, Courtesy of MIT

3. Solar Thermal Power in flat panels

Professor Gang Chen discovered a whole new way to make solar power. Unlike ordinary solar panels that has been going on for some time now, Professor Gang Chen discovered a revolutionary new way to produce solar energy -micro solar thermal- in which theoretically could produce 8 times the efficiency of the world's best solar panel that are being manufactured today. Therefore, having it be a thermal process, Chen's system can heat up from ambient light even on a cloudy day. It is said that these panels can be made with very inexpensive and affordable material that could be appealing to many investors.

4. A virus to improve nano-solar cell efficiency

MIT graduate recently engineered a virus called "M13", that could effectively convert solar energy at a  more efficient rate, jumping from 8% to 10.6% efficency, boosting the rate to almost nearly one-third. The virus acts as a matching tool that pattern the nanotubes properly at a faster rate. 

5. Transparent solar cell could turn windows into power plants

See yourself in a skyscraper built with glass that could bind with the sun's rays while keeping their transparency? Well unfortunately several of these attempts had been made, resulting in terrible efficiency bringing it down less that 1% and also resulted in blocking too much light, depicting the glass useless. However, Professor electrical engineering professor Vladimir Bulvoic has made a breakthrough by engineering a new transparent layer of PV cells into the window glazing. The MIT team believes it can reach a high efficiency of 12% at a reduced cost over thin film solar cells. A team of researchers from UCLA had also developed a new kind of solar cell that is both efficient and transparent called the polymer solar cell that is almost 70% transparent and could generate energy through infrared light.

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