As global water shortages worsen, engineers at Rice University have developed a new solar-powered desalination system that could revolutionize access to clean drinking water. Known as Solar Thermal Resonant Energy Exchange Desalination (STREED), the system provides a decentralized, low-maintenance alternative to traditional desalination technologies and is designed to function efficiently with or without continuous sunlight.

Desalination—the process of removing salt and impurities from water—is widely used in coastal regions, but current systems rely heavily on expensive infrastructure and filtration membranes that are prone to fouling and degradation. These setups are often ill-suited for remote or off-grid communities, where access to power and maintenance resources is limited.

Japan is on the cusp of a seismic shift in its renewable energy landscape, thanks to the groundbreaking development of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). These lightweight, flexible, and adaptable solar cells promise to revolutionize the way solar energy is harnessed, offering a more viable solution for energy generation in urban areas. With space constraints and sustainability challenges increasingly influencing energy policies, PSC technology stands to offer Japan—and the world—an innovative path toward a cleaner, greener future.

In a bid to lead the world into a new era of renewable energy, Japan is making a calculated push to develop PSC technology as a key part of its energy strategy. Under its revised energy plan, the Japanese government has prioritized PSCs, aiming to generate 20 gigawatts of electricity—equivalent to 20 nuclear reactors—by fiscal year 2040. This ambitious goal is aligned with Japan’s commitment to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

Traditional solar technology has often been limited by its need for dedicated space, such as rooftops or open fields. However, recent breakthroughs in transparent solar cells (TSCs) promise to change the game, allowing solar energy harvesting from surfaces previously considered unsuitable, such as windows, vehicles, and even human skin. The emergence of near-invisible solar cells (NISCs), which blend seamlessly into their surroundings while efficiently generating power, marks a significant leap forward in solar energy technology.

While conventional solar cells are highly efficient, they often compromise aesthetics and functionality. Transparent solar cells address these challenges, offering a solution that can be integrated into everyday structures without disrupting the visual appeal. These latest NISCs, with an average visible transparency (AVT) exceeding 70%—and reaching as high as 79% in some cases—combine both transparency and energy efficiency, two qualities that were once seen as incompatible.

A bold and visionary proposal suggests that solar panels could soon cover America’s highways, potentially transforming the country’s energy landscape. Researchers from esteemed institutions such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tsinghua University, the Chinese Academy of Geosciences, and Columbia University have put forward a groundbreaking plan to integrate solar energy across the world’s major highway systems. If implemented, this initiative could generate a significant portion of global electricity while dramatically reducing carbon emissions.

The idea, outlined in the study “Roofing Highways With Solar Panels Substantially Reduces Carbon Emissions and Traffic Losses” published in Earth’s Future, envisions solar panels covering up to 3.2 million kilometers of highway network across the globe. The proposed project, involving the installation of 52 billion solar panels, could generate up to 17,578 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity annually—equivalent to more than 60% of the world’s electricity consumption in 2023. This initiative could not only help power billions of homes but also reduce global carbon emissions by up to 28% and potentially cut road accident rates by 11%.

SOLARCYCLE is making major strides in advancing solar sustainability with the launch of a new state-of-the-art recycling facility in Cedartown, Georgia. The facility, set to become operational by mid-2025, will have the capacity to recycle up to 10 million solar panels annually—equivalent to 2 million panels in its first year, with plans for expansion as demand for end-of-life solar solutions continues to rise.

This ambitious project is designed to address the growing need for responsible disposal and recycling as millions of solar panels installed over the past decade approach the end of their life cycle. The facility is a key part of SOLARCYCLE’s vision to provide an efficient, circular solution for solar energy waste, ensuring that valuable materials from retired panels are recovered and reused.

Swiss startup Sun-Ways has unveiled an innovative plan to utilize the often-overlooked space between railway tracks by installing solar panels. While many rooftops and solar farms already capture sunlight, there’s still significant untapped potential in unconventional spaces, such as railway networks.

Sun-Ways aims to capitalize on the estimated 1-terawatt-hour (TWh) annual energy potential from the 5,000 kilometers of railway tracks in Switzerland. By laying removable photovoltaic (PV) panels between the rails, the company hopes to meet nearly a third of the electricity demand for the country’s public transport sector, while cutting CO2 emissions by over 200,000 tons each year.

Since the 1970s, luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) have aimed to boost solar energy capture by utilizing luminescent materials to convert and concentrate sunlight onto photovoltaic (PV) cells. Unlike traditional concentrators that rely on mirrors and lenses, LSCs can harvest diffuse light, making them ideal for applications like building-integrated photovoltaics, where their semitransparent and colorful nature offers aesthetic benefits. However, scaling up LSCs to cover larger areas has been challenging due to issues like self-absorption of photoluminescent (PL) photons within the waveguide.

Researchers at Ritsumeikan University in Japan have introduced an innovative “leaf LSC” model designed to overcome these challenges by improving the collection and transfer of light to PV cells. The leaf LSC approach addresses scalability by using smaller, interconnected luminescent components that function like leaves on a tree, enhancing both efficiency and practicality.

Researchers at Chouaïb Doukkali University in Morocco have achieved a significant breakthrough in solar energy technology by developing an advanced type of photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) solar panel. This innovative design not only enhances efficiency but also addresses the durability challenges that have long plagued traditional PVT modules.

Central to the new PVT panel is a custom-designed channel-box heat exchanger. This component ensures optimal convective heat exchange by allowing the entire surface of the solar panel to be in direct contact with a cooling fluid. The research team explained, “A new aluminum heat exchanger configuration, consisting of 94 channels and attached directly to the PV module, was designed.”

Giant clams boast precise geometries—dynamic, vertical columns of photosynthetic receptors covered by a thin, light-scattering layer—that might make them the most efficient solar energy systems on Earth.

“It’s counterintuitive to a lot of people because clams operate in intense sunlight, but actually, they’re really dark on the inside,” says Alison Sweeney, associate professor of physics and ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale. “The truth is that clams are more efficient at solar energy conversion than any existing solar panel technology.”