A South Korean firm has announced the world’s first production line for perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells, which promise an increase in efficiency of between 50-75 per cent compared to standard solar panels. The commercialisation of solar cells that use perovskite follows years of breakthroughs with the mineral, which has been hailed as a ‘miracle material’ for its potential to transform various industries, including renewable energy. Seoul-based Qcells said it will invest $100 million to roll out the next-generation solar cell technoloy, which until now has been limited to lab tests and academic research. The investment will fund a pilot production line at a factory in Jincheon, which is projected to be operational by late next year. “This investment in Jincheon will mark an important step in securing technological leadership,” said Qcells CEO Justin Lee. “With a global R&D network spanning from Korea, Germany and the US, Qcells will ramp up its efforts to produce high-efficiency advanced tandem cells.” Tandem solar cells are able to improve the efficiency of standard solar panels by splitting the light spectrum and optimising the harvesting of energy from each section into electricity. The current world record for solar cell efficiency is 32.5 per cent – meaning nearly a third of solar radiation is converted into eletrical energy – which was achieved with a perovskite-silicon tandem cell in December. By comparison, traditional silicon-based solar cells are currently only capable of reaching around 22 per cent efficiency. Qcells has so far succeeded in developing a tandem perovskite solar cell with a 29.3 per cent efficiency, which was achieved earlier this year in collaboration with German research centre Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin. The results were verified by the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Read More Microsoft makes world first nuclear fusion energy deal Quantum computer discovers bizarre particle that remembers its past Nasa says Jeff Bezos will build moon lander to take astronauts to the Moon ChatGPT app launches for iPhone users amid scam frenzy Google to delete Gmail and Photos accounts in huge purge

Australia’s consumer confidence edged up in July — while remaining in “deeply pessimistic” territory — as a cooling

The German government is considering whether it can make former Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer foot at least part of the quarter-billion euro compensation it has to pay a private company over a failed plan to introduce highway tolls

People who were previously employed by MrBeast have spoken about their experience of working for the world’s most popular YouTuber, and made it clear that you always have to be prepared for absolutely anything. MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, is known for his larger-than-life videos, with bombastic stunts and huge set pieces. All of that takes a lot of work behind the scenes, and judging by the testimony of former employees, it’s far from your average 9-5 job. Speaking to Business Insider, five of the people who used to work with Donaldson spoke about their time with him. Britt Carter revealed that one day she got a call out of the blue telling her to drive to the Great Smoky Mountains straight away – a journey of six hours. Carter said: "You had to be prepared for anything. It was an all-hands-on-deck, all-the-time kind of thing." Carter went on to speak about the job, which she held for six months, saying: "You'd have days where everything was going wrong, working so hard and physically killing yourself to make something happen. But then, the next day, you'd pull off these incredible stunts and pieces of content, and you were on such a high that it makes you forget all those hard hours and days." She later said: "Everybody knew that the mission of the company was to create the best possible video. That came before everything else. That was always the goal. If there was something that could make the video better, you would always defer to what could create the better content." Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings

Russian lawmakers passed a toughened version of a bill on Friday that outlaws gender-affirming procedures, annuls marriages in which one person has “changed gender” and bars transgender people from becoming foster or adoptive parents

Artificial intelligence is using gallons upon gallons of water. Microsoft alone used more than 2,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools of water in its data centres last year. The latest numbers are leading to yet more questions about the sustainability and environmental dangers of the growth of artificial intelligence and related technology. Artificial intelligence requires vast computing resources, undertaking deeply complex calculations on behalf of people around the world. AI systems tend to be run in the cloud rather than on individual people’s computers, meaning that companies running them must operate vast server farms to deal with the queries of their users. Those server farms in turn need to pump in water to cool themselves down, because of the heat generated by those computers. That has long been a concern for environmentalists, but the sharp growth in artificial intelligence has led to even more use. Microsoft’s water consumption rose 34 per cent between 2021 and 2022, according to its latest environmental report, highlighted by the Associated Press. It was up to almost 1.7 billion gallons. Not all of that is from artificial intelligence. But Shaolei Ren, a researcher at the University of California, Riverside working to better understand the environmental impact of AI told the AP that the “majority of the growth” is because of the technology. Google also said that its water use had increased by 20 per cent over the same period. That varied across its different data centres, which are based in different parts of the US. For each 5 to 50 prompts, or questions, put to ChatGPT, it uses 500 millilitres of water, according to a paper that will be published by Professor Ren and his team later this year. Many technology companies have expressed concerns about their own water use, and how to minimise any negative effects of their data centres. The environmental concerns can be especially pressing because the use of water can be focused in particular areas around a data centre, meaning that the damage may not be spread. Google said last year for instance that “Wherever we use water, we are committed to doing so responsibly”. That includes analysing where water is being used and how much stress it might put on the surrounding area, for instance. Read More AI can help generate synthetic viruses and spark pandemics, warns ex-Google executive China’s ‘government-approved’ AI chatbot says Taiwan invasion likely Google launches AI to go to meetings for you

A former GOP candidate in New Mexico has been indicted on federal charges in connection to a spate of shootings at Democratic officials' homes after he lost his 2022 midterm election bid, court documents show.

Algerian firefighters were Tuesday battling blazes that have killed 34 people across the tinder-dry north, destroyed homes and coastal resorts and turned vast forest...

Real Madrid issue statement on Vinicius Junior after carrying out medical tests on injury suffered against Celta Vigo.

Six others have been wounded in the incident at Cook's Corner, a popular community hangout.

MacBook Pro and MacBook Air laptops have a stellar reputation for a reason. They're stylish,

'It looks great! Which to be clear I expected it to do. But I'm just interested in how big it's gonna be,' one person tweeted