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Walking House: moving home takes on a whole new meaning
By Darren Quick
03:18 April 2, 2009 PDT
For anyone who has wanted to get away from it all without leaving the comforts of home Dutch design group N55 has just the thing – a walking house. Consisting of a basic module measuring 3.5m high by 3.5m wide and 3.72m long the walking house can cover a decidedly leisurely 60m an hour on its six insect like legs. Read More
Solar car travels more than 12,500 miles to break world distance record
By Paul Evans
17:36 March 29, 2009 PDT
A Solar car called Power Of One (Xof1) claimed a new unofficial world distance record for a solar powered car when it arrived in Los Angeles on March 6th having driven over 12,5000 miles (20,000 km) using only sunshine as fuel. Read More
3D coating promises greater solar cell efficiency
By Darren Quick
22:05 March 25, 2009 PDT
Solar power from photovoltaic cells are widely recognized as an integral part of a clean green future, and any development that can make these cells more efficient, no matter how small, assists in making this future a reality. A team of researchers at Georgia Tech have developed a surface treatment that boosts the light absorption of silicon photovoltaic cells by trapping light in three-dimensional structures and by making the surfaces self cleaning. Read More
First pics of Hyundai's BLUE-WILL concept
18:40 March 25, 2009 PDT
Like all of the major international auto shows in recent times, Seoul 2009 looks set to be a showcase for low-emissions, eco-motoring technologies. Among them is Hyundai's new BLUE-WILL plug-in hybrid concept which features a 1.6-liter gasoline engine combined with a 100kw electric motor powered by Lithium-Ion batteries. The car's raised hatchback body design incorporates eco-friendly plastics along with integrated dye-sensitized solar panels in the roof to increase battery range. Read More
Could changing the color of the sky to counter global warming backfire?
03:38 March 25, 2009 PDT
The concept of delaying global warming by adding particles into the upper atmosphere to cool the climate could unintentionally reduce peak electricity generated by large solar power plants by as much as one-fifth, according to a new study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Read More
Life Saver: beach rescue design concept uses solar energy
By Jamilah Le
21:06 March 23, 2009 PDT
Teseo+Arianna is a concept by Italian designer Davide Anzalone that takes surf lifesaving to another level. The design comes in three major components - a tower (Arianna) with a rotating platform, a small vehicle (Teseo) with a jet engine and a quick-inflating safety vest with a CO2 cartridge. It is all designed with form and function in mind, and has the advantage of being environmentally friendly, with solar panels on the tower. It is based on the knowledge that a lifeguard and lifesaver needs to minimize the time it takes to reach a victim and begin giving life support. Read More
Lithium Ion Battery breakthrough promises 100-fold boost in performance
By Paul Evans
05:42 March 16, 2009 PDT
Researchers have developed a new advanced Lithium Ion battery that will allow mobile phone and laptop computers to be fully charged in seconds. Electric car batteries may be charged in as little as five minutes, removing one of the main barriers to wider uptake of EVs. Solar and wind power generation could also benefit as better batteries could be used to store surplus energy. Read More
The (unfortunately named) Blight solar blind
By Darren Quick
23:09 March 12, 2009 PDT
Blinds are handy things. They give us privacy at night and block the sun’s rays during the day. But what if there was a way to capture the light from the day and give it back at night to illuminate the house? That’s the thinking behind Vincent Gerkens’ concept design which takes a Venetian blind and combines it with flexible solar cells and electroluminescent foil to produce the ‘Blight’ – that’s short for ‘Blind Light’, but I’d be tempted to give the name some more thought if I were Vincent given the images of pestilence and decay the word evokes. The Blight captures solar energy during the day and uses it to power the electroluminescent foil covering the blinds to produce light at night. Read More
Magna MILA EV, the future BMW Electric Car?
By Paul Evans
16:27 March 10, 2009 PDT
As part of the BMW Project i electric car program, Magna, the company that will be building the Ford Focus EV in 2011, has presented the MILA EV at the Geneva Motor Show 2009. Where most mass production electric vehicles announced to date are retrofitted or converted versions of existing vehicles, the five-door Mila has been designed without compromise as a fully integrated electric vehicle platform. Driven by a 50 Kw (67 hp) electric motor powered by a lithium-ion battery pack, the MILA EV is expected to have a charge time of 2.5 hours a range of up to 150 km (94 miles) with charging supplemented by solar cells integrated in the glass roof. Read More
Koenigsegg Quant: 512 bhp 275 km/h, solar-electric 4-seater
By David Greig
20:25 March 5, 2009 PST
Swedish supercar manufacturer Koenigsegg, in conjunction with NLV Solar of Switzerland, is showing its full scale four-seater NLV Quant at the 2009 Geneva Salon. Producing 512hp with maximum torque of 715Nm, the Quant runs 0–100 km/h in 5.2 seconds and hits a top speed of 275 km/h. The all-electric car is powered through a combination of what it has dubbed a Flow Accumulator Energy Storage (FAES), which charges to full capacity in 20 minutes, and solar energy supplied via a thin layer photovoltaic coating over the car. The combined solar/FAES offer a claimed range in excess of 500km. Read More
Solar panel industry achieves Holy Grail - $1 per watt grid-parity
By Paul Evans
15:02 March 3, 2009 PST
Arizona based First Solar has achieved a major milestone in reducing the manufacturing cost for solar panels below the $1 per watt price barrier - the target necessary for solar to compete with coal-burning electricity on the grid or grid-parity. Using cadmium telluride (CdTe) technology in its thin-film photovoltaic cells, First Solar claims to have the lowest manufacturing cost per watt in the industry with the ability to make solar cells at 98 cents per watt, one third of the price of comparable standard silicon panels. The efficiency is in part due to a low cycle time - 2.5 hours from sheet of glass to solar module - about a tenth of the time it takes for silicon equivalents. Read More
Shenzhen's solar-and-wind-powered skyscraper
By Karen Sprey
17:24 March 1, 2009 PST
Traditional architecture has been swept away and replaced by skyscrapers in China’s bid to modernize its cities and house its huge population and thriving business interests. Shenzhen in southern China’s Guangdong province has grown from a fishing village in the 1970s to a vibrant economic and financial centre - one of China’s most successful special economic zones. Now its skyline will be graced with a 49-storey solar-and-wind-powered tower designed by Austrian architecture firm Coop Himmelblau. The second skin of the building will be lined with photovoltaic cells and feature mechanisms to provide natural ventilation, reduce wind pressure, shade the interior from sun and display multimedia banners. Read More
Solar Powered hybrid aircraft - Sunseeker II
By Paul Evans
16:58 February 28, 2009 PST
A variety of solar powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) have been setting world records for flight duration and altitude in recent times, there are even plans for solar powered craft that can remain aloft for years at a time. But it's not just aircraft of the unmanned variety that stand to benefit from solar technology, with planes that carry pilots now starting to take to the skies. Based on glider/sailplane construction methods, the Sunseeker II is the only manned solar airplane flying in the world, and according to SolarFlight, it has logged more time in the air than all other manned solar powered airplanes combined. Read More
Samsung solar powered touch screen phone
By Darren Quick
13:39 February 26, 2009 PST
February 26, 2009 It definitely looks like solar was in at the recent Mobile World Congress as, following hot on the heels of the world’s first low-cost solar-powered mobile phone, comes the first solar-powered full-touch mobile phone from Samsung. Samsung are highlighting the eco-friendly credentials of the phone, which can be charged by the solar panel located on the back, calling it the "Blue Earth" and constructing it from recycled plastic. Read More
Solar wrapped batteries charge themselves
By Paul Evans
21:45 February 25, 2009 PST
From the files of “why don’t they make that?” comes a rechargeable battery with integrated solar cell charger. The “SunCast” prototype uses flexible solar cells from IFE and some C sized NiMH rechargeable batteries. Scientists at IFE have been experimenting with the production of flexible solar cells and were kind enough to send some samples to the “SunCast” battery designer Knut Karlsen. Read More
Flexible Thin Film Solar Cells to be printed like money
By Paul Evans
20:37 February 23, 2009 PST
Scientists developing flexible, large area, cost-effective, reel-to-reel printable plastic solar cells have announced that trials have commenced which promise a new era of solar cells that are printed like money. These printable solar cells offer advantages over traditional solar technology because of the potential to mass produce the cells cheaply using polymer printing technology, a process which has already been used in banknotes in more than 20 countries. Read More
Outback Australian town to run on solar power 24 hours a day
By Paul Evans
17:32 February 22, 2009 PST
If ever there was a perfect candidate for solar power, the north-west Australian town of Cloncurry is it. The town has long claimed the title of Australia's hottest recorded day - 53 degrees Celsius in the shade in 1889 - and is now is gearing up to produce solar thermal power capable of supplying all of ts electricity needs, 24-hours a day. The system will use up to 8000 mirrors will reflect sunlight onto graphite blocks through which water will be pumped to generate steam that will operate a conventional steam turbine electricity generator. Because heat stays in the graphite, the system will work through the night and on overcast days. Read More
World's largest solar panels go into production
By David Greig
06:07 February 19, 2009 PST
Solar panel manufacture is a costly process making it difficult for solar electricity to compete with power generated from fossil fuels. One way of driving these costs down is through the production of larger panels, enabling installation costs to be reduced. To this end, Solar Panel Manufacturer T-Solar Global S.A. has just announced that it has begun volume production of the world’s largest solar photovoltaic (PV) modules. The solar panels are sized at 5.7m2 or 2.3m X 2.6m - that's the equivalent to the combined area of over six 42 inch plasma TV’s and T-Solar says that they are ideally suited for solar farm applications where installation costs can be reduced by about 20% over smaller scale panels. Read More
The low-cost solar-powered mobile phone (for people without electricity)
By Mike Hanlon
16:57 February 18, 2009 PST
It's sometimes difficult in a white-bread-world to empathise with the have-nots, and we found some of the other media coverage of this story quite amusing. The Caribbean-based Digicel Group used the Barcelona Mobile World Congress to launch the world’s first low-cost solar-powered mobile phone yesterday and it's not designed for the environmentally conscious, but for the two billion people in the world who have limited or no access to electricity. The reason it doesn't have the high-end functionality we regard as essential is that its target audience is both functionally and technologically illiterate and the Coral-200-Solar will almost certainly be the first and possibly only phone they will ever own. Read More
Heliotex' automatic solar panel cleaning system
By David Greig
20:05 February 16, 2009 PST
When we think of solar panels we think of saving energy, burning less fossil fuel and reducing greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. Few of us however realize that by not cleaning the panels regularly they could lose up to 30% of their power, off setting these benefits and costing us money. To address this problem, Heliotex a Southern Californian based supplier of solar panel cleaning systems and solar panel anti-theft devices has announced the release of the first patent pending automatic cleaning systems for business and home solar panels. Read More
Young inventor's solar-powered fridge changes lives in Africa
By Karen Sprey
17:31 February 16, 2009 PST
Solar powered devices aren’t new, but English student Emily Cummins has developed a way of using the sun’s power to help impoverished communities in Africa. Her eco-friendly, sustainable fridge is based on a simple principle: it uses the sun’s rays to evaporate water, which in turn keeps the contents cool. Read More
Solar Thermal Waste Heat Engine works at low temperature, low pressure
By Paul Evans
23:37 February 12, 2009 PST
Technology capable of generating electricity by extracting energy from heat that is otherwise just wasted is a fairly new branch of renewable technology. A typical co-generation plant uses waste heat from a gas or steam turbine for hot water or space heating. This Waste Heat Engine (WHE) developed by Cyclone Power Technologies operates at temperatures as low as 225F (107 C). The engine can generate up to 10kw from heat sources such as industrial ovens or furnaces, concentrating solar thermal collectors, engine exhaust and biomass combustion. Read More
Madrid to get radical new solar-coated landmark
22:47 February 12, 2009 PST
Spain has a well-earned reputation for extraordinary architecture that, like many buildings around the world which defy convention, divide opinions and cause passions to run high. The next dazzling addition to Madrid's skyline will be the Centro Internacional de Convenciones de la Ciudad de Madrid (CICCM), and it offers much more than simply a conversation piece. Shaped like a giant glass wheel, the Convention Center will be completely covered in photovoltaic panels but will still provide adequate sunlight to reduce the need for artificial light through the use of concave design elements that scatter light into the interior. The 110 meter tall structure will include a rainwater catchment system and house a 5,000 person auditorium and exposition centers in its 100,000 square meter layout. Read More
SEAT Exeo solar sunroof harnesses sun to cool car
By Mike Hanlon
20:53 February 10, 2009 PST
SEAT, the Spanish arm of the Volkswagen Group, will launch its new Exeo upper medium sector saloon in April, along with some interesting technologies designed to keep it cool in the Spanish sun. The optional solar sunroof uses mini solar panels embedded in the glass to generate electricity which powers the car’s ventilation system, even when the ignition is off, drawing in cooler ambient air and significantly reducing the automotive ‘greenhouse’ effect on a hot day. Read More
Irish firm claims World's most efficient solar hot water panel
By Paul Evans
20:28 February 8, 2009 PST
Irish company Surface Power has launched what it claims is the world’s most efficient solar hot water panel. A report from Silicon Republic states that certification by testing house TUV Rhineland has shown that the innovative product is up to 131% more efficient in morning and evening time and 76% more efficient at midday than other panels. Read More
Freedom Glen
- November 25, 2009 @ 02:47 UTC
