-
+20 +3
Elon Musk, Lyndon Rive, and the Plan to Put Solar Panels on Every Roof in America
Now head of the embattled SolarCity, Lyndon Rive, Elon Musk's cousin, wants to see panels atop every rooftop in America. But is he flying too close to the sun?
-
+35 +8
Solar power cost down 25% in five months – “There’s no reason why the cost of solar will ever increase again”
On August 11 a bid of US$0.46/W was put forward to build 500MW of solar power in China (a roughly calculated levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) at $0.019/kWh). This past week we saw a bid of $0.023/kWh to build 1.2GW of solar power in Abu Dhabi. This price of $0.023/kWh is almost 25% lower than the $0.0299/kWh was bid in late April for a series of projects also in Abu Dhabi. These extremely aggressive price falls are partially driven by unique situations – a Chinese solar panel production glut and historically low costs of money. But also because of technology as Frank Wouters, the former director of Masdar Clean Energy...
-
+8 +2
Solar-powered skyscraper planned for Melbourne
Plans have been unveiled for a solar-powered skyscraper in the Australian city of Melbourne. The high-rise building will be clad with photovoltaic cells.
-
+22 +7
Solar's Future: Panels get Cheaper and Apps Tell you How to Make Money from the Sun
With 600 vendors and almost 18,000 visitors, the size of the solar power trade show in Las Vegas gives you an idea of just how big the American solar industry is becoming.
-
+50 +8
Losing Business to Solar, U.S. Utility Companies Fight to Kill Consumer Trend
In some of the sunniest areas of the U.S., solar power is becoming a victim of its own success. With so many people leaving the grid, power utilities are now wondering who's going to pay the bill. They're fighting back, trying to make going solar much less attractive.
-
+33 +6
A Chemist and a Designer Team Up to Weave Solar Panels Into Fabric
Trisha Andrew and Marianne Fairbanks are developing a solar textile that could end up in clothing, curtains, car seats and tents
-
+19 +7
5 Solar-Powered Buildings that will Forever Change Architecture
From Apple's Spaceship HQ to GE's Boston campus, these solar-integrated designs are raising the bar.
-
+20 +6
Interview: How Solar Impulse's Round the World Flight took Batteries on a Journey of Discovery
July's successful circumnavigation of the globe by Solar Impulse was a triumph for human endurance and ingenuity, and proved solar power's efficacy as a reliable source of electricity. But the project would not have been possible without batteries... and the journey proved a voyage of discovery for storage’s technical possibilities.
-
+13 +2
Will a Merged Tesla-SolarCity put a Solar-Powered Battery in every Home?
Critics don't think Tesla can sell enough home batteries to justify its acquisition of SolarCity, but what they're underestimating is the potential for innovation the Gigafactory brings.
-
+7 +2
Where Did the Carter White House's Solar Panels Go?
One of the 32 solar-thermal panels that captured energy on the roof of the White House more than 30 years ago landed this week at a science museum in China
-
+31 +9
New "Bionic" Leaf Is Roughly 10 Times More Efficient Than Natural Photosynthesis
A tree's leaf, a blade of grass, a single algal cell: all make fuel from the simple combination of water, sunlight and carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. Now scientists say they have replicated—and improved on—that trick with their own “bionic leaf.” Chemist Daniel Nocera of Harvard University and his team joined forces with synthetic biologist Pamela Silver of Harvard Medical School and her team to craft a kind of living battery, which they call a bionic leaf for its melding of biology and technology.
-
+24 +6
Elon Musk wants to sell you an entire 'solar roof'
When in doubt, tease a new product. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla (TSLA) and chairman of SolarCity (SCTY), hopped on an earnings call Tuesday night amid acquisition talks between the two companies to announce that SolarCity plans to release a "solar roof." Not a roof with solar panels, mind you. A solar roof. "It's a solar roof as opposed to a module on a roof," Musk said on the SolarCity earnings call. "It's not a thing on the roof, it is the roof."
-
+16 +4
These Sky-High Balloons Could Generate More Power Than Solar Panels
For all the cost and efficiency improvements in solar panels in the last few years, all land-based photovoltaics have one serious Achilles Heel: performance is dependent on the weather. If clouds are in the way, even the best solar panels don't work that well. That's why Jean-François Guillemoles wants to look above the clouds. A solar researcher from France, he's proposing floating solar balloons that potentially could generate three times as much power-per-foot as their terrestrial brethren. His design would also be able to store energy as well as generate power.
-
+25 +6
Breakthrough solar cell captures carbon dioxide and sunlight, produces burnable fuel
Researchers have engineered a potentially game-changing solar cell that cheaply and efficiently converts atmospheric carbon dioxide directly into usable hydrocarbon fuel, using only sunlight for energy.
-
+13 +5
Breakthrough solar cell captures carbon dioxide and sunlight, produces burnable fuel
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have engineered a potentially game-changing solar cell that cheaply and efficiently converts atmospheric carbon dioxide directly into usable hydrocarbon fuel, using only sunlight for energy.
-
+12 +2
Solar Impulse: Zero-fuel plane leaves Seville for Cairo
Solar Impulse is now in the home straight of its bid to circumnavigate the globe.
-
+29 +6
Big Solar is Leaving Rooftop Systems in the Dust
Solar power is on pace for the first time this year to contribute more new electricity to the grid than will any other form of energy – a feat driven more by economics than green mandates.
-
+23 +2
Nanoscale discovery could push perovskite solar cells to 31% efficiency
Researchers from the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have made a discovery within the nanoscale peaks and valleys of perovskite that may allow solar cells utilising the material to reach their theoretical conversion limit of 31%. Perovskite is a crystalline mineral that has been used to create solar cells that are inexpensive …
-
+30 +7
The world's first solar-powered airport is in Cochin, India and it pays $0 for electricity
Fed up with their hefty electricity bill, managers at Cochin International Airport in southern India took matters into their own hands. Three years ago, they began adding solar panels -- first on the roof of the arrivals terminal, then on and around an aircraft hangar. Thsuccess of those initial efforts led to a much bigger endeavor. "We wanted to be independent of the electricity utility grid," Jose Thomas, the airport's general manager, told CNNMoney.
-
+31 +13
'Tesla Solar' wants to be the Apple store for electricity
Tesla Motors Inc. 's bid to buy the biggest U.S. rooftop solar installer has little to do with selling cars. Rather, it's about solving two of the biggest problems standing in the way of the next solar boom. And perhaps a good deal more.
Submit a link
Start a discussion