Europe is seriously considering developing space-based solar power to increase its energy independence and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the leader of the European Space Agency said this week.

Covering parking lots makes both renewable energy and a more pleasant parking experience.

The world’s best solar power schemes now offer the “cheapest…electricity in history” with the technology cheaper than coal and gas in most major countries. That is according to the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook 2020. The 464-page outlook, published today by the IEA, also outlines the “extraordinarily turbulent” impact of coronavirus and the “highly uncertain” future of global energy use over the next two decades.

A secondary school and a residents’ association have teamed up with Barcelona city council to create a solar energy community with the capacity to grow – rooftop by rooftop – across large areas of the city. The solar panels on the roof of Quatre Cantons secondary school in the former industrial district of Poblenou supply power to the school and 30 households in the surrounding area.

Nearly 40GW of solar PV will be rolled out across Europe by the end of the year, according to SolarPower Europe (SPE), as the continent scrambles to deploy renewables and wean itself off Russian gas. The expectation-beating figure of more than 39GW of solar PV is a significant jump on last year’s figure of 27GW, itself a decade-long installation record.

A storage device made from sand may overcome the biggest issue in the transition to renewable energy.

When landfills get capped and grassed over, they have the appearance of lush, rolling hills. Despite their green appearance, however, these sites are known as “brownfields”—a term for an environmentally hazardous site without a promising future. Indeed, landfills are typically unsuitable for development because the contents below the surface are both contaminated and physically unstable.

Starting this fall with its locations in California, the Swedish furniture giant Ikea will sell the means to power your Starkvind (that’s an air purifier) and Stjärnstatus (that’s a fridge) by adding solar panels to the company’s offerings. Thankfully, assembly will be handled by the professionals.

UNSW researchers have made a major breakthrough in renewable energy technology by producing electricity from so-called ‘night-time’ solar power. The team from the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering generated electricity from heat radiated as infrared light, in the same way as the Earth cools by radiating into space at night.

A floating solar farm of 12,000 solar panels will be ready to produce power in July of this year in Portugal’s Alqueva reservoir on the Guadiana River in Alentejo. This will be Europe’s largest floating solar park on a reservoir in Europe, the size of four football pitches. Built by EDP, a Portuguese electric utility company will generate 7.5 GWh a year and power around 1,500 households in the region, more than 30% of the families in the region. The project involves a total investment of 6 million euros.

On a mild Sunday afternoon, California set a historic milestone in the quest for clean energy. The sun was shining, the wind was blowing and on May 8th, the state produced enough renewable electricity to meet 103% of consumer demand. That broke a record set a week earlier of 99.9%.

The United Kingdom is getting serious about beaming solar power from space and thinks it could have a demonstrator in orbit by 2035. Over 50 British technology organizations, including heavyweights such as aerospace manufacturer Airbus, Cambridge University and satellite maker SSTL, have joined the U.K. Space Energy Initiative, which launched last year in a quest to explore options for developing a space-based solar power plant.

In 2016, a bizarre-looking plane, covered with more than 17,000 solar panels, showed the world a glimpse of the future of flight. With the wingspan of a Boeing 747, but weighing only as much as an SUV, it circumnavigated the Earth without using a drop of fuel.

BlocPower launched in 2014 with the goal of replacing fossil fuel-burning heating and cooling systems with cleaner, more efficient green energy solutions.

The issue of solar panel reliability has existed since the beginning of the industry, in part because solar panels do not function effectively in cold and snowy conditions. That myth has been debunked time and again as a small but significant solar-plus-storage microgrid project in Alaska is implemented.

Scientists in Australia are testing printed solar panels they will use to power a Tesla on a 15,100-km (9,400-mile) journey beginning in September, which they hope will get the public thinking about steps to help avert climate change.

A breakthrough invention by a team of Stanford researchers allow solar panels to begin generating energy at night.

The future of solar has just got brighter with this ‘ultra-thin’ device for converting stored energy into electricity.

While standard solar panels can provide electricity during the day, this device can be a "continuous renewable power source" during the day and at night.

A global effort to transition to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050 would cost nations $73 trillion upfront — but the expense will pay for itself in under seven years, according to a new report from researchers at Stanford University.