-
EartherTinted Solar Panels Can Help Farms Generate Clean Energy While Growing Food
In a future world, leafy vegetables may not be grown in rows of crops under the sun. Instead, they may be grown indoors beneath tinted semi-transparent solar panels that will allow farmers to grow food and produce energy. That’s the future imagined in a recent study that shows how the use of this technology can … Continued
-
Tech NewsAmazonAmazon Echoes Walmart’s Claims That Tesla Solar Panels Sparked Rooftop Fire
Yeesh. This has not been a good news week for Tesla subsidiary SolarCity. It seems Walmart isn’t the only one claiming that the flagging renewable energy company’s solar panels caught fire; according to a new Bloomberg report, Amazon had a similarly incendiary incident happen in 2018. A Tesla spokesperson later confirmed to Gizmodo that there … Continued
-
EartherEnergyTesla’s Solar Factory Is Reportedly Struggling to Meet Elon Musk’s ‘Aesthetic Demands’
Two years ago, Elon Musk promised the world that Tesla would produce solar panels virtually indistinguishable from roof tiles. But his solar factory isn’t producing panels that are to his liking yet, and that’s leading to some major production issues, according to a report from Reuters. Tesla teamed up with Panasonic to produce the photovoltaic … Continued
-
ScienceFrom the LabThis House Is a Living Experiment for the Future of Energy
Walking around Amsterdam, at times, feels like strolling through the city of the future. Solar panels abound. Electric vehicles fill the roads, and everybody else is on a bike. Meanwhile, tucked away in the western part of town, some 50 families have agreed to turn their houses into living laboratories to figure out a better … Continued
-
Tech News
Tesla’s Electric Domination Moves Forward With Debut of Beautiful Solar Shingles
In a move that would make Steve Jobs boil over with envy, Elon Musk presented Tesla’s latest product in an over the top presentation at Universal Studios in Los Angeles. Four houses on the old set of Desperate Housewives were refitted with the company’s new, almost unnoticeable solar panel roofing. With four distinct styles, the … Continued
By Rhett Jones -
Tech News
Uber Drivers Are Now Selling Solar Panels During Rides
I hope you like talking to your Uber driver, because things could be getting a lot chattier during rides soon. Geostellar, an online marketplace for solar panels, is testing an unusual sales tactic by enlisting Uber and Lyft drivers to sell panels to riders. Geostellar has already enlisted about 50 drivers in New York, Boston, … Continued
-
Tech News
Desperate California Utilities Win Effort to Squeeze Money Out of Solar Customers
Outfitting your roof with solar panels can be a great way to save energy and money. Right? Well, you won’t save as much money in California, where new rules will force rooftop panel owners to shell over some extra money to their local energy provider—even if they don’t need them at all. In a vote … Continued
By Bryan Lufkin -
Tech NewsGoogleGoogle’s Project Sunroof Wants To Help You Go Solar
The sun produces trillions and trillions of watts every second—who wouldn’t want to harness some of that energy for a drastically reduced utility bill? But figuring out what the cost/benefit of installing (or if you an advantageous locations) required a lot of work. Now, Google just needs your address. Project Sunroof is a new Google … Continued
By Darren Orf -
Tech NewsJames Cameron’s Plan to Fix Solar Panels
When Avatar came out, James Cameron boasted that it would be the first solar-powered movie franchise in history. Now the director, deep-sea explorer, NASA advisor, and all around badass has turned his attention to designing cinematic-quality solar panels for the rest of us. Cameron himself was an early adopter of solar tech: Besides switching to … Continued
-
Tech News
Yet Another Dubious Argument For Not Building More Skyscrapers
The US is in the midst of a building boom that will dramatically change the skyline of most major American cities. Among the many concerns about sprinkling our cities with supertalls, there’s one issue that’s starting to crop up in legal battles: shadowy urban landscapes could stifle the potential for gathering solar energy. A great … Continued
-
Tech News
Rooftop Solar Panels Are Almost All Facing the Wrong Direction
If you’re thinking that solar panels face south to capture the most sunlight and thus the most energy, then you’d be absolutely correct. Yet, solar experts are saying that rooftop panels should be installed facing west. This surprising turn can be explained by quirks in our electrical grid. As the New York Times explains, not … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
New Crystal Clear Solar Cells Could Power Your Smartphone One Day
The idea of a completely transparent solar panel has always been a bit of a dream. Such revolutionary technology would mean that we could turn windows into power generators and build phones with self-charging screens. Well, guess what? That dream is becoming a reality. A team of researchers from Michigan State University has developed a … Continued
-
ScienceSpaceNASA Is Working on Origami Solar Arrays That Unfurl in Space
The dream? Orbiting solar panels that beam energy down from space. The problem? Solar panels are shaped with maximum surface area to catch as many rays as possible, but wide, flat disks are also not very aerodynamic on the trip into space. The solution is to get clever with geometry. For NASA engineer Brian Trease … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech NewsGo Inside the Factory That Makes the World’s Solar Panels
While you’re watching the final game of the World Cup today, keep a keen eye on the advertisements along the sidelines. You’re likely to see the name Yingli Solar: a massive Chinese solar power manufacturer that few soccer fans are likely to know. Climate Desk recently visited Yingli’s sprawling plant, and got a first-hand look … Continued
-
Tech News
Scientists Swapped a Toxic Chemical in Solar Cells For a Tofu Ingredient
Thin-film solar cells promise to bring flexible, low-profile solar power to all kinds of surfaces. Unfortunately, constructing thin-film panels requires cadmium chloride, a finicky, expensive, and toxic material. Now, University of Liverpool scientists have figured out how to make solar cells using magnesium chloride, a compound so innocuous, it’s actually used in the production of … Continued
-
Tech NewsSploidWhy the future of a solar powered life isn’t here yet
You’d think that with all the solar farms we’ve been building up and all those solar panels on people’s roofs we would figure out how to use solar power to replace those old smoking power plants of ours. But we can’t yet. Because of stupid clouds. The future isn’t quite here. Ted-Ed explains why in … Continued
By Casey Chan -
Tech NewsColor Solar Panels Let Stained Glass Windows Produce Cheap Power
Because solar panels are designed to accumulate as much light from the sun as possible, they’re typically very dark in color. It makes them more efficient, but also kind of an eyesore, minimizing their adoption. So researchers at the University of Michigan have developed what they believe to be the world’s first semi-transparent, colored solar … Continued
-
Tech News
A Roomba For Solar Panels That Keeps the Sun Shining Through
It’s easy to live with a few smudges on your smartphone’s display, but for devices like solar panels that are completely dependent on every last drop of light making it through, cleanliness is a top priority. And when you’ve thousands of solar panels in a field drinking in sunlight, cleaning them all manually isn’t an … Continued
