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United States Navy Unveils Plan to Beam Solar Power from Space to Earth

March 20, 2014, 2:32 pm
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green design, eco design, sustainable design, United States Navy Research Laboratory, Dr. Paul Jaffe, solar energy from space

The United States Navy Research Laboratory has unveiled two modules they are testing to capture solar energy from space and divert its power to earth. The two designs would use reflectors to concentrate sunlight to a satellite that would project the power to a receiver on the earth’s surface. If the plans are approved, the components would be assembled in space by a team of robots.

green design, eco design, sustainable design, United States Navy Research Laboratory, Dr. Paul Jaffe, solar energy from space green design, eco design, sustainable design, United States Navy Research Laboratory, Dr. Paul Jaffe, solar energy from space

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Former Facebook Employee Spends Two Years Building a Tsunami-Proof Capsule in His Backyard

March 21, 2014, 7:13 am
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Sand Babel: Solar-Powered Twisting Skyscrapers 3D-Printed with Desert Sands

March 24, 2014, 6:53 am
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UK Parliament Floats Plans to Put Solar Panels on Big Ben’s Face

March 24, 2014, 10:30 am
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Big Ben, solar power, photovoltaic, solar cells, solar panels, LED, energy efficiency, repair, renovation, Elizabeth Tower, House of Parliament, House Service, Government spending, parliamentary passholders, London, House of Commons

London’s iconic Big Ben clock tower might be getting a solar facelift. The Guardian reports that the House of Commons is looking into plans that would add solar panels to the landmark’s clock face. Last month parliamentary passholders were asked to submit ideas on how the government could improve energy efficiency in the historic area by 34 percent. One passholder suggested adding photovoltaics to the face of Big Ben, which since 2012 has been rechristened the Elizabeth Tower, to generate green energy.

Big Ben, solar power, photovoltaic, solar cells, solar panels, LED, energy efficiency, repair, renovation, Elizabeth Tower, House of Parliament, House Service, Government spending, parliamentary passholders, London, House of Commons Big Ben, solar power, photovoltaic, solar cells, solar panels, LED, energy efficiency, repair, renovation, Elizabeth Tower, House of Parliament, House Service, Government spending, parliamentary passholders, London, House of Commons


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Israel Debuts the World’s First Self-Cleaning Solar Farm

March 28, 2014, 8:09 am
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Kibbutz Ketura solar park, Kibbutz Ketura, Ecoppia, Ecoppia cleaning robots, Ecoppia self cleaning robots, Ecoppia Israel, self-cleaning solar panels, solar panels, self-cleaning solar park, solar park, green energy, green energy technology, green energy innovations, self-cleaning solar panels, cleaning solar panels, increasing solar efficiency,

One of the challenges with solar power is keeping the panels clean, since dust and dirt drastically reduce the efficiency of photovoltaics. That’s particularly challenging for large solar parks, and especially ones that are located in the desert, where there is little water. Israeli company Eccopia has addressed that challenge with a clever robot that cleans the solar panels every day, increasing efficiency by up to 35 percent. This week the Kibbutz Ketura solar park installed Eccopia’s robots, making it the world’s first self-cleaning photovoltaic array.

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Incredible Solar-Powered ‘Cumulus’ Parasol Opens Automatically When the Sun Starts Shining!

March 28, 2014, 1:30 pm
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The Cumulus parasol is a solar powered parasol that inflates itself when the sun starts shining. This artificial cumulus protects you from the sun. Whenever the sun comes out, the parasol inflates automatically to a cloud-like shape using a solar panel positioned at the top in about 20 seconds. The inflated Cumulus has a diameter of two meters. Lacking a metal core structure, the inflated cloud is aerodynamic, allowing it to withstand windy weather. The nylon surface makes it durable, lightweight, and strong, while the silicone coating makes it water proof. When it is sunny, the solar cells power a fan that inflates the body of the parasol. When the sun goes away the parasol deflates automatically, or it can be turned off using an additional switch integrated in the pole.

+ Studio Toer

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NASA Launches Giant Magnifying Glass into Space to Collect Solar Energy

April 1, 2014, 12:00 pm
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nasa, operation lens, solar power, giant magnifying glass, astronauts, solar power, outer space, frank gehry, april fools

Early this morning NASA kicked off Operation LENS, an ambitious plan to concentrate and collect solar power using a giant magnifying glass in outer space. Long speculated to be a rumor, the 7,000,000 ft. wide lens was fabricated over the course of the past 3 years and launched from Cape Canaveral, piggybacking on this thing that they were going to launch anyway (they figured they might as well kill 2 birds with one stone). While the first phase went exactly as planned, the plan hit a major snag when the magnifying glass began to work a bit too well and ended up scorching large regions in the western hemisphere. When asked to comment, premier magnifying lens science researcher Byron Scott said simply, “I told them so.”

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Rustic Off-Grid Pump House is a Solar-Powered Weekend Getaway in Australia

April 2, 2014, 6:00 am
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Breakthrough Discovery Uses Sunlight to Create Materials for Solar Devices

April 4, 2014, 2:58 pm
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solar devices, solar energy, net zero solar cells, thin film solar cells, energy breakthrough, Oregon State University, carbon footprint, cheap solar energy, cheap solar panels

Researchers at Oregon State University just made an energy breakthrough that could cut the cost of solar energy while also drastically reducing the carbon footprint of manufacturing solar materials. OSU chemical engineering professor Chih-Hung Chang published a paper in the journal RSC Advances that describes a way to make the sun a “one-stop shop” that produces both the materials for solar devices and the energy to power them.

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Tiny English Village Blocks Giant Fracking Operation, Announces Plans to Build Community-Owned Solar Power Plants

April 5, 2014, 1:00 am
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Repower Balcombe, fracking protest, anti-fracking activism, community organization, community-owned energy, community owned solar plants, Cuadrilla, hydraulic fracturing in the UK, renewable energy in the UK

Normally, the village of Balcombe, West Sussex is just another picturesque spot in a valley where nothing really happens. But when Cuadrilla Resources–the UK’s fracking pioneer–announced plans to do some exploratory drilling just five miles from the town, the citizens sprang into action. For two months they protested in an anti-fracking camp set up on the outskirts of town. Finally, the company announced it was abandoning the drill site. Not because of the protests, of course, but because rocks at the site already contain natural fractures, making it unsuitable for profitable extraction. But the activism of this tiny down didn’t disappear with the drilling rigs. Now the citizens have formed REPOWERBalcombe, a community coalition that seeks to finance and build community-owned solar power plants, and someday, take Balcombe off the grid entirely.

Repower Balcombe, fracking protest, anti-fracking activism, community organization, community-owned energy, community owned solar plants, Cuadrilla, hydraulic fracturing in the UK, renewable energy in the UK Repower Balcombe, fracking protest, anti-fracking activism, community organization, community-owned energy, community owned solar plants, Cuadrilla, hydraulic fracturing in the UK, renewable energy in the UK


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Amazing Solar-Powered Machine Creates News from Social Media at Milan Design Week

April 8, 2014, 9:10 am
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Space Caviar, Dezeen, FOMO, journalistic machine, Milan Design Week, energy efficiency, Milan Furniture Fair, Solar Power, green gadgets,

Dezeen and Space Caviar, which is led by former Domus editor Joseph Grima, created a publication specially designed for those who suffer from the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO). Created for this year’s Milan Design Week, the free FOMO publication is automatically generated by an algorithmic journalism machine that takes content from social media and conferences during the event.

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Cheap Solar PV Powers Substantial Global Renewable Energy Growth in 2013

April 9, 2014, 9:01 am
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The falling price of solar photovoltaic systems was the main driver of an increase in global renewable energy generation in 2013, according to a new report produced by the Frankfurt School-UNEP Collaborating Center for Climate & Sustainable Energy Finance, the United Nations Environment Program and Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Titled “Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2014,” the report reveals that the market share of renewables rose to 8.5 percent of global electric power generation in 2013 – an increase from 7.8 percent in 2012. But cheap solar, along with policy uncertainty, also contributed to a drop in clean energy investments last year; investments fell 14 percent to $214 billion worldwide.
solar_pv_1 solar_pv_2

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Meet the Solar Impulse 2: The First Airplane to Attempt a Round-The-World Solar-Powered Flight!

April 9, 2014, 9:40 am
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Mongolia’s Nomads Modernize Traditional Tent Homes with Solar Panels

April 11, 2014, 2:56 pm
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Mongolian Ger Solar Panels, Nomadic lifestyle, solar panels, solar energy, renewable energies, solar energy in Mongolia

With 250 days of sunshine a year, Mongolia’s potential for solar energy is vast but mostly underutilized. That’s beginning to change though – a new government sponsored initiative aims to equip traditional dome-like homes called gers (tents made of felt and yak’s wool) with portable solar home systems (SHS) to make life a little easier in the northern highlands. So far, almost 70 percent of nomadic people now have access to electricity thanks to newly installed solar panels.

Mongolian Ger Solar Panels, Nomadic lifestyle, solar panels, solar energy, renewable energies, solar energy in Mongolia Mongolian Ger Solar Panels, Nomadic lifestyle, solar panels, solar energy, renewable energies, solar energy in Mongolia

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Marjan van Aubel’s Solar-Powered Current Table Uses Photosynthesis to Charge Your Gadgets

April 11, 2014, 2:58 pm
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Google Buys Solar-Powered Drone Manufacturer Titan Aerospace to Boost Internet Access in Third World Countries

April 16, 2014, 2:13 pm
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google, drones, titan aerospace, solar powered drones, solar power, third world country, Facebook, amazon internet access, drone wars, makani, project loon, google earth, aerial imagery, atmospheric satellites, disaster relief

3D printing may be all the rage in design, but for Big Tech, drones are where the money is. On Monday, web giant Google beat out Facebook in a race to acquire Titan Aerospace, a solar-powered drone manufacturer. Although Google claims the drones will be used for the forces of good, such as broadcasting Internet signals to remote areas, some worry that the high-flying drones may pose troublesome consumer privacy implications.

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An American Home or Business Goes Solar Every Four Minutes!

April 18, 2014, 1:45 pm
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solar panels, solar, solar deployment and jobs, White House Solar Summit

Buried at the very bottom of a fact sheet released at yesterday’s White House Solar Summit is a striking statistic: “Every four minutes, another American home or business goes solar, supporting workers whose jobs can’t be outsourced.” Since President Obama was first elected in 2008, installed solar power capacity in the United States has risen rapidly from 1.2 gigawatts (GW) to an estimated 13 GW in 2014 — a nearly eleven fold increase, which is enough renewable electricity to power more than 2.2 million American homes. At the summit, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a $15 million program to help state, local and tribal governments build solar panels to continue the solar boom in the U.S.

solar panels, solar, solar deployment and jobs, White House Solar Summit solar panels, solar, solar deployment and jobs, White House Solar Summit


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Austria’s Blob-Shaped Kunsthaus Graz Art Museum Generates its Own Solar Power

April 21, 2014, 10:00 am
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LEGOLAND Florida Becomes Nation’s First Theme Park to be Powered by 100% Renewable Energy on Earth Day

April 22, 2014, 7:37 am
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legoland florida, renewable energy, solar energy, theme parks, renewable energy theme parks, theme park solar power, solar panels, imagination zone, tampa electric, legoland, earth day, legoland recycling, recycling, lego earth model

In honor of Earth Day, LEGOLAND Florida just become the first theme park in the U.S. to be completely powered by renewable solar energy. The 150-acre theme park teamed up with Tampa Electric to go off the electric grid for the entire day – an eco-friendly action that’s equivalent to removing three cars from the road for one year or planting six acres of trees. After Earth Day, LEGOLAND Florida will use renewable energy to permanently power the Imagination Zone, a section of the park that showcases seven of the most visually impressive LEGO models in the world.

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Skylab Architecture’s Radial Green-Roofed Columbia Building Tracks the Portland Sun

April 22, 2014, 12:07 pm
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