Life today in Mueller—an innovative suburb of Austin, Tex., seems like something out of the distant future. New homes wired with the latest smart gadgets cluster together around shared park spaces. Blue-black panels that transform sunshine into electricity grace a majority of roofs. Electric cars or hybrids glide silently to rest in garages. Continue reading… “Is it possible for the U.S. to go all-electric?”
Fossil fuels have provided the vast, vast majority of the world’s energy for many decades. But cleaner sources, like wind and solar have been growing at an astonishingly rate in recent years. Continue reading… “Clean energy growing fast, but still behind in the race against fossil fuels”
Michigan State University researchers have developed a transparent solar cell capable of being used as a replacement for windows. Due to the fact traditional solar panels absorb light and convert it into energy, this concept was once deemed impossible as transparent surfaces are not capable of absorbing light. Continue reading… “Clear solar panel could turn windows into a power source”
As its production costs have fallen far enough in some regions to compete economically with fossil fuels, companies like Apple are now buying mass quantities of solar power. Continue reading… “Solar business employs more Americans than coal mining”
Apple is taking on its “most ambitious project ever” and its not a phone, some new wearable gadget, or a even a TV. Instead, Apple is going to cover 1,300 acres of California countryside in electricity-generating solar panels. Continue reading… “Apple’s $850M solar farm”
Can solar power transform the electricity market as much as shale did for oil and gas? This question has been posed in a new study by Wood MacKenzie, an international energy research and consulting company. Continue reading… “Can solar be the next shale?”
Last year, First Solar set a world record for conversion efficiency mark for cadmium telluride at 20.4 percent. A year later and that figure has now been easily passed with a new record of 21.5 percent, and with that, First Solar anticipates to exceed 22 percent in 2015. Continue reading… “Conversion efficiency record crushed by First Solar at 21.5%”
Solar isn’t just the way to go for our power needs, but it’s the way to go for jobs as well. The solar power jobs sector grew 20 times faster than any other sector, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In fact, the number of solar jobs has surpassed the number of coal mining jobs. This is a hopeful sign for both alternative energy and job growth.
Continue reading… “The solar power jobs sector grew 20 times faster than any other energy sector”
Illustration of reflective panel on building
A new ultrathin multilayered material can cool buildings without air conditioning by radiating warmth from inside the buildings into space while also reflecting sunlight to reduce incoming heat.
Fan Lab
Stanford engineers have invented a material designed to help cool buildings. The material reflects incoming sunlight, and it sends heat from inside the structure directly into space as infrared radiation (represented by reddish rays).
Stanford engineers have invented a revolutionary coating material that can help cool buildings, even on sunny days, by radiating heat away from the buildings and sending it directly into space.
Continue reading… “Stanford Engineers Invent High Tech Mirrors that Beam Light into Space”
George Bye at the DaVinci Institute’s “Night with a Futurist” talking about the future of solar powered UAVs
George Bye is the founder of Bye Aerospace, a Colorado company involved in the design of a unique solar-electric powered aircraft that use solar electric energy, stored in batteries, to drive a propeller to both fly and stay aloft for long periods of time. A special combination of technologies and design will enable the current small UAVs to maintain station, with flight endurance of 8 to 12 hours at a time – several multiples of typical aviation gasoline fuel engine UAVs. A more extreme version of this capability will be engineered into Bye’s future aircraft (both civil and defense).
Continue reading… “How solar powered drones are about to transform your life”
Toronto’s Illan Kramer, Inventor of Spray-on Solar
Illan Kramer, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Toronto, and IBM Canada’s Research and Development Center has invented a new way to spray solar cells onto flexible surfaces using minuscule light-sensitive materials known as colloidal quantum dots (CQDs)—a major step toward making spray-on solar cells easy and cheap to manufacture.
“My dream is that one day you’ll have two technicians with Ghostbusters backpacks come to your house and spray your roof,” says Kramer.
Continue reading… “Spray-On Solar”
Costs for home energy storage are dropping fast.
A few years ago, most people didn’t have any idea the home solar PV market would grow so fast. But it has, and there’s no stopping its momentum now. Similarly, there aren’t many people that realize how fast the home storage market is going to grow.
Continue reading… “Home energy storage market set to grow 10 times over by 2018”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.