Tag Archives: solar-power

Futurists have long seen the sun as the cleanest and most convenient solution to humanity’s skyrocketing energy needs. Building something like a Dyson Sphere may be beyond our reach for another thousand years, but the advent of flexible and even printable solar panels means that soon nearly any surface could become an instrument for harnessing solar energy. In the meantime, residential and commercial solar installations …

Solar energy is everywhere. Solar-powered sunglasses can be used to charge your cell phone, you can get solar powered book bags, lights on roads are solar powered, and even showers now can get their power from the sun. The rise in both the portability and the availability of solar has helped the price to drop pretty sharply. The price drop makes solar available to …

You’ve likely heard a lot about solar energy lately, especially if you’re interested in environmental, energy, technology or political news. You’ve probably seen solar panels as you go about your daily lives. Maybe you even get some of your energy from the sun. Solar energy use has been increasing for residential customers, businesses, and utilities. The U.S. solar energy industry had its biggest year …

As parents know, every other note that comes home in a school kids’ folder is a bake sale request or a fundraiser form. The other notes are friendly reminders to clip the pink rectangles off their pantry items that include Box Top for Education initiatives. Each label is a dime toward the school, and every dime counts when it comes to getting new science …

Solar power is no longer a boutique industry. At least 900 million solar panels are deployed across the globe. Eighty-one percent of those came online within the last five years. From rural villages in India to the rooftops of suburban America, photovoltaic solar is fast becoming a mainstream source of energy. Every one of those panels is only as good as the materials used to …

It’s no secret that the Earth is in dire need of clean energy alternatives to fossil fuels. The source of that clean energy, however, doesn’t necessarily have to be on Earth. The Space Solar Power Initiative (SSPI) is a team of scientists from Caltech that includes researchers from NASA’s jet propulsion laboratory. These scientists propose building the largest-ever space structure to generate electricity using …

From efforts that mimic nature like leaves and trees, to arrays that float on water or in space, there has been a wide range of solar energy innovations in 2016.  From tiny solar applications of nanotechnologies to massive space-based arrays, the growth of solar power is being fueled by market forces, including increasing efficiency and decreasing cost. The number of possible innovative applications is …