climate
Attendees at the World Future Energy Summit 2009 now taking place in Abu Dhabi are hearing good news along with the bad: while the globe faces severe threats from climate change and rising energy demand, speakers warn, those factors are also contributing to rapid growth in alternative energy technologies. “Alternative
concentrated solar
German researchers say they’ve broken a new record for solar energy efficiency, converting a full 41.1 percent of the power of incoming rays into electricity. “We are elated by this breakthrough,” said Frank Dimroth, a member of the research team at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems
rock bands
The alternative rock band CAKE, based in Sacramento, California, has a new recipe for its sixth and latest album, due for release sometime this summer: solar power. The band’s Website features photos and videos of its studio being converted to solar energy with a rooftop array that frees it
clean energy
Planning to tour one of the US’s most infamous prisons? Now you can do so while minimising your carbon footprint too. Alcatraz Cruises, which contracts with the US National Park Service to provide sightseeing ferryboat service to Alcatraz Island, last week launched the Hybrid Hornblower, a vessel powered by
photovoltaics
A new branch library that opened in San Jose, California, this week sports an art glass window installation that is also a solar-power generator. Designed by artist Lynn Goodpasture, the installation at the Pearl Avenue Branch Library breaks new ground in the US, making San Jose the only city with
photovoltaics
Plain old glass windows that just sit there and let the light into your home or office? Bah! A California company says you can do much better with see-through photovoltaic glass windows that insulates while generating electricity. Hollywood-based Rainbow Solar Inc. (RSi) says its windows are the first building-integrated photovoltaic
solar power
When the word “sustainable” comes up, these are other words that don’t usually come to mind next: “shopping mall,” “food court” and “ice rink.” One California shopping mall owner, though, has seemingly brought all those phrases onto the same page with the unveiling of a solar-powered ice rink and
los angeles
If Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa gets his wish, his city will get 10 percent of all its energy from solar power by the year 2020. Unveiled this past week, Villaraigosa’s Solar LA plan would make Los Angeles the top solar-powered city in the U.S. The plan calls
