Have you ever thought about putting solar panels on your roof? Would you like to know how much power you can generate and what it would cost. RoofRay is a fun site that will calculate it for you and then let you know how much it would cost and how many years you'd need to recoup your investment. You enter an address into a version of Google Maps, and then draw where you want to put the array on your preferably southern facing roof.
posted on Aug 14, 2008 - View this thread

MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for later use.
posted on Aug 1, 2008 - View this thread

A Solar Grand Plan: By 2050 solar power could end U.S. dependence on foreign oil and slash greenhouse gas emissions. [Via Gristmill.]
posted on Feb 17, 2008 - View this thread

How Africa's desert sun can bring Europe power. A £5bn solar power demonstration project called Desertec is being developed by Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation (TREC) that would send solar energy northward from African deserts. The goal is in 30 years to provide a significant fraction of Europe's electricity needs.
posted on Dec 13, 2007 - View this thread

The Solar Decathlon is a just-completed competition in which 20 teams of college and university students competed to design, build, and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered house. View a photo gallery or take video tours of the homes. Inhabitat has been blogging the event - here's their view of Germany's winning entry.
posted on Oct 21, 2007 - View this thread

Solar Tower (text and video). "The rays of sunlight reflected by a field of 600 huge mirrors are so intense they illuminate the water vapour and dust hanging in the air."
posted on May 3, 2007 - View this thread

The Solar Ark - built to symbolize the goal of becoming a "clean energy society".
posted on May 1, 2007 - View this thread

Mike Strizki lives in the nation's first solar-hydrogen house. "The technology this civil engineer has been able to string together – solar panels, a hydrogen fuel cell, storage tanks, and a piece of equipment called an electrolyzer – provides electricity to his home year-round, even on the cloudiest of winter days. Mr. Strizki's monthly utility bill is zero – he's off the power grid – and his system creates no carbon-dioxide emissions. Neither does the fuel-cell car parked in his garage, which runs off the hydrogen his system creates."
posted on Mar 16, 2007 - View this thread

The Edison of our age? Stanford Ovshinsky may not be a household name, but his inventions have the power to change the world.
posted on Jan 1, 2007 - View this thread

Nanocrystal technology shows promise for cheaper, more efficient solar energy generation [more inside]
posted on Mar 13, 2006 - View this thread

The kilometer-high Solar Tower to be built in Australian outback (previous post) has finally purchased a site, and construction may be finished in 2009. Other towers may be built in China and the US.
posted on Feb 24, 2005 - View this thread

Let the sun do your cooking for you! Not just a great way to save electricity, gas, or charcoal... (particularly if you live in California *grin*) it's delicious too! We built the Solar Funnel Cooker just for the halibut (groan) - cooked it in white wine with shredded zucchini and carrots - and it was the most tender, tasty fish I've ever eaten.
posted on Jun 28, 2001 - View this thread