Space-based Solar Power beamed down to earth sounds pretty far out, but the technology is further along than many suppose, the sun never sets in space, and space is a Saudi Arabia of unlimited energy for the nation with the technology to harness it. PG&E (California) in conjunction with
SolarEn has
announced a 200MW space solar project to be up by 2016.
posted by stbalbach
on Apr 20, 2009 -
87 comments
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 by stbalbach
on Dec 13, 2007 -
35 comments
Popular Science has named
Nanosolar the
#1 innovative product of the year. Finally, cheap and ubiquitous solar power has arrived, “You’re talking about printing rolls of the stuff—printing it on the roofs of 18-wheeler trailers, printing it on garages, printing it wherever you want it,” The only problem is demand, so they're building
the world’s largest solar-panel manufacturing facility in San Jose. See 96 other innovations in PopSci's
Best of 2007.
posted by stbalbach
on Nov 17, 2007 -
25 comments
The
Zephyr, a solar powered plane, has smashed the record for the
longest duration un-manned flight, staying aloft with engines running for 54 hours. This was just a test run at the US military White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, according to the UK developers, "You ain't seen nothing yet". Meanwhile in Switzerland, development continues on the
Solar Impulse, which has a goal of flying around the world, manned(!), by 2010.
posted by stbalbach
on Sep 11, 2007 -
11 comments
