Category: Solar Energy

Sopogy, Incorporated has broken ground on the Big Island of Hawaii on the Keahole Solar Power renewable energy farm. This solar farm will be the first of its kind to use Sopogy’s large-scale MicroCSP solar concentrating system. The Sopogy MicroCSP solar collector uses optics and reflectors (sans smoke and mirrors) to create heat that turns […]

In a move to delay and stall the proliferation of solar energy, the Federal government including the Bush administration and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) have decided to stop the moratorium madness. Last month, the BLM (or BM as some have called it) decided to put a freeze on solar applications for building photovoltaic […]

A few weeks back I had talked about how residential solar panels would become less expensive for some in California, especially those in Santa Cruz. Well, now its large neighbor to the north, San Francisco seeks to become the first solar megalopolis in the United States. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has just passed […]

The beef against residential solar panels for so many years is that they have been too expensive to install upon one’s home. But, at least in California the price of residential solar panels will be coming down considerably. A bill passed by state Assemblyman Mark Leno (no relation to Jay Leno) has just passed 76-0 […]

On Leap Year Day this year (February 29) I had talked about a new solar iPhone charger that was on the market from Freeloader. Now, Apple has taken a leap of its own by filing for a patent for a solar iPhone 2.0. Of course photovoltaic cells on small portable devices have been around for […]

This week a couple of important solar breakthroughs have surfaced in the news. Both IBM and Physicist Bram Hoex (and colleagues) have demonstrated two different solar breakthroughs worth noting. The IBM solar breakthrough involves using a thin liquid metal layer of gallium and indium that is cooled by a plate of copper. By use of […]

When one thinks of solar energy, the word slow comes to mind. Soaking up the sun takes time. It’s a slow meandering process from sun up to sun down, hoping to catch a few rays and make something happen. But, a company named HelioVolt has put the fast into FASST solar energy. HelioVolt has invented […]

It’s been said that there is nothing so boring as watching paint dry. Tell this to the researchers at the Swansea University School of Engineering in the United Kingdom who have developed a way to roll on solar-cell paint over steel cladding. The project started as a way to help the steel manufacturing industry coat […]

With 25,000 miles of highways and byways on the lower 48 states, Solar Roadways wants to use these heat collectors for reneable solar energy. But, you can’t drive an 18-wheeler on a solar panel! Or, can you? According to the folks at Solar Roadways, yes we can (with apologies to Barack Obama for using this […]

Solar cell and semiconductor company Spire has been awarded a U. S. patent for its nanophotonics technology. This technology creates quantum dot nanoparticles (about 25 millionth of an inch) that when exposed to light will create electrical current. The Spire quantum dots are more consistent than methods used by other manufacturers. Spire states that its […]