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British car-maker Lotus has unveiled an environmentally-friendly concept car, which is partly made of marijuana, at the British International Motor Show. The Lotus Eco-Elise (pictured above) sports body panels manufactured entirely from hemp (they’re the brown bits on the roof and bonnet).
You might be excused for thinking that the Lotus designers had dreamt up such a crazy scheme after sampling some of the raw materials. In fact, it seems that the company are on to a good thing. Compared to metal, hemp is a very lightweight material, which helps to improve vehicle performance and promote greater fuel-efficiency. Hemp is also a renewable, lightweight material that absorbs CO2 through photosynthesis. In addition, the particular type of hemp used by Lotus is ethically produced in close proximity to the manufacturing plant, keeping a lid on the emissions made through transportation.
As I sat down to write this, I tried to think of how many different times I have written about Senate extensions of the investment tax credits and production tax credits for renewable energy in the last year. And honestly, I’m not sure - but I know it’s a lot.
R&D magazine covers the newest, nerdiest gear from inventors and scientists. The R&D 100 awards are hailed as the “Oscars of Invention” by the Chicago Tribune. The prestigious award helps push the most promising inventions into the market. Other winners include specialized microscopes and super-hydrophobic coatings.
EMCORE is the proud producer of inverted metamorphic (IMM) solar cells, which are already used on land and in space. The IMM technology recently made an in-orbit efficiency record of 33%. EMCORE is a reputable and successful semiconductor company. Their solar technology has been on my radar for a while now.
Developed in conjunction with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Vehicle Systems Directorate of the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the IMM design is comprised of a novel combination of compound semiconductors that enables a superior response to the solar spectrum as compared to conventional multi-junction architecture. Due to its unique design, the IMM cell is approximately one fifteenth the thickness of the conventional multi-junction solar cell and will enable a new class of extremely lightweight, high-efficiency, and flexible solar arrays for space applications. (via news release)
Since their launch in 2006, Noon Solar has sold out of every product line within weeks after manufacturing. Based in Chicago, Noon Solar creates bags for those who are both eco and fashion conscious. Now you can enjoy that lunch in the park or drive to your next appointment all while charging your cell phone, PDA or digital camera using the sun’s power!
As the founders say “you can bury this bag in the backyard, but you’ll never want to”. Made of biodegradable materials like organic hemp and cotton these bags can skip the landfill (after you’ve removed, reused or recyled the solar panel and hardware). Although I’d likely give it away when I was done with it rather than throwing it in the compost, it’s nice to know it can be done.
Solar power means more than solar panels. These days it can also mean collectors, towers, dyes, oh my! Here’s a guide to (most of) the different kinds of solar technologies that are out there today.
First, the basics: Anything that uses solar energy as a source of power is solar-powered. Simple, right? Well let’s not forget that the sun gives us more than a whole spectrum of light, it also gives us heat. Both are used for a wide variety of applications, not just electricity.
1. Solar Thermal
Solar thermal technologies use heat. Cleantechnica has already introduced solar thermal. The cheapest, easiest, and most financially sound solar investment you can make for a house is to install a solar thermal collector. It collects solar energy to provide warm water or warm air for your house, even in the far north. On a larger scale, mirrors can be used to focus heat from the sun to boil water and turn a turbine. Generating electricity with this method is called Concentrated Solar Power (CSP). Large scale CSP projects are already underway in deserts around the globe, and in some places they are invigorating the economy.
The cool thing about CSP is that it overcomes one of the major problems with renewable energy. It used to be true that solar farms stopped producing energy as soon as the sun went down. No longer. Heat is much easier and cheaper to store than electricity, so you can save it for the hours or days when the sun doesn’t shine. Power towers and molten salt are just two methods of producing solar power whenever we need it.
By Joshua S Hill •
July 17, 2008
A church more often than not needs to draw its inspiration from the heavens, but San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral has taken that stereotype to the next level, as they announced Thursday that they would be partnering with Pacific Gas and Electric to install a new photovoltaic power system.
The project will see PG&E commit $65,000 for the installation, and designed and implemented by SolarCity of Foster City; it is expected to be completed later this year. And it is all thanks to the hard work of Reverend Canon Sally Bingham, the president of California Interfaith Power and Light, an organization founded upon the idea that the religious aspects of the community must respond to global warming as a moral issue.
The Florida Public Service Commission has “unanimously and enthusiastically” approved a plan to build America’s largest commercial solar-power plant in the state. The committee also gave the green light to a further two facilities, due to go on-line in 2009.
Starting tomorrow, San Francisco’s Moscone Center will play host to Intersolar North America, the country’s premier exhibition for photovoltaics, solar thermal technology, and solar thermal architecture. The Intersolar conference, which has previously only been held in Europe, will attract 210 solar companies and over 12,000 attendees.
Corporate participants will come from every part of the solar energy supply chain—ranging from PV cell manufacturers and components suppliers to service companies and manufacturers of solar thermal applications for heating and cooling.
Not only will the event have a massive exhibition center for the participating companies, but it will also put on a variety of solar-themed workshops. Topics will include solar cooling, solar thermal energy, introductory photovoltaics, and more.
If you are of my generation, you remember Schoolhouse Rock’s Saturday morning cartoons. To this day, I only know what a conjunction is from “Conjunction Junction, what’s your function?”, and I clearly remember how a bill becomes a law by that little rolled up bill sitting on the congressional steps. “The Energy Blues” is 30 years old this year, and we are still singing these blues:
MIT has perfected a dye technology that could change the solar world as we know it.
The most efficient form of solar technology today is (arguably) extreme concentrated photovoltaics, essentially solar panels placed under a magnifying glass. But the problem with these systems is heat.
Concentrated sunlight can melt silicon solar panels unless you include specialized cooling systems. Cooling technology costs money, and the panels require expensive tracking mechanisms to follow the sun through the day. MIT’s new solar system bypasses the heat and tracking problems all together.
Thin coatings of organic dyes absorb sunlight and redirect favored wavelengths into a pane of glass. The light is aimed and concentrated towards the edge of the pane where small solar panels are located. The concentrated light allows the panels to produce the maximum possible amount of energy all day, every day without cooling systems or complex tracking mechanisms.
By Max Lindberg •
July 11, 2008
No more solar cells covering a roof, but around the edges of a flat glass panel, as shown in the artist’s representation by NSF.
MIT engineers say they’ve created a new approach to harnessing the sun’s energy that provide windows with a clear view and illuminate rooms at the same time without the need for tracking devices.
According to a news release from MIT , the solar concentrator collects light at the edges, and dye molecules coated on the glass absorb sunlight and re-emits it at different wavelengths. The light is trapped within the glass and transported to solar cells along the edge, creating electricity and allowing light into the room as well.
The mixture of dyes is applied to the surface of the glass and allows light to travel a much longer distance. Mapel said, that as a result, light transportation losses were significantly reduced, resulting in a “tenfold increase in the amount of power converted by the solar cells.”
