Pythagorus Solar Windows Offer Breakthrough In Solar Tech for High-Rise Buildings. High-rise buildings require a lot of energy to cool in the summer, but they have relatively little space on their small roofs for solar arrays.
This quandary got Pythagorus Solar of San Mateo, California, thinking: What if a building’s windows could serve as solar panels? We have already seen this idea put into play before, but Pythagorus put a twist on it. The company’s solar window panels not only generate electricity with thin rows of silicon cells packed between double-pane glass, but they block sunlight from entering and heating a room via a trick of optics. “Instead of heating the room, the light generates clean solar power,” said Gonen Fink, CEO of Pythagoras. “It’s relatively simple and straightforward optics. According to the company, this is not the case. “We’re definitely looking at buildings as net generators of electricity, at least during some parts of the day,” says Makower.
Voltaic Unveils Solar Charger Case For The Eco-Minded iPad User. Since they were first released last year, iPads have become extremely popular all over the world.
But for the owners who may worry about a loss of power in transit, these iPad enthusiasts can rest assured that their devices will continue on without fail with Voltaic System’s new solar charger – the Spark Solar Tablet Case. The solar tablet case would provide one hour of iPad video playback for every hour in direct sunlight. In periods of zero sunlight, the tablet case has an internal battery that can store enough solar energy to fully recharge an iPad. Alternatively, it can be charged via a main socket. As well as the iPad, the Spark Solar Tablet Case is also capable of charging other tablets such as the Samsung Galaxy Tablet, the Blackberry Playbook and the T-Mobile G-Slate.
“Voltaic set out to design a lightweight case that could charge a tablet quickly, but also match the sleekness and simplicity of the many of the tablets,” said Shayne McQuade, CEO of Voltaic Systems. Smart Solar International Develops Innovative Sun-Chasing, Heat-Producing Solar Panels. Tokyo-based start-up Smart Solar International has developed a new solar panel comprised of aluminum mirror bars that turn to face the sun for optimal efficiency throughout the day.
The system requires far less expensive silicon than traditional photovoltaic cell panels, and it has a system for preventing overheating that channels any extra warmth for heating water. “You can get both electricity and heat from the same device,” said Takashi Tomita, a former Sharp Corp. executive who heads the spin-off from the University of Tokyo’s Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology.
Tomita plans to target the Japanese market first, hoping to stock convenience stores and any other places people congregate to get the new solar panels into the market quickly as the Japanese government conducts a major review on energy policy. Other target markets include China, India, and the Middle East: “Southeast Asia needs a source of energy as demand keeps growing,” Tomita said. QSolar Kristal Colored Solar Panels Could Replace Walls and Windows.
Solar panels often conjure up images of clumsy, dark sheets lined up in rooftop arrays on green homes and buildings.
But what if they weren’t dark and clumsy — and what if they didn’t have to go on the roof? QSolar, the Canadian solar tech company that already brought us spray-on solar cells, has just released a new line of solar panels that are every bit as innovative. QSolar’s Kristal solar panels are available in an array of colors — red, green, blue, pink, grey — and they can replace windows or even walls, opening up new possibilities for green building design. Imagine your house with a colored solar panel atrium, or a pink and blue skylight mosaic set over your local library. New Solar-Thermal Flat Panels Generate Electricity and Hot Water All at Once. A team of researchers from Boston College and MIT have developed a hybrid flat panel that is capable of producing electricity from the sun’s rays as well as hot water for thermal energy.
The team’s new flat panel is eight times more efficient than previously developed solar thermoelectric generators and could make solar thermoelectric technology more cost effective on a wider scale. Solar Thermal energy is expensive and generally employed in large installations — like the one above — with this new flat panel, solar thermal energy could become a much more valuable investment.
The team has increased the energy output without adding much to the dollar sign side of the equation. How Solyndra’s Solar Tubes Rocked Clean Power in 2009. SOLYNDRA – a report from Earth2Tech There are hundreds of solar companies developing new materials, new business models, new installation techniques and new manufacturing processes in an effort to bring down the cost and up the efficiency of solar panels.
But there’s only one company that has made progress in 2009 with uniquely-designed solar tube-shaped panels: Solyndra. Only founded in 2005, and starting its first shipping in mid-2008, Solyndra has designed its solar panels into a series of skinny tubes that can absorb sun light from all directions, and can be installed flat on a roof (in contrast to traditional panels that need to be nailed down at an angle). That means the panels can be installed more easily and can in theory be cheaper. Over on Earth2Tech we’ve been following Solyndra closely because the company plans to do an IPO on the stock market in 2010, planning to try to raise $300 million in the effort.