Ideated by Michele Puzzolante, an Italian industrial designer, Solar Floating Resort is a luxury yacht with a submarine self-sufficient energy generator which uses solar power as its source of energy. This totally self-sufficient and non-polluting project is launched as an alternative to these more than 30,000 beach front hotels and island resorts around the world, as well as a way to fight against climate change. (more…)
Dr. Tong, lecturer in antennas and microwave technology at University College London, and his team have developed the Vodafone Booster Brolly, and umbrella that catches radio-waves from a Vodafone transmitter thanks to an in-built antenna, and works as a repeater, boosting signal to other customers around. Thought as necessary festival-goers gadget, this revolutionary umbrella has attached a dozen of solar panels on its canopy are used to recharge the phones. (more…)
Swedish company IKEA has announced its plans to install solar photovoltaic panels on all its buildings in China over the next three years, as part of its goal to only use renewable energy to power its facilities.
Once finished, the solar panels installations will provide up to 15% of the electricity needed in all the IKEA stores, as well as 100% of its distribution centers in China, larger buildings that require less energy. As a result, the home furnishing company will save around 6,000 of carbon dioxide emissions per year. (more…)
SMA Solar Technology AG, a global leader in the development, production and sales of photovoltaic inverters, presented this week a new video to tell the world how solar energy can benefit the worldwide energy supply. (more…)
Solar Impulse, the experimental sun-powered airplane that departed from Swiss two weeks ago, has just arrived in Morocco, successfully completing the first intercontinental flight in a solar powered-plane. Piloted by Andre Borschberg, Solar Impulse holds now the record for the longest flight by a manned solar-powered airplane after staying aloft for 26 hours, 10 minutes and 19 seconds above Switzerland, and also a record for altitude by flying at 9,235 metres.
Last weekend, and due to an early summer day, Germany solar power plants generated around 22GW during the midday hours of Friday May 25 and Saturday May 26, producing, only on Saturday, a 40% of the total power demand in the country. These numbers, which equal almost half of national electricity demand, and are equivalent to the power output of twenty nuclear power plants, have set up another new world record for solar power.
The experimental sun-powered Solar Impulse airplane departed from the Swiss airfield of Payerne last night piloted by Andre Borschberg, on its first attempted intercontinental flight from Switzerland to Morocco.
Solar Impulse is expected to land in Madrid before heading to Morocco without using any fuel. Once in Morocco, where it’s said the launch of construction on the largest ever solar thermal plant it’s likely to start coinciding with the end of the trip, Solar Impulse will be hosted by the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (MASEN), whose mission is to develop the Moroccan solar energy plan, to provide the country with a competitive industrial profile in the renewables sector.
In an attempt to give a boost to PV solar industry, The British Photovoltaic Association (BPVA), the Micropower Council (MPC), the Renewable Energy Association (REA) and the Solar Trade Association (STA) have this morning revealed their affiliation to fight against the feed in tariffs fiasco.
Given the bad results solar photovoltaic installations have had since the new Feed-in Tariffs started, all four major trade associations representing domestic solar photovoltaics in the UK have decided to push the message that thanks to drastically falling component prices, solar PV seems to be one of the best investments in the current days. According to what they say, the reason for this decrease in the number of installations is likely to be public confusion. They defend that solar photovoltaic help consumers to make savings on their energy bills, to generate an income, and also to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and strengthens energy security. (more…)
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has once more published and updated solar photovoltaic installations for the week ending 6th May 2012. Solar panels demand in the UK continues to drop as we could see last weeks, and overall have dropped off a cliff since the new Feed-in Tariffs started, lending support to these who say this decision was taken too fast, damaging thousands of homeowners and businesses.
As every Wednesday, Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has updated the Weekly Solar PV Installations and Capacity Statistics. Check the table below to see the data corresponding to the week ending in 29th April 2012. (more…)