solar technology

In 2013 the world will see the real future of solar technology.  That's when the world's largest dispatchable power plant, the 290 MW Starwood 1 will start producing power day and night, on cloudy or sunny days.

It’s nice when two environmental issues can be tackled simultaneously. In this case, those issues are implementing solar technology, and saving a threatened bat population.

One of the benefits to solar cells compared to other renewable energy technologies is that they're small and flexible and researchers have been able to come up with lots of different ways to manufacture and use them.

We stopped reporting on solar battery chargers a while back. It just seemed to me like a sub-optimal use of solar technology. I mean, for the most part, the panel sits around doing nothing. And it's not like battery charging uses a really significant amount of the world's energy (though it's certainly growing.)

As solar technology becomes more prevalent, cooler applications keep springing up. A great new example is the Solar Vertical Lamp by Korean designers Yoon-Hui Kim and Eun Kyung Kim, a set of vertical blinds that provide light from solar power.

Solar powered flashlights are getting more and more awesome. For use from camping to disaster relief, they’re handy, getting more efficient, and more readily available…sometimes even free! Well, Sanyo doesn’t want to be left behind, so they’re come out with the Eneloop solar light.

For the last two years, the renewable energy sector has been fighting to renew the "investment tax credit (ITC)." This little bit of legislation lets companies write-off a portion of money spent on building renewable energy projects. It's been fairly successful, spurring growth in solar and wind in America.

Solar technology. Love it. But let’s face it: who can carry around solar panels to power up all those everyday devices we carry around? We’ve seen solar beach bags, and out-of-this-world-priced pseudo-briefcases. But now there’s a product that is a bit more stylist, a bit more practical, and a lot cheaper.

The consequences of a silicon shortage are limiting the growth of the industry. At some point over the next five years, the solar panel industry will overtake the chip sector. But first there needs to be more output of polycrystalline silicon, the cornerstone material used to produce solar cells that harvest renewable energy from light rays.