It’s been a great year if you’re the kind of techie that likes to dream up tomorrow’s gadgets. Mind you, it’s hard not to get caught up in this year’s stunning gear like the Nest smart thermometer or LG’s prototype OLED HDTV. But 2011 also brought us advancements in materials technology that could soon make […]
Apple’s North Carolina data center to go solar
Thanks to some sleuthing by a reporter at the Charlotte Observer, we now know how Apple plans to make its massive, billion-dollar data center in Maiden, North Carolina greener. While some vital specifics concerning the new solar farm are still shrouded in mystery, engineering plans (called Project Dolphin Solar Farm A Expanded) call for a […]
Solar@Home? Harvard Clean Energy Project wants your PC
Distributed computing projects are a great way to harness the power of PCs out in the wild to solve scientific mysteries, help find cures for tough diseases and even search for extra terrestrial life. Now you can add solar panel research to the list. According to this article in Wired, researchers behind the Harvard Clean Energy […]
Infographic of the day: The high cost of keeping cool
How timely. Just in time for a heatwave that’s slamming us here in East Coast of the United States, the pixelsmiths at One Block Off the Grid (1BOG) have a nice, stats-infused infographic. In Cool House, Fat Wallet, 1BOG examines the impact of AC on home energy consumption. And given how popular air conditioning systems […]
Solar field sprouts at GE Aviation in Durham, NC
Video: GE Aviation has released a neat, time-lapse video showing a 7.2-acre solar installation go up at its Durham, North Carolina facility. The project is the company’s way of practicing what it preaches, so to speak. Power from its 9,072 thin film panels is governed by GE equipment like its Brilliance Inverter. All told, the […]
EverLast’s renewable-powered lighting system is NASA-approved
While it won’t be going into orbit, EverLast’s outdoor lighting system is still accomplishing a pretty neat feat for the spacefaring agency. The Jackson, Michigan-based company is behind the sensor-backed tech that’s providing an 0ff-grid parking lot at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas with zero-emissions, energy efficient outdoor induction lighting. How? With […]
Solar panels are coming back to the White House
President Jimmy Carter had them installed. Reagan’s administration removed them. George Bush Sr. dabbled with a small installation. Now, they’re really making a comeback. At the 2010 GreenGov Symposium, The White House announced that solar panels will be reinstalled on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue along with a solar hot water heater system as part of a […]
Genie Lens: Stick-on solar booster
An Englewood, CO-based startup called Genie Lens Technologies has created a film called Fusion — a sticker, for all intents and purposes — that improves solar panel efficiency by up to 10 percent. The best part is that the sticker improves efficiency best under cloudy conditions, when diffuse light makes it tougher for solar panels […]
Solar by the numbers: 1BOG savings in Denver
What’s one of the biggest — if not the biggest — impediment to residential solar adoption? If you said, cost, you’re right. Well, at least Denver residents are lucky to have One Block Off the Grid (1BOG) in their…
Solar Firms Step up to Help Haiti
Some solar companies are stepping up to help the people of Haiti after a devastating earthquake flattened entire swaths of the country’s capital, Port-au-Prince, leaving behind scores of injured residents and claiming untold numbers of lives. Geek.com spotlights some…
