solar
-
Electric cars are only as green as the means by which they get their power. While producing zero local emissions and propelled using efficient electric motors, ideally that electricity would be from a renewable source, rather than by burning fossil fuels or even using nuclear. That's not always possible, but as far as Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk is concerned, our best option for clean energy is shining down on our heads: Solar power. Speaking at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas, NV (via PVTech), Musk told the gathered audience that sustainable energy was a necessity for the...
-
Baja 1000 Goes Electric With New Solar-Powered Category
The Sun Cup Challenge sounds like something you might find in a Mario Kart video game, next to the Mushroom Cup and Star Cup, but the reality is much more significant. This year, the Sun Cup Challenge is a competition within the mighty Baja 1000 race, where competitors tackle a thousand miles of...
Antony Ingram -
Goodbye, Solar? Greentech Investors Shift To Electric Cars, Consumer Tech
The green technology investing boom has slowed. But if you ask investors, greentech isn’t disappearing, it’s just changing. Between 2006 and 2007, cleantech and greentech emerged as hot terms in the investor vernacular. Startups focused on big-picture energy needs, including solar and...
VentureBeat's GreenBeat -
Sun-Powered Boat Completes Round-The-World Trip
While solar has its place in the electric car world, it's not yet suitable for powering an electric car directly. A Prius or Leaf may come with a small solar panel mounted in the roof, but that's just to power accessories. And if you want to run your car on solar electricity, your best bet is...
Antony Ingram -
BMW ActiveE Drivers To Benefit From Cheaper Solar Power
"Yeah, but where does the electricity come from, huh?" comes the oft-sneering question when the subject of electric cars is brought up in polite conversation. Sneery it may be, but there's an underlying point if your main source of power is something like coal. However, BMW ActiveE drivers will...
Antony Ingram -
It's Not Easy Being Green: Solar Windows 1, Prius 0
A southern California Prius owner learned the hard way that energy-efficient building windows can reflect enough sunlight to melt plastic.
Kurt Ernst -
So often in the world of Industrial design, form follows function. Then once in a while, a design comes along that turns a mundane object like an electric car charging station into something a little more artistic. Enter the leaf-shaped Lotus solar-powered electric car charging station. Designed by Luminexecne’s Giancarlo Zema, the solar-powered charging station looks like a giant lotus leaf, and combines a shelter, a night-time LED light and a charging station in one unit. Available in a variety of sizes, from a 43 square foot model capable of producing 500 watts of peak solar power...
-
GE Becomes Solar-Powered Electric Car Charging Station Champion
Yesterday, GE Industrial Solutions announced the latest in a line of solar-powered initiatives and partnerships designed to help electric car owners power their cars with solar power: a distribution agreement with photovoltaic solar power specialist REC Solar. The agreement, which will see REC...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
World Solar Challenge: 1,900 Miles, Much Sun, No Air Conditioning
The World Solar Challenge pits the cutting edge of aerodynamics and solar power systems against the great outback of the land down under.
George Parrott -
University of Michigan's Quantum Solar Racer Laps Michigan
The University of Michigan team is preparing for the upcoming World Solar Challenge by driving their Quantum Solar Racer on a thousand-mile loop around Michigan.
Kurt Ernst -
Mitsubishi Joins The Crowd, Unveils Solar Charging Station At HQ
It's moving from an innovation to a fad, this business of solar-powered charging stations for electric cars. The latest car company to jump on the bandwagon is Mitsubishi, which will launch the diminutive four-door, four-seat 2012 Mitsubishi 'i' electric minicar in November at a price of just...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Electric Car Plus Solar Power Equals Zero-Cost Driving (Video)
Mike Koenigs is also a true Tesla and clean power activist
George Parrott -
In this day and age, when it comes to being green, looking at the end result is never enough. You have to take a life cycle approach to assessing how green something is, which in the case of cars, means looking at how they are manufactured and delivered to your driveway. Unfortunately, most cars produced overseas, including top selling hybrids like the Toyota Prius, are shipped over on huge cargo ships, the kind that produces as much air pollution as roughly 50 million individual cars. While automakers have little choice towards alleviating this issue, it’s good to see that Toyota, at...
-
Sun Shines on GM’s New Solar Panels at Chevy Volt Factory
You hardly need us to tell you that there’s been an ongoing race to become the king of plug-in vehicles between Nissan and General Motors ever since the two firms launched their 2011 Nissan Leaf and 2011 Chevrolet Volt. But with both cars battling it out on the forecourt both firms can worry...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Nissan Goes Solar With Electric Car Charging Station at TN HQ
While the majority of its vehicles will be gasoline powered for the foreseeable future, Nissan North America has taken more steps towards zero emissions motoring for its headquarters in Franklin, TN with an 18 vehicle solar charging station to supplement the already existing electric vehicle...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Greening The Rouge: Ford's More Sustainable Pickup Plant
A green roof is not at its most photogenic in a Michigan winter. In fact, it's hardly green at all--more like gray and brown--though it still insulates the building below just as well. But while some of the green aspects of Ford's showcase Rouge assembly plant have succumbed to the January weather...
John Voelcker -
Audi Using Solar Panels To Power Future e-tron Cars
Audi is demonstrating the use of solar energy for future mobility by converting the roof of one of its factories in Ingolstadt, Germany to solar panels. Here, Audi e-tron models will in future have their batteries charged with current obtained directly from the photovoltaic equipment installed on...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Zero Emission Solar Charging At Chevrolet Volt Plant [Video]
We've discussed before the issue of how clean electric cars really are when you take into consideration the source of the electricity you use to charge them - they're only as clean as the grid powering them. It's usually one of the first things EV dissenters bring up... "Yeah, but where does the...
Antony Ingram -
Cape Town in South Africa has just hosted the end of a journey of almost 2,500 miles on solar, hydrogen or electric power. The race, the South African 2010 Solar Challenge, was won by Japan's Tokai Challenger, a solar-powered vehicle with a top speed of 100mph which has previously won the 2009 Solar Challenge. The solar cells powering it are more often found on satellites and the Tokai Challenger certainly has more than a hint of spacecraft about it. Perhaps that's why traffic police in the region managed to pull it over twice. It can't be often they see a shiny, silent, three-wheeled car...
-
Will Old Chevy Volt Batteries (Eventually) Store Solar Energy From Your Roof?
Pretty much everyone loves renewable energy. The problem is that wind usually blows at night--often sporadically, at that--and solar power is unpredictable. Suppose the secret to harnessing their potential was ... used electric-car batteries? GM said today that it would work with ABB Group to...
John Voelcker -
Solar Array, Lithium Cells To Power Part of Ford Focus Plant
Many houses, stores, and factories across the U.S. now have arrays of photovoltaic solar cells mounted on their roofs. These days, that's hardly news. But Ford's announcement that it will install half a megawatt of power-generating solar panels at its Wayne, Michigan, assembly plant has a new...
John Voelcker