solar

  • Solar Panels by Flickr user Chandra Marsono

    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 2000 running
    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...

  • Solar Panels by Flickr user Chandra Marsono
    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...

  • PlanetSolar around-the-world solar yacht
    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...

  • 2012 BMW ActiveE  -  Driven in Monterey, February 2012
    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...

  • The 2012 Toyota Prius. Image: Toyota
    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.

  • LumineXence Lotus charging station

    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 WattStation Electric Car Charging Station
    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...

  • The Nuna II From Delft University, Solar Challenge World Record Holder
    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.

  • University of Michigan's Quantum Solar Racer. Image: Evan Doughety
    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.

  • Solar powered electric-car charging facility, Mitsubishi headquarters, Cypress, CA
    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...

  • 2011 Tesla Roadster Sport. Photo by Joe Nuxoll.
    Tesla Electric Car Plus Solar Power Equals Zero-Cost Driving (Video)

    Mike Koenigs is also a true Tesla and clean power activist

  • Auriga Leader hybrid cargo ship

    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...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt outside Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant
    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...

  • 2011 Nissan Leaf
    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...

  • Ford Rouge Assembly Plant, Michigan, where Ford F-150 pickup trucks are built
    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...

  • Audi solar powered EV charging station
    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...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt 240V charging station
    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...

  • Current Race Leader and Winner of the South African Solar Car Challenge 2008, the Tokai Challenger

    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...

  • Power lines by Flickr user achouro
    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...

  • Brighton Earthship Solar Panels by Flickr user Dominic's Pics
    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...

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