One of the key stumbling blocks for supporters of solar energy is the fact that many of the planet’s sunniest spots lay in the middle of oceans or inhospitable deserts. Now a team from Israel’s Technion Institute of Technology have developed solar energy balloons as a means of harnessing the sun’s energy in exactly such remote areas.

The team argue that the devices may be a cheap way to power remote areas lacking either the land or the infrastructure to accommodate "traditional"-type large power stations.

According to the concept’s developer, Pini Gurfil, the idea is “to take advantage of the height dimension. When you do that, you save a lot of land resources and can get to places otherwise hard to reach.”

The helium-filled balloons, available from around spring 2009, are covered with thin-film solar panels, and can float at heights of up to several hundred meters. The electricity generated is fed via a wire cable into an inverter capable of converting it for household use.

Initial research has shown that a typical 3 Meter (10ft) balloon should cost around $4,000, and be capable of producing around 1Kw of energy. This roughly compares to the same output from 25 square meters (269 sq ft) of traditional solar panels, at a cost of $10,000.

However, critics suggest that the system may have only limited niche appeal, and point to the widespread availability of "free" space on city rooftops and relatively low cost land around many urban centers. Now if they could get them to ten or twenty thousand feet...above the cloud layer, that would be another story.

Via Reuters

About a year ago Dell promised us all that they would soon be a 100% carbon neutral company. Now they're making good on that promise, and they look to be going about it in the right way. Instead of buying carbon credits that would theoretically offset the power that they're using in at their corporate campus in Austin, they're actually buying renewable power right there from companies making it available in the Austin area.

Waste Management's nearby Austin landfill is producing natural gas that is powering 40% of the 2.1 million square-foot campus where over 10,000 people go to work every day. The remaining 60% of the power is coming from wind energy produced by TXU Energy.

Dell continues to develop plans to take its other facilities to carbon neutrality and to decrease energy use through efficiency measures.

Full Press Release is below.