There are a lot of reasons to think that flat solar panels would be the right way to go. The best way to capture sunlight is by being perpendicular to the sun and it's usually cheaper to make things flat than round. But the folks at Solyndra have discovered that this traditional wisdom might be a bit faulty.

First, as to the second point, when dealing with thin-film CIGS solar panels, cylindrical is just as good as flat. But the first point, concerning harvesting the maximum amount of sunlight, gets a little confusing.

The cylindrical solar panels (think of fluorescent tube lights...except in reverse) can absorb energy from every direction, and when combined with a white roof (which are now the only legal, flat roofs in California) can capture up to 20% more light than traditional solar panels. The other gigantic advantage is that they don't have to move to track the sun. The panels are always presenting some of their face directly perpendicular to the sun.

By removing solar-tracking and orientation from the equation, these systems can simply be laid onto roofs. Tracking solar panels have to be able to resist the force of strong winds, these will just lay flat and out of the way reducing installation costs, which often comprise about half of the price of a solar project.

And with 30 billion square feet of flat roofs in America, this could be quite a market for cheap, clean electricity. Solyndra just announced, in fact, that they've got $1.2 B in contracts throughout Europe and America, and I can't imagine that going anywhere but up.

Full press release from Solyndra below

Via Scientific American

Honda says they're working on hybrid motorcycles eh? Well Peugot is doing them one better...they've already got a concept hybrid scooter on the drawing board.

The Hymotion3 concept beats out traditional scooters in several ways. First, you've got that extra wheel, so you don't have to worry about sticking your fancy Italian leather shoes into the muck at stoplights. Second, there's a full wind-screen and cover, to keep you safe from the elements.

But most importantly, there's the mileage gain. While most scooters certainly excel in efficiency, the Hymotion blows them all away. The hybrid drive (which powers the front two wheels entirely independently) boots the mileage up to 118 MPG. And at low speeds, the engine turns off entirely and the front wheels power the scooter.

But whether the Hymotion will actually ever exist is up in the air. Certainly with gas prices and a tightening economy, scooter sales will increase...but models that require extra investment for a probably-not-that-significant gasoline savings might have a tougher time.

Full press release below.

Via AutoBlogGreen

When it comes to solar cells, it helps to be flexible – literally.  Thin, flexible cells exist although they usually fall short in terms of how efficient they are, how much they cost, etc.  Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, however, have recently developed a cell that is both flexible and powerful.

John Rogers, a materials science professor who led the multi-discipline research, has come up with a process of slicing conventional silicon into thin pieces that can be imprinted onto a flexible surface.  The result: efficient silicon-based solar cells flexible enough to wrap around a pencil and so transparent it can be used to tint building or car windows. The silicon cells are just one-tenth the thickness of conventional cells and, according to Technology Review, they have about an efficiency of 12% - not too shabby considering that the best cells on the market get 20% efficiency.  The findings were reported in the journal Nature Materials this week.

“We can make it thin enough that we can put it on plastic to make a rollable system,” said Professor Rogers in an interview with Reuters. “It opens up spaces on the fronts of buildings as opportunities for solar energy.”  Other applications for the thin, rollable solar cells include powering the AC or GPS in a car.

Essentially, Professor Rogers’ cells use the same technology found in standard large, bulky PV units; it is the small size that accounts for their improved properties.  They can therefore be manufactured using the same monocrystalline silicon available for their macro-sized cousins.  Professor Rogers’ research has been licensed to a Durham, North Carolina company called Semprius Inc.

Via MIT Technology Review, Cleantechnia, Reuters

Photo credit: John Rogers

Why the heck not right? I mean, YoYos are a very efficient way of generating power, and iPhones don't really need all that much power to charge. So what's the problem with this idea?

I'd even say that it's several times cooler, more convenient, and better for the environment than a solar powered charger. What remains to be seen is whether or not you can actually get enough power out of one of these things to charge your phone easily. Of course, no one wants another thing to carry around. Which makes me think...why not just put the phone inside the YoYo!

Inhabitat is treating this thing like it will actually exist soon, but I'm not so sure about that. It seems like a pretty design project to me...a joke even. Big cues that it's not coming to market any time soon include the Apple logo on the device (which would never be allowed for a real design project.)

But that doesn't mean it's not a good idea...and we certainly hope that this and other human-powered charging devices will make our mobile future more convenient and more sustainable.

Via Peter Huvander and Inhabitat

Following in the footsteps of Delaware, New Jersey is planning a 350 megawatt offshore wind farm a couple of miles off the coast. It's an exciting project for two reasons. First, because the billion dollar project is going far enough offshore that wind speeds will be fairly constant and not visible to beach-goers. And second because, despite being built in 100m deep water, the project is still economically viable.

This is a big deal for offshore wind. Once you can build in water more than a mile and a half offshore, a lot of new options get put on the table.

In the North East U.S. there has been a huge amount of opposition to wind farms that are easy to see. So simply moving the turbines so far offshore that they can't be seen makes the farms much easier to permit. But it's also simply because there's a lot more sea bottom out there, with much more constant wind flow out there than there is closer to shore.

So while this wind project, slated to be completed in 2013, is a big deal...it's a bigger deal that it will likely usher in hundreds more wind projects just like it. And as soon as floating turbines (which can be anchored in water almost a half-mile deep) will put that number in the thousands.

Via NYTimes City Room

Although the algae biofuel industry is still relatively young, a few companies have established themselves as market leaders. One of these, Arizona-based Petrosun, has recently taken a noticeable step - announcing an international venture to establish an algae farm in China. The company says it has an agreement with Jun Ya Yan Technology Development Co. of Shanghai which will commit $40 million to fund the Chinese farm. The profits of the joint venture will be split between PetroSun’s China subsidiary and Jun Ya Yan Tech.

In Texas, PetroSun is building 1,100 acres of ponds in its Rio Hondo location
to produce 4.4 million gallons of algae oil and 110 million pounds of biomass per year. Neither company has said where the China farm will be based, but let’s hope it doesn’t interfere with food production – a problem which already exists on Asian farmlands.

Algae fuel is higher yielding than biofuels based on corn and soybeans, though it will still take some time to bring costs down. PetroSun claims that algae is capable of producing in excess of 30 times more oil per acre than corn and soybean crops, that their biodiesel contains no sulfur, is highly biodgradable and is nontoxic.

Recently, according to GreenTechMedia, investment in algae fuel has been ratcheted up. In venture capital, algae-based biofuel companies have raised a record-breaking $179.5 million to date this year compared to $32 million last year.

Via Earth2Tech, Petrosun

Meet the electric car B0 (pronounced B Zero and not BEE-OH) - the offspring of a partnership between French industrial giant Bolloré and Italian car firm Pininfarina. It looks oh-so-sophisticated, and has already received a rave review from CarTech, which called it the best looking small car at the 2008 Paris Motor Show.

The four-seater, four-door hatchback has a 153-mile (246 kilometres) range and a top governed speed of 80 mph (129 kilometres per hour) and nifty looking solar panels build into the roof and hood. Originally conceptualized in 2004 as a two-door model, the B0 today has added more doors and shrunken the battery size.

The B0’s secret weapon is its lithium polymer (LMP) battery, which is paired with an ultracapacitor. The latter stores energy and allows for regenerative braking and acceleration capabilities. The battery can recharge in a few hours and, although not confirmed, early pricing reports place it around $23,000 - not including the price of leasing the lithium-ion battery packs.

Best of all, B0 is not a prototype but an actual production model. More will roll out of its Turin factory by the end of 2009.

Via AutoBlogGreen, Automobilemag

Image Via Pininfarina

We're not sure about this headline...details are sketchy. First, it's half a million Canadian dollars which, as we all know, is...er...wait...nevermind.

But second it's unclear whether the car actually sold for that amount and even whether the car existed at all. However, an ad in a Canadian newspaper has the EV1 (with seemingly authentic photographs) on sale for a minimum of $75,000. However, the price is now listed at $465,000 and the car is marked as "SOLD."

What does this mean? Well, it certainly means that the EV1 has secured its place in history and that there are some people who will kill to get one. After all, this (if real) is probably the only EV1 left on the streets in all of the world.

The EV1, for those of you out of the loop, was a GMC, 2-seater electric vehicle with a top speed around 70 miles per hour and a range of over 100 miles. The car was leased by GM, but after California changed their laws requiring electric vehicles, GM suspended the leases, took the cars back and destroyed them.

The car has been somewhat of a cult icon to electric vehicle fans like myself. And we're all a little frustrated that it's taken GM another ten years just to start thinking about putting another EV on the streets.

Via AutoBlogGreen

Get used to seeing plans like this one. Now that the Solar Investment Tax Credit has been passed, every solar company in the world is going to be pushing like mad to help green-up America.

SunTech Power was the first to announce their plan, saying that they're going to triple their U.S. Operations with an aggressive push toward grid-level, residential and commercial installations. Helping them along will be EL Solutions, the company behind Google's solar plantation, which SunPower just acquired.

SunTech is betting on the United States becoming the world's largest market for their solar panels, which could easily happen in the next few years. Frankly, with all of that sunny desert in the South West, I can't believe we aren't the world's largest market yet. But government subsidies in Europe have kept the U.S. playing second fiddle.

But now, with prices dropping, and a nice fat subsidy of our own, we should be catching up pretty quick.

Via BusinessWeek

Dumping sewage onto landfill trash sounds like a bad idea; one would think that combining the two waste streams would produce something even worse. Not so, says Viridis Waste Control LLC. They have developed a process that turns this unlikely combination into a green solution.

It turns out that you can make landfill garbage biodegrade more quickly when you over it with septage (the material that is pumped out of septic tanks… let’s not be any more specific). Faster garbage biodegradation means a longer lifetime for the landfill, which saves land which would otherwise be lost to landfill use.

This is also a better use for septage, which is often applied to agricultural fields. This can lead to contamination of crops, livestock, and the water table. The septage may also accelerate methane production, which is a benefit if the landfill is set up to capture landfill gases for power production.

Looks like sometimes two negatives really do make a positive.

Via GreenGeek

The House of Representatives has just passed what may be the largest bit of renewable energy legislation in the history of the world. Over the next eight years, this 30% tax credit for solar energy will create 440,000 permanent jobs, 35 gigawatts of renewable electricity, and foster the growth of a $300 billion market for solar energy.

So I guess I was being too cynical when I wrote last week that I thought the 8-year extension of the Solar Investment Tax Credit was going to stall out in the House because the bailout package would eat all of this session's remaining time. In the end, they just stuck the legislation into the bailout package, and it passed.

For those of you complaining about the DOE's measly $17M investment in solar companies earlier this week, this should please all, since it's going to pump billions of dollars into the solar industry.

The bill does a few things:

• Extends for 8 years the 30-percent tax credit for both residential and commercial solar installations
• Eliminates the $2,000 monetary cap for residential solar electric installations, creating a true 30-percent tax credit (effective for property placed in service after December 31, 2008)
• Eliminates the prohibition on utilities from benefiting from the credit
• Authorizes $800 million for clean energy bonds for renewable energy generating facilities, including solar

The bill has been widely touted as a win-win for America, but congress struggled for over two years to pass because they couldn't figure out how to pay for it. General Electric has said that the tax credit will more than pay for itself by encouraging companies to spend money and grow the solar industry. Several companies vowed to leave the United States entirely, and move their operations elsewhere, if the bill was not passed.

By the time this tax credit expires in 2016, the solar industry (and EcoGeek) expects solar power to be the least expensive form of energy. And without the heroic actions of the House of Representatives today, this simply would not have happened.

So yes, this is big frikkin' news...and very exciting. For the full press release from SEIA keep reading.

No one has been pleased to see the price point of the Chevrolet Volt continue to rise. Initially engineers were pleased to hear that I'd pay as much as $30,000 for the car. But now, with Honda on the scene with an $18k hybrid, GM has been project a cost closer to $40k than $30k.

Well, that might all change thanks to a bill passed today (amidst a bunch of other good news for car companies.) The Bill gives a tax credit to buyers of plug-in vehicles. Each plug-in automatically gets a $2,500 cut, then you get an additional $417 per kwh for batteries greater than 4 kwh. That works out to $7500 per Volt, which could push the base price below $30k.

The tax credit will only apply to the first 250,000 plug-ins sold, and will be phased out over the course of the following fiscal year. In the end, it will cost the federal government about $750 M.

So get ready to buy your plug-ins folks! The price just dropped more than the cost of my current car!

Via GM-Volt