Tesla Motors has found a new application for its battery technology -- off-grid solar-powered homes. The automaker is teaming up with solar panel installer SolarCity to connect its batteries to solar-powered homes, unlinking the panels from the grid and using the batteries as back-up.

The team has submtited applications for 70 different projects to California utility PG&E's solar incentive program that would see homes linked together with Tesla battery packs and solar panels. The batteries would store energy produced by the panels for use during the night, on cloudy days and during grid power outages, allowing the homes to operate fully free of the grid.

The partnership is relying on incentives to get the projects moving. If the projects qualify for the California incentives and federal tax incentives, the cost of these installations could be cut in half, making them much more appealing to homeowners since solar panel installations are already expensive and those coupled with battery storage would be even more so. But if they can get the costs down and market this combined system, we could see off-grid living become much more approachable.

via SolarCity and GigaOm

NASA is providing Artemis Innovation Management Solutions with seed money to build a satellite that could collect solar energy and beam it back down to Earth. Harvesting solar energy from space has been talked about for a long time, but has been deemed too expensive or the technology just wasn't there. Now with former NASA engineer John Mankins at the helm, it looks like this concept is finally set to take off.

The turning point for this technology is all due to the biomimetic design that Mankins came up with, which mimics how flower petals collect solar energy. The petals would be covered with small, thin-film mirrors that could be curved to direct sunlight to solar cells. The satellite would be positioned far enough away from the Earth so that it will never be in the dark. The energy collected would be converted into microwaves that could be beamed or broadcast back to Earth where electricity would be generated. The design allows for the use of small, lightweight mirrors and solar cells so that the satellite could be constructed and transported at a not-ridiculous cost.

The potential for this technology is huge. The satellite could feasibly send a constant stream of microwaves because of its position -- possibly thousands of megawatts worth. That constant stream of unlimited energy would utlimately make any upfront costs totally negligible and could bring a huge leap in amount of renewable energy fed to the grid. Truly, this is the stuff that clean tech dreams are made of.

The NASA funding is for a proof of concept study that could lead to a prototype being built if all checks out. That prototype would then be tested in near-Earth orbit and then, fingers crossed, full scale satellites would be built and launched.

via Phys.org

Images via John Mankins