Advertisement

Apple's new solar-powered campus, and more in the week that was

In other news, Donald Trump tapped Elon Musk to serve as a strategic advisor.

As the founder of Tesla, Elon Musk is a proponent of clean technology and renewable energy. That's why it's so surprising that Donald Trump has selected Musk to serve as a strategic advisor -- here's hoping Musk can convince the President-elect to take climate change seriously. In other news, Chevrolet just delivered its first batch of Bolt EVs to customers in the San Francisco Bay Area, beating Tesla's Model 3 to the punch. Steven Hawking is working with NASA to launch a self-healing starship that will search for habitable planets in Alpha Centauri. And Japan Airlines has developed a way to transform old clothing into jet fuel.

The fight against climate change is in jeopardy as Donald Trump's cabinet picks roll in, but Bill Gates is stepping up to the task by launching a $1 billion clean energy fund. Meanwhile, America's first offshore wind farm just switched online for the first time, and it's producing enough energy to power 17,000 homes. Denmark is well ahead of the clean energy game -- it currently sources over half of its electricity from renewable sources, and that figure is set to rise to 100 percent by 2035. And researchers invented a new solar sidewalk made from recycled plastic that snaps together like LEGO bricks.

One of the world's most anticipated buildings is nearly finished: Drone footage shows that Apple's massive solar-powered "spaceship" campus is set to be completed by the end of the year. In other design and technology news, Carlo Ratti Associati launched plans for a floating gym that uses people power to cruise through Paris. Japan successfully launched an orbiting satellite that will trap space junk with a giant net. And the world's best dad created an incredible Star Wars AT-ACT playhouse just in time for the debut of Rogue One.