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US energy department hopes instant permits will boost rooftop solar installations
The Department of Energy (DoE) has announced that it's rolling out a new tool that will make it much easier and faster to get a permit for a rooftop solar installation.
Uber is testing rooftop ads on its ridesharing fleet
Uber is getting into the advertising business. The company has reached a partnership with the ad-tech company Adomni to bring roof-top ads to its fleet, Adweek reports. Drivers in Atlanta, Dallas and Phoenix will soon be able to put ad displays on their vehicles, and Uber plans to expand the option to more cities.
Hyundai’s first car with a solar roof is available in Korea
Last fall, Hyundai revealed plans to outfit its cars with solar panels. Now, its first car equipped with a solar roof is ready. The New Sonata Hybrid is available now in Korea, and it should arrive in North America soon.
Google: 4 out of 5 US homes have solar power potential
A five kilowatt rooftop solar installation now costs just $12,500 on average after tax credits, and pretty soon, installing one might soon be a matter of re-tiling your roof. Whether it's right for you, however, depends in large part on how much sun your house gets. That's where Google's Project Sunroof comes in -- launched just two years ago, it has now surveyed over 60 million US buildings in 50 states. That means there's a good chance you can see the electricity production potential in your city, neighborhood and even specific house.
Six innovative rooftop solar technologies
By Cat DiStasio It's never been easier to give your house a solar roof. Falling manufacturing costs and increasing demand have led to a number of fascinating new solar products in recent years, including roof shingles with integrated solar cells, modular solar arrays and even efficient thermal tiles made from glass. As the technology improves and more people get turned on to the benefits of renewable energy, we expect to see even more innovative products hitting the market in the coming months and years, pushing forward the envelope for solar power production.
Elon Musk's SolarCity has the world's most efficient solar panels
SolarCity, the company co-founded by Elon Musk, now produces the world's most efficient rooftop solar panels with a module efficiency of just over 22 percent. That bests the X-Series panels built by SunPower, which top out at around 21.5 percent. The results were confirmed by the Renewable Energy Test Center, a third party California photovoltaic testing company. SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive told Fortune that the company is shooting for a cost of around 55 cents per watt. It plans to build the 360 watt panels its 1GW solar panel plant in Buffalo, New York, set to open next year.
California Kohl's store turns on giant rooftop solar system
The Laguna Niguel Kohl's location certainly isn't the first notable venue in California to benefit from a large solar panel installation, but this particular setup is being dubbed the "largest planned US photovoltaic solar rollout to date." Reportedly, Kohl's Department Stores is planning on equipping 63 of its 80 California locations with solar electric systems, which should total "approximately 25 megawatts," and upon completion, the program would "represent approximately 15-percent of California's photovoltaic installations to date." Granted, the US Tesco building's solar roof may still hold the crown (at least for now) for "world's largest," but Kohl's is hoping to impress by "generating more than 35-million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of renewable energy annually" when its massive rollout is complete.
