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Tesla is launching new Powerwall home batteries in 2016
Tesla's Powerwall was a big success from the moment that Elon Musk launched it last year. In fact, the device is sold out until mid-2016, and may have already hit $1 billion in sales. It turns out there was a lot of pent-up demand -- if you have solar panels, the device's giant battery lets you run your house after dark, and if you don't, it provides a reliable, long-lasting backup. Even though the first-gen Powerwall only started shipping a few months ago, Musk admitted at a private function (in the video below) that "we are coming up with the version two of the Powerwall probably around July or August of this year."
ICYMI: Printing in 4D, solar panel breakthrough and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-509705{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-509705, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-509705{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-509705").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Scientists at Harvard have figured out how to print incredibly small, shape-shifting creations out of hydrogel that can then morph from 3D to 4D depending on water or heat is applied to them. Scientists figured out how to grow a material that could make solar panels cheaper. And a new jacket on Indiegogo captures heat from UV light then stores it in a steel mesh center to warm you up. If you need to catch up on big stories from the week, we recommend starting with Google's donations. And as always, please share any interesting science or tech videos, anytime! Just tweet us with the #ICYMI hashtag to @mskerryd.
Solar-powered action camera charges itself in about an hour
Mountable action cameras are pretty cool, but almost all of them share the same fatal flaw: limited battery life. At best, most cameras will only record continuously for a few hours before calling it quits for the day. What if you could get more recording time without swapping out batteries? That's the idea behind the Activeon Solar X -- a solar-powered action camera.
UK government cuts home solar rewards by 65 percent
As part of its commitment to renewable energy, the UK government offers financial contributions to those who have solar panels installed at their home. This "Feed-in Tariff" pays homeowners to generate their own power, which not only feeds the appliances in their home, but can also then be sold back to the grid by way of an "export tariff". Currently, the Feed-in Tariff sits at 12.47 pence per kilowatt hour, but the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) confirmed today that payments will be reduced to 4.39 pence from next month, a drop of 65 percent.
NC town fears solar farm will 'suck up all the energy from the sun'
The town council of Woodland, North Carolina rejected a rezoning proposal that would have allowed the installation of a new solar farm within its borders. The council had previously approved three other solar farms, which are currently under construction, however wound up voting to reject this proposal after town residents "expressed distrust and fear of the solar panels," according to The Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald.
Google makes big clean energy purchase to power data centers
Powering Google's online empire takes a lot of energy, and the company wants to use all clean sources to run its data centers by 2025. The company announced the next step towards that milestone today with word that it purchased 842 megawatts of renewable energy on three continents. The purchase includes solar and wind power in locales that range from North Carolina to Chile and Sweden, doubling what it had bought so far. Google says today's announcement is the largest purchase of clean energy by a non-utility company ever.
Volta Flyer is a solar-powered build-it-yourself toy plane
Kids have much, much fancier toys to play with these days. The Volta Flyer is one of them: it works kind of like a paper plane, except it's made of sturdier materials and has a solar panel to keep it flying for at least 30 seconds. If the ToyLab team reaches its $39,000 goal on Kickstarter, backers who pledge $40 or more will get a kit comprised of a fuselage, motor and propeller, a thin silicon solar panel and stabilizers. Once the components are all pieced together -- and this could take less than 20 minutes, ToyLab says -- the plane can then be charged by holding it up to the sun for 90 seconds before hand launching it into the air. According to its campaign notes, ToyLab's goal is to give kids "practical insights into STEM" by having them build the plane themselves... though there's absolutely nothing preventing grown adults from getting their own.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: Concept cars and betting big on solar
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. The World Health Organization handed down some heavy news this week: Bacon causes cancer. Fortunately, scientists are developing healthier meat alternatives. One lab discovered a type of seaweed that tastes just like fried bacon (and it's two times healthier than kale), and Impossible Foods is working on the next generation of plant-based burgers. Watch out for veggie dogs though -- a new study shows that one in 10 vegetarian sausages contains meat.
Morocco is building the biggest solar farm in all of Africa
Morocco's 160 MW concentrated solar farm, Noor 1, was only the start. When the African nation is done, Noor 1 will be joined by three more similarly-sized power plants which will generate a whopping 500 MW of renewable energy. That's enough to power 1 million homes, or about half of the country's residences.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: superdogs and a cave museum
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. So far Elon Musk has created next-gen spacecraft and some of the world's best electric cars -- could a futuristic airplane be next? This past week, Musk announced that he'd like to build a "pretty cool supersonic, vertical takeoff and landing electric jet." In other transportation news, automakers had a Back to the Future field day last week. Stanford rolled out a self-driving DeLorean; Toyota showcased a special Mirai with gull-wing doors and a flux capacitor; and students built an all-electric version of Doc Brown's time-traveling car. A sleek solar-powered car won the World Solar Challenge by rocketing across the Australian Outback in four days. And we took a test-drive of the all-new, completely rebuilt 2016 Chevrolet Volt, which just hit the market in California.
Apple invests in more clean power for Chinese manufacturing
It's no secret that Apple takes its energy responsibilities seriously. It already powers a large percentage of its buildings via renewable sources, but ensuring that its manufacturing facilities run on clean energy isn't as easy, especially when it has partners located in various different regions. China is now Apple's fastest growing market, but it's also where the majority of its products are assembled, so it's embarking on two new programs to improve its environmental impact in the country.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: 'Iron Man' prosthetics and a creepy Airbnb
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. Want to see the state of the art in solar-powered architecture? Check out eight of the world's most efficient sun-powered homes built by students for the 2015 Solar Decathlon. In other solar news, Panasonic just shattered a world record by building the most efficient photovoltaic panel on the planet. A Dutch firm recently announced plans to build the largest wind farm in Africa near a remote Kenyan lake. And Washington, DC, unveiled the world's largest waste-to-energy system, which will generate electricity from the city's raw sewage.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: 3D-printed pavilions and cardboard cars
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. What will the homes of the future look like? If this year's Solar Decathlon is any indication, they will be self-sufficient, hyper-efficient and 100 percent powered by the sun. How about a home that grows all the food you need, so you never need to take a trip to the produce aisle? Or a super-durable disaster-proof house that's strong enough to fight tornadoes and win? However, the coolest one might be this tiny home that can be emailed to a woodshop across the world, CNC cut and then assembled like a giant puzzle without a single nail.
Clean energy is nearly as inexpensive as coal and gas
One of the biggest obstacles to adopting solar or wind power is simply the cost of getting started. However much an electricity company might save in the long run, that up-front expense is tough to swallow. Or rather, it was -- Bloomberg New Energy Finance study has found that the cost of clean energy has dropped so much that it's within spitting distance of dirty sources like coal and gas. The global average cost of onshore wind power has dipped to $83 per megawatt-hour, while silicon solar power now costs $122. Neither of those figures is trivial, but they're not much different than what firms pay for coal (which has risen to $75 per MWh in the Americas) or gas turbines ($82 per MWh). Some green tech is still expensive, such as offshore wind ($174) and marine ($400-plus), but prices have fallen there, too.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: the Model X and man-made islands
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. After three years of anticipation Tesla just launched its latest electric car. The company says the Model X is the world's safest SUV; it can go from 0-60 in 3.2 seconds; and it comes with a "bioweapon defense mode" in case of... well, the apocalypse. Meanwhile the Volkswagen emissions scandal continues to develop, and this past week, we asked just how many people have died due to pollution emitted by affected vehicles. Perhaps the worst part is that Volkswagen may actually avoid criminal charges due to a loophole in the Clean Air Act.
Scientists are developing an invisibility cloak for solar panels
Current solar panel technology has enough trouble as it is converting sunlight into useable current, what with their paltry 20 percent average efficiencies. And it certainly doesn't help matters that up to a tenth of every solar panel's active collection areas are obscured from the sun by electrical leads called "contact fingers." But researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have developed a novel workaround: they're wrapping the finger contacts in little invisibility cloaks.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: Off-grid homes and fold-up planes
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. What does it take for a house to go completely off-grid? A diverse range of energy sources is key -- and this new 3D-printed house can be powered by built-in solar panels or tethered to a hybrid car. We also love this pop-up transparent dome shelter that lets you sleep beneath the stars. In other architecture news, Apple just launched its first store under the guidance of Jonathan Ives -- and it's warmer and more curvaceous than the company's previous brick and mortars. MAD Architects unveiled out-of-this-world plans for a futuristic George Lucas Museum in Chicago. And a team of researchers found a way to build a functional 24-foot rope bridge using drones.
Stanford researchers 'cool' sunlight to improve solar cell efficiency
A team of researchers from Stanford University have devised an ingenious means of boosting the efficiency of solar panels by exploiting a fundamental physics phenomenon. Solar panels lose efficiency as they heat up. Just as the top of your head radiates excess body heat as infrared light, the researchers have developed a translucent overlay comprised of patterned silica that does the same for solar panels. The overlay separates the visible spectrum of light (which generates electricity) from its thermal radiation (aka heat), effectively "cooling" the incoming light, radiating the heat away from the panel while allowing more photons to be converted into electricity. The team, led by Stanford professor Shanhui Fan, recently published their findings in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: new EV concept cars and Napmobiles
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. Up until now, Tesla has blazed a trail in the electric vehicle market -- but the major automakers are finally starting to catch up. This past week Porsche unveiled its new Mission E electric car, which packs over 600 horsepower and recharges in 15 minutes flat. Meanwhile, Audi showcased a sleek all-electric SUV to rival the Tesla Model X, and Mercedes-Benz debuted a car that can actually transform at high speeds. Even LA is jumping on the green-car bandwagon -- the city just announced plans to launch the largest electric vehicle fleet in the US. If you prefer pedal-powered transportation, don't miss out on a chance to win a Public V7 bike in our back-to-school giveaway -- it only takes a second to enter!
Inhabitat's Week in Green: 3D-printed suites and a new Prius
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. Researchers at the University of Michigan are making waves in solar panels -- literally. It turns out that their undulating photovoltaic strips can collect up to 30 percent more energy than flat arrays. In other energy news, China and Pakistan just announced plans to build the world's largest solar farm in the Punjabi desert, and Aspen, Colorado, just became the third city in the US to be powered entirely by renewable energy. Heads up students -- we're giving away three solar energy-generating Voltaic backpacks and you can win one here. Voltaic also just launched a new solar-powered light that shines for 30-plus hours on a single charge. And designer Pauline van Dongen debuted a solar parka that keeps you charged when you journey off the grid.
