solar power
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Solar and wave power solution: Fill the ocean with balls
Designer Phil Pauley wants to coat our oceans with floating solar cell-covered balls. Their buoyancy could also make them viable as a wave-power system. It's purely conceptual at this stage, and with good reason: Until recently, wave power hasn't fared well as an alternative energy. Anything that goes in the ocean is subject to immense […]
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Solar airship is most efficient way to fly, ever
How can you carry huge amounts of cargo thousands of miles with no fuel and no infrastructure? By combining an airship with an airplane, of course. The resulting wing-shaped blimp requires less helium than a conventional dirigible, but has a shorter takeoff than an airplane. Hybrid Air Vehicles has been proposing this for years, but upstart […]
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Let’s cover Mt. Everest with solar panels
Less atmosphere between solar panels and the sun equals more power converted into electricity, says a new map of global solar irradiance. That means high-altitude communities — like every mountain chain from the Andes to Patagonia — could be the next frontier in producing solar power. In addition, the cool temperatures at altitude make panels […]
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Tile your roof with solar shingles
If you want to generate some solar energy but don't want to have weird-looking solar panels on your roof, Dow Solar has a solution for you. The company has achieved solar shingularity: Its roof shingles are solar panels! The solar panels are shingles! The discerning homeowner can live out green dreams while still conforming to […]
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Solar power’s 'nasty little secret' isn’t nasty or secret
A solar insider reveals that "solar panels don't work well." But this ill-timed and inaccurate charge could be just a ploy to boost his own business.
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Critical List: Exotic animals escape in Ohio; Nebraskans ‘stand with Randy’
Forty-eight escapees from an exotic animal farm were running amok in eastern Ohio; about 25 of the lions, tigers, and bears have been shot.
If the U.S. wants to oversee Cuba's offshore drilling, it'll have to lift the embargo.
Glad is selling an eco-friendly trash bag, made with less plastic.
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Conservatives want to end support for America's fastest growing industry
In these grim economic times, one U.S. industry has defied gravity. It employs 100,000 Americans at 5,000 mostly small businesses in all 50 states. And it's wildly popular with the American public -- but not with Republicans in Congress.
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New GE factory will spit out a solar panel every 10 seconds
China makes a lot of solar panels, but so does America. Or at least, it will, once GE's new thin-film panel factory opens in Colorado.
The factory marks GE's new, large bet on solar, and states across the country competed to have the factory sited within their borders. Colorado had an empty factory that fit the bill and will snatch up a few hundred jobs as a result.
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Solar panels under power lines could be a major electricity source
Moving toward renewable energy won't require massive solar projects. We could get 20 percent of our power just from solar panels under power lines.