Nano-engineering students at Rensselaer have created a solar power game-changer: more than 96% absorption of sunlight from all angles, from sunrise to sunset.

This new nano-coating for solar cells absorbs virtually all of the spectrum from the sun and can absorb them optimally regardless of where the sun is in the sky.

This could be disruptive technology, something which changes the solar industry forever.

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These new cells are just as efficient as the rigid ones, and take less silicon to manufacture, something which could ultimately drop costs.

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Sails with solar panels.

Tequila into diamonds.

Corn cobs into biofuel via mushrooms.

Bioheat more efficient than heating oil.

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It is designed to walk away from natural disasters like floods.

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The panels can charge the battery enough for a 3-mile trip in just one hour. After a full charge of 30 hours in the sun, the car can travel up to 90 miles.

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In three years, buildings covered in steel sheets could be generating large amounts of solar electricity, thanks to a new photovoltaic paint that is being developed

The photovoltaic paint is made up of a layer of dye and a layer of electrolytes and can be applied as a liquid paste.

There is so much amazing reasearch and development happening in renewables now. Some of the technologies being developed now will unquestionably go mainstream. After too much financial doom and gloom it is heartening to see the real and promising work being done now in renewables.

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Japan is definitely thinking big, and out of the box. Real big. Like 2km x 800m. These floating renewable energy platforms will also power underwater lights to grow seaweed thus attracting fish and plankton in an effort to replenish dwindling fish populations. Wow.

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The first part of the Pickens Plan is solar, the next is using natural gas as a bridge until we devise a nationwide renewable energy system. The thinking is, if solar gets used to create electricity, then natural gas will be freed up to power automobiles, decreasing oil consumption and giving us time to develop renewable power for vehicles and electricity.

He also says, drill, drill, drill for oil. Breakthrough says, not to worry, because Pickens also says drilling won’t help much because we will still be dependent on foreign oil. Also -

Democrats should drop the dogmatism and seize the political moment to carve out a drilling policy on their own terms. Otherwise, the options are no drilling or drilling wrong, and the American public has made quite clear their support for the latter.

Yes, Pickens is a right-wing, swift-boating, Texas billionaire who wants to make billions more on renewable power. He’s also thinking big and putting lots of money on the table. I’m glad someone is, because our government sure isn’t.

The Google Foundation is also thinking big, and is pumping money into clean energy research, tens of millions a year now, hundreds of millions a year soon.

This isn’t, or shouldn’t be, a partisan political issue. Low cost, renewable energy benefits us all.

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Each will be ten times larger than any existing solar installation. One of the plants “alone will have as much photovoltaic capacity as was installed worldwide during the past year.”

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Space based solar power sends the earth to transmitters on earth via microwave. The sun in space shines 24/7 and is much more powerful.

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Tip: Disinfo

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New precast concrete sucks CO2 out of the air.

World’s largest onshore wind farm (909 megawatts) to be built in Oregon.

Algae based biofuels in plain English: Why it matters, how it works.

Utah’s solar fired furnace to power California for less than the cost of coal or gas.

2,000 MW wind farm will send power from Wyoming to Southern California.

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What may have at first seemed an outlandish plan could become reality. It’s a $71bn plan to create massive solar farms in the Sahara and send the power to Europe. Not only would it help power Europe, it would also provide huge income for those Sahara countries (who would also get lots of power too.)

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Say what? Yes, real estate sales in the desert are hot, hot, hot. Not for homes, but for locations to install solar power projects.

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Solar thermal stores heat from the sun into molten salt to be used as needed to generate power through conventional steam turbines. Thus, it can generate power any time day or night, even when the sun isn’t shining. This is a zero emissions process and the salt itself is completely non-toxic.

Renewable Energy World has an fact-filled article about how solar thermal works written by the director of development at SolarReserve, who have a 1200 acre solar thermal plant. Their website has a wealth of information.

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Triple Pundit explains why being able to store renewable energy is crucial. It’s cost effective, as it can allow electricity to be released during peak hours when it’s needed and the price is higher. Also, it increases energy autonomy and also stabilizes the grid.

They have links to government sites explaining how such storage works.

Compressed air storage
Off-peak electricity is used to pump air into underground caverns, then released as needed to generate electricity.

Pumped hydroelectric
Pump the water uphill during off-peak hours, storing it in a reservoir, then release it to power hydraulic turbines.

Solar thermal energy storage
There are multiple methods for storing heat from teh sun to be used to power turbines.

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Darrell Dickey has a Toyota EV that he recharges using solar power from the roof of his home. Thus, it runs for free. Maybe someday soon there will be hundreds of thousands of solar-powered EVs. It could happen.

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Yet only eight states have laws that prevent lower municipalities from banning solar panels. Arizona just passed regulations prohibiting homeowner associations from blocking solar, yet at least one such association near Phoenix says they will continue to block solar any way they can. In a Land of Sun, this is myopic madness.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Some say solar panels are ugly, and maybe they are (however the aesthetics of solar is improving fast.) But consider this, maybe a homeowner association in Arizona with 500 homes, all with solar, generating most if not all their power is a thing of beauty too.

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They will spend $60 million over five years studying how to optimize solar thermal, which stores solar energy as heat so the turbines that produce electricity can be powered even when the sun isn’t shining. This is a welcome step. Perhaps one day the US government will be spending $6 billion or maybe even $60 billion over a period of years on renewable energy research.

We need the equivalent of a Marshall Plan for energy in the US. I’m hopeful that incoming President Obama will push for such a plan. Not only would this provide clean energy, it would also provide energy security. The more energy we generate with our own (non-coal) resources, the better.

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This award winning house in Wisconsin gets 70-80% of its heat from the sun and earth with passive solar energy and geothermal radiant slab hydronic heating.

Plus, the price wasn’t substantially higher than a regular house. It was all in the design that allowed a house in quite cold Wisconsin to heat itself through solar, geothermal, and a brick fireplace that radiates heat.

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Click for full information.

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Photovoltaics convert light directly into power. Ecoworldly has lots of information about the biggest PV plants, both existing and planned.

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Most are in the Mojave desert. The biggest project, eSolar, is partly funded by Google and will product a whopping 1 GW when completed. They bill themselves as “utility-scale solar power.”

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Solar thermal takes the heat of the sun and uses it directly to power steam turbines to create power. The heat can also be stored in molten salt and other materials so the turbines can be powered at night, when the sun isn’t shining.

EcoWorldly details the biggest planned and existing projects, many of which will be in the Mojave Desert.

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Denmark has so much wind power that needs ways to offload and store the power. A utility company there plans to build a nationwide grid to use that power to charge electric cars.

SoCal Edison just announced a plan to put solar photovoltaic panels on commercial buildings throughout southern California with the eventual plan of generating enough power for 162,000 homes. The owners of the buildings will be able to buy power at a rate less than normal while the rest of it goes into the grid.

It’s amazing how fast renewable energy is going mainstream.

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Taped at Davos 2008. Google is in the forefront of working to remediate global warming and is spending lots of money to do so, including their nonprofit, Google.org, which targets other issues like poverty too. One of their primary goals is to make renewable energy cheaper than coal, with an initial emphasis on solar thermal, deep geothermal, and high altitude wind.

36 minutes and worth listening to.

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