Solar

The BigBelly solar-powered trash can has gotten a makeover.

The latest version of the BigBelly Solar garbage compactor will fit in better on city streets, all while flaunting its green credentials. Future versions will even have the ability to phone home.

The BigBelly uses a 30-watt solar panel on its top to charge a battery that powers a motor to crush garbage.

By compacting trash, city workers need to make fewer trips to empty bins, which reduces congestion and diesel exhaust, according to the company.

The company claims that compacting can eliminate four out of five trips. The savings from … Read more

A Dutch civil engineering company has designed a heat-absorbing road that bridges winter and summer.

The Road Energy System, from Ooms Avenhorn Holding, is essentially an asphalt road with tubes placed underneath. Water circulates to siphon off the heat from the road and it is stored underground for several months.

The heated road, sort of like radiant floor heating in a home, was originally conceived as a way to melt ice from roads without heavy salting.

Now, with growing interest in renewable forms of energy, the system can also be used to heat and cool homes while reducing greenhouse gas … Read more

A newly created company called SolarReserve intends to commercialize a solar power plant capable of generating electricity and storing it in molten salt.

The venture was created by investment firm US Renewables Group, which has licensed technology from Hamilton Sundstrand, a subsidiary of United Technologies. A plant will be capable of generating 500 megawatts of peak power, the size of a typical power plant.

Solar thermal technology, which uses heat intensified by lenses and mirrors to create electricity, is being pursued by utilities because it is relatively cost-effective. It is also called concentrated solar power (CSP).

But because the sun'… Read more

Back in October, we called Miasole, which makes copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar cells, about a rumor that the company cut about 50 employees and planned to close its Shanghai operation.

Founder Dave Pearce, however, said the rumors were overbaked. The company got rid of some contractors but that was about it, he wrote.

"We have recently hired a number of senior engineering, operations, and sales resources, not laid them off. We have no plans to shut down our Shanghai operations," he wrote in an e-mail to CNET News.com in October.

Today, VentureWire wrote that sources … Read more

HelioVolt, which plans on producing thin film solar panels made from copper indium gallium and selenide (CIGS), will build a 20-megawatt factory in Austin, Texas, that will start popping out panels in 2008.

The factory will employ about 150 people. The company then hopes to move into mass manufacturing by the first quarter of 2009 as well as expand production capacity.

CIGS solar panels aren't as efficient at converting sunlight into electricity as silicon solar panels, but advocates say that they cost far less to produce. CIGS solar panels can also be placed on glass or polymer sheets. Ideally, … Read more

Well-financed solar start-up Nanosolar on Tuesday said it has started shipping its flexible thin-film solar cells, meeting its own deadline and marking a milestone for alternative solar-cell materials.

On the company's blog, CEO Martin Roscheisen announced that the first megawatt of its solar panels will be used as part of a power plant in eastern Germany.

The release of Nanosolar's first products is significant because the company develops a process to print solar cells made out of CIGS, or copper indium gallium selenide, a combination of elements that many companies are pursuing as an alternative to silicon.

The … Read more

Dealing a blow to the solar and wind industries, the U.S. Senate is expected to pass an energy bill later on Thursday that strips out a tax provision to encourage investment in renewable energies.

The House last week passed an energy bill that extended tax incentives beyond 2008 for businesses and consumers who purchase renewable energy systems.

On Thursday, the Senate delayed passage of the bill until later today, a move which will lead to the removal of the tax provision, according to industry executives and published reports.

The centerpiece of the energy bill is an overhaul to the … Read more

Solar thermal company Ausra will cut the ribbon on a large factory in anticipation of a construction boom in solar power plants in the Southwest United States.

Flanked by government officials, Ausra executives are scheduled to dedicate a 130,000-square-foot facility capable of turning out enough thermal collectors to generate 200 megawatts every month. That translates into about 70 megawatts of electricity capacity per month, according to the company.

At that rate, the plant will be be able to manufacture enough electricity capacity to power half a million homes per year year at equivalent prices to gas-fired power plants, said … Read more

Correction: Spokespeople from SunPower and MMA Renewables said the size of the installation at Nellis Air Force base has been revised to 14.2 megawatts, not 15 megawatts as the Air Force and those companies originally said.

Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, the land of lots of sun and plenty of land, will be home to a 70,000 solar-panel installation which, at 14 megawatts, will be the largest in North America.

The U.S. Air Force on Tuesday said Nellis and SunPower have finished the first phase of the project, which will save the base $1 million a … Read more