Panels

Professor Shanhui Fan and postdoctoral scholar Wei Li with a prototype device used to test a system that passively cools a building and generates electricity from solar

Energy

Hybrid rooftop device to harvest solar energy and passively cool buildings at the same time

Researchers have paired a cooling system that draws thermal heat from a building and beams it into space with a solar panel, designing a system with the same rooftop footprint that ccould generate electricity and passively cool a building at the same time.

Radiative sky cooling systems use reflective panels to emit heat into space, potentially cooling a building in the process

Environment

Electricity-free Stanford system cuts cooling costs by beaming heat into space

Over the last few years a Stanford team has been developing a roof-mounted system that cools a building by reflecting heat into space, and the latest test has managed to use solar panel-like devices to cool water without needing any other energy source.

Tesla has unveiled new solar panels designed to blend into a roof

Energy

Tesla quietly reveals unassuming new solar panels

Rooftop solar panels aren’t exactly subtle. A few months ago, Tesla unveiled a system that built the panels into the roof tiles themselves, but if you’re not looking to retile your entire roof, the company is now offering an after-market solar system designed to blend into an existing roof.

Reverb, the gigantic iPod dock from Regen, can be be powered by solar energy or by more traditional electric outlet

Music

ReVerb's 3-foot tall, solar powered iPod dock

Regen has created a huge solar powered iPod dock

Science

Is there something in the hair? The tale of a solar cell made with human hair

Students from Nepal claimed to have created a solar cell which uses human hair to replace expensive silicon.

The carbon nanotube photodiode forces electrons one by one, resulting in much higher-efficiency energy conversion.

Science

Carbon nanotubes used to build a near-ideal efficiency solar cell

Cornell University researchers have developed a near-ideal efficiency solar cell using a carbon nanotube.

Solar Roadways wants to replace petroleum-based asphalt road surfaces with energy-producing solar panels

Environment

Solar panel roads to power our homes

Idaho-based Solar Roadways founder Scott Brusaw is excited that his company has a received a USD$100,000 U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) grant to develop further his prototype that turns roads in giant electricity-generating solar panels.

By day the sunflowers collect the sun's energy to provide power for the LEDs after dark

Environment

Arty sunflowers look good and provide power, too

Art meets functionality in the recently opened Electric Garden, which distracts from a busy loading bay behind a retail park in Austin

The Solé Power Tile is the first building-integrated photovoltaic roofing product and exclusively available to customers of US Tile

Environment

Not your average solar panel: The SRS solar roof tile

SRS Energy has teamed up with US Tile to offer a solar roofing solution where the solar panels are shaped like a curved tile to seamlessly blend in with similar clay tiles

The Néphélios, the world's first solar powered airship

Aircraft

Solar blimp: Projet Sol'r to take on the English Channel

Projet Sol'r volunteers and engineers are putting the final touches to the world's first solar powered airship prior to an attempted Channel crossing

A forest of nanopillars are grown on aluminum foil to produce an inexpensive and efficient 3-D solar cell

Environment

Nanotechnology breakthrough promises cheaper, more efficient solar cells

Berkeley researchers have developed a means of growing 3-D solar cells at a nano level that are cheap and efficient.

Home Entertainment

LG HD 3D monitor with twice the brightness of existing 3D LCD panels

LG has announced a full HD 23-inch 3D LCD panel with twice the brightness of conventional 3D LCD panels.The new 3D LCD embeds most of the 3D technologies directly into the panel, enabling 3D viewing with low-priced polarized glasses.