Solar Power

Crossbars, bike racks, cargo boxes, roof-top tents and solar panels are just a few things jostling for limited car roof space when venturing outdoors. With the new CBX Solar, Yakima combines two of those into one to better optimize roof storage.

Semi-transparent solar cells could be built into the glass roof panels of greenhouses, capturing light at wavelengths that plants don’t use anyway. Models suggest that in some cases these greenhouses could become completely self-sufficient.

Back in 2017, a former racing catamaran was turned into a floating clean energy laboratory. Powered by a mix of renewable energies, the striking vessel is now the first recipient of Toyota's new fuel cell system for maritime applications.

A new molecule developed by Ohio State University scientists can harvest energy from the entire visible spectrum of light, harnessing up to 50 percent more solar energy than current solar cells, and can also catalyze that energy into hydrogen.

Scientists at Berkeley Lab have developed a sort of “solar umbrella” which could radically reduce the amount of land needed for industrial evaporation ponds.

Audio giant JBL has turned to crowdfunding platform Indiegogo with a new set of solar-powered headphones that promise “virtually unlimited” playtime, owing to a Powerfoyle material built into the headband that generates power from the sun.

Scientists in Korea believe they’ve found a way around the opaque nature of conventional solar cells, with a new technique that involves punching carefully placed holes right through them to make them transparent.

Germany's Sono Motors has given us a taste of what we can expect the production Sion to look like inside and out, and is now looking to future buyers to help raise €50 million to secure production facilities and more.

Stefano Boeri Architetti has completed a new project in the firm's native Italy, and for once it's not covered in greenery. That's not to say that Matera Centrale has no element of green design, as the train station is partly powered by solar panels.

As reported by Tokyo-based newspaper Nikkei Asian Review, plans are afoot to transform Fukushima into a renewable energy hub, with 21 wind and solar plants to be built and the power to be fed into the national grid for use in the country’s capital.

The University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia, is on a mission to become completely carbon neutral by 2025, and a huge early addition to its energy systems is boding well for these lofty ambitions.

Scientists at Sweden's KTH Royal Institute of Technology have developed a new film they say can be layered over the top of solar cells to capture infrared light, boosting their efficiency by as much as 25 percent.