Solar Powered

While many EVs use solar panels to boost their range, those panels often don't look like they'd make a big difference. Such is not the case with the Lightfoot scooter, which is covered with panels that provide up to 18 miles of extra range per day.

The Arkup 50 is a futuristic floating home that can rise above the waves using motorized supports. Packed with technology, including solar panels and a Skylink internet system, pricing starts at $900,000.

Though ebike battery fires are relatively rare, they can cause serious damage to property and riders alike. Beam Global is looking to take charging outdoors with a 12-ebike, grid-independent charging hub that's powered by solar and batteries.

If you want to get high-speed internet to people in remote communities, why not beam it to them from a high-flying blimp-like aircraft? That's just one of the proposed purposes of the Sceye HAPS, which uses solar power to hover in the stratosphere.

Love concrete? If so, you'll find a lot to like with the Shire, by Atelier Matias Mosquera. Designed to blend into its lush surrounding landscape, the extraordinary home offers self-sufficiency in power, water and food.

Star Catcher Industries has secured US$12.25 million in seed funding for its ambitious plan to build the first “space-based energy grid.” A network of satellites would gather and concentrate solar energy and beam it to other satellites in orbit.

Urb is on a mission to remake Dubai's landscape into a lush paradise. Its Green Spine project envisions transforming a major highway in the region with park areas, farms, pathways, and the planting of over 1 million trees.

A futuristic-looking electric vehicle that was launched way back in 2007 is finally on the road to production. Following a year-long crowdfunding effort, the first 2,000 Aptera Launch Edition solar EV production slots have now been taken.

Dutch micromobility startup Squad Mobility is gearing up for the 2025 production launch of its Solar City microEV with a visit to Las Vegas next month for CES 2024, where the company will also show off a special edition Buggy version.

For the second consecutive time, a team from Belgium has landed in first place in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, a competition that sees dozens of innovative solar vehicles race across the often punishing continent of Australia.

Researchers have developed a new solar-powered desalination system that produces high amounts of drinkable water and uses a technique inspired by the movement of deep-ocean currents to avoid the common problem of salt clogging.

The TU Eindhoven Solar Team has taken a few leaps into the future, showing how EV technology will one day provide for boundless mobility. It's followed up its 2021 solar RV with an all-electric off-road car that rides on pure solar-electric power.