Solar Powered

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has revealed plans for a new development on NYC's Governors Island that will focus on promoting ideas to tackle climate change. It will boast impressive green technology and produce its own power and non-potable water.

Since we first got wind of Saildrone's autonomous USVs back in 2018, they've mapped miles of ocean floor, chased hurricanes, and surveyed remote regions. Now the company is adding a new vessel to tackle near-shore mapping and maritime surveillance.

Expanding its Island Solar Transit System, Ride Solar has converted a 1967 Montreal Expo water taxi into a solar-powered cruise vessel for sight-seeing tours of Charlottetown Harbour on Prince Edward Island, which are due to begin from May.

In July last year, Saildrone launched one its sensor-packed unmanned aquatic drones on a voyage of discovery in the North Pacific, tasked with filling in ocean mapping blanks around Alaska's Aleutian Islands as well as off the coast of California.

UMich researchers have demonstrated an artificial photosynthesis device 10 times more efficient and one hundredth the size of previous devices of its kind. This green hydrogen production method also improves over time, and can split seawater.

Greenhouse gases and plastic waste are two of the biggest environmental problems the world faces today. A new reactor from Cambridge tackles both at once, converting CO2 and used plastic bottles into useful materials, powered entirely by sunlight.

The solarized Lightyear 0 might be the world's most impressive EV, but at close to US$270,000, it's also prohibitively expensive. The Lightyear 2 promises the same style of aerodynamic, solar-boosting capability in a package priced for the masses.

An engineering team in Australia working at the cutting edge of electric vehicle design have laid claim to a new world record, using the Sunswift 7 solar-powered car to cover 1,000 km (621 miles) on a single charge in less than 12 hours.

When we looked at the Pol Lux earlier this year, it was still in the rendering stages. The unique solar-electric RV catamaran is now being tested and showcased on the water. It promises to be an exciting new way to enjoy the water all day and night.

We've been following an automotive startup's journey to get its three-wheeled solar-electric vehicle on the road for more than 15 years, and now the latest teardrop-shaped Aptera prototype has made its public debut in San Diego.

Why design robots from scratch when nature has already done the hard work for us? That’s the reasoning behind cyborg insects, and now scientists have found a way to power remote-controlled cyborg cockroaches using custom solar cells.

Sporting brand adidas has become the latest company to employ Powerfoyle solar-charging technology to keep the wireless music playing. The RPT-02 SOL wireless headphones have also been made using post-consumer recycled plastic.