Solar

Startup Twin Creek Technologies is attacking the cost of solar by getting more bang from a wafer of silicon.

After four years of work, the San Jose, Calif.-based company today is coming out of stealth and introducing its product, a machine designed to slash the cost of solar cell manufacturing. The company claims its Hyperion system cuts the cost of making a solar cell in half and brings total production cost from about 85 cents a watt today to around 50 cents.

Hyperion is now being evaluated by leading solar manufacturers and the company expects to have a number … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--When Richard Garriott went to space, he lost money on the deal. Next time, he wants to make a profit.

In October 2008, Garriott, a well-known video game designer, traveled as a space tourist to the International Space Station.

The son of a NASA astronaut who grew up thinking everyone goes to space--because his neighbors all had been--his dream of following in his father's footsteps was dashed when he learned as a teenager that his eyes disqualified him for the job. "Being told I was not going to be allowed to go into space," Garriott said, &… Read more

In the old days, renewable energy was the best option available. Then it became a social statement. Now with fits and starts, it's creeping toward the mainstream.

To give CNET readers some perspective on renewable energy, we've assembled a slideshow on renewable energy through the ages, its present form, and some ideas as to where it's going.

The history of using the wind, sun, and water reaches back to antiquity. But what's remarkable about many renewable-energy technologies being pursued today--solar, wind, geothermal, and bioenergy--is that today's product ideas often have roots in research begun after … Read more

Abound Solar, a startup that received a Department of Energy loan, said this week that it will shut down one of its production lines and accelerate plans to make a more competitive solar panel.

As part of the change, the company will cut 180 jobs in Colorado, where it is based. Abound Solar makes solar panels with thin film cells made from cadmium telluride, the same material used by First Solar and General Electric.

In late 2010, Abound Solar secured a $400 million loan guarantee from the DOE to boost its production in Longmont, Colo., and build a new factory … Read more

An engineering company in Italy has thought of a way to boost solar panels' production with concentrators while not taking up valuable land: put them on rafts.

Scienza Industria Tecnologia (SIT) this week detailed the solar generating system called Floating Tracking Cooling Concentrator, which is being tested in Italy and South Korea. The research company's hope is that these solar concentrators will be used on small lakes or artificial reservoirs on farms and quarries.

There are already solar arrays put on ponds, including a winery in California. But SIT is trying to use the water as an advantage for … Read more

For the most part, solar panels can safely be ignored and simply keep turning your meter backwards. But thanks to some local squirrels, I realized the perils of not regularly monitoring solar panels' output.

These days, it's not difficult to view the electricity generated by solar photovoltaic panels online. And homeowners are increasingly choosing to lease panels, rather than buy them upfront. That means a solar installer or financing company will own the panels and they'll have a financial interest--in the form of renewable energy credits--to monitor rooftop panels' output.

When I had my PV panels installed four … Read more

Apple's massive North Carolina data center will be powered by the nation's largest end-user-owned solar array, the company revealed today in a report on its environmental footprint.

The facility, which is being constructed in Maiden, N.C., has been awarded LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, the company said in its report.

"We know of no other data center of comparable size that has achieved this level of LEED certification," the company said in its report. "Our goal is to run the Maiden facility with high percentage renewable energy mix." … Read more

Pioneering solar company Energy Conversion Devices today filed for bankruptcy protection, the latest casualty in a global price war.

In a statement, the Michigan-based company said it intends to sell its solar power subsidiaries and will continue to operate during the bankruptcy and sale process.

Through its subsidiaries Uni-Solar and Solar Integrated Technologies, the company manufactures flexible silicon solar cells and develops solar projects. The solar collectors can be laid out as sheets on rooftops or integrated into roof tiles.

Energy Conversion Devices was founded in 1960 by Stanford Ovshinsky, a scientist who was also integral to developing nickel metal hydride batteries … Read more

Students at the Bochum University of Applied Sciences in Germany are going on the road trip of a lifetime.

In a two-seater electric car powered only by the sun, a team of students plan to circumnavigate the world. These German students designed the SolarWorld Gran Turismo (SolarWorld GT) and competed in the 2011 World Solar Challenge in Australia, which kicked off their round-the-world tour. After they crossed the finish line in Darwin, Australia, they decided to keep going and motored on to Sydney and then to New Zealand.

With a lift from DHL, the SolarWorld GT was transported across the … Read more