Solyndra to install 80 percent roof of Qwest Field

The Seattle Seahawks stadium, Qwest Field Event Center, will install solar panels to 80 percent of its roof with Solyndra racks which contains thin-film CIGS solar cells shaped like tubes to get more flat solar panels efficiency by capture direct, diffuse, and reflected sunlight all day without needing a rotating mechanism.

Solar installation is expected to provide electricity equal to 95 homes each year and reduce utility costs of the stadium. Installation will also provide an opportunity for the fans to track the production of electricity as well as its use with computer kiosks on the stadium grounds.

Solyndra solar array on the roof of Qwest Field will also capture the light reflected from the Seattle stadium that has white cool roof, which serves to reduce the heat absorbed by the roof. This is an advantage to increase electricity production from the installation.

McKinstry, an energy solutions company, has been chosen to install the solar system and to design low-flow water fixtures as well as high-efficiency lighting systems of the building.

Solar aircraft managed to make an international flight for 13 hours non-stop

Solar Impulse HB-SIA, Swiss-made solar aircraft successfully took off from Payenne airbase in Switzerland fly across geographical boundaries to Brussels, a distance of about 300 miles without constraint. Despite the low speed, the aircraft designed by Bertrand Piccard, flying at an altitude of 11,880 feet and fully powered by solar without emissions.


Solar Impulse equipped with 12,000 solar cells on the 64 meters wing span and can fly nonstop for 26 hours with power from battery charged by sunlight for 14 hours continuously. The aircraft that use high-tech solar airplane has four 10hp electric motors to drive four propellers. It also has a large Wingspan that allows store enough solar energy to run a long duration flight even at night.


In the inaugural international flight, the pilot was very satisfied with the performance of the aircraft. Furthermore, the aircraft will have the mission to fly across the Atlantic or even around the world.

SMIT interchangeable solar system to harvest solar energy during cloudy

Brooklyn-based Sustainably Minded Interactive Technology (SMIT) released a new product of its solar energy system called "Tensile Solar" which designed with the rapid evolution of photovoltaic technology. The system equipped with CIGS photovoltaic modules like a fabric that can protect as well as providing power.

Tensile Solar is weatherproof, structurally and it has interchangeable part of each photovoltaic module of the membrane structure that allows to replaced the modules without having to change the whole system that already exists. Its amorphous silicon will reach its peak performance when cloudy. Meanwhile, CIGS as the most efficient thin film technology will be able to support in low light and direct sunlight.

The company stated that Tensile Solar can seamlessly integrate the latest technology and allows for different characteristics of solar technologies. Its organic photovoltaic is free of toxins and recyclable.

Smooth design of 49,90 € solar window charger

Utilizing renewable energy sources from solar energy is very practical to use a small device of XD Design solar window charger placed on your window. Smooth design inside of the device can spices up your interior.

The device comes with size of 11 cm length , width 11 cm, and height 1.75 cm,it also provides two USB ports sizes, small and big size to allow charge your a cellphone, laptop and all your electronic devices that support USB ports. The device is equipped with a 1400mAh rechargeable lithium battery. You also will get a mini USB cable.

The exterior of the device which faces out the window glass is contain of a small solar panel to capture sunlight coming into the window. It’s made of plastic with weight 0.135 kg, its a light mounted on your window. For a device of XD Design window solar charger valued € 49,90.

Researchers prove solar cells more efficient than plant photosynthesis

The research team led by Washington University has proved that solar cells are more efficient capture sunlight compared with plants that capture only a few sunlight in their photosynthesis process. This is because the plants have too much evolutionary baggage.

Solar cells are more efficient because they just converting sunlight into electricity to be sent to the wire. While plants have to power a living thing that must do the right work to avoid the formation of toxic byproducts that can kill the organism caused photosynthesis error.

According to the researcher, its critical since in our ecosystem and critical to whether the entire biofuels industry is viable. Photosynthesis is less efficient on a pure energy basis, but it has the advantage of producing high-energy liquid fuels.

According to David Kramer, a Michigan State University researcher, scientists think they can even up the playing field. Comparison left homework for the researchers to find out the cause of inefficiency on plants and what they can do with it.

Edison rooftop solar panel project will be the largest in U.S.

A local real estate company Avidan Management and New Jersey-based industrial have been joined to installation the largest rooftop solar panel projects in the U.S. on the building area of ​​656.255-square-foot on Talmadge Road in Edison. The installation of 4.26-megawatt system is planned to provide upto 5 million kilowatt hours annually, enough to service a half of the power needs of the building’s multiple tenants. Installation is also expected to reduce carbon emissions by 3.750 tons per year

Projects funded by the Investors Savings Bank will provide the tenants in 145 Talmadge Road, a part of their electricity needs under a power purchase agreement arrangement. Clean energy will offer cost 30 percent cheaper than conventional energy sources, for the tenants.

The company already has completed approximately 17,745 installations of solar panels on the rooftop of the building. The users will use building facilities such as for office space to store dry goods and refrigerated and frozen foods.

The company also conducts a comprehensive retrofit of the building lighting to upgrade the standard of energy efficient systems, and insulation of buildings to maximize energy efficiency overall. Submission of a grant to assist the installation costs may be made ​​by the Avidan, associated with federal Recovery Act.

3-D nanocone promises overall solar cell efficiency

The researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory's developing a technology aimed at improving the mechanisms of photovoltaics using solar cells based 3-D nanocone to increase up to 80 percent conversion efficiency of light-to-power.

June Xu, team leader, said that a nanocone-based solar cell method used to synthesize the cells and improved charge collection efficiency to overcome the problem of the entrapment that reduce the efficiency of solar cells. The working principle of technology is to overcome the problem of poor transport of charges generated by solar photons. The 3-dimensional structure gives the distribution of intrinsic electric field which refers to efficient charge transport and high conversion efficiency.

A nanocone form able to generate a high electric field in the vicinity of the tip junction, effectively separating, injecting and collecting minority carriers, resulting in a higher efficiency than that of a conventional planar cell made with the same materials.

New solar cell with an efficient transportation costs will be able to tolerate the damaged materials and reduce the cost of generation of solar cell fabrication. In the laboratory, the researchers managed to achieve a 3.2 percent conversion efficiency of light-to-power compared with conversion efficiency of 1.8 percent of the conventional planar structure of the same material.