Engineers from Swiss company BKW have announced The Goldfish Project – a solar submarine in Lake Thun, that draws energy from a floating solar platform.

Like a water lily, the floating solar platform consists of a central element with a marquee, surrounded by five satellites fitted with solar panels. According to BKW, the energy produced by the solar power station is sufficient to guarantee the dives of the submarine, and ensure the fully-automatic positioning of the platform via GPS.

A solar powered shuttle boats will be used to bring the passengers from the shore, to the floating platform. The submarine will have a maximum diving depth of 300m, and be able to carry up to 24 people.

An outdoor light that collects its own energy from the sun and wind by transforming its appearance throughout the day, has been developed by Philips.

When the sun shines, Philips’ Light Blossom device emulates nature – slowly opening the ‘petals’ of its ‘bud’. Much like a sunflower continues to face the sun while it moves from east to west during the day, Light Blossom’s petals, gradually and continuously re-orientating in the direction of the sun.

When the wind blows, the intelligent Light Blossom intuitively moves its petals to an upward half-open position, allowing them to catch the wind. The petals then progressively rotate, transferring the movement to the built-in rotor that instantly converts it into energy.

When the sun shines again, the Light Blossom adapts itself to the new weather. It progressively stops rotating, and opens up again to catch the sun rays.

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Researchers have created a new material that overcomes two of the major obstacles to solar power: it absorbs all the energy contained in sunlight, and generates electrons in a way that makes them easier to capture.

Ohio State University chemists and their colleagues combined electrically conductive plastic with metals including molybdenum and titanium to create the hybrid material.

“There are other such hybrids out there, but the advantage of our material is that we can cover the entire range of the solar spectrum,” explained Malcolm Chisholm, Distinguished University Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry at Ohio State.

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Spectra Watermakers’ Solar Cube  is a portable solar and wind powered desalination unit that can produce 950 to 1500 gallons of fresh water each day. Attached photovoltaic cells generate up to 1240 watts, while the wind generator can produce up to 1000 watts.

The Cube generates more power than is necessary for water production, so excess energy can be used for other things—such as the operation of emergency equipment.

Recently, it was deployed for testing by the Chilean military and civilian services, where it was used in identical conditions to those found in Iraq. During the past year, the Cube was also introduced to remote areas of South America and Asia. Prototypes were used in Pakistan after the major 1995 earthquake in the country.

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Engineers and scientists at The University of Texas at Austin have achieved a breakthrough in the use of a one-atom thick structure called “graphene” as a new carbon-based material for storing electrical charge in ultracapacitor devices, perhaps paving the way for the massive installation of renewable energies such as wind and solar power.

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Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL), have devised an inexpensive way to produce plastic sheets containing billions of nanoantennas that collect heat energy generated by the sun and other sources.

While methods to convert the energy into useable electricity still need to be developed, the sheets could one day be manufactured as lightweight ‘skins’ that power everything from hybrid cars to iPods with higher efficiency than traditional solar cells, say the researchers. The nanoantennas also have the potential to act as cooling devices that draw waste heat from buildings or electronics without using electricity.

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Anyone who has walked barefoot across a parking lot on a hot summer day knows that blacktop is exceptionally good at soaking up the sun’s warmth. Now, a research team at Worcester Polytechnic Institute  has found a way to use that heat-soaking property for an alternative energy source.

Through asphalt, the researchers are developing a solar collector that could turn roads and parking lots into ubiquitous and inexpensive–sources of electricity and hot water.

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Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, (MIT) have developed a way of storing solar energy for use when the sun isn’t shining.

In one hour, enough sunlight strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet’s energy needs for one year. However, solar power is usually a day-time only energy source because storing extra solar energy for later is prohibitively and grossly inefficient.

Drawing on the process of photosynthesis, Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT, Daniel Nocera, and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera’s lab, have developed a process that will allow the sun’s energy to be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later, the oxygen and hydrogen can be recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power homes, or electric cars, day or night.

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ITM Power has unveiled a hydrogen refuelling station and a hydrogen-powered car which could revolutionise commuting while cutting fuel costs and CO2 emissions.

The conventional petrol-engined Ford-Focus, which has completed successful urban commuting trials, has been converted to run on hydrogen, which burns without emitting CO2, and could ultimately reduce drivers’ dependence on fossil fuels.

In addition, ITM Power has also revealed a hydrogen home refuelling station capable of producing the gas from water and electricity. The station overcomes one of the fundamental stumbling blocks to hydrogen economy – the lack of hydrogen refuelling infrastructure and utility supply network.

It has taken scientists and chemists at the company’s Sheffield research base eight years to create a low-cost means of manufacturing hydrogen. It’s patented electrolyser-based refuelling station uses a low-cost polymer which dispenses with the need for expensive platinum and can be manufactured at one per cent of the cost of traditional membrane materials.

The result is a hydrogen production system small enough to be used in a home or business, which can generate the gas from a supply of water and off-peak or renewable electricity – power created by wind, wave, solar or nuclear energy. The stored hydrogen could then be used to fuel converted cars or provide power for domestic or commercial purposes.

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NASA plans to send a satellite weighing less than 10 pounds into space, with an ultra-thin, 100 square foot solar sail as its primary means of altitude control or orbital manoeuvring.

NanoSail-D is the result of a partnership between Marshall Space Flight Center, and Ames Research Center. NASA will send the satellite into space on-board a SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket, scheduled for launch from Omelek Island in the Pacific Ocean between July 29th and August 6th.

Talking about the NanoSail-D, Edward Montgomery, payload manager, said: “The structure is made of aluminium and space-age plastic. The whole spacecraft weighs less than 10 pounds. We carry it around in a special suitcase – airplane carry-on luggage size.”

Once in space, a Poly Picosatellite Orbital Deployer, developed at the University of California, will be used to deploy the sail. Fully opened, the kite-shaped sail spreads out about 100-square feet of light-catching surface.

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The ‘Anaconda’ is an innovative wave energy concept.

A device consisting of a giant rubber tube may hold the key to producing affordable electricity from the energy in sea waves.

Led by researchers from the University of Southampton, the ‘Anaconda’ is an innovative wave energy concept. The simple design means it would be cheap to manufacture and maintain, enabling it to produce clean electricity at a lower cost than other types of wave energy converter.

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Ricoh Americas Corporation is to erect a sign in New York City’s Times Square, completely powered by solar and wind energy.

The 47 x 126 foot sign will be illuminated by floodlights, and powered by 45 solar panels and four turbines for wind generation. By using all natural energy sources, the amount of CO2 used by the sign will be reduced by 18 tons a year. If there is not enough solar of wind power, the Times Square sign not illuminate.

Ricoh currently has similar eco-powered sign that uses 100 per cent solar and wind power in Osaka, Japan.

To spur new development and demand for renewable energy sources, Intel Corporation is spinning off key assets of a start-up business effort inside Intel’s New Business Initiatives group to form an independent company called SpectraWatt.

SpectraWatt will manufacture and supply photovoltaic cells to solar module makers. Solar cells are the discrete components in a solar energy generation system responsible for converting sunlight to electricity.  In addition to focusing on advanced solar cell technologies, SpectraWatt will concentrate development efforts on improvements in current manufacturing processes and capabilities to reduce the cost of photovoltaic energy generation. SpectraWatt expects to break ground on its manufacturing and advanced technology development facility in Oregon in the second half of 2008 with first product shipments expected by mid-2009.

Commenting on the formation of the new company, Andrew Wilson, SpectraWatt CEO and former general manager in the Intel New Business Initiatives group, said: “The formation of SpectraWatt is an important step forward in the renewable energy market.”