Thesolarpanel

The news:

The Zephyr was able to manage an 84 hour flight, thanks to its solar powered batteries and breaks previous record of 30 hours.

Why it’s important:

• This plane can be used by the military as a spy-plane giving them the possibility to keep the plane in the air during night and day without refueling.

Qinetiq aims to provide fully operational systems for the Ministry of Defence and the US Department of Defence within two years.

Where to learn more:

gizmodo.com

telegraph.co.uk

In case you didn’t know, the Federal Government is paying rebates for solar panels but the original allocation for this year is close to be exhausted next month.

The news:

Government has decided to keep paying the rebate, potentially blowing out the cost of the program, which was given $25.6 million for this year.

Why it’s important:

• The problem might be that the long-term future of the rebate is not sure.
• If the rebate would have stopped, the solar industry might have collapsed, meaning that only wealthier household could afford to use solar energy.
• The rebate system is inefficient because the number of rebates is constantly fluctuating so it’s difficult to think ahead.

Where to learn more:

smh.com.au

The news:

The catalyst, used in conjunction with cheap photovoltaic solar panels, could lead to inexpensive, simple systems that use water to store the energy from sunlight.

Why it’s important:

• Batteries are way too big and expensive, so transforming the electricity generated through solar energy into a fuel might be a cheaper alternative.
• Without the need to heat and pressurize the water, the energy needs and cost of running the process overall are much lower.
• As soon as the first prototypes will appear, we’ll find out whether it’s a successful theory.

Where to learn more:

blog.wired.com

The news:

Scientists believe that plastic sheets containing billions of nano-antennas that collect heat energy generated by the sun and other sources could dramatically improve the use of a type of energy we are all aware of, but have no use for so far – heat.

That makes me think about changing the name of my blog to “The Nano-antenna”…:)

Why it’s important:

• Until now the use of solar energy was based on solar panels, but this can change.
• Nano-antennas collect mid-infrared rays radiated by the earth, so energy can be generated at all times.
• It’s important that this technology even home computers could use the heat emitted to power themselves.
• The problem is that even if they can harvest the energy they didn’t manage to convert it to electricity.

Where to learn more:

tgdaily.com

News:

Harvesting solar power from space could be the future.

Why it’s important:

Since satellites in high Earth orbits are unaffected by earth’s shadows, the energy would be available every day without fail.

The robotic technology to create solar satellites is not yet available, and someone has to take care of the billion dollar bill for the whole thing.

Last year, a government study group issued a report that said space-based solar power not only was technically feasible but also offered a potentially clean, renewable source of energy that could significantly reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

The idea isn’t new. It was originally developed by NASA in the 1960s, and it’s been revisited periodically by the departments of Energy and Defense.

Where to learn more:

cleantechnica.com

baltimoresun.com