MS Tûranor PlanetSolar, the world’s largest solar boat, set a new record for the fastest transatlantic crossing by a vessel powered entirely by solar energy, smashing its own 2010 record by four days. The 115-foot Swiss catamaran traveled 2,867 miles (5,310 kilometers) across the Atlantic Ocean in 22 days, conducting experiments along the Gulf Stream as part of the PlanetSolar DeepWater expedition.

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Post tags: "energy efficiency", "solar energy", green transportation, Guinness World Records, marine expedition Tûranor, MS Tûranor PlanetSolar, PlanetSolar, PlanetSolar’s Tûranor, solar boat, solar catamaran, solar design, Solar Power, solar powered boat, Swiss solar boat, transatlantic crossing record, TURANOR, World speed record boat

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Post tags: "energy efficiency", "solar energy", eco design, green design, green roof home in Scotland, sheep's wool insulation, stone farmhouse in scotland, sustainable design, sustainable scottish farmhouse, triple glazing, UK energy standards, wind energy, wind-powered home in scotland

Yale researchers recently discovered a way to boost the efficiency of solar cells by a whopping 38 percent by coating them with a fluorescent dye. Polymer solar cells are popular for their low cost, low weight, large area and mechanical flexibility, according to Physorg, but they only convert roughly 50 percent of the solar energy absorbed into usable electricity. The organic squaraine dye improves light absorption and recycles electrons, thereby hastening the light to energy conversion process.

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Post tags: "solar energy", alternative energy, cleantech, Förster resonance energy transfer, renewable energy, solar cell efficiency, Solar cells, solar research and development, Squaraine dye, Yale University solar research

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Post tags: "solar energy", alternative to rooftop solar, clean tech, eco design, Fortune Brainstorm Green Conference, green design, nrg energy, off-grid energy solutions, renewable energy, solar canopy, Solar Power, sustainable design

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Post tags: "solar energy", Art, bioluminescence, bioluminescent leaves, dinoflagellates, eco-art, environmental art, Festival of the Dead, First Art Foundation, Miya Ando, Obon Festival, puerto rico, site specific art installation

Inhabitat is reporting live from the Fortune Brainstorm Green conference today, where Verizon just announced a massive $100 million solar and fuel cell energy project that will provide power to 19 of its U.S. facilities. The project is expected to be complete next year, and it’s poised to generate more than 70 million kilowatt-hours of electricity – that’s enough to power more than 6,000 single-family homes each year.

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Post tags: "solar energy", eco design, fuel cells, green design, green energy, Solar Power, sustainable design, verizon, verizon fuel cells, verizon green energy project, verizon launches green energy project, verizon solar power, verizon sustainability, verizon wireless

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Post tags: "solar energy", green architecture, Green Hotels, hotel architecture, Park Royal Hotel Singapore, Park Royal on Pickering, singapore architecture, Solar Power, solar-powered hotel Singapore, vertical garden Singapore, vertical park, Vertical Parks, woha architects

As the clean tech and electric vehicle industries grow, there is an ever greater demand for lithium – the key ingredient in the lithium-ion batteries used to store energy in EVs, laptop computers and a host of other devices. At present the US imports around 80 percent of its lithium, but the University of Wyoming’s Carbon Management Institute just discovered a massive reserve that could transform the US from a “significant lithium importer to an independent lithium producer.”

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Post tags: "solar energy", carbon management institute, li batteries, li-ion, lithium, lithium batteries, lithium ion, lithium salt, natural resources, Rock Springs Uplift, unveristy of wyoming, wind energy, wyoming lithium

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Post tags: "solar energy", berlin architecture, Berlin pixelated house, Brandt+Simon Architekten, eco-friendly houses, pixelated design, Prefab Housing, Recycled Materials, recycled paper, recycled paper insulation, small houses, solar panels, Sustainable Building

The Hortus Celestia vertical farm is designed to showcase innovation in the Dutch greenhouse industry with 14 floors of flourishing gardens. Designed by Except and Sign, the 28-story vertical farm features a promenade that starts at the panoramic roof garden and winds down through the tower.

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Post tags: "solar energy", agriculture tower, ETFE facade, ETFE membrane, green tower, greenhouses, Hortus Celestia agriculture tower, Solar cells, solar-powered greenhouses, urban agriculture, vertical garden

The Solar Impulse just completed its final test flight before it travels across the U.S. without using a single drop of fuel. The plane spent most of yesterday cruising around 3,500 feet over the San Francisco Bay, giving many people a chance to see the giant solar aircraft in action. The “Cross America 2013” tour is scheduled to kick off next Wednesday, May 1st, when Solar Impulse co-founder and pilot Bertrand Piccard embarks upon the first leg of the journey from San Francisco to New York.

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Post tags: "solar energy", bertrand piccard, energy efficient plane, fuel-free airplane, lightweight airplane, renewable energy sources, solar impulse, Solar Impulse Cross America 2013, Solar Impulse HB-SIA, solar panels, solar powered aircraft, solar powered plane

Artist Michael Jantzen has released designs for a solar-powered seed-sowing machine that would plant flowers in response to evidence of environmental destruction. Placed in various locations around the world, these structures would detect signs of pollution and automatically release small quantities of flower seeds onto the ground below. The result is a paradox: the more flowers blooming around one of the apparatuses, the worse the environmental degradation in the surrounding area.

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Post tags: "solar energy", American artist, Art, eco-friendly art, environmental art, environmental degradation, environmental destruction, green design, green solar design, michael jantzen, renewable energy, Solar Power, Solar-powered Eco-Seed Sowing Machines

Despite significant gains in both large scale solar and wind energy throughout the globe, a new report released by the International Energy Agency (IEA) states that the rapid uptake of renewables is not enough to stop global warming. The goal of keeping global temperatures from rising above two degrees celsius – considered by scientists to be crucial to maintaining some kind of normality – is still a long way off, because most of the world’s energy is still derived from coal.

Read the rest of IEA Report States Clean Energy Uptake is Too Slow to Calm Global Warming

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Post tags: "solar energy", biofuel, carbon capture and storage, ccs, Climate Change, coal, dirty energy, Environment, global warming, IEA, International Energy Agency, News, nuclear, renewable energy, two degrees, wind energy

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Post tags: "leed", "solar energy", Botanic gardens, garden, geothermal, Green Building, green roof, LEED platinum, Living Building Challenge, phipps conservatory, pittsburgh, rainwater collection, sustainable design, sustainable sites initiative, The Design Alliance Architects, wind energy

In 2010, PlanetSolar’s Tûranor solar-powered boat completed a 19-month voyage around the world. Now the eco-vessel is set to set sail again over the Atlantic Ocean in order to conduct experiments along the Gulf Stream in a project known as PlanetSolar DeepWater. The 115-foot Swiss catamaran, whose name means ‘power of the sun’ in Elvish, will take measurements on behalf of the University of Geneva.

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Post tags: "solar energy", biobox, Climate Change, eco-vessel, gulf stream, PlanetSolar, planetsolar deepwater, PlanetSolar’s Tûranor, Solar Power, solar powered boat, solar powered vessel, TURANOR, university of geneva

Read the rest of INHABITAT INTERVIEW: 8 Questions With Liz Rooks of North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park

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Post tags: "solar energy", "sustainable architecture", Daylighting, foundation, green architecture, Green Building, green design, Liz Rooks, NC, north carolina, Research Triangle Park, RTP, Sustainability, Sustainable Building, sustainable design

A team of researchers at MIT have developed a more efficient photovoltaic solar cell using particles known as quantum dots. The benefit of using quantum dots is that they can be produced cheaply, and the solar cells can be manufactured at room temperature, unlike silicon and other PV materials, which require high-temperature processing. Using a new technique, the scientists embedded the quantum dots in a ‘forest of nanowires,’ which will help the team to achieve higher efficiency ratios.

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Post tags: "solar energy", massachusetts institute of technology, MIT, nanowires, photovoltaic, qauntum dot solar cell, quantum dots, Solar Cell, solar efficiency, solar panel, Solar Power

Apple has announced that its newest—and largest—data center is powered entirely by renewable energy. Solar panels and fuel cells incorporated within the Maiden, North Carolina facility generate enough on–site energy to power up to 17,600 homes for an entire year. The project is part a larger push by Apple to switch to renewable energy sources, an effort which has resulted in 75% of Apple’s offices worldwide being powered by clean energy.

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Post tags: "solar energy", apple, Apple Maiden Data Center, corporate responsibility, corporate responsibility Apple, leed certification, Microsoft energy, renewable energy sources, solar array, Solar cells, Solar Power, U.S. Green Building Council

Digital cameras are a part of many of our lives these days – they’re in our phones and computers, and film-loaded cameras are rapidly becoming obsolete. Unfortunately, digital cameras need to be constantly charged, and unless you have a solar charger that means plugging them into the mains. However Japanese company Superheadz are looking to change all that with their new hand-cranked “Sun & Cloud”, which is billed as the world’s first “self-generation” digital camera.

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Post tags: "solar energy", digital camera, hand cranked camera, kinetic energy, self-generation digital camera, Solar Power, sun & cloud, Superheadz

Concentrating solar power companies Abengoa and BrightSource Energy will soon team up to build the world’s largest solar tower facility in Southern California. The new solar development will be located on federal land, and it’s being facilitated by the Bureau of Land Management. The 500-megawatt Palen Solar Electric Generating System will create 2,000 new construction jobs, and it will produce enough electricity to power 200,000 households. The project was unveiled just hours after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar approved 900 MW of solar development in California.

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Post tags: "solar energy", Abengoa, Brightsource Energy, Bureau of Land Management, California, concentrating solar power, Interior Department, ken salazar, renewable energy, Riverside County, Solar Power, solar power tower, solar technology, solar tower