Finally a design that could work on flat roofs that combines an efficient heat collection plumbing with 2-axis motion for the concentrators.  Heliotron Energy from Greece has a design that puts an array of single-axis concentrators onto a rotating turntable, which gives the concentrators 2-axis capability.
Each concentrator is about one square foot in size, and they each [...]

About two months ago we challenged what we perceive to be a bias in favor of ultra high density, subsidized housing on the part of urban planners who should be engineering cities but often seem to want to engineer society while they’re at it.  These comments culminated (for now) with our Critique of New Urbanism (also known as [...]

That they are pioneers in ”BIPV” technology (building integrated photovoltaics) makes Los Angeles based Solar Integrated a very interesting company.  But what makes Solar Integrated really, really interesting is they very likely have the most inexpensive photovoltaic solution in the world today.

Solar Integrated’s flexible PV
panels being installed on the
CocaCola plant in Los Angeles.

Large scale photovoltaic installations are still [...]

In previous posts, “Fisker’s Photovoltaic Cars,” and “Photovoltaic Powered Cars,” we have reported on the potential for commuters to power their vehicles with energy collected from rooftop photovoltaics.  But until now we haven’t been able to share some of our spreadsheet analysis with our readers.  While it’s still not possible to include these online interactive [...]

The Ziggurat building in West Sacramento looks like a step pyramid, like the ones you might see in ancient Egypt or Mesopotamia.  But this modern pyramid has eleven steps, corresponding to its eleven stories, a bit more than the step pyramids of Egypt or the ziggurats of Mesopotamia.  The Ziggurat building is currently owned by California’s State Dept. [...]

It should come as no surprise that India, a nation of over a billion people with one of the most advanced high technology sectors on earth, would be jumping big-time into the photovoltaic game.  After all, photovoltaic energy, right now, is probably the most viable clean renewable energy technology candidate in the world to replace conventional [...]

If photovoltaics show promise to totally replace coal as a clean source of electricity, how would they perform to provide fresh water from seawater?

Photo: water-technology.net

Desalinating seawater is not cheap.  Based on costs for a state of the art desalinization facility in Ashkelon, Israel, as reported in WaterTechnology.net, it costs about US $2.0 billion to [...]