Sustainable Technology

hyperloop-quay-valley-elon-musk-728x400

Tesla’s Ultra-Speed Hyperloop Transportation System Will Change Transportation As We Know It

by

Elon Musk is at it again. Next year the construction of an innovative, ultra-speed transportation system called Hyperloop will commence in central California. It is the world’s first supersonic overland transport system, with the ability to reach speeds up to 800 mph.

Like most other Musk-inspired creations, the Hyperloop conceptseems like something straight out of the future.

” We feel now that we’re at a stage where questions are answered on a theoretical level so now we’re moving on to prototyping,” Dirk Ahlborn, CEO of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT), told IBTimes UK.

To begin, the first 5-mile stretch Hyperloop system will begin construction in 2016 in a brand-new sustainable community called Quay Valley, located between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

” This five-mile stretch will allow us to completely test the technology, from the boarding process to the safety procedures – really everything except top speed,” Ahlborn said.

Musk’s vision sees the Hyperloop as a 400-mile long network of above-ground tubes with very low air pressure inside them, which allows bus-sized capsules to travel through those tubes at near supersonic speeds (approaching 800 mph).

When built, the full-scale version of the vacuum transportation network will take passengers and freight at speeds of up to 760mph. The system is being deemed as a 1000% improvement on today’s transport.

” We will move people and cargo at speeds never thought possible. We will make the world smaller, cleaner and more efficient,” states HTT on their official website.

Beyond the US, dozens of other countries have expressed an interest in Hyperloop, including China and the United Arab Emirates. For Ahlborn, these countries offer the most hope for full-scale systems being implemented because, “if they decide to build something like Hyperloop, they just build it.”

Almost 200 engineers from NASA, Yahoo!, and Airbus are involved in the project realization. There is also a group of 25 students from University of California (UCLA) working on different issues including cost estimation, route planning, and capsule design.

This proposed transportation system is extraordinary, with a glowing potential to change the way the world commutes as we know it. Someone in New York could simply hop on and be in Miami in under 2 hours, or Los Angeles in just over 3 hours. Not to mention how much more affordable this type of transportation will likely be compared to flying. We are so excited about this! Stay tuned for more updates on the Hyperloop as things progress.

What are your thoughts on this new transportation concept? Share with us in the comment section below!

Free Happiness Training!

Do you want to bring more happiness into your life?

Happify’s activities and games are based on a decade’s worth of cutting-edge research by psychologists and neuroscientists from leading academic institutions around the world.

Happify’s exercises are personalized directly for you based on your unique goals.

If you are looking to bring more peace and joy into your life this year Start out with Happify for FREE!

A fully transparent solar cell that could make every window and screen a power source

by

Researchers at Michigan State University have created a fully transparent solar concentrator, which could turn any window or sheet of glass (like your smartphone’s screen) into a photovoltaic solar cell. Unlike other “transparent” solar cells that we’ve reported on in the past, this one really is transparent, as you can see in the photos throughout this story. According to Richard Lunt, who led the research, the team are confident that the transparent solar panels can be efficiently deployed in a wide range of settings, from “tall buildings with lots of windows or any kind of mobile device that demands high aesthetic quality like a phone or e-reader.”

Scientifically, a transparent solar panel is something of an oxymoron. Solar cells, specifically the photovoltaic kind, make energy by absorbing photons (sunlight) and converting them into electrons (electricity). If a material is transparent, however, by definition it means that all of the light passes through the medium to strike the back of your eye. This is why previous transparent solar cells have actually only been partially transparent – and, to add insult to injury, they usually they cast a colorful shadow too.

To get around this limitation, the Michigan State researchers use a slightly different technique for gathering sunlight. Instead of trying to create a transparent photovoltaic cell (which is nigh impossible), they use a transparent luminescent solar concentrator (TLSC). The TLSC consists of organic salts that absorb specific non-visible wavelengths of ultraviolet and infrared light, which they then luminesce (glow) as another wavelength of infrared light (also non-visible). This emitted infrared light is guided to the edge of plastic, where thin strips of conventional photovoltaic solar cell convert it into electricity. [Research paper: DOI: 10.1002/adom.201400103 – “Near-Infrared Harvesting Transparent Luminescent Solar Concentrators”]

If you look closely, you can see a couple of black strips along the edges of plastic block. Otherwise, though, the active organic material – and thus the bulk of the solar panel – is highly transparent. (Read: Solar singlet fission bends the laws of physics to boost solar power efficiency by 30%.)

Michigan’s TLSC currently has an efficiency of around 1%, but they think 5% should be possible. Non-transparent luminescent concentrators (which bathe the room in colorful light) max out at around 7%. On their own these aren’t huge figures, but on a larger scale – every window in a house or office block – the numbers quickly add up. Likewise, while we’re probably not talking about a technology that can keep your smartphone or tablet running indefinitely, replacing your device’s display with a TLSC could net you a few more minutes or hours of usage on a single battery charge.

The researchers are confident that the technology can be scaled all the way from large industrial and commercial applications, down to consumer devices, while remaining “affordable.” So far, one of the larger barriers to large-scale adoption of solar power is the intrusive and ugly nature of solar panels – obviously, if we can produce large amounts of solar power from sheets of glass and plastic that look like normal sheets of glass and plastic, then that would be big.

New Fusion Reactor Could Change Humanity Forever

by

This is an invention that might change civilization as we know it: A compact fusion reactor developed by Skunk Works, the stealth experimental technology division of Lockheed Martin. It’s the size of a jet engine and it can power airplanes, spaceships, and cities. Skunk Works claims it will be operative in 10 years.

Aviation Week had exclusive access to their secret laboratories and talked to Dr. Thomas McGuire, the leader of Skunk Work’s Revolutionary Technology division. And revolutionary it is, indeed: Instead of using the same design that everyone else is using—the Soviet-derived tokamak, a torus in which magnetic fields confine the fusion reaction with a huge energy cost and thus little energy production capabilities—Skunk Works’ Compact Fusion Reactor has a radically different approach to anything people have tried before.

The key to the Skunk Works system is their tube-like design, which allows them to bypass one of the limitations of classic fusion reactor designs, which are very limited in the amount of plasma they can hold, which makes them huge in size—like the gigantic International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. According to McGuire:

[The traditional tokamak designes] can only hold so much plasma, and we call that the beta limit. [Their plasma ratio is] 5% or so of the confining pressure. […] We should be able to go to 100% or beyond.

This architecture allows it to be 10 times smaller at the same power output of something like the ITER, which is expected to generate 500 MW in the 2020s. This is crucial for the use of fusion in all kind of applications, not only in giant, expensive power plants.

Skunk Works is convinced that their system—which will be the size of a jet engine—will be able to power everything, from spaceships to airplanes to vessels—and of course scale up to a much larger size. At the size of the ITER, it will be able to produce 10 times more energy, McGuire claims:

It’s one of the reasons we think it is feasible for development and future economics. Ten times smaller is the key. But on the physics side, it still has to work, and one of the reasons we think our physics will work is that we’ve been able to make an inherently stable configuration. In our case, it is always in balance. So if you have less pressure, the plasma will be smaller and will always sit in this magnetic well.

The road ahead

But we all know that the road to the dream of clean, unlimited energy is paved with failed inventions. The situation here seems different. First, Lockheed Martin is not a crazy dude working in a garage. It’s one of the world’s largest aerospace and military companies.

McGuire knows that they are just starting now, but he claims the design is sound and they will advance quickly until its final implementation in just a decade:

We would like to get to a prototype in five generations. If we can meet our plan of doing a design-build-test generation every year, that will put us at about five years, and we’ve already shown we can do that in the lab. So it wouldn’t be at full power, like a working concept reactor, but basically just showing that all the physics works.

Five years after that, they expect to have a fully operative model ready to go into full-scale production, capable of generating 100MW—enough to power a large cargo ship or a 80,000-home city—and measure 23 x 42 feet, so you “could put it on a semi-trailer, similar to a small gas turbine, put it on a pad, hook it up and can be running in a few weeks.”

– See more at: http://upriser.com/posts/lockheed-martin-s-new-fusion-reactor-might-change-humanity-forever#sthash.1Wi7j4oT.dpuf

What Would Happen If Wind Power Got The Same Tax Breaks As The Fossil Fuel Industry

by

CREDIT: Shutterstock

After two years of research, the Department of Energy released a report on Thursday estimating how much energy the U.S. could get from wind in the next 35 years. The results were extremely optimistic: under an “ambitious but credible” scenario, America could get 10 percent of its power from wind by 2020; 20 percent by 2030; and 35 percent by 2050, the report said.

In order for this to happen, though, the report acknowledged that “new tools, priorities, and emphases” need to be set in place beyond the wind industry’s own efforts. Tom Kiernan, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), told ThinkProgress that one of the most important priorities is giving tax benefits to the wind industry.

“A key determinant is having a stable federal tax policy, which as you may know, every form of other energy source has – at least every other fossil fuel-based source of electric generation,” he said. “They have tax benefits, tax support, that are permanent in the tax code. For wind, major tax support is not permanent.”

Kiernan isn’t wrong. Oil and gas companies receive a number of permanent tax incentives, totaling $18.5 billion in 2013, according to a report from the environmental group Oil Change International. Taxpayers also permanently subsidize some costs of the coal industry. The historical reasoning for these tax breaks, according to the Houston Chronicle, has been “to attract investment into an industry deemed high risk, and to promote employment.”

The wind industry, by contrast, has had a rough go of getting permanent tax incentives. Even before Republicans were in control of both chambers, Congress has repeatedly refused to revive the Wind Production Tax Credit (PTC), a $13 billion yearly tax break to the wind industry that has historically helped it compete with fossil fuels. The wind PTC is a subsidy that’s been built into the tax code since 1992 to encourage growth in the industry.

At one point, the PTC had a pretty good run. After it was reinvigorated by the 2009 stimulus, wind energy started booming. According to the AWEA, U.S. wind energy capacity saw a 140 percent growth rate from 25,000 megawatts (MW) to more than 61,000 MW since 2009. And that’s just capacity – the actual electricity generated from those turbines grew at a rate of 200 percent. In 2013, wind power accounted for 4 percent of all electricity generated in the U.S.

But that tax credit was set to expire in 2012, and since then, Congress has been caught in gridlock over whether to renew it. It eventually expired at the end of 2013, and – coincidentally or not – wind has not been growing as fast.

As it looks now, it’s unlikely that a Republican-controlled Congress will renew the PTC. Generally, Republicans oppose giving tax breaks to the wind industry on the grounds that they amount to a form a ” welfare ” that unfairly props up an industry present in some states but not others.

What’s more, the PTC has already been rejected by the current Senate. While debating a bill to approve construction of the Keystone XL pipeline last month, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) attached an amendment for a five-year renewal of the PTC. The amendment, which needed 60 votes to pass, failed 51-47.

Fortunately for the wind industry, the PTC is not the ultimate deciding factor on whether growth succeeds or fails. As Kiernan noted, wind production can be helped by building more infrastructure – roughly 900 miles of transmission lines each year from now until 2050 to meet the goals in the Department of Energy’s report.

Projects to achieve this are underway. In Oklahoma, a proposal for a $2 billion transmission line “would transform the state into a national wind energy hub,” according to NPR. But that proposal faces obstacles, too – particularly from landowners who don’t want to see transmission lines on their properties.

Still, Kiernan is optimistic. Just a few days ago, he noted, a company called Deepwater Wind received formal notice to proceed on what could be the country’s first offshore wind farm. And wind is growing a lot faster than fossil fuels – as noted by Chris Mooney in the Washington Post, wind increased net generation by 13,951 megawatt hours from 2013 to 2014. That’s a bigger increase than for any other electricity source, Mooney noted.

“The fact that industry is still growing and is still driving costs out of the system shows, in my mind, what the potential is for the industry,” Kiernan said. “But we could do a whole lot more.”

BMW’s New Electric Car Sheds Weight With Hemp

by

TruthOnPot.com – BMW has finally come out with an all-electric car, which made its world debut on Monday. And in true BMW fashion, they’ve outdone just about every other electric car in what matters most: Weight. The BMW i3 is a mere 2,700 pounds – 800 pounds less than the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt.

Weight is essential because the i3 depends entirely on a 22 kWh lithium-ion battery for fuel, which also contributes about 20% of the car’s total mass. The only solution was using a variety of low-weight materials to maximize fuel efficiency and driving range (130-160 km per charge) – hemp being one of them.

bmw electric hemp

Like many BMWs before it, the i3 features door panels made of hemp. Mixed together with plastic, hemp helps lower the weight of each panel by approximately 10%.

But that’s not all. The hemp fibers – which are left exposed – also offer a design element, reports Bloomberg. According to Benoit Jacob, the i3′s designer, the use of natural materials like hemp and kenaf (a plant in the hibiscus family) makes the i3′s interior feel like “a small loft on wheels.”

bmw electric car hemp

While any mention of hemp always seems to perk ears, the fact that hemp was used to make parts of the i3 shouldn’t come as a surprise. BMW has been testing and using natural fibers like hemp since the 1990′s, when government pressure to use recyclable materials forced most European car makers to go greener.

Starting out with trunk liners and airbag parts, BMW eventually expanded into making door panels out of hemp. By 2006, hemp panels were used in all of BMW’s 5 series models. Many luxury European car makers – including Mercedes and Audi – now make use of hemp in some form.

bmw electric car hemp

What’s next? The BMW i8 – an electric hybrid supercar that is set to launch early next year. And yes, it’s also made with hemp. This versatile, eco-friendly car component is definitely here to stay.

 

Montreal teen comes up with feathery fix for potholes.

by

There is a delicious irony in knowing that a 14-year-old from Dollard-des-Ormeaux may have found an amazingly simple remedy to Canada’s perennial pothole problem.

While governments spend millions annually in largely futile attempts to repair our roadways, David Ballas, a Grade 9 student at West Island College, believes he may have come up with a cost-effective solution by mixing chicken feathers with asphalt to form a nearly impermeable surface.

Don’t laugh: The French term for potholes is nids-de-poule, or chicken nests.

Ballas’s discovery took the form of a science project, which recently garnered first prize at his school’s science fair. That honour will allow him to represent WIC next month at the Montreal Regional Science Fair at Concordia University.

Ballas came up with the idea after his mother, Joy Struzer, blew a car tire after hitting a pothole in Dollard. It wasn’t the first time, either.

So Ballas consulted a few chemists, who encouraged him to look for “hydrophobic” materials, a scientific term for water repellent.

Ballas found his answer during an Internet search for waste materials with hydrophobic surfaces.

“The first thing that I found was chicken feathers. Actually, there are 5 million tonnes of them that are wasted every year, just in Quebec. It was a perfect idea.”

However, finding chicken feathers proved to be a task unto itself.

“I didn’t want to get them from a chicken farm that killed chickens until I knew my project actually worked. And it couldn’t be duck feathers, it had to be chicken feathers. So I got them from a cruelty-free farm in the U.S. and paid $11 for a box.”

Next was the all-important testing phase.

“One container had regular asphalt, the other asphalt mixed with two per cent feathers.

“When I tested the regular asphalt, half the water passed through it, which is a lot of water. And later it would freeze up and lift the asphalt, which would make a pothole. The one I made with chicken feathers had almost no water pass through.”

Finding a environmentally sound solution was Ballas’s prime motivation.

“The environmental aspect is the most important part of my project – especially in today’s world. Because I’m 14 years old, I can see how bad it is in the world.”

Melanie Richter, a staffer at WIC, said Ballas’s project – which could soon be patented – hit the mark with the science fair judges and fellow students.

“It was so unusual and made sense,” Richter said. “And students can see how to apply science to real life.”

But are Quebecers ready for Kentucky Fried asphalt?

“I hope so,” said Ballas, who would also like to see his invention applied to new road construction.

But he also has his own theory why no one has discovered a permanent way to prevent potholes.

“It’s partly the government’s fault. Getting more taxes is what they need. On the other hand if there are no more potholes, obviously, the taxpayers save money. And second, contractors are going to have less contracts.”

Hmm, almost sounds like a conspiracy?

“Exactly,” said Ballas.

So, knowing that, will there be genuine interest in his invention?

“I don’t know. Maybe they would listen to it,” he said. “I just think they’re going to let it go because of my age.”

This Tiny House Looks Like A Shell. The Inside? Out Of This World!

by

Many tiny houses, due to their sustainability, have taken on shapes that represent nature. Some look like pumpkin-shaped domes, others bloom open like flowers, and many look like logs – including one trippy log that look like it’s straight out of the pages of Alice In Wonderland.

Yet, the Nautilus house by Mexican architect Javier Senosiain of Arquitectura Organica, is the most fantastical tiny house we’ve stumbled upon thus far. Shaped as a shell, this home near Mexico City was inspired by the work of Gaudí, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Mother Nature herself.

Just look at it! It looks like something a mermaid would live in…or a giant squid! Whoever takes residence here, they’re sure to be as happy as a clam.

It is an example of what Senosiain describes as “bio-architecture” – the idea that buildings based on organic forms bring us back to our cultural roots and help to create harmony with nature.

It’s a beautiful concept and a beautiful home, so let’s take a peek inside this shell…

What do you think?

Tesla’s New Project Could Take Millions Of People Off The Grid

by

Elon Musk, founder of Tesla Motors, Space X, Paypal, and many other companies, has come up with another brilliant idea that could radically change everyday life for the average person.

Musk’s new idea could take family homes and businesses off of the power grid, with the help of a solar powered battery pack.

“We are trying to figure out what would be a cool stationary (battery) pack. Some will be like the Model S pack: something flat, 5 inches off the wall, wall mounted, with a beautiful cover, an integrated bi-directional inverter, and plug and play,” Musk said in a statement last week.

To meet the demand for the batteries, Musk is planning on building a giant battery manufacturing complex, which will be specifically used for this company and this company only.

Musk said that he expects to release more details to the public towards the end of the year, or early next year

It is being speculated that one of Tesla’s partner companies, SolarCity, will be involved in this project.

Musk is currently working on a number of bold new projects. As we reported last year, Musk announced that SpaceX is currently developing a micro-satellite network that will work to bring cheap and unrestricted internet access to the world.

He said on his twitter page this week that they are in the early stages of development on the project, and that more details will be coming in the following months. Responding to a comment about the cost of the service, Musk said that the internet service would be “unfettered certainly and at very low cost.”

John Vibes writes for True Activist and is an author, researcher and investigative journalist who takes a special interest in the counter culture and the drug war. .

World’s First Urban Algae Canopy Produces Oxygen And Fuel Every Day

by

It works as a roof, or window that grows its own shading. The Urban Algae Canopy is a bio-electric glass structure, in which water flows through and microalgae grows. When the sun shines, the single celled algae photosynthesize and multiply to create shade.

The real upside to this, though, is that one tent produces as much oxygen as 40,000 square meters of woodland, AND 330 pounds of biomass every day.

Biomass is, essentially, plant or animal material that is broken down. It can be used for fuel, in the case of biofuel, or biodiesal; though burning it does release carbon dioxide it is considered a highly sustainable form of fuel since it can be grown.

http://inhabitat.com/incredible-urban-algae-canopy-produces-the-oxygen-equivalent-of-four-hectares-of-woodland-every-day/ http://www.domusweb.it/en/news/2014/04/30/urban_algae_canopy.html

Image credit: http://www.ecologicstudio.com/v2/index.php

This blog is free & open source, however embeds may not be.

25 Brilliant DIY Old CD-Recycling Ideas

by

CDs are small and thin but they sure start to take up a lot of space after a lifetime of collecting them. These days, music has gone digital and just like cassette tapes were taken out of stores, someday soon CDs are sure to see the same fate.

Before you race to the nearest trash can and dump out all of your old CDs, know that CDs are recyclable despite how many end up polluted landfills each year. You can recycle your unwanted CDs, or you can seek inspiration from these 25 brilliant DIY ideas how to recycle your old CDs into something new and cool.

1. Animal Sculptures Made Of Shattered CDs

Tossing your old CDs out in the trash is the last thing you want to do in terms of saving the environment. It takes 30 CDs to equal one pound of plastic, and in order to manufacture one pound of plastic a number of resources are exhausted, including 300 cubic feet of natural gas, 2 cups of crude oil, and 24 gallons of water.

Once you throw your old CDs away the toll on the environment goes up even more. It is estimated that it takes over 1 million years for one CD in a landfill to completely decompose. The trouble is an estimated 5.5 million old CDs end up in landfills every year thanks to the fact that every month some 100,000 pounds of CDs become unwanted and obsolete.

2. Guitar Adorned In CDs

Some of us still cling to boxes and bags of old CDs; it’s hard to throw away music, especially music you liked enough to buy the CD of. Unless you want to end up on an episode of TLC’s Hoarders there comes a time to say goodbye to those dusty old CDs featuring the Hanson Brothers and Spice Girls.

3. Mosaic Tile Birdbath

When you get up the nerve to dispose of your CDs, just make sure and recycle them one way or another, either using them to make something new and creative or tossing them out in the recycle bin.

4. DIY CD Mirror

CDs are made of polycarbonate plastic and aluminum, which are high value materials in the world of recycling. Recycling CDs helps slow down the deterioration of the planet by reducing the amount of new plastic that needs to be manufactured, and removing excess waste from landfills.

If you recycle your CDs they get to have a new life as any number of things, perhaps an automotive industry part, or office equipment.

5. Jewelry Box Decorated With Old CDs 6. Christmas Ornament Decorating Made Easy!

Wish I had seen this a month ago! Oh well, hope I remember next year…

7. Wastelandscape

Not so sure this is ‘DIY’ but cool regardless!

8. CD Table Top 9. Mosaic CD Flower Pot 10. Delightful Door 11. Tissue Box Spruced Up With CD Clippings 12. A Musical Way To Fancy Up Your Footwear 13. Creative Coasters 14. Side Table Embellishments 15. Collar Necklace 16. Bling Bangle Bracelet 17. Unique Wall Art 18. CD Wall Clock

What a great way to spice up an inexpensive or old and dated piece of furniture-hey that’s like recycling two products for one awesome result.

19. Christmas Tree Made Of CDs

Now if only you could wire this wall clock up so that it played a different song every hour!

20. Broken CD Becomes Glamorous Clutch 21. The Perfect Way To Pop Your Collar 22. Galaxy Cap 23. Instant Art Work- Shred In Mixer, Glue, Repeat 24. Fridge Door

See 18 of the Most Creative DIY Christmas Trees Ever

25. Madrid, Spain

A delicious dedication to your favorite bands of the past…

Photo Credits: meandmydiy.com, Sean Avery, etsy.com, intuition-physician.com, Elise Morin & Clémence Eliard, Elena Nikitina, makeiteasycrafts.com, thoughtsofanauticalgirl.blogspot.com, cremedelacraft.com, Emryssa Innes, Marina Baskin, craftsbyamanda.com, Mint Hasumy, planb.annaevers.com, pushtheotherbutton.blogspot.ro, joyzz.com, etsy.com, thatcheapbitch.com, loaded-empress.blogspot.com, Eduarda Monymony, followfashion.nl, Yosheep Warhol, Elia Berteletti, Susan Harpur, Luis Fernandez

This Algae Farm Eats Pollution From the Highway Below!

by

Yet another reason why Switzerland is such an amazing place, recently a highway overpass has been installed with an algae farm! Algae (if you didn’t know) consumes sunlight and CO2 and replaces it with oxygen – making urban locations with high emissions the perfect places for algae farms.

It was installed this summer as part of a festival in Genève. Take a look!

So basically, the Algae Farm absorbs the emissions of cars that pass below it while being supplemented by the sunlight. A series of pumps and filters regulate the system, and eventually the algae grows into what can be turned into combustable biomass, material for use in cosmetics and other consumer-facing products.

I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a technology that may end up spearheading the future of fuel!

Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could install plants like this all over the world? This is one step in the right direction towards a greener, cleaner world. Of course, we will have to also couple it with stopping burning fossil fuels altogether – and this algae farm is an example of how we can clean up after ourselves instead of waiting for a solar flare do it for us.

The more we talk about this and share this information, it can be in higher demand and we can put earth-changing projects into motion all over the place.

To learn more about it, check it out here.

How Google And SolarCity Want To Make It Easier For Regular People To Have Solar Panels

by

CREDIT: AP Photo/Ed Andrieski

If you to want to install solar panels on your roof but haven’t yet because it’s too expensive, Google really wants to help.

The search giant, valued at $370 billion, is once again boosting its investment in SolarCity’s residential solar power model by $300 million, both companies announced Thursday. Combined with a new financing structure from SolarCity, the companies say this will result in a new fund worth $750 million to help install distributed rooftop solar on homes across the country.

That’s the largest investment in such a fund ever, according to SolarCity. It means “roughly 25,000″ new solar households and about 500 megawatts of new capacity, SolarCity spokesperson Jonathan Bass said in an interview.

“Whenever you have a company of Google’s stature get involved it’s significant,” Bass said.

At the end of 2014, SolarCity had 190,000 customers and one gigawatt of deployed production, according to its letter to shareholders, so this fund means a significant bump.

Here’s how it will work for the average person. The first step is you need to own a home. Then you work with SolarCity to design a customized system for your particular roof. They look at past electric bills and the rate charged by the utility, and guarantee a lower rate that locks in a lower monthly payment. For instance, if your normal monthly bill is $200, it could drop to $60 after the installation, plus $100 in the monthly solar rental, yielding a new average monthly bill of $160. Google’s initial investment pays for the system outright through a lease or power purchase agreement (or through MyPower, a sort of hybrid between the two). You do not have to pay for the design or placement of the panels SolarCity installs and then maintains throughout the life of the lease.

Once installed, the panels generate renewable, clean electricity, feeding the grid mostly during times of the day where demand is high. The homeowner pays the lower monthly electricity rate, not worrying about rising utility bills or extra carbon pollution. Google and SolarCity pay to maintain the panels because they own them. Both companies pocket the income brought by sale of the power to the utility through net metering, as well as federal and state renewable energy tax benefits. At the end of the lease or rental term (usually 20 years), much like an automobile, you have the option to buy the system back, set it up as a loan, or let SolarCity take it back, no charge.

So while it is likely a better deal to pay for your own solar installation, earn the tax credits yourself, and begin saving money on electricity and try to make some selling extra back to the utility, not everyone can afford the initial price tag, which typically runs north of of $10,000.

“Investment in this model allows us to offer solar to a lot more customers,” Bass said. “We continually raise these funds, and the symbolism here is the fact that we can raise $750 million shows the demand for this service.”

In fact, he deemed it “the democratization of electricity.”

Making solar energy an option for a much broader consumer base is great for companies like Google and SolarCity who will earn a tidy profit through more billpayers offering up their roofs. But it can also be great for consumers who can get clean solar energy, for cheaper than traditional sources, without paying for or installing anything. And it can even work out well for utilities, who start to see their demand curves drop during times of the day when the grid all the power it can get.

This is SolarCity’s model, and Google has joined up before. In 2011, Google made its first foray into the residential solar market with a $280 million investment in a fund with SolarCity. It generated such a return on investment that they’re more than doubling down.

Thursday’s announcement, however, signaled the largest investment in a fund like this Google or any other company has ever made. The first $300 million comes from Google, and unlike the structure the two companies set up in 2011, SolarCity will contribute $450 million in debt financing (one of many funding structures the company uses to lower the cost of capital), leaving the total boost at $750 million. Banks are the typical investor in SolarCity’s model (such as a recent $200 million investment by CreditSuisse), so Google’s first step into this partnership was fairly revolutionary. Thursday’s announcement further cements Google as a major player in the renewable energy business.

Google may have stopped its renewable energy research efforts, but recently it has upped its already significant investment in the industry with moves like powering its headquarters with wind energy from NextEra.

“We’re happy to support SolarCity’s mission to help families reduce their carbon footprint and energy costs,” Sidd Mundra, Renewable Energy Principal at Google, said in a statement. “It’s good for the environment, good for families and also makes good business sense.”

SolarCity operates in 14 states and D.C. as of now, each of which is friendly to net metering – the utility option that allows homes and businesses with solar energy to sell excess power back onto the grid. Bass said they employ around 9,500 people, and have been adding 300-400 jobs per month. SolarCity has been installing one out of every three solar power system in the United States.

Tesla began working with SolarCity on a solar energy storage system called DemandLogic in 2013, which moved from beta to full production, per SolarCity’s latest shareholder letter.

Tesla’s First Solar-Powered Supercharger-Store-Service Center Is Almost Ready

by

Tesla Supercharger site with photovoltaic solar panels, Rocklin, California, Feb 2015

Enlarge Photo

Electric-car maker Tesla Motors has rapidly been opening Supercharger DC fast-charging stations throughout the U.S. and outside the country.

But despite its goal of providing solar-generated electricity at those sites, Superchargers thus far have drawn on electricity from the conventional power grid.

That’s about to change.

DON’T MISS: Tesla To Offer Batteries To Consumers For Home Energy Storage

In Rocklin, California (20 miles northeast of downtown Sacramento), Tesla is building its first location that will incorporate every one of its customer offerings in a single location.

There’s a Tesla showroom where new cars are displayed, a Service Center, and a row of Supercharger fast-charging stalls–with a massive array of photovoltaic solar cells to power the entire site.

Tesla Supercharger site with photovoltaic solar panels, Rocklin, California, Feb 2015

Enlarge Photo

Only about 4 miles from the Rocklin location is another Supercharger site, at the Roseville Galleria Mall.

But freeway access there is neither immediate nor direct, so Tesla appears to have added the eight additional Supercharger stalls just a minute or so off the Interstate 80 exchange at the Sierra College exit.

ALSO SEE: The Coming Solar Power Boom: Charts Tell The Story, Grid Parity In 2 Years

To do the work, Tesla chose a local company–Phil Haupt Electric of Roseville–with previous experience in electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) installation and maintenance.

“I was very flattered to have our company selected to do this installation,” commented owner Phil Haupt, “and we used all local employees and even purchased all of our materials locally.”

Tesla Supercharger site with photovoltaic solar panels, Rocklin, California, Feb 2015

Enlarge Photo

Many of Tesla’s Supercharger installations are done by companies operating on a wider regional or near-national basis, with contracts to create one fast-charging site after another, even across state lines.

Tesla has consistently indicated that it would further power to its specialized Superchargers via solar panels, but the Rocklin location takes the company’s “green energy” commitment further.

MORE: What A Really Gigantic Solar Power Plant Looks Like (Jan 2013)

The whole roof of the service and showroom area and almost every possible area in the whole perimeter of the property has been fully fitted with solar photovoltaic panels.

The panels, of course, have the added benefit that they shade the actual Supercharger stations from the hot Central Valley summer sun.

_________________________________________________

Follow GreenCarReports on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

Plant Power: Dutch company harvests electricity from living plants to power streetlights, Wi-Fi, and cell phones

by

A Dutch company harnesses electricity from living plants, and then uses it to power cell phone chargers, Wi-Fi hotspots, and now over 300 LED streetlights in two sites in the Netherlands. Plant-e debuted its “Starry Sky” project in November 2014 at an old ammunition site called HAMbrug, near Amsterdam, and plant power is also being used near the company’s headquarters in Wageningen.

Many researchers are looking for ways to basically generate electricity from thin air, and this idea is similar. Plant-e ‘s founders looked to the natural world and asked where lost energy could be harnessed and used by humans. They found it in the byproduct of photosynthesis in plants. Plant-e’s plant power modules could mark the dawn of the next revolution in clean energy.

Harvesting energy from growing plants has come a long way since middle school science fair projects featuring clocks run by potatoes. Plant-e’s approach is built on the same principle, but is radically different because it does not require damaging the plant in order to harness its energy. Not only can electricity be generated without harming the plant, but the amount of electricity is actually quite substantial.

Related: Biophotovoltaic moss tables generates electricity through photosynthesis

For the Netherlands streetlight projects, Plant-e’s electricity generation process involves plants growing in two-square-foot plastic containers. Plants undergo photosynthesis, essential turning solar power into sugars. As they grow, plants always produce more sugars than they need, and the excess is cast out through their roots into the surrounding soil and break down into protons and electrons. Plant-e’s system uses electrodes in the soil to await the breakdown of this plant waste, thus conducting electricity.

Company founders hope that their technology will someday be used to provide power in poor areas of the world where plant life is abundant, such as in rice paddies or near wetlands. If they can figure out how to do this in a cost-effective way, it means that this new clean energy could bring electricity to people who have never had it which, by current estimates, is nearly 25 percent of the world’s population.

Via Yes Magazine

Images via Plant-e and Shutterstock

+ More