Hasta La Gadget!

For the past two weeks Inhabitat has been reporting live from the Solar Decathlon Europe in Madrid, where 18 student teams from around the world have been competing for the title of the world’s most efficient solar-powered prefab house. As usual, suspense was running high in the final days of the competition, and we’re excited to announce that Team Rhône-Alpes’ Canopea House has been named this year’s winner! The beautiful modular house took top honors in the architecture and sustainability categories, and it features a 10.7 kW photovoltaic array on the roof that produces more than enough energy to power the home.

Some of the other standouts at the Solar Decathlon Europe include Germany’s ECOLAR House, which features a flexible, modular design that can expand or shrink to accommodate the needs of its owners. It came as no surprise that the German team was tops in the engineering category, and the team incorporated hemp insulation in the floors, walls and ceiling to prevent thermal loss. Team Andalucia’s Patio 2.12 House, which consists of four separate prefabricated modules built around an interior courtyard, scored high marks for energy efficiency and innovation. And although Italy’s MED in Italy House might not look like much on the outside, step inside and you’ll enter a different world altogether. The highly efficient home features a central courtyard and a rooftop photovoltaic array that generates about 9.33 kWh of energy per year — roughly double what it needs. Team Rome also added wall layers that can be filled with heavy materials to provide high thermal mass once the home is installed.

Continue reading Inhabitat’s Week in Green: ECOLAR house, transparent solar panel and Star Wars terrariums

Filed under: Misc, Transportation, Science

Inhabitat’s Week in Green: ECOLAR house, transparent solar panel and Star Wars terrariums originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Sep 2012 10:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Harnessing the power of the sun is a tricky business, but even the past few weeks have seen some interesting developments in the field. In this latest installment, researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California have figured out a way of making solar cells from any semiconductor, potentially reducing the cost of their production. You see, efficient solar cells require semiconductors to be chemically modified for the current they produce to flow in one direction. The process uses expensive materials and only works with a few types of semiconductors, but the team’s looking at using ones which aren’t normally suitable — the magic is to apply an electrical field to them. This field requires energy, but what’s consumed is said to be a tiny fraction of what the cell’s capable of producing when active, and it means chemical modification isn’t needed.

The concept of using a field to standardize the flow of juice isn’t a new one, but the team’s work on the geometrical structure of the cells has made it a reality, with a couple of working prototypes to satisfy the skeptics. More of these are on the way, as their focus has shifted to which semiconductors can offer the best efficiency at the lowest cost. And when the researchers have answered that question, there’s nothing left to do but get cracking on commercial production. For the full scientific explanation, hit up the links below.

Filed under: Science

Researchers make unsuitable parts work as solar cells, could lead to cheaper panels originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 11 Aug 2012 11:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BAE Systems revealed that it’s working on hardy, high-capacity solar cells that could power unmanned vehicles and even attach to an individual soldier’s gear. According to Darren Buckle, a manager from BAE Systems’ Advanced Technology Center, the cells are geared toward smaller, often airborne, military units, where weight is at a premium. The system, still in the development stage, could offer up power for heavy endurance unmanned air vehicles, provided the cells are made sensitive enough to absorb energy in less sunny situations — something that the company’s England-based engineers are currently contending with.

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

BAE Systems designs hard composite solar cells: could act as structure of UAVs, piece of soldier’s gear originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Jul 2012 17:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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