No One Saw Tesla's Solar Roof Coming

Elon Musk is a true visionary with his dreams of Electric Cars, space exploration and now Solar Roofs that are indistinguishable from ordinary roofs. In this article from Bloomberg news we see roof shingles made of textured glass that allow light to pass through onto a flat solar cell. Brilliant!

Bloomberg Technology

It’s official: After Tesla shareholders approved the acquisition of SolarCity, the new company is now an unequivocal sun-to-vehicle energy firm. And Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk didn’t take long to make his first big announcement as head of this new enterprise. 

Minutes after shareholders approved the deal—about 85 percent of them voted yes—Musk told the crowd that he had just returned from a meeting with his new solar engineering team. Tesla’s new solar roof product, he proclaimed, will actually cost less to manufacture and install than a traditional roof—even before savings from the power bill. “Electricity,” Musk said, “is just a bonus.”

If Musk’s claims prove true, this could be a real turning point in the evolution of solar power. The rooftop shingles he unveiled just a few weeks ago are something to behold: They’re made of textured glass and are virtually indistinguishable from high-end roofing products. They also transform light into power for your home and your electric car. 

Read more at:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-17/musk-says-tesla-s-solar-shingles-will-cost-less-than-a-dumb-roof

Flexible Solar For Clothing

An interesting side to Alternative Energy is the development of Solar clothing. In April Bloomberg News printed an article about printing solar cells on paper and clothing. This innovation was invented by Miles Barr an MIT engineering student. As an update Here's an article from Fast Company about the military's use of Flexible Solar for clothes. http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/lemelson-student-prize-barr.html

Miles Barr, winner of the 2012 $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize.
Photo courtesy of the Lemelson-MIT Program

Fast Company

Solar Soldiers: MC10's Testing Its Flexible Energy Harvesters With The U.S. Army

BY NIDHI SUBBARAMAN | 08-02-2012 | 8:38 AM

The U.S. Army and MC10 will work together to scale up the flexible solar panel prototypes and assess their efficiency as functional battery chargers.

Flexible solar energy harvesters that can be sewn into the jackets and backpacks of U.S. soldiers could soon be powering up electronic devices in the field. MC10, a Cambridge startup that specializes in flexible electronics, has signed a contract with the army to develop and test its solar cell technology for military use. Over the course of this next year, the U.S. Army Natick Soldier RD&E Center and MC10 will work together to scale up the flexible solar panel prototypes MC10 has already built, and assess their efficiency as functional battery chargers.

MC10 specializes in re-engineering stiff, brittle parts of electronics into sleeker, softer, and stretchier versions of their former selves. MC10 has made steady headway in applying its techniques to build thin, soft sensors for use in surgeries and is testing those at partner sites like Boston's Mass. General Hospital. The company is perhaps furthest along in the devices they are building or for athletes. The sensors, which look like a square inch of tape, cling onto an athlete's forearm and record biological information like temperature, heart rate and hydration over time. In a recent partnership with NASCAR MC10 tested a sensor on race car driver Paulie Harakka as he competed.

More at:http://www.fastcompany.com/1844480/mc10-solar-cells-military

Mobile Solar Power

Can you take it with you?

This article from the Australian describes the use of Solar Power on the move. It's an interesting idea whose time has come.

How to travel with sun power

• BY:BY SCOTT PODMORE 
• From:escape 
• July 29, 2012 12:00AM

• Increase Text Size
• Decrease Text Size
• Print

TRAVEL-FOCUSED solar power is enjoying its moment in the sunshine, and its future is bright.

Just ask solar products expert Jack Wilde of NomadNRG in Byron Bay, a global company that sources mobile power accessories for road-trippers, campers, hikers and business travellers. "Solar products are going off," Wilde says.

"Green has become the new black, and modern solar products are proving as popular with backpackers on a budget as for business travellers wanting to charge their smartphones or laptops."

Wilde believes travellers are more environmentally conscious of the way they "power up" on holiday or business trips. The sight of a solar panel leaning on a tree outside a tent or on top of a caravan is becoming more common. And now it's built into our travel gear.

"I think over the past 20 years we have witnessed great changes  - the explosion of eco-tourism as a billion-dollar industry being a good example of that," Wilde says.

"We know all too well the freak-out everyone faces each day just trying to keep their mobile device powered up to keep their communications flowing; not to mention when travelling or being on the road all day, in and out of meetings, when it can be embarrassing to walk in and ask to use a power point."Having a natural power solution with you is the only way to go, whether for business or leisure."

Wilde says the most important consideration when buying solar products is that "if it's not quality, it may well be useless".

With new technology comes solar panels that pack a bigger punch than ever.

NomadNRG (nomadnrg.com) has a range of products using UVA technology developed in Europe for low-light environments, so it continues charging in dim conditions and rain.

I test-drove a solar-power case for my iPad and, even in a cafe in average light conditions, the unit was charging on the table.

The regular sunshine in Australia means solar products become even more efficient, with "about 20 minutes of recharging in direct sunlight generating up to 15 minutes' talk time", Wilde says.

Learn more at:http://www.theaustralian.com.au/archive/travel-old/how-to-travel-with-sun-power/story-fn30263y-1226436886957

As we become more electronically mobile it might be a good idea to consider mobile solar power. You can find mobile solar here:  Portable Solar

Fell free to comment: Do you need a portable solar charger?