The demand for solar panels has increased considerably, thanks to extensive power and gas outages and high tariffs that have not only hurt industrial activities but have also disturbed the monthly household budgets.

The demand for solar panels has increased considerably, thanks to extensive power and gas outages and high tariffs that have not only hurt industrial activities but have also disturbed the monthly household budgets.
Germany plans to reduce government subsidies supporting solar power by up to 30 percent within a year because higher-than-expected demand has made the scheme far more costly than authorities initially expected.
China, which is the world’s largest provider of solar panels made from crystalline silicon, is seeing a large number of smaller polysilicon companies go bankrupt or stop production.
If you read Inhabitat, you probably know that we’re big fans of green transportation, but we do think it’s important to see the bigger picture when it comes to electric cars.
Andrew Michler
Two solar power giants in the US are embroiled in a legal face off which has industrial espionage and intrigue written all over it. Commercial solar supplier Sunpower is hitting solar installer SolarCity with a lawsuit claiming it stole confidential information.
The dream of going wireless with a laptop or iPad becomes pretty meaningless when reality hits and you’re left with a battery drained to nothing. But Voltaic‘s new solar backpack brings things back into balance, giving you the option to recharge your laptop and other gadgets even if the sun isn’t shining! Incorporating a battery with a sewn in 10 watt monocrystal solar module, the setup has two power ports and four voltage settings connected to the 60 watt battery. The new backpack gives you the ability to recharge just about any portable device whenever you need to.
Samsung just threw their hat into the growing LED market by launching a new line of bulbs that can suit practically any lighting need. The line features 7 energy-sipping bulbs that should fit practically any socket in the house. The new bulbs join the ever-expanding options available to shoppers who are looking to save money and get just the right light. Read on for a closer look at these new bulbs, and to learn how they stack up against the competition.
China just took a massive step forward for renewable energy as it flipped the switch on the world’s largest battery, which will help integrate a solar project and a wind farm into a smart grid. Capable of storing 36 megawatt hours of power and taking up the area of a football field, the giant battery bank was built as a joint venture between solar and electric car company BYD and the State Grid Corporation of China to improve a large wind and solar electric installation’s efficiency by 5-10%. It looks like we have a race to see who will have the largest battery in world as utilities struggle to make solar and wind technologies usable for longer periods of time.
One of the holy grails of clean technology is now one step closer to reality as Noble Prize-winning chemist George Olah just developed a breakthrough low-cost plastic material than acts as one of the most effective CO2 absorbers ever created. Olah directed a team of researchers at the University of Southern California to take a common plastic which soaks up CO2 at moderate levels and fuse it to a silica substrate which vastly increases its surface area – and thus its effectiveness.
Switzerland-based industrial machine behemoth ABB just announced plans to throw its weight behind a massive network of electric vehicle charging stations across Europe, the US, and Asia. The company plans to integrate chargers into smart grid systems and allow drivers to juice up their electric vehicles while they are out and about. The announcement is a big nod that the nascent electric car market is set to boom – sources project that over 5 million EVs will be sold each year by 2017, and the charger market is valued at $1 billion.