Solar Sheeting and Shingles: the Future of Solar Technology

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April 1, 2008

The current situation for adding solar shingles to a roof is costly, unsightly, and overall far too expensive in comparison to traditional energy sources. But a new technology being developed on the west coast is planning to trade out the heavy and awkward glass solar units for new lightweight, flexible and affordable foil-style solar sheets.

Solar-sheeting would create a new way to embed the energy saver into traditional house shingles, awnings, and just about anything else around your house that you would want to wrap in foil.

For start-up companies like Nanosolar and Heliovolt, the possibilities for this new wave of solar film is endless.

No more boosting car batteries if you have solar film on the roof of your car, or keep your iPod fully charged on long walks with a thin layer of film on the back of your jacket. These are just a few of the results that could be a part of everyday life with the introduction of nanotechnology into the solar energy field.

Although this new development still has rigorous endurance testing to go through before it can be implemented for wide scale production, the message is clear: an affordable answer to personal solar energy units are on their way.

Al Gore’s New Climate Change Ad Campaign

By

Ian Andrew

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March 31, 2008

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Since Al Gore was awarded the Nobel Prize last October, he’s been quiet about what his next steps are in his fight against global warming.

In his appearance with his wife last night on 60 Minutes, they announced that the past few months have been used to develop a $300 million ad campaign that’s going to be launched this Wednesday, and will feature notable public figures with opposing points of view, but that both agree something needs to be done about the climate change crisis.

The funding for the campaign comes from the Nobel Prize money that Gore was awarded in 2007 for An Inconvenient Truth, while he and his wife also matched the sum from their profits from the film and the accompanying book by the same name.

Gore announced two of the pairs that will be featured in the commercials: Reverend Al Sharpton and conservative evangelist Pat Robertson, and Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich.

The pairing of these unlikely couples is meant to reach out to parts of the American public that were non-believers about global warming issues or, even worse yet, people that are still non-believers about global warming issues. Of these people, Gore said:

“They’re almost like the ones who still believe that the moon landing was staged in a movie lot in Arizona and those who believe the earth is flat.”

Keep your heads up to see the ads airing this week on broadcast networks and cable.

Cleaner Driving: Compressed Air Vehicle

By

Ian Andrew

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March 31, 2008

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Air Car

The self-proclaimed “World’s Cleanest Car” is just that – a vehicle that is entirely pollution free. At low speeds, the car outputs cleaner air than it takes in, and at high speeds uses bio-fuels to heat air inside a chamber that can take the car over 90 mph. Zero Pollution Motors says this can be yours for the low price of $17,800 and proves “that buying ‘green’ doesn’t have to cost more”.

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Masdar Headquarters: Solar Building or Power Plant?

By

Ian Andrew

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March 31, 2008

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The newest addition to Masdar City in Abu Dhabi is going to be built backwards – so that the solar roof can generate the power needed to complete the construction on the rest of the building. This revolutionary technique is only one of the ways that this building plans to generate more energy than it needs in order to power other parts of the city.

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