The US Marines are testing a new tricked-out vest that will power their portable electronic gear partly with solar energy. The goal is to relieve the logistical nightmare and physical challenge of carrying conventional batteries into the battlefield, enabling Marines to function effectively in remote or hard-to-supply locations for longer … [continued]
Ascent Solar Technologies Inc., one of the world’s top thin-film solar cell companies, has just announced the launch of its first solar power backpack for the consumer market. The new the EnerPlex Packr™ integrates Ascent’s proprietary thin film solar technology, and if you decide to get one of these puppies … [continued]
The Department of Defense has been aggressively pursuing alternative energy both as the key to future national security and as a means of reducing troop casualties in the field, and a new Army solar project provides a perfect illustration of the two entwined goals. The project involves integrating solar power … [continued]
Biomimicry run amok can be a beautiful thing, and that’s the driving force behind a new portable solar power canopy called Lotus Mobile. The brainchild of solar innovator Joseph Hui, who happens to be obsessed with flowers as well as butterflies (and solar power), Lotus Mobile is a lightweight, pole-mounted, … [continued]
In the legendary competition between various branches of the Armed Services, the one being played out right now is probably a first. The Marines and the Army have each embarked on ambitious portable solar power programs that demonstrate just how far solar energy has come since the flower power era. As for … [continued]
In the Rockaways, Long Island, the Bell Harbour Yacht Club made it possible for a local relief effort to serve Thanksgiving dinner to the community that to solar power… they still didn’t have electricity from the grid due to Hurricane Sandy. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaMPr2tsYGg] This location became an important hub … [continued]
Talk about dedication: Swedish biochemist Petra Wadström spent eleven years developing an easy-to-use solar power water purifier. The purifier can hold ten liters of water and takes about three hours of direct sunlight to create potable water. For the hundreds of millions of people without reliable access to clean water … [continued]
The Department of Defense has just awarded the California-based solar company Cogenra a $2 million contract to demonstrate its solar power cogeneration system at two military bases in the U.S., with an eye toward introducing the technology on a wide basis, including overseas forward operating bases. The idea of using … [continued]
Portable renewable energy is the wave of the future for the U.S. military. The U.S. marines are field-testing solar power backpack kits, the Army is looking into shippable, micro-mini renewable energy grids, and the Air Force is getting solar power in shipping containers – and that’s just for starters.
The same concentrating solar power systems used for massive utility-scale solar arrays can now be installed practically anywhere – or at least, anywhere that it’s possible to ship a standard steel container. A company called NANOGEN has developed the concentrating technology into modular components, which the company claims can be … [continued]
