A Startup In Switzerland Is Putting Solar Panels In Between Railroad Tracks
Today we’re looking at a new kind of solar project from Swiss company Sun-Ways, which is putting energy-generating panels in a new spot: in between train tracks.
This Solar Powered System Can Help Address Both Plastic Waste And Greenhouse Gases
Too much waste plastic? Too many greenhouse gases in the atmosphere? Researchers in the UK may have a partial solution for both problems: a process that uses solar energy to convert plastic and greenhouse gases into useful products.
Need Clean Drinking Water? Try A Desalination Skylight
For Earth Day we talk about an idea by designer, artist and architect Henry Glogau. He's designed a skylight that can turn seawater into clean drinking water, and then power LEDs with solar energy and the leftover salt brine.
Solar-Powered Cribs Are A Bright Idea To Stop Jaundice (Cool Weird Awesome 736)
Jaundice is treatable with phototherapy, but not all places have access to light therapy machines. A startup in Nigeria is building solar-powered phototherapy machines to fill that gap.
Massachusetts Is Putting Solar Panels On Highway Sound Barriers
There are countless efforts underway to bring more green energy into the world, and some of them are in some unusual places. Like a project in Massachusetts that’s going to try mounting solar panels on those sound-absorbing barriers on the sides of the highway.
Want To Save Water? Put Solar Panels Over Canals
Summer in California can mean drought, so every drop of water counts. A research project there says putting solar panels over the state's many miles of water canals could save tens of billions of gallons of water a year.
The Game Boy That Doesn’t Need Batteries
A research project has built a handheld device modeled on Nintendo's Game Boy that gets its power from solar panels and the energy created by pushing buttons - no batteries necessary.
We Could Make Fuel Kind Of Like Plants Do (Cool Weird Awesome 213)
Humans have been trying to figure out how to replicate plant photosynthesis for a long time - and we’ve had some successes, but a team at the University of Michigan has taken one of the biggest steps forward, with a process that uses metals as catalysts to turn light, carbon dioxide and water into methane.
How About We Put Shade Plants Under Solar Panels?
There's work out of the University of Arizona that says solar arrays can be even more efficient if you grow food underneath the panels. And no, the panels don't block the plants from growing by taking all the sun.