And, like we said, there's no reason Californians would reject the deal between Solaren and PG&E—the utility company isn't investing or putting up any money at all, it's just saying "sure, we'll buy energy from you if and when this thing ever works." Which, you know, duh. The 15-year contract starts in 2016, by which time hopefully we won't have already devolved into a Mad Max-style post-apocalyptic desert state. [CPUC via CNET]

Only a concept now, but this charger-that's-also-a-iPhone-stand is easy enough that some Chinese company could quickly put out a solution in a few months. [Petit Invention via Into Mobile]

The building is made up of 14,000 equilateral triangles. Some are solar panels, some are windows, others just fill out the structure. The net result is a building that manages to mask the black behemoths you're used to seeing.

I love how the exterior influences the interior lighting, not to mention how great it all looks when lit up. [Inhabitat]

Frederik Krebs came up with this combination of solar panels and LED lights which, while definitely a work-in-progress, could bring cheap light to some of the world's poorest regions. I call the lamps a work-in-progress because despite being durable enough to last several years, they run at a mere 1% efficiency. But with the expected final cost of $7 a piece, they're full of life-changing potential, despite that low efficiency.

Some prototypes of the lamps are currently being tested in Zambia. As seen in the picture, the solar panels are left laying flat during the day and then rolled up (and secured with snap-button) into a cone-shaped lamp. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the results of the prototype tests and a final product, because no one should go without artificially lit nights. [IEEE Spectrum via Pop Sci]

The Tokai Challenger completed the journey in 29 hours and 49 minutes despite a flat tire—that's an average speed of about 63mph. That's actually not the best time in history. That Dutch team we mentioned above achieved the current record back in 2005—29 hours and 11 minutes. But obviously conditions like sunlight and wind can skew these numbers on a year to year comparison basis. [Global Green Challenge via Wired via Engadget]

UPDATE: Reader Stephen gives us another reason for the recently slower times:
"A major reason why the Nuna team from 2005 holds the time record is because there were no speed limits in the Northern Territory of Australia before January 2007. Now the speed limit in the Northern Territory is 130km/h (81mph). In the race there are time penalties for breaking the speed limit. I know this because I was a member of the University of Waterloo's solar car team that raced in Australia in 2007."

My guess is that you will need all 3-feet of that space to generate enough electricity to play your music for 4.5 hours at full volume/12 hours at a normal volume. Of course, it takes 20 hours of outdoor sun exposure (or 40 hours indoor) to reach a full charge. If you are not patient enough to wait, the Reverb can be powered up via a regular electrical socket—although I would suggest spending your $2,229 elsewhere if you see yourself doing that frequently. Speaking of being patient, the Reverb won't be available in April of 2010. [Reverb via Gizmag via Inhabitat]

President Barack Obama announced today a $8-billion federal plant to modernize the United State's power grid. $3.4 billion will come from the government, and the rest will be put up by private companies. In his words:

At this moment, there's something big happening in America when it comes to creating a clean-energy economy. But getting there will take a few more days like this one, and more projects like this one. Here in this region of Florida, this project will reduce demand for electricity by up to 20 percent during the hottest summer days that stress the grid and power plants,. It will provide smart meters to 2.6 million more customers. And most importantly, it will create thousands of jobs - good jobs, by the way, that can't be outsourced; jobs that will last and jobs that pay a decent wage.

In my words: About fucking time. We need to modernize the power grid not only for the jobs, but for the long term survivability of the country's economy. It's the only way to depend less on other countries, and make production more efficient and competitive.

And it's not only about using renewable energies. It's about increasing the efficiency of electricity transport and consumption at homes. That's why $1 billion is going to smart meters and other consumer oriented technology, which will make more than 5 million homes to consume a lot less. Two billion dollars will go to infrastructure to support those meters, and $400 to modernize power lines, with an additional $25 million to push for smarter, more power efficient devices.

Do you think this is a lot of money? It is, especially since it only covers a small part of the grid. But here's what we are getting in return: $20 billion in savings during the next decade, plus increasing the reliability of the grid to avoid power outages that cost $150 billion a year to the US economy.

I can only hope this goes well, and we keep modernizing the rest of the grid as soon as possible. [Miami Herald and Ars Technica]

The ReNu probably doesn't work as you'd imagine from looking at the photograph. Sure, you see an iPod dock with speakers, just as you'd expect. But that huge back plate is actually a solar panel/battery combo that you can remove from the dock to hang near a window to store energy. It takes about 9 hours to charge in direct sunlight, or 20 hours to charge in indirect sunlight, to power music for 7-8 hours.

This ReNu panel actually supports a variety of different base units, including a pure iPod/iPhone dock (no speakers included) and an LED desk lamp.

I think the basic idea becomes something like, hang or place a bunch of solar panels in sunlight, then grab power as necessary. But in case you find this ease of use scenario as hard to believe as us, all of the docks and the ReNu panel itself will plug in should the sun's juice fall short.

The base ReNu panel alone can be preodered now for 2010 availability. It runs $200. The accessories start at $90 and work their way up. [Regen via Treehugger via DVICE]

The structure generates 130 kilowatts of solar power, enough to offset 145,000 lbs of greenhouse gas emissions annually. There are even charging terminals available for electric cars, but only two can be charged at a time. Seems like a pretty smart way to keep drivers comfortable and harvest some spare energy on the side. [Dvice]

How do they do it? With a triple junction compound solar cell that uses three photo absorption layers made from elements like indium and gallium. I'll leave it to the physical chemistry geniuses among you to explain exactly what that means in the comments.

You might have heard of efficiency ratings that climb into the 40% range. Sharp even lists one in their press release. To clarify, those are different tests. Apparently there's a distinction made in efficiency ratings between concentrated and unfocused light. The more you know, right?

Don't expect to be covering your house in these soon, they're meant for use in satellites. [Akihabara via Engadget]

The way you'd use the reNEW charger is simple. You toss your batteries in the top portion and they'll be ready at the bottom once they're fully-charged. Cool idea, but I'm not entirely sure that I'd want to plaster my windows with it.

Updated: Now we've got some official pictures from the original designer rather than the previous "work in progress" shots. [Yanko Design]

Energy efficiency is the ultimate goal of the Solar Decathlon, but the surPLUShome's good looks and functionality helped the German Team beat out the early favorites from California. Nearly all the available surface area of the surPlushome is covered in solar panels with a few stylish wood panels thrown in for good measure. Those and the windows are really the only things keeping the house from looking like an oversized 2001: A Space Odyssey prop.

Congrats to the winners! You can check out other entries from the competition at the link. [Inhabitat]

Student groups from around the world (and several from the States) competed to create a net zero-energy, 800-square-foot house powered exclusively by solar energy, and came up with some great ideas. The house pictured above was created by the team from Cornell University in upstate New York, using silos to reflect the bucolic look of that area. Other teams experimented with automatic shutoffs for TVs and lights or sophisticated purification of shower and rainwater. The winner will be announced this coming Friday, and you can check out the current standings here. [CNET]

Designed as a residential, hotel and entertainment facility, the Vertical Village is absolutely blanketed in solar panels. In fact, the building is expected to earn a LEED Gold certification when it is completed. That distinction is difficult enough for a homeowner to obtain, much less a gigantic commercial structure. Each building is oriented to reduce the heat from sun exposure—quite the contrary to a massive bed of solar collectors on the south side of the building that automatically adjusts to the sun's position for maximum efficiency. The village also features a solar roof that helps to transport energy and break the solar field up into more manageable segments.

It's not enough to have all of the really cool buildings on the planet—now they want a monopoly on the sun. Damn you Dubai. [Graftlab via Ecofriend via Inhabitat]

The shingle will use thin-film cells of copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS), a photovoltaic material that typically is more efficient at turning sunlight into electricity than traditional polysilicon cells.

Dow is using CIGS cells that operate at higher than 10 percent efficiency, below the efficiencies for the top polysilicon cells — but would cost 10 to 15 percent less on a per watt basis.

As you can see, the panels look like standard asphalt shingles—and they can be installed without any specialized knowledge. In fact, they only take about 10 hours to install on average compared to the 22-30 hours for traditional panels. Since a basic roofer could handle the job in a short amount of time, installation costs should be more manageable. Plus, Dow claims that their Powerhouse will be 30% to 40% cheaper than other solar shingle designs.

This could finally be the innovation that gets homeowners on the solar bandwagon. It's still not cheap of course, but the energy savings, boost in home values and government incentive programs might make the upgrades worth it. [Reuters via Treehugger via DVICE]

If there's an argument to be made, it's one of durability. These vintage Nazi backpacks are rated to last another 50 years (apparently WW2 was meant to go on a long, long time). Retrofitted with solar panels and batteries before being rebranded as KILLA Vintage series #1 bags, I have a feeling that the electronics will fail long before the cloth will wear away.

And while admitting this feels a bit awkward, I'm smitten with the design of the pack itself. It's almost too bad that only 20 bags will be produced yearly for an unspecified price. [Killa via taktomyshirt via therawfeed]

So even on cloudy days and when placed outside of the sun's direct gaze, these panels can still draw low levels of current—too low for commercial release at this time, but something scientists are working on now.

Because of their unique design that requires less silicon, the colorful panels would cost less to produce that traditional solar tech...meaning that the stained glass industry could be due for a big boon. [GreenSun via Neatorama via DVICE]

As a teenager in a rural village in Nepal, Milan Karki knows just how desperately developing countries need an affordable, renewable energy source. But rather than whine about the availability of electricity or the cost of batteries, he sat down and came up with a solution: Low-cost solar panels with human hair conductors.

Solar energy isn't anything new, but solar panels themselves can be pricey to produce due to using silicon. Karki solved the cost issue by using human hair instead since it turns out that Melanin, a color pigment in hair, is a good conductor. Oh, and did we mention that it's cheaper than silicon?

Half a kilo of hair can be bought for only 16p in Nepal and lasts a few months, whereas a pack of batteries would cost 50p and last a few nights.

I don't know why they're selling hair by the kilo, but this idea is absolutely brilliant and I can't wait to see if it turns into something widely used. [Daily Mail]

The case features an integrated solar panel that should yield 30 minutes of talk time on a 3G network or 60 minutes on EDGE after 2 hours of sun exposure. Plus, the battery is a rechargeable 1500 mAh 3.7 V lithium-ion that offers 120% capacity of the iPhone 3G. The Solar Surge for the 2G iPod Touch will be available later this month for $70, while the iPhone 3G/3GS version will come in sometime in the 4Q of 2009 for the same price. If you are into this sort of thing, the Solar Surge is probably the most compact and practical solar iPhone charger on the market—and the price point seems to be in line with many standard charging cases. [Novothink via Ecofriend via Inhabitat]

The whole deal is being put together by Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and industrial design company IGI Corp. The plan involves a gigantic solar panel floating around in space, soaking up a gigawatt of energy and beaming it to Earth without the use of cables. And they hope to have it ready to rock within four years.

Pretty amazing stuff. Here's hoping it works well and doesn't end up giving the entire country of Japan cancer. Thanks for testing that whole thing out for us, guys! [Bloomberg via Inhabitat]

• The Nikon D300s is slowly starting to trickle into stores. Amazon lists the ship date as August 30th, but reports are coming in that Best Buy is already starting to put Nikon's latest out on display. The D300s is a slightly tweaked version of the D300. Even though the camera features some minor improvements, it showcases some of the same problems users experienced with Nikon's other video capable DSLRs. Early hands-on treatments indicate that the "jelly effect" is still present when recording video, where when the camera pans or shifts solid objects appear to wobble like, as the name would suggest, jelly. If you were hoping the D300s would correct the issue, it looks like you'll just have to wait until Nikon updates their DSLR line again. But if you know you'll never take video, and you're chomping at the bit to get your hands on one of these, you can start hunting for the D300s this weekend. You might have some luck finding it today, but expect wider availability by Sunday. Costs $1,799. [Nikon Rumors via Crunchgear]

• Scoshe's solCHAT is one of those gadgets that falls squarely into the "that makes sense" category. It's a speakerphone that connects to your phone via Bluetooth, but the thing I love about it is the solar panel. Your car sits around outside in sunny parking lots all day. Just leave the solCHAT on your dashboard, and come back to find a fully charged battery for your ride home. The solCHAT also has a voice-enabled caller ID and mounts for either your windshield or visor. And don't worry, if you park in a garage, or you're trying to use the solCHAT in Norway during January, there's also an option to charge the unit via it's included USB cable and car adapter. Ships today for $99.99 [PC Mag]

Solar Roadways, a single-purpose startup, just snagged a $100,000 grant from the DoE to design and build a 12-by-12-foot super-tough solar panel, intended to be laid as sections of road. As it's been optimistically imagined, the panels would also have a layer of low-res LED lights, so they could display changing signage.

Given how expensive and inefficient regular solar panels are, this whole plan sounds a little far-fetched, but the benefits could be huge: the company says that they could meet the entire country's energy needs if the interstate system was replaced with its (still theoretical) panels. Neat, but there's a minor issue of cost.

To pull this into perspective, Solar Roadways say they could take 500 homes off the grid with just one mile of four lane solar highway. They also say their 12x12 panels will cost about $6900 apiece. Assuming a width of four panels, a mile of highway need to be made up of 1760 panels, which comes to over twelve million dollars before construction costs, which usually make up the bulk of the sum anyway.

I mean, they managed to coax $100k out of the government already, so maybe there's more to this than meets the eye. Or maybe, the Deptartment of Energy just wants to give this plan a fair shot, just make sure this won't work. Spaghetti, walls, etc. [Solar Roadways via Inhabitat via PopSci]

The stops, which should cost around $30,000, may seem expensive, but they'll be pretty energy-efficient. The energy not used by the stops will be fed into the city's power grid, and the stops themselves will use LED lighting, nearly four and a half times more efficient than the current fluorescent. Is it shameful to admit that I'm way more excited about blanketed Wi-Fi coverage than energy efficiency? Because I am. [Popular Mechanics]

Called the Raygun Rocket, the art piece is an interactive, 40-foot tall four-story rocket right out of the Marvin Martian/Bugs Bunny/Buck Rogers era. The whole thing, including LED "launch pad," is powered by solar panels.

A "future that never was" say the designers, and who are we to argue. It's just too bad they couldn't figure out a way to make it launch. I'm sure at Burning Man there would have been more than a few people willing to give that ride a try.

A shot of the rocket in fabrication. The designers say it's easily transportable via flat bed truck and low-earth orbit. OK, just the truck. [Raygun Gothic Rocket via CNET]

It's by Seungkyun Woo & Junyi Heo, and wraps around your arm in the normal state, soaking up solar power to keep it going longer. It's kind of a genius idea to stick solar onto everything in the future, or even a combination of solar and kinetic charging. [Yanko Design]

To juice up, you connect your USB-charging device to the included Lithium Ion booster pack, which acts as a reservoir drawing power from the panels.

Sanyo claims a full charge to the booster in good sunlight will take 3 days with one panel (¥9,000; about $100) and half that on the two-panel version (¥14,000; about $150). Available only in Japan for the moment. [Sanyo Japan via Akihabara News and PC World]

The Taiwan National Stadium makes use of 60 distributed Apogee Sound AE-7SX weather-resistant loudspeakers for primary seating area coverage, 12 Apogee Sound ALA-5WSX weather resistant Acoustic Linear Array loudspeakers provides field coverage, and 2 Apogee Sound AFI-205 and two AFI-Point5 loudspeakers provide Control Room audio monitoring. The 76 loudspeakers are powered by 52 Peavey Electronics model PV2600 and 3 model PV1500 power amplifiers. Additional signal processing equipment includes Apogee Sound loudspeaker controllers, Symetrix SymNet Digital Signal Processing equipment, an Altair 48-channel mixing desk, Tascam CD, DVD and cassette players, Peavey Electronics, microphones, and CUE Touch Panel Controllers, all wired together with 9,500 meters (5.5 miles) of Klotz Cable.

Naturally, going 100% solar with an installation like this requires a buttload of green tech:

The ultra-modern $5 billion Taiwan National Stadium, designed by renowned Japanese architect Toyo Ito, and constructed for the 2009 World Games, features a stunning 14,155 square meter roof incorporating 8,844 solar panels, which emulates the form of a flowing river, and generates 1.14 million KWh annually preventing the release of 660 tons-per-annum of atmospheric carbon dioxide. On days when the Taiwan National Stadium is not in use, the electricity generated from its roof is fed back the city's electrical grid where it will meet almost 80% of the area's energy requirements.

Indeed, if you look at the images of the roof, it seems to be completely covered in "a flowing river" of solar panels. [PrthatRocks]

The luggage is not your everyday pie-in-the-sky concept; Folman has already created a proof-of-concept prototype using a Burton bag with a Duracell PowerSource Mobile 100 battery back, a stepper motor and a Burton SolarRolls panel. Folman claims that the battery charges in about two hours with an average walking pace, and should be able to power a laptop for about an hour and a half. There are a few obvious downsides to the concept: I don't know many people who are willing to walk around for two hours, hauling a suitcase behind them. Using Pluggage would also force a user to avoid those moving walkways at the airport, one of life's simple joys.

So far, Pulman hasn't had much luck getting the big luggage makers to incorporate his idea so he's currently looking to get started with a smaller bag maker. [Boing Boing Gadgets]

I don't know if they are going to retire the daisies when the campaign is over, but I hope they don't. I like some flowah-powah here and there. [The Design Blog]

The collectors aren't active yet, but when they're switched on they'll be used to power lights for a nearby hiking and biking trail. They're 16 feet high and 14 feet across (at the "flower," presumably) and are being viewed as both an art installation and a greening initiative. As Austin Council Member Lee Leffingwell shamelessly brags, "Our city has a great understanding of how art can transform public spaces." Yeah? Well, our site has a great understanding of sweet giant metal flowers, too. [MAKE]

Regardless of my lame attempt at snark however, it's nice to know those energy-wasting flatscreen kiosks currently pumping out campy advertising at my local mega mall are dead gadgets walking (these screens work inside and out).

While the ads will remain, obviously, we can take solace in the fact that Mother Earth is going to be violated and pillaged by one less thing. [E-Ink Info]

A symbiotic suit will allow Bertrand Piccard—the pilot and one of the cofounders of the project—to sleep on his seat at any given time, If anything goes wrong or any flight adjustments are needed, the computer will use the suit to wake him up.

With a 262.5-foot wingspan—that's longer than an Airbus A380—the Solar Impulse will travel at an average speed of 43.5mph at a maximum altitude of 39,300 feet. [Computer Weekly]

But it is a night light, which goes great with your ensemble if you're a southern belle who's also a robot. [Lost Values via Fashioning Tech via MAKE]

Telecommunication firm Orange's latest eco tent concept (by design company Kaleidoscope) exploits photovoltaic fabric to produce energy without bulky, inflexible solar panels. This power feeds gadgets that are stored in a magnetic induction pouch, and also drives a flexible LCD screen with wireless internet.

The connectivity extends beyond the tent itself, however, as SMS or RFID can be deployed at any time to light up the tent, identifying your campsite (potentially, from afar). We're also guessing that the tent would obnoxiously pulsate any time you got a call to the rhythm of your ringer (Orange, feel free to use that idea, on us).

Who knows what Orange would charge for a monthly 3G tent subscription, but if you camped a WHOLE LOT... [Orange via DVICE via Bornrich]

One day someone will put AI on these, add razor blades to each leg, and the whole thing is going to end up badly. [Makezine]

When we first saw it earlier this year, we feared it could be just another prototype which never made in into production. But now an insider at the Swedish car manufacturer has told a newspaper they are set to start making them, albeit in limited numbers.

Koenigsegg, who are in talks to buy Saab from GM, say the car has 512hp and can speed from 0-62 in 5.2 seconds. It features a thin solar coating on the bodywork to top up power and can be charged (in a more conventional way) within 20 minutes. There is no word on price but suffice to say you won't be able to afford one. [RegHardware]

The plant can generate 100 kW of on-demand power and 170 kW of thermal power and consists of 30 mirrors that concentrate the sun's rays to the 30-foot Aora Tower. The rays are used to heat concentrated air to drive an electric turbine and the microturbine kicks in at night to fill in the gaps. It is capable of running on biodiesel or natural gas, which means power 24-hours a day—rain or shine. Because it is so versatile, this technology could help power up off the grid communities without having to expand existing grids. Aora is already looking to expand into other countries—and I say bring it on. That tower reminds me of the Eye of Sauron—only more flower-y. [Aora Solar and Treehugger via Inhabitat]