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]

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."

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]

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]

In a survey of brand names dropped in the tweets and facials (is that the right term?) of today's social-networking mavens, Google came out primero, with Apple at #2, and Microsoft at #3. (Blackballed fans would know that Apple is #2 because it's the shit, but anyway...) The funny part is what didn't make the top 10: HP is there, but Dell is not; BMW yes, but Mercedes, nope; I see a Samsung, but I do not see Sony. As unscientific as this study by Sysomos is, it must tell us something. [AppleInsider]

Wired wrote up MIT roboticist Sangbae Kim, father of the gecko-inspired Stickybot. His new plan? To make a robot that looks like a cheetah—and runs as fast as one. Yep, he's saying his carbon-fiber quadruped will hit 70 mph. Trouble is, this is all chalkboard chatter: It'll take 18 months for Kim and his colleagues to whip up prototypes of this evil-looking dude, so we have to wait to find out if he was right or nuts. [Wired]

NPR today showed off a product that will hopefully soon come free with a donation to listener-supported radio. I say that not just as a fan of listener-supported radio, but as someone who would never specifically buy an NPR-branded radio. It aggregates all of NPR's affiliates under one button, and offers on-demand streams of Terry Gross and other awesome NPR folks, but none of this is exclusive to this device. Charitable notions aside, this makes no more sense than an NBC-branded TV (that also lets me watch Fox). [CNet]

Having spent my whole life in the northern parts of these United States, I have always assumed that it's up to the sunnier parts to get with the solar-power program. At least San Diego sees the logic of this, and is going all in with alternative power. UC San Diego and CleanTECH San Diego are building a smart grid, which puts power back into the system when claimed from solar panels and other alternative sources. The school will produce 3.4 megawatts of renewable energy by next year, while San Diego Gas & Electric pledged to get 33% of its power from renewable sources by 2020. Maybe when they get over 100%, they can share the excess sunlight with those of us stuck in Cloudyville. [Treehugger; Image credit slack12/Flickr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]

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]

This is because the new offering boasts both an eBook and a thin-film, 10cm solar cell. Surprise!

Four to five hours of sun exposure yields an additional day's worth of reading time. You can read inside too, of course, thanks to the battery, but if you do that how will you show off the fact that you're on the cutting edge and hip with your eBook? [OLED Display]

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]

Created by 24-yo German designer Anne Forschner, the Lovos stands fo Lifestyle of Voluntary Simplicity. Each of those scales—which are replaceable and turn constantly to align with the sun—is covered with solar cells. I want to see this for real, and in action. [Autoblog]

Click on the image to enlarge

Just 496,905 square kilometers. That's really nothing compared to the total world area: Less than the surface of Spain (504,030 square kilometers) covered with solar panels, distributed across deserts and areas with almost 24/7 sun, all year around.

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]

Seriously though, somewhere in this image is an outdoor shower that heats water up to 140 degrees in two hours using solar power. Of course, now all you can think about is a cold shower right? Well, the product page will bring you crashing back down with the imagery conjured up by the following line:

"you and your family can take several showers consecutively before the tank needs to reheat."

That is so wrong. [Herrington viaRed Ferret via DVICE]

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]