Archinect - News

Studio Gang-designed agricultural education center in Brooklyn breaks ground

2024-06-07T15:22:00-04:00

Last weekend, the Studio Gang-designed Marlboro Agricultural Education Center (MAEC) broke ground in Brooklyn’s Gravesend neighborhood. The new 9,900-square-foot, $18.2 million project transforms the site of the New York City Housing Authority’s (NYCHA) Marlboro Houses into an education, job training, nutrition and urban agriculture hub.

The Center is being delivered as part of the New York City Department of Design and Construction’s Design-Build program. It aims to build on efforts to strengthen food autonomy and security in underserved neighborhoods. It also strives to empower young adults in these communities to engage with local, sustainable food production.

The Center will feature a rooftop greenhouse dedicated to hydro- and aquaponics. It will also include spaces dedicated to community activities and outreach, including a teaching kitchen, a pantry where produce grown on-site will be packaged before being distributed to neighborhood residents, and a multipurpose room that wi...

The Pentagon will install solar panel array as part of $55 million DOD initiative

2024-02-03T08:00:00-05:00

The Pentagon has announced it will be installing a solar panel array on its roof in a historic first that’s part of a new $55 million Department of Defense clean energy initiative at military installations in the United States and Germany.

The DOD has been active in attempting to mitigate the large carbon footprint caused by the U.S. military with similar conservation strategies for several years. The money for the new solar panels is being sourced from a larger Department of Energy program that will spend $104 million in total on 31 projects affecting ten other federal agencies. The DOD says this is necessary to bolster its energy resilience and defense operational capabilities while also improving the quality of life for service members living and working at bases full-time.

"We have a moral obligation to the people that defend our nation, to their famili...

New construction video highlights AECOM's nearly complete Intuit Dome in Inglewood

2023-07-19T13:35:00-04:00

Following reports of its topping out in March, the AECOM-designed Intuit Dome, the future home of the Los Angeles Clippers, is taking shape ahead of its expected completion in 2024.

A new video depicts the status of the project as of June 2023, where its standout steel frame with diagrid geometry can be seen wrapping the structure. This building skin is formed from a series of diamond-shaped, interwoven metal panels with multiple uses. According to the architects, the frame was inspired by the form of a basketball net as a ball passes through it.

A vast array of solar panels can also be spotted on the structure’s roof. Intuit Dome is set to operate 100% carbon-free, powered fully by batteries and solar power. The design team, alongside the Clippers organization, worked towards initiatives that will earn the stadium a LEED Platinum certification.

The $1.2 billion, 18,000-seat arena will be the centerpiece of a larger mixed-use project, including an 85,000-square-foot training faci...

This Japanese housing project utilizes regenerative architecture to support its natural surrounding environment

2023-07-10T18:37:00-04:00

Japanese regenerative architectural design studio tono Inc. has designed a sustainable residence noted for its positive impact on the surrounding environment.

Image: Rui Nishi

Located on the southern Japanese island of Yakushima, Sumu Yakushima applies regenerative architecture to reconceptualize the relationship between human habitation and the natural environment.

Image: Rui Nishi

The project’s design takes a holistic view of the surrounding river basin, mountains, and sea. It combines traditional Japanese civil engineering with contemporary technology.

Image: Wataru Aoyama

The key aims of the design included designing the underground environment, orienting buildings based on a thorough understanding of water and air flows through the landscape, and creating an ongoing connection with nature through architecture.

Image: Rui Nishi

Sumu Yakushima consists of several separate buildings that are organized in a layout that respects the pre-existing nat...

BIG designs off-grid 'adventure village' Vollebak Island

2023-06-01T14:29:00-04:00

BIG has shared details about their latest collaboration with British clothing company Vollebak to design a self-sufficient, off-grid island off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. Named after the brand, the 11-acre Vollebak Island is intended to be fully powered by carbon-neutral energy.

The island site centers around the 6,426-square-foot Earth House, a village-like series of nine interconnected buildings clustered under a man-made hill, and the 947-square-foot Wood House, a standalone garden suite structure on the island’s eastern shoreline.

View of Vollebak Island's Earth House. Rendering: MIR. Image courtesy Vollebak

Each space on the island is made from material tailored for their specific uses, including stacked seaweed, compacted earth, hemp, glass brick, and locally-sourced stone. The island will be powered through a combination of offshore wind, geothermal energy, and solar power, with the energy stored in Tesla power walls.

The Earth House. Rendering: MIR. Image courtesy Vo...

This Earth Day, watch PBS’ new highlight of early solar pioneer Mária Telkes

2023-04-21T16:46:00-04:00

For nearly 50 years, chemical engineer and inventor Mária Telkes applied her prodigious intellect to harnessing the power of the sun. She designed and built the world’s first successfully solar-heated modern residence and identified a promising new chemical that, for the first time, could store solar heat like a battery. And yet, along the way, she was undercut and thwarted by her boss and colleagues — all men — at MIT.

The Hungarian-born scientist developed more than 20 patents in her lifetime and aided Eleanor Raymond on the development of the Dover Sun House in 1948.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by American Experience (@americanexperiencepbs)

"[She] knew you can’t just wait for society to be ready. You need to sell them on this idea," historian Sara Shreve-Price says in the documentary. "You need to convince them that this is the time for the idea. If we want the sustainable future, we don't just need the technology, we need to want the technology."

Director Amanda Pollak's recent Q&A about the film with Architect magazine can be found here.

New York City is still slow in meeting its 2030 solar pledge

2023-04-14T17:48:00-04:00

New York City has pledged to reach 1,000 megawatts of solar energy by 2030 — enough energy to power 250,000 homes, according to the Mayor’s Office of Environmental Justice. But state data shows that its current pace of installation will land short of that goal, leaving officials and advocates looking for ways to break down barriers to installation.

As Gothamist reported, 90% of the city’s energy grid is derived from fossil fuels. The effort to counteract this with rooftop photovoltaics is being stymied by the building codes and cost of installation, despite remarkable gains in solar capacity overall.

A proposed new program called Public Solar NYC could offer solutions, along with a slate of regulatory changes. The city’s tax burden is notoriously tough on low-income families, adding to the frustration that the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance's Daniel Chu and others feel as the deadline draws near.

“Most of the power plants in New York City are located within environmental justice communities with overwhelming numbers of affordable housing or NYCHA projects,” he told the blog. “They are currently missing out on the opportunities that other folks in wealthier communities and non-disadvantaged communities can take advantage of. We need to prioritize disadvantaged communities in the process of transitioning out and building t...

Robotics company unveils world’s first autonomous system for installing solar farm foundations

2023-03-17T08:30:00-04:00

San Francisco-based Built Robotics has announced the development of the “world’s first fully autonomous solar piling system.” The system, named RPD 35, is capable of constructing foundations for solar panel arrays up to five times faster than the traditional method.

The system was designed for integration into utility-scale solar projects, which require the support of steel H-beams measuring 12-16 feet in length. A typical solar farm requires tens of thousands of piles to be installed, each of which is driven approximately eight feet into the ground and positioned at an accuracy of less than an inch.

According to its creators, RPD 35 uses AI to conduct all steps in the piling process, including surveying, pile distribution, pile driving, and inspection. As a result, the system can enable a two-person crew to install over 300 piles per day.

"Solar piling is a tough, repetitive job, one well suited to automation," explained the company’s CEO and founder Noah Ready-Campbell. "Our pili...

Crossboundaries converted a motorboat into a flexible tiny home on the water

2022-12-30T14:07:00-05:00

Earlier this year, Beijing-based practice Crossboundaries redesigned a fully solar powered motorboat by adding tiny-home components making it a slow-moving home on the water.

Completed in March 2022 for a Berlin-based client, the project questions the relationships between the notions of public-private and temporary-permanent. The structure has an overall length of around 49 feet and a maximum width of a little over 13 feet. It features a set of interlinked and multi-purpose spaces.

Crossboundaries made functionality improvements to the boat by including a fully hidden bed and the ability to close the helmstand, which hides more technical equipment, freeing up space. They also featured a pop-up table for the kitchen and a hidden foldable desk within a cabinet.

As noted by the architects, “The boat is "smart and self-powered" due to a set of innovative solutions in terms of solar energy, heating source, water, and waste management.” On sunny days, the boat can be entirely powered b...

Underfunded public schools are looking to solar upgrades as a source of much-needed cost savings

2022-09-20T09:00:00-04:00

As solar energy gains traction across the country, one beneficiary have been schools, particularly those in cash-strapped districts contending with dwindling tax bases. The savings in electric bills from schools with solar panels often topped millions in each district, and many have been able to adopt the technology without shouldering any costs up front.

According to White House statistics, energy costs rank second to only teachers' salaries on a list of the largest expenses the approximately 130,000 public schools across the country are faced with annually. Their emissions are equivalent to the CO2 output of about 16 coal-fired power plants, making K-12 solar upgrades one of the more salient provisions included in the recent Federal Infrastructure and Inflation Reduction Acts.

Some districts that have already installed solar panels are seeing immediate savings as a result of the rising energy costs related to inflation and the war in Ukraine. At least 30 states have some of the basic framework that allows for the third-party ownership agreements often necessary for their installations to be enacted. Advocates say it isn’t nearly enough, but the 8,400 schools that do have solar installations offer a dramatic tri-fold increase when compared to statistics from 2014.

NASA awards $19.4 million in grants to develop solar array technology and lunar construction research

2022-09-06T19:11:00-04:00

NASA has announced that it is awarding $19.4 million in grants to three companies to advance work on deployable solar array systems on the Moon. The systems will help power NASA's human and robotic exploration of the Moon under its Artemis missions.

Through Artemis, the agency aims to get astronauts back on the Moon and establish a long-term presence near its South Pole. To make this possible, a dependable, sustainable power source is required to support habitats, rovers, and construction systems for future missions. In order to facilitate this power, NASA is developing vertical solar arrays that can independently deploy up to 32 feet high and retract for relocation.

Existing solar array structures are designed for microgravity or horizontal surface deployment. These new designs utilize a vertical orientation and height, which will help prevent power loss at the lunar poles "where the Sun doesn’t rise far above the horizon," according to NASA.

“These prototypes will provide promis...

Chicago signs agreement to power all city operations with renewable energy by 2025

2022-08-11T18:31:00-04:00

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has announced the finalization of a deal between the city and retail electricity supplier Constellation, in collaboration with Swift Current Energy, to shift all city facilities and operations to run on renewable energy by 2025. This makes Chicago one of the largest cities in the country to commit to such a move.

The contract is valued at up to $422 million, with an initial five-year term with Constellation starting in January 2023. As part of the agreement, beginning in 2025, Chicago will source energy from a new solar power plant currently being built in Sangamon and Morgan counties to partially power its large energy uses, such as the airports, Harold Washington Library Center, and the Jardine Water Purification Plant.

“I am incredibly proud to advance this commitment to transitioning all city operations to 100% renewable energy by 2025,” said Mayor Lightfoot. “The signing of this agreement demonstrates that the City of Chicago is leading by example...

California climate action plan calls for all-electric new homes by 2026

2022-05-12T17:11:00-04:00

A new draft plan by the California Air Resources Board was released on Tuesday that lays out an ambitious roadmap for achieving carbon neutrality in the state by 2045.

Called the 2022 Climate Change Scoping Plan, the guide highlights the necessity for a comprehensive shift away from fossil fuels across all sectors, notably households, businesses, and transportation.

The plan suggests the state require all new homes to have electric appliances starting in 2026 and new businesses by 2029. For existing homes, 80% of appliance sales should be electric by 2030 and 100% by 2035. As noted by TIME, this, coupled with the plan’s stringent transportation regulations, would put a significant new demand on the electric grid, which would require California to rapidly scale up solar power and storage options. Hydrogen infrastructure would also need to expand.

The plan is not final, however. It wi...

Marc Thorpe Design launches design & build agency focused on delivering affordable solar-powered homes

2022-05-03T19:51:00-04:00

NYC-based architecture and design studio Marc Thorpe Design has launched a design & build agency in New York’s West Catskills dedicated to the development of affordable solar-powered homes.

Called Edifice Upstate, the agency was formed in collaboration with local builders and green technology companies. It serves to make available, affordable, contemporary homes equipped with sustainable technology.

The initiative was driven by the increased demand for simpler, more remote lifestyles that became sought after following the pandemic. Edifice Upstate follows the development of the team’s housing concept called The Edifice, a 500-square-foot, solar-powered cabin, in 2019.

As stated by the architects: “The Edifice is an exercise in reduction, to live with only what is necessary and self-reliance.” This is evident in the home’s physical isolation and self-sustaining infrastructure. The program of the dwelling is divided into four zones: live, cook, dine, and sleep, and the systems that su...

Barozzi Veiga-designed Oolite Arts complex hopes to become a new hub for Miami's growing artistic community

2022-04-13T19:46:00-04:00

Two years after beating out more than 100 different international firms and being named to its commission, Barcelona’s Estudio Barozzi Veiga has finally unveiled renderings of its new “signature building” for the nonprofit Oolite Arts in Miami.

The museum and educational center will offer space for artists and the community to enhance each other through an exchange created by the addition of the new village-like cultural hub, acting as an anchor to the increasingly trendy Little River Art District.

Image courtesy of Oolite Arts

The updated design appears to show an open-ended scheme with plenty of trees and other greenery dotting an oasis-like internal courtyard. Interior space is organized into repeated vertical elements with an influx of natural light providing framing for its office and exhibition spaces, two classrooms, a theater, and the 21 free studios promised as part of Oolite’s storied artist-in-residency program.

Image courtesy of Oolite Arts

This layout leads to the esta...

California to build solar panels over canals following UC graduate’s research

2022-02-14T11:26:00-05:00

A consortium in California has announced its ambition to construct a network of solar panels over a segment of the state’s canal system. The project, named Project Nexus, will build on research by a UC Merced environmental engineering graduate, which we originally reported on back in May 2021.

The graduate, Brandi McKuin, was part of a team who demonstrated that covering California’s 4,000 miles of water canals in solar panels could potentially reduce water evaporation by 82%. This reduction would save 63 billion gallons of water per year, enough to irrigate 50,000 acres of farmland or meet the residential water needs of 2 million people.

Covering the entire state’s canal system in solar panels would also generate 13 gigawatts of renewable energy, equal to 17% of the state’s current solar capacity. The move would deliver half of the projected new solar capacity required by California ...

MVRDV-designed 'Sun Rock' offers itself an embodiment of Taiwan's carbon-free future

2022-01-18T16:48:00-05:00

One of Taiwan’s largest public utility companies is ready to make a bold statement about its intentions with a new operations storage facility from MVRDV called "Sun Rock" that will play a significant part in the country’s transition to a green energy economy. This is the firm’s second recent effort in the country behind the Tainan Spring adaptive reuse project that was announced in March of 2020.

Billed as a “manifesto in a building,” Sun Rock’s energy-saving effects are produced by a large dome and sloping southern front made functional by a series of pleats covered in PV panels that help the building generate up to a remarkable 1.7 million kWh of clean energy in a given year. The building includes a maintenance workshop, gallery spaces, roof terrace, and a special data display room that has all been made available to the public in an effort to showcase the shared goal of sustainability which defines both the country and firm.

Image: © MVRDV

“Of course, we aim to make all of our p...

U.S. Department of Energy says solar energy has the potential to produce 40% of the nation's electricity by 2035

2021-09-08T13:13:00-04:00

A new study released by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) highlights the role solar energy could play in decarbonizing the country’s power grid.

The Solar Futures Study shows that by 2035, solar energy has the potential to power 40% of the nation’s electricity and employ as much as 1.5 million people, without raising electricity prices. This comes following the installation of a record amount of solar in 2020, which currently accounts for 3% of the country’s electricity supply.

The study shows that by 2035, the U.S. would need to quadruple its yearly solar capacity and provide 1,000 GW of power to ensure a renewable-dominant grid. The report goes further to say that by 2050, solar energy could provide 1,600 GW for a zero-carbon grid.

Solar Deployment 2020–2050, according to the Solar Futures Study. Image: DOE.

“The study illuminates the fact that solar, our cheapest and fastest-growing source of clean energy, could produce enough electricity to power all of the homes in the U.S. ...

The development of high capacity batteries is picking up steam

2020-03-05T14:10:00-05:00

manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries is scaling up rapidly to meet the growing demand for electric vehicles and large systems installed in power grids or at solar farms. As prices for lithium-ion batteries drop — they fell by half from 2016 to 2019, according to BloombergNEF — banks are taking another look.

The Los Angeles Times takes a look at the growing viability for utility-scale battery operations.

One stumbling block for municipalities and building operators alike has been finding affordable battery storage options to keep sustainably generated energy flowing when the sun isn't shining and the wind doesn't blow. A key problem in the widespread deployment of these energy storing units is finance: The investment required to bring these units online is viewed as a risk by banks and other lenders.

Increasingly, according to the report, however, banks and other financial institutions are moving to embrace the financial promise of boosting the development and deployment of these technologies, a trend that will surely help decarbonize the building sector.

California's solar energy achievements present new challenges for the state's energy grid

2019-12-17T12:43:00-05:00

Now that California has reached 1 million solar roofs, some activists are looking at battery storage as the next frontier for lawmakers. Dan Jacobson, director of Environment California, thinks the state should aim to install 1 million batteries by 2025. Those systems could store solar power for use in the evening — and help homes keep the lights on when utility companies intentionally shut off power to reduce the risk of wildfire ignitions.

Writing in The Los Angeles Times, Sammy Roth reports on California's 1 million solar rooftop achievement, the culmination of a solar incentive plan initiated by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006. According to the report, there are now more than 1,046,792 solar installations in the state, many on private households and businesses.

Now that the state's solar capacity is increasing at a healthy clip, clean energy advocates are beginning a similar push to increase solar battery capacity, an effort that could transform the nature of the state's power grid as the need for collective infrastructure begins to be replaced by distributed power generation approaches.

"Solar NIMBYism" is on the rise

2019-11-21T13:56:00-05:00

Renewable energy initiatives like building new wind and solar farms have multiplied as a global push to reinforce sustainability initiatives has taken off in recent years. However, despite the benefits for these necessary renewable energy plans, pushback from residents, as well as local governing agents, has grown in tandem.

Linda Poon of CityLab reports,"The U.S. now has a total of 2 million solar panels—half of which were installed in just the last three years—capable of generating nearly 70 gigawatts [...] But while the American public increasingly supports expanding green energy, they often don't want to see the actual facilities that would generate that power."

Poon reports that in both the West and East Coast regions of the U.S, Americans remain aggressively opposed the construction of new solar farms. Maybe these "anti-solar" attitudes are focused on aesthetics? For some, yes, but also, these concerns, according to the report, also tap ...

Can Concentrated Solar Power help concrete and steel manufacturers reign in carbon emissions?

2019-11-20T15:55:00-05:00

Can Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) technology help industrial manufacturing facilities reduce their carbon footprints?

A recent report by Vox shines a light on what had until recently, been considered a somewhat defunct solar energy generation approach. Concentrated Solar Power is harnessed by fields of mirrors that focus the sun's rays on to towers that then use the heat to turn water into steam. The steam turns a turbine that generates electricity. In recent years, CSP technology has been losing ground in most of the world, according to the report, due to breakthroughs in solar panel design and fabrication that have brought the cost of such technologies to historic lows.

The report highlights a recent breakthrough by the company Heliogen that could reinvigorate the industry, however.

Rather than deploying massive arrays, as is commonly the case with CSP facilities, the company operates a series of smaller mirrored assemblies that make use of incredibly sophisticated calibration ...

UK could weatherize 27 million residences with “Warm Homes for All” plan

2019-11-03T21:00:00-05:00

As the United Kingdom continues to make progress in its efforts to decarbonize its buildings, the country’s liberal party has unveiled a trail-blazing “Warm Homes for All” plan that could bring roof insulation, double-glazed windows, renewable technologies, heat pumps, solar thermal systems, and other energy efficiency and weatherizing improvements to the country’s entire housing stock, The Guardian reports.

Under the proposed plan, low-income residents would receive grants to make the upgrades while wealthier residents would become eligible for interest-free loans to help pay for the work. Loans offered by the government would be tied to the properties themselves rather than the building occupants. The plan could improve up to 27 million homes across the United Kingdom and create 450,000 jobs over the next decade.

Council housing in Seacroft, Leeds, West Yorkshire. Image courtesy of Wikimedia user chemical engineering.

According to The Guardian, building electricity use and heatin...

UCLA electrical engineer builds thermoelectric device that can harvest energy after dark

2019-09-18T15:00:00-04:00

[Dr. Raman's] prototype device employs radiative cooling, the phenomenon that makes buildings and parks feel cooler than the surrounding air after sunset. As Dr. Raman’s device releases heat, it does so unevenly, the top side cooling more than the bottom. It then converts the difference in heat into electricity.

After driving through a dark village in Sierra Leone, UCLA electrical engineer Aaswath Raman got the idea of building a device that didn't have to rely on solar power or wind to generate electricity after dark.

Dr. Raman and his research team did just that, and built a prototype thermoelectric device that uses radiative cooling techniques. It doesn't generate much power yet and still has a long way to go in research and development, but other academics like MIT materials scientist Jeffrey C. Grossman tell The New York Times that Dr. Raman's work is one promising step forward in the development of low-power applications at night.

Los Angeles approves nation's largest solar and battery energy storage system

2019-09-12T17:37:00-04:00

Under the 25-year deal with developer 8minute Solar Energy, the city would buy electricity from a sprawling complex of solar panels and lithium-ion batteries in the Mojave Desert of eastern Kern County, about two hours north of Los Angeles. The Eland project would meet 6% to 7% of L.A.'s annual electricity needs and would be capable of pumping clean energy into the grid for four hours each night. The combined solar power and energy storage is priced at 3.3 cents per kilowatt-hour [...]

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti praised the approved Eland Solar and Storage Center as an integral part of the city's climate commitment to reach 55% renewable energy by 2025, 80% renewable energy by 2036, and 100% renewable energy by 2045.

"Located on 2,650 acres in Kern County, California, the project will include two large-scale solar facilities that will capture 400 megawatts (MW) of solar energy and store up to 1,200 megawatt-hours (MWh) of energy — all of which can be distributed to meet peak demand, reducing the need for natural gas at night or on cloudy days," explains a statement issued by the Mayor's office and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, adding, "The site will hold enough energy to power 283,330 homes across Los Angeles."

First fully solar-powered museum is planned for LA's Institute of Contemporary Art

2019-08-22T13:30:00-04:00

In a statement released today the museum shared their goals to becoming the first solar powered art museum. According to ICA LA's deputy directory Samuel Vasquez, "Our audience counts on us to uphold the wellbeing of our community, and once we looked at the numbers and saw that it was possible to go solar, we felt obligated to make the change. It will not be easy and there will be a large cost, but we feel it is our duty as a civic leader and advocate for social progress."

Plans for transforming the museum to run on solar is launched through a crowd-funded Kickstarter campaign. The goal is to install 206 solar panels and raise $25,000. In total the project is estimated to cost $156,000 in total.

According to their Kickstarter page, the plans to go solar are driven by Los Angeles' attempt to become carbon-neutral by 2050. With our world in a state of "climate emergency" the ICA LA is the second art museum to tackle climate change and implement a sustainable approach. According to ar...

America's first solar-powered airport has arrived

2019-08-14T19:45:00-04:00

Earlier this month, the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport announced that it had hit a much-anticipated milestone in becoming the first airfield in the United States powered by 100% solar energy. The end result of an ambitious project that started seven years ago, the airport's 2.64-megawatt solar farm was completed with about $5 million of funding from the Federal Aviation Administration.

Are underground salt caves the next innovation in renewable energy generation?

2019-08-12T08:00:00-04:00

Compressed air energy storage has been used for decades, but only at two facilities in Germany and Alabama, built before solar and wind started creating challenges for power grid operators. “This is a pretty simple concept,” said Bobby Bailie, director of business development for energy storage at the German industrial firm Siemens. “You’re pushing air into a cavern, storing that energy. And at times when you need it, you pull it back out.”

Can a giant underground salt cave in the Utah desert hold a potential answer to Los Angeles’s growing sustainable energy needs?

The Los Angeles Times digs into a new-old approach for storing energy in compressed air deposits deep underground. The compressed air, generated with the help of solar or wind energy, is held deep below the surface of the earth until needed, creating a giant, high-pressure battery.

When the energy is required, say on a cloudy day when solar generation might dip, the compressed air is used to turn a second set of turbines that recaptures the air’s energy, thus converting the air into electricity.

First solar road fails to live up to expectations

2019-07-24T15:17:00-04:00

The world’s first solar road in Normandy, northern France, which opened in 2016, has failed to meet expectations. The 2.8 square km of solar panels is in part damaged beyond repair and the 1km road did not produce the power the manufacturer Wattway had promised. Panels were worn out by traffic and joints between the panels were shattered.

After less than three years in operation, the high-profile 1-kilometer trial stretch of the world's first photovoltaic road in northern France has failed to meet expectations.

Instead of delivering the promised 790kWh per day, the first year's actual daily power output was only half that amount, with a total of 149,459 kWh during that year. Only 37,900kWh were generated since the beginning of this year.

According to Energy Reporters, the project's manufacturer, Wattway, which also installed dozens of other, smaller solar roads, admitted that "our system is not mature for inter-urban traffic."

Australia plans to power Singapore with their new $20bn solar farm

2019-07-17T20:30:00-04:00

The desert outside Tennant Creek, deep in the Northern Territory, is not the most obvious place to build and transmit Singapore’s future electricity supply. Though few in the southern states are yet to take notice, a group of Australian developers are betting that will change. If they are right, it could have far-reaching consequences for Australia’s energy industry and what the country sells to the world.

Singapore is already considered to be one of the "greenest cities" in Asia and perhaps soon the world. With plans to have at least 80% of its buildings green by 2030, steps to make this goal a reality are well underway. Although obstacles like lack of cooperation from developers and investment companies are prevalent, Singapore aims to increase its green initiatives and alternative energy usage thanks to solar power. Sun Cable is pitching to be the "world's largest solar farm," according to a recent article in The Guardian.

Environment editor Adam Morton writes, "If developed as planned, a 10-gigawatt-capacity array of panels will be spread across 15,000 hectares and be backed by battery storage to ensure it can supply power around the clock. Overhead transmission lines will send electricity to Darwin and plug into the NT grid. But the bulk would be exported via a high-voltage direct-current submarine cable snaking through the Indonesian archipelago to Singapore."

Developers from ...