Archinect - News

President Biden invokes Defense Production Act to stimulate domestic clean energy construction

2022-06-08T17:33:00-04:00

President Joe Biden is using his executive powers Monday to boost the domestic production of solar panels and their parts and will issue a 24-month tariff exemption on imports of the products from several countries. The White House said Biden will authorize the use of the Defense Production Act to accelerate manufacturing of solar panels in the United States as a way to strengthen the administration's efforts to shift the country toward clean energy.

Invoking the Defense Production Act (DPA) allows the President to order private businesses to prioritize the production of materials deemed necessary for national defense. Aside from accelerating the domestic production of solar panels, Biden is using the Act to rapidly expand American manufacturing of building insulation, heat pumps for buildings, equipment for making and using clean electricity-generated fuels, and critical power grid infrastructure.

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

The White House also signaled its intention to direct the development of master supply agreements to increase the speed and efficiency by which domestic clean electricity providers can sell their products to the U.S. Government.

Furthermore, this move includes an order to establish a two-year tariff exemption for solar panel imports from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam in order to meet th...

IKEA partners with SunPower to sell solar panels in California stores

2022-05-25T16:30:00-04:00

IKEA U.S. has teamed up with SunPower, a California-based solar technology and energy services provider, to launch a new program called Home Solar with IKEA. Through this collaboration, members of the IKEA Family customer loyalty program will be able to purchase home solar solutions, available through SunPower, to generate and store their own renewable energy. The initiative is expected to launch in select California markets in Fall 2022.

Founded in 1985, SunPower sells, installs, and finances solar power products, including panels, batteries, mounting hardware, and monitoring software. This partnership forms part of IKEA’s mission to become circular and climate positive by 2030. IKEA already has an expansive renewable energy portfolio in the U.S., with two wind farms, two solar farms, two geothermal systems, seven biogas-fuel cells, and rooftop solar arrays on 90% of its locations. Additionally, the furniture and interiors giant announced STRÖMMA in August 2021, a project initiate...

Featuring a gigantic solar panel-covered canopy, work begins on BIG’s CityWave bookend in Milan

2021-09-15T20:11:00-04:00

Construction has begun on BIG’s CityWave, the building that will complete Milan’s revitalizing CityLife development after previously being announced as a participant in 2019.

The Danish studio’s contribution to the €2.5 billion ($2.95 billion) development comes in the form of an East-West duo of low-rise office buildings connected by a sloping, solar panel-covered canopy that also gives protection to one of Italy's largest outdoor urban parks.

Image courtesy BIG

The development already showcases a trio of towers by Studio Libeskind, Zaha Hadid Architects, and Arata Isozaki, respectively. It was originally awarded to the group in 2004 and now has the added bonus of another big name in the form of Ingels, who will bring some variety to the site in the form of an uneven horizontally-oriented mass with greenspace and 11,000 square meters (118,000 square feet) of photovoltaics.

Image courtesy BIG

Per the architect: “Like a contemporary interpretation of the massive covered public space of ...

India to decarbonize national railway network by 2030

2019-08-29T19:30:00-04:00

The government has decided to move towards achieving 100-percent electrification of railways, as part of efforts to curb carbon footprints, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday. The railways minister also said he has a mission that in next 10 years, Indian Railways will be running on renewable energy.

Announcing the plan, India's Union Minister Piyush Goyal said, "We will be the world's first large railway...nearly [75,000 miles] of track, which will be 100-percent electrified. Imagine how much carbon we will reduce from the entire atmosphere."

We are aiming to make Indian Railways world's first 100% green railways.

We are setting up solar panels on unused land of railways. This will save land from encroachment, and the energy generated will be fed into the power grid. pic.twitter.com/GzkpNpvBTu
— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) July 26, 2019

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.

World's largest single-site solar project goes online in Abu Dhabi

2019-07-09T13:16:00-04:00

Abu Dhabi is claiming the title of the world's largest single-site solar project, having hit the go-button on the Noor Abu Dhabi project this week, with a reported capacity of 1.177 gigawatts, eclipsing Dubai's Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park – for now at least. The United Arab Emirates doesn't have a great record when it comes to per-capita carbon footprint, but projects like this show that it's serious about addressing the issue head-on.

"According to the Abu Dhabi media office, the project has sufficient capacity to supply 90,000 people and is expected to reduce Abu Dhabi's CO2 emissions by one million metric tons, or the equivalent of removing 200,000 cars from the road," reports New Atlas.

New Tesla patent seeks to improve the look of its solar roof tiles

2019-01-24T13:56:00-05:00

As noted in a recently published patent application, Tesla is developing a system that would allow the company to improve the aesthetics of the solar shingles even further. [...] Tesla notes that in prior art BIPV roofing systems, the active solar portions of a roofing module end up being visibly different in appearance compared to inactive parts of the roof.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk introduced the glass solar tiles as part of the automaker's growing range of energy products back in October 2016.

Let's get technical: image from Tesla's patent application to improve the aesthetic performance of its solar roof tiles.

"Various embodiments provide a new and improved approach to manufacturing solar tiles as a roofing surface," explains the summary of the recently filed Tesla patent application. "Some aspects have improved aesthetics that reduce the visual differences between solar and non-solar portions of the roof and between active solar portions and other portions of a roof tile." Read the full document here.

Biogenic, bacteria-powered solar cells can generate electricity even under overcast skies

2018-07-20T15:00:00-04:00

Their cell generated a current stronger than any previously recorded from such a device, and worked as efficiently in dim light as in bright light. This innovation could be a step toward wider adoption of solar power in places like British Columbia and parts of northern Europe where overcast skies are common. With further development, these solar cells—called “biogenic” because they are made of living organisms—could become as efficient as the synthetic cells used in conventional solar panels.

While this isn't the first effort to build biogenic, bacteria-powered solar cells, scientists at the University of British Columbia claim to have discovered a novel, highly cost-effective, and much more sustainable way to use the photosynthesis capabilities of certain bacteria to convert light (even dim light) to energy.

"They genetically engineered E. coli to produce large amounts of lycopene—a dye that gives tomatoes their red-orange colour and is particularly effective at harvesting light for conversion to energy," explains the UBC announcement. "The researchers coated the bacteria with a mineral that could act as a semiconductor, and applied the mixture to a glass surface. With the coated glass acting as an anode at one end of their cell, they generated a current density of 0.686 milliamps per square centimetre—an improvement on the 0.362 achieved by others in the field."

More research is needed to turn this newly discovered method into market-ready biogenic solar panels.

...

California is now the first state to require solar panels on new homes

2018-05-10T14:12:00-04:00

California just sent the clearest signal yet that rooftop power is moving beyond a niche market and becoming the norm. On Wednesday, the Golden State became the first in the U.S. to require solar panels on almost all new homes. Most new units built after Jan. 1, 2020, will be required to include solar systems [...]. While that’s a boost for the solar industry, critics warned that it will also drive up the cost of buying a house by almost $10,000.

Rooftop solar panels are finally becoming an integral part of most new California homes beginning in 2020, however skeptics say that the move will further worsen the state's housing crisis.

US solar energy is blooming in Trump states

2017-10-13T14:03:00-04:00

The 10 fastest-growing U.S. solar markets between the second quarters of 2016 and 2017 were Western, Midwestern or Southern states that voted for Trump, with Alabama and Mississippi topping the list. And solar firms are ramping up investments in these regions, signaling their faith that key renewable energy incentives will remain in place for years to come.

Despite Trump's disbelief in solar power, the sector is booming in his partisan states. The growth of clean energy, particularly in the regions that showed overwhelming support for Trump, greatly undermines the president's goal of boosting the coal industry.

Tesla's 'Tiny House' goes on roadshow to promote its solar tech

2017-08-14T14:19:00-04:00

Tesla revealed today that it created what it calls the ‘Tesla Tiny House’ to feature its energy products, like solar panels and Powerwall. The company is bringing the house on tour using a Model X “to educate the public on how to generate, store and use renewable energy for their home.” The tiny house contains a Tesla mobile design studio and configurator to help home owners configure a solar plus energy storage system for their home.

Needless to add that the Tesla Tiny House itself gains all its electricity via a solar installation on the tiny roof.

The exhibition tour is limited to four major Australian cities for now, but the economic gain could be far from tiny — as the world's leader in capita penetration of rooftop solar installations (15% of households / 1.5 million households), Australia is a highly lucrative market for Tesla even though it hasn't started selling solar panels there.

IKEA starts selling home battery storage with its solar panels

2017-08-03T14:18:00-04:00

Ikea is now offering solar panels and home batteries to its customers in the UK. The Scandinavian furniture chain is partnering with solar firm Solarcentury for the venture, with prices for solar battery storage starting at £3,000 (about $3,970 USD). The home batteries are designed to work with existing solar panels, or as part of a new combined home solar panel / battery storage system that Ikea is selling.

The Swedish furniture retail giant first starting solar panels in the UK back in 2013 to grow on a (then) heavily subsidized green energy market but ceased sales in 2015 when the British government announced its plans of cutting solar subsidies by up to 90%. Just a few months later, IKEA returned with a new lineup of home solar panels, this time partnering up with the firm SolarCentury.

"An average solar home in the UK will typically consume around 40% of all the solar electricity generated, or even less if they are regularly out during the day," IKEA explains in a new statement. "The remaining 60% of unused solar electricity is sent back to the National Grid, at a loss compared to its value. This means that homeowners currently lose out on making further cost savings. By adding Solar Battery Storage, unused solar electricity can be stored and used at a later time, meaning the amount of solar electricity an average home can use doubles to 80%."

With the launch of its Solar Battery S...

Just add a cabin: Gapahuk, a readymade cabin from Snøhetta, is designed to fit in almost anywhere

2017-05-04T13:10:00-04:00

While the gapahuk (which in Norwegian means "a simple wooden structure with two or three walls and a roof") is not new, Snohetta's conceptualization of it as a multi-terrain, potentially solar-panelled off-the-grid insta-cabin is.

The gapahuk has a purposefully tight layout to make it easy to heat and large windows to make it easy to gawk at any available scenery, and also features three bedrooms and an adaptable exterior patio to make it easy to socialize.

The twisted roof bears up equally well under punishing winds and sun, while the design calls for low maintenance materials that can usually be locally sourced. As entries in the sustainably chic category go, this rates highly (provided you have some extra land lying around on which to place it).

MIT startup creates camouflage solar panels

2017-02-24T14:17:00-05:00

Founded at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Sistine creates custom solar panels designed to mimic home facades and other environments, with aims of enticing more homeowners to install photovoltaic systems. Sistine’s novel technology, SolarSkin, is a layer that can be imprinted with any image and embedded into a solar panel without interfering with the panel’s efficacy. Homeowners can match their rooftop or a grassy lawn.

The product caters to the growing "aesthetic solar" market which tries to attract homeowners that are considering going solar but fear the aesthetic impact of the traditional, bleak-looking dark solar panels on their home's appearance. Just last fall, Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed a line of glass, photovoltaic cell-embedded roof tiles that mimic (currently) four common roof covering styles.

Here a few more examples of Sistine's SolarSkin technology that allows—so the company claims—the panels to either completely blend in with the existing roof or display any desired image, like business logos or advertisements.

All images via Sistine Solar's website.

Say goodbye to clunky solar panels, and hello to Tesla's sleek new glass solar roof tiles

2016-10-31T15:09:00-04:00

While solar panels have been subsidized in many cities for a while now, the blocky, rectangular panels aren’t heavily implemented in part because they tend to appear as, well, an addition, rather than a constitutive element of home design. That's about to change, as Tesla has announced a (potentially) revolutionary new intervention in the development of self-powered homes.

At a press event at Universal Studios, Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed a line of glass, photovoltaic cell-embedded roof tiles. And they look strikingly like old-fashioned roof tiles, coming in a four distinct styles: “Textured Glass Tile”, “Tuscan Glass Tile”, “Smooth Glass Tile” and “Slate Glass Tile”. From above, the glass is transparent to the sun. From street-level, the solar cells aren’t visible.

Tesla states that the tiles will cost less than traditional roofing when energy savings are factored in. Manufactured out of durable, long-lasting tempered glass, the roof tiles will “last longer than the house”, Musk ass...

MAD reveals renderings of highly sustainable Xinhee Design Center

2016-08-10T18:00:00-04:00

Pretty much every element of MAD's design for the Xinhee Design Center factors in sustainability: water features, full-blown gardens and offices commingle on the six star-shaped floors that sprout from the central atrium, while an envelope of PTFE provides ventilation and shade.

Solar panels occupy the roof, while the footbridge in the atrium provides both air circulation and the opportunity for impromptu fashion modeling. The use of natural light throughout the building is aided in part by the facade's translucent coating, which allows light transmittance of up to 40%.

However, the concept behind the building is meant to reflect the business of the client, an international fashion group. As MAD founding principal Ma Yansong explains, “We envision it as a building with skin-and-bones. The correspondence of clothing and architecture is they both explore the relationship between the interior and the exterior.”

For more on MAD:

San Francisco to mandate solar panels for new constructions

2016-04-20T13:44:00-04:00

The solar power industry is about to get a big boost in San Francisco. On April 19, the city’s Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to become the first major US metropolitan area requiring that new buildings install solar photovoltaic (PV) panels on their roofs. California already mandates that new buildings with 10 floors or less designate at least 15% of their rooftop area (pdf, p8) as being ready for solar panel installation.

"The city of San Francisco now requires that builders actually install solar panels in these areas (at a minimum) starting in 2017. Larger buildings are exempt for now."

Curious about other efforts to make American cities reduce their carbon footprint through harvesting solar energy? Check out these articles:

How this new gigafactory may popularize residential solar power technology

2016-03-04T21:24:00-05:00

When production begins, SolarCity, already the leading installer of residential solar panels in the [U.S.] will become a vertically integrated manufacturer and provider...At a time when conventional silicon-based solar panels from China have never been cheaper, investing in a new type of solar technology is a risky undertaking. However, the potential benefits are huge. The new factory...could transform both SolarCity’s business...and the economics of residential solar power.

The MIT Technology Review profiles the upcoming Buffalo-based SolarCity factory and their ambitious plans that could potentially make solar power technology more widely available to consumers.

More news about alternative energy:

Cloud-harvesting skyscraper: renderings of proposed new sustainable Tokyo development

Michigan State University researchers develop completely transparent solar panels

Could 'quantum dots' be the key to turning windows into photovoltaics?

Turning Japan's golfing greens into solar farms

Michigan State University researchers develop completely transparent solar panels

2015-10-22T19:57:00-04:00

... transparent photovoltaic cells are fundamentally inconceivable, considering that solar panels can develop energy power through a transformation of absorbed protons into electrons [...] light would have to flow unrestrained to the eye, meaning that those protons would have to go wholly through the substance. Therefore what the Michigan State team developed [...] a device that utilize organic salts to take in wavelengths of light that are imperceptible to the human eye.

France Mandates "Green Roofs" for all new buildings

2015-05-25T16:51:00-04:00

A new law recently passed in France mandates that all new buildings that are built in commercial zones in France must be partially covered in either plants or solar panels. Green roofs, as they are called, have an isolating effect which helps to reduce the amount of energy needed to heat a building during the winter or cool it in the summer. They are capable of retaining rainwater and reducing problems with runoff, and also offer birds a place to call home in the urban jungle.

Ikea to begin selling solar panels

2013-09-30T11:39:00-04:00

Ikea is to sell solar panels at its British stores for the first time in an attempt to tap growth in the heavily subsidised green energy market. The world's biggest furniture retailer, best known for cheap basics such as its Billy bookcases and Ektorp sofas, plans to offer solar panel packages at all of its 17 British stores within the next 10 months.

Prishtina Central Mosque Entry by Team Venturella/Balducci/Ponsi/Gaeta

2013-05-17T17:42:00-04:00

A team of collaborating Italian architects is sharing with us their rather unusual spin on mosque design. The solar panel-covered "Wall-Dome" concept was the group's entry to the highly debated architecture competition to design the Central Mosque of Prishtina, Kosovo [...]. The team includes the architects Paolo Venturella, Angelo Balducci, Luca Ponsi, and Paolo Gaeta.

Previously: No Clear Winner (yet) in Kosovo’s Central Mosque of Prishtina Competition

Peel-and-Stick Solar Panels: A World First

2013-01-09T19:31:00-05:00

Researchers at the Stanford School of Engineering have succeeded in developing the world’s first peel-and-stick thin-film solar cells. The idea will allow the cells to be applied to almost any surface, with successful tests having been conducted on paper, plastic and window glass. This opens up significant opportunities for alternative applications for solar technology, previously limited by traditional solar cells, which must be mounted on stiff, often heavy, fixed panels.