Australian researchers granted money for solar research

The Australian research organization CSIRO confirms that Australia is building what will be the world’s largest solar power tower of its type at the National Solar Energy Centre in Newcastle.  

Australia’s climate and tax-obsessed Federal Government says the environment is important and that Australians need a tax to be forced into reducing carbon emissions, yet that same Government has just cut solar panel subsidies raising questions over whether it truly is environmentally minded, or simply money-minded.

Research team is looking to make solar panels more efficient and give LEDs color changing capability...

The Victoria-Suntech Advanced Solar Facility made its first formal public appearance on Tuesday, June 1, 2010. The operations of the facility will help commercialize NANOPLAS, a nanoplasmonic solar cell technology being researched and developed by Swinburne University of Technology and Suntech Power Holdings.

The Switzerland-based Solar Impulse group flew its HB-SIA solar-powered aircraft for 26 hours, using solar cells to collect sunlight during the day and sunlight-powered batteries at night. It is now the longest and highest manned solar flight.  

A University of Missouri professor of engineering has developed a solar panel that collects up to 95% of the sunlight that falls on it. Traditional solar panels absorb only about 20%, which is very inefficient. These nantennas could one day make very inexpensive solar panels.

The maiden voyage of the solar-powered Solar Impulse HB-SIA airplane occurred on Wednesday, April 7, 2010, from its home base in Switzerland. The craft uses only sunlight for its power, and stores it in batteries so it can fly at night.  

Mosaic, a startup allowing people to invest in solar projects, announced today that it has received regulatory approval for its next wave of crowdfunding efforts in California, worth a total of $100 million in investment. The site opened to the public back in January with three projects that were fully backed in fewer than 24 hours.

With a whole lot of exploration of the Solar System going on over the next few years, NASA announced on October 7, 2010, that 2011 will be the Year of the Solar System. But, wait, there’s more!