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SunPods make solar electric vehicle charging quick and easy (to install)

While solar panels are not yet efficient enough to plop down on an electric vehicle's roof and charge as you go, the idea of powering an EV with the sun is tremendously appealing. A new system called SP-300 EV Plug-N-Go by SunPods is currently being used in San Jose to collect the sun's rays for use in plug-in vehicles. SunPods are "world's first transportable, modular, integrated solar powered electric vehicle charging station, ready to power up on delivery." What this means is that solar charging is now towable, and companies could offer ... Read more →

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El(ectric) Camino takes to the road in Wisconsin Sebastian Blanco

For the last month, Tom Leitschuh has been cruising around Racine, Wisconsin in a 1981 Chevrolet El Camino without a single worry about his emissions or the price of gas. The reason is that his El ...

Former Ford factory in Wixom could be used by alternative energy companies Jeremy Korzeniewski

A former Ford plant in Wixom, Michigan may get another lease on life now that a Senate committee has paved the way forward with a series of tax credits to two alternative energy companies ...

Future tense: How a solar-hydrogen economy could provide us with all the energy we need Sebastian Blanco

What one energy source has the ability to – in the long term – supply the people of the world with all of the energy they need in an reliable and renewable manner? According to Derek ...

Nissan and Showa Shell partner to test solar quick charge system Sam Abuelsamid

Nissan is preparing to make a major push, starting next year, with its new LEAF EV and the ability to quick charge it is one of the primary selling points. However, doing 480V charging on a wide ...

Austin Alt Car: Lighthouse Solar roof, carport an enviously good deal 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

When I head just how (comparatively) cheaply you can get solar panels installed in Austin, Texas, I was pretty jealous. The real short version is that a $20,000+, 3 kWh system can be yours for around $6,000 thanks to local and federal tax breaks. And considering the amount of sunshine that Austin ...

Driving Less? Let the sun maintain your car battery 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

The other day we had a post about the need to continue doing some basic maintenance on your car even if you are driving less in this age of higher fuel prices. One of the items we mentioned was caring for your battery. If you drive your car infrequently as I do (I drive a lot of loaner vehicles ...

Buy a solar powered car ... in China 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

Believe it or not, a solar powered car is on sale in China. Shown at the 29th (!) Zhejiang International Bicycles and Electric-powered Cars Exhibition in Hangzhou, eastern China, the vehicle is a cheap and dirty clean way to get around. According to an engineer, the solar cells can absorb 95 percent ...

Homebrew solar electric car wins fans in Utah 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

Utah is a state that gets a lot of sun but not a lot of attention on these pages for their green transportation moves. Still, it does seem that the DIY crowd is strong there. Remember the homemade Ariel Atom? That's not the only homemade vehicle taking to the street in the state. Kyle Dansie ...

Paris 2008: Nissan Nuvu in the flesh 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

We've finally got pics of the Nissan Nuvu concept and its, um, interesting. Sporting a very bulbous shape with bug-eye head lights, the Nuvu couldn't be anything but a concept. As Nissan promised, there are leaf-shaped solar panels on the roof, integrated into the glass. Also well-integrated ...

AltCar 2008: Prometheus' solar-powered electric motorcycle 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

Jim Corning had an idea. Wouldn't it be cool if you could put four solar panels on your house, and then be able to power a vehicle with the energy created with them? Corning, who founded Prometheus Solar LLC, didn't have a vehicle he could power with sunlight, but he did have a wife with a ...

Toyota will put North America's largest single-roof solar installation on CA parts center 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

Solar power is nothing new to Toyota, but the company's latest solar array does offer something new to North America: the largest such single-roof installation on the continent. According to Toyota, a new huge solar set-up (it covers 242,000 square feet and is made up of more than 10,000 modules) ...

Space-based solar transmission test successful 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

Although one of the oft-cited criticisms of solar power is that the sun doesn't shine 24 hours a day, the fact of the matter is that the sun never actually stops shining. Armed with this knowledge and a strong desire to solve the planet's energy supply problems, the former manager of NASA's ...

Wonder what it takes to build a competitive solar racer? 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

Lest you think that it's easy to make a competitive solar racer, take a look at the videos of the University of Texas' Samsung Solorean (the name is a reference to the DeLorean from the Back 2 The Future movies), which are pasted after the break. In a nod towards that movie car, the portal to enter ...

University planting solar trees on parking garages 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

As part of a program to provide the University of California at San Diego with renewable energy from several sources including sun, wind and bio-gas fuel cells, the school has "planted" a virtual grove of Solar Trees™ on the upper levels of a pair of parking garages. The "trees" provide ...

Watch out, coppers! It's a solar car, Code Xof1 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

Is it a secret image taken in Area 51 of a spacefaring vehicle? Has the Mothership come for all of us? Or is it just the aerodynamic slipperiness of the Xof1 (Power of 1) solar powered car? It's the latter, but that didn't stop someone up in Alaska from thinking suspicious thoughts as Canadian ...

Japanese firms to build solar-powered car ship 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

While much of the focus of carbon dioxide reduction has been placed on ground transport, it only accounts for about 20 percent of those emissions. At least as much is spewed during ocean-going shipping, and it presents another place to reduce the amount of CO2 in the air. To that end, Japanese ...

GM plant in Maryland to get solar panels 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

GM's hybrid transmission plant goes solar This sounds like it must have been a really easy decision for General Motors: Install a brand new solar array which will provide 1.2-megawatts of power - enough to cut its electricity bill by 20-percent per year beginning in 2009 - for free. We wish ...

Introducing the World's Smallest solar-powered car 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

Click above for a few more shots of the World's Smallest solar racer These days, one of the most-heard complaints about cars in the United States is that they are too large. Each new generation, for some reason, needs to somehow one-up its predecessor by adding a few inches of girth in every ...

Mass transit going greener: Urban tramway to work with solar power 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

I've had the pleasure to visit the beautiful island of Tenerife a few times, which is the largest of the Canary Islands. Being a very mountainous island, it's a difficult place to build a railway system, but they're catching up with a new tramway line which serves the island's capital, Santa Cruz ...

Sunmotor Group to introduce solar car this year 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

We just got tipped that Sunmotor, an electric vehicle hopeful based in Boston, plans to release its first product in America. It's solar and electric powered car ain't pretty, that's for sure. In side profile from wheel-to-wheel, you'll notice that Sunmotor's car is a clear smart fortwo knock-off. ...

Nissan to use solar chargers to keep batteries charged up 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

While solar-powered cars have a long road ahead of them before there is any real chance that our daily driven vehicles will be powered by nothing more than the sun (not counting large arrays powering a single electric car), a small smattering of solar cells hooked up to a car battery is enough to ...

GM Manager to chat about Spanish solar project live on GMNext 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

We recently told you about a General Motors assembly plant in Spain that was getting its roof covered in solar panels. For those that are interested in learning more about the project the GMNext site will be holding another in their ongoing series of live chats with GM leaders. On Thursday July 17 ...

Elon Musk on PHEV's, battery technology and solar cells 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria recently got some face-to-face time with Elon Musk, who, as you surely know by now, is one of the "product architects" at Tesla Motors. There were plenty of interesting quotes to come from the interview, but a few truly stood out from the rest. For instance, Musk slams ...

Altairnano 2MW battery passes tests, could help green the grid 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

After going through a somewhat tumultuous time with a change of leadership at HQ, Altairnano now has a solid success it can point to. A two-megawatt, 500 kWh battery system of its making has been put through some serious testing by its strategic partner, power company AES, along with independent ...

Lotus continues down the green path with the Eco Elise 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

Updated with new gallery While it could be argued that Lotus already builds the greenest sportscars on the planet, the British automaker seems keenly aware that the world's gas-burning ways are quickly being swept under the carpet. What started with the dual-fuel capable Lotus Exige 265E - which got ...

Spanish GM factory adds solar roof 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

The General Motors factory in Zaragoza, Spain is set to get a roof tiled in solar panels as part of a larger initiative throughout GM's European operations. 183,000 square meters of photovoltaic cells will be capable of providing up to a quarter of the factory's peak demand. Zaragoza is GM's ...

Next-gen Prius to get solar panel to drive accessories 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

Although some aftermarket operations have tried installing rooftop solar panels on the Toyota Prius, none of the pioneering hybrids have ever come so equipped from the factory. This will reportedly change next year when the third-generation model hits the streets. Top trim levels of the new Prius ...

200 mph solar-powered flying turtle 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

When imagining the future of carbon-free air travel it seems strange that so many of us overlook the obvious; super speedy solar-powered flying turtles. No, not like that famous flying turtle from Japanese cinema (Gamera doesn't sport solar panels, silly), but rather an airship with a rigid hull ...

Solar moratorium full speed reverse 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

This being the 4th of July, we would like to bring you a story about the power of the people (and possibly their elected representatives) in a democracy. You may remember a story we did a few days ago about the gov'ment, specifically the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), putting the big freeze on ...

Solar power heats up. Government freezes projects. 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

With the cost of fuels and the environmental toll of traditional carbon-based sources of electricity generation quickly climbing, solar power in America has become so popular that the government has placed a moratorium on the building of any such projects on Western public land. The Bureau of Land ...

Thousands of iterations later, vacuum guy Dyson goes for solar EVs 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

You've very likely seen the commercials. The ones with the Englishman talking about all the thousands of design iterations he went through to come up with a vacuum cleaner with a big yellow plastic ball in the middle of the base. Well, he's at it again. This time around James Dyson has his crew ...

VIDEO: Nanosolar makes a one gigawatt printing press 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

With so many auto-makers throwing their hats into the electric car ring, cleanly producing electricity cheaply becomes even more important. While the oft-touted nuclear solution seems to be getting a lot more expensive, solar is set to get a lot cheaper. Days after IBM announced it is moving into ...

Watch "A Crazy Dream" about Steve Titus' SolarBug homebrew electric car 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

SolarBug models old (right) and new. It's been a bit over a half year since we last checked in with the pride of Bozeman, Montana - Steve Titus and his SolarBug electric car. A quick refresher: this homemade electric vehicle takes and ATV, encloses it and slaps on some solar panels. OK, it's not ...

Greener golf with a solar golf cart 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

FYI: We'd have used "going green on the green" if Uncrate hadn't already beaten us to it. Clever tagline aside, what we have here is a solar-powered golf cart which uses 48 volts worth of batteries to power its 5.5 horsepower electric motor. According to the specifications, the roof-mounted solar ...

Buchanan calls for bipartisan effort to convert nation to "green" energy 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

Vern Buchanan (R), the Congressman representing the Sarasota, FL area, is one politician who sees the "green" light. While visiting with solar and electric car maker, Cruise Car Inc, whose manufacturing and sales operation is in his district, the lawmaker made a plea for a national bipartisan ...

Europe's longest Solar Rally headed for a 250-mile, sun-powered week 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

Europe's largest Solar Rally departed from Barcelona, Spain, yesterday and is expected to arrive in Toulouse, France, on June 7th. That's about 250 miles over the course of a week. This is the seventh edition of the Rally, organized by non-profit organizations Volt-Tour and Phebus Ariège. Any ...

A solar electric lawnmower conversion for just $1,500 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

This isn't the first time you've seen a solar lawnmower on AutoblogGreen. In fact, we've seen quite a few different green yard and farming implements in our time -- even solar powered tractors. The ever-increasing price of gas, though, may be causing the electric mowing option to loom a bit larger ...

New Jersey parking garages to get solar power 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

Apparently, California ranks as the nation's largest state when it comes to solar installations, but, rather surprisingly, New Jersey takes the second spot away from such sun-rich states as those situated in the southwestern part of the country and also ranks in the top ten worldwide. The state ...

VIDEO: Fiat Phylla powered by sunshine 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

Ah, those Italians and their penchant for rolling art. While the Fiat Phylla solar car concept may not yet exist in drivable form, it's asymmetrical styling sure is an attention getter. Presented a few days ago in Turin, Italy during "Uniamo le energie," this city car is designed to use solar ...

AVFI 2008: T. Boone Pickens lays the future of oil and alternatives on the line 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

Andrew Littlefair (left) and T. Boone Pickens The majority of the attendees at the AFVI Expo's Fleet Day breakfast keynote seemed quite pleased to listen to T. Boone Pickens (just like last year). Pickens is the founder of BP Capital Management and had a sit-down discussion with Andrew Littlefair, ...

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