Solar

Lightning Motorcycles is no stranger to setting land speed records. It laid down a 173.388 mile-per-hour marker for electric motorcycles in 2010 on the Bonneville Salt Flats, and then upped the ante significantly in 2011 with a 215.960 mph performance on that same crystalline stage. For 2012, ...

Now if only Renault could get all 15,000 of those people to buy those electric vehicles. The French automaker has set up what it says is the world's largest solar-panel system within the automotive industry by building about 100 acres worth of photovoltaic panels at six of its French ...

Last week, Mitt Romney released a comprehensive energy plan. While taking a backseat to the economy and job creation, energy issues have been discussed regularly by presidential candidates Romney and Barack Obama, and their viewpoints diverge widely. In its online magazine, conservative think ...

Most anyone who follows the plug-in vehicle scene is familiar with at least one electric-vehicle driver whose car is "powered by sunlight" because of a solar-panel power-supply system at home. If you don't know such a person, you can meet one. Or, with BMW and Green Mountain Energy, you can ...

When you're within spitting distance of the Motor City, you've got to defend your turf. That's exactly what the University of Michigan's Solar Car Team did with its solar-powered vehicle last week when it won the 2012 American Solar Challenge – the fourth year in a row the team has taken ...

In the hyperbolic political atmosphere of America today, left-leaning liberals are seen as tofu-eating, Toyota Prius-driving communists, while right-leaning conservatives are depicted as gun-toting, pickup-driving patriots. Thankfully, the real world is a lot more diverse than those ...

The totally awesome Toyota 2000GT SEV unveiled earlier this year was the result of what was called the "Crazy Car Project," undertaken by the Toyota Automobile Association. While no doubt some thought that converting the iconic car, of which only 353 examples were made, to run on solar power a ...

Talk about lightweighting. Rice University researchers have figured out a way to – wait for it – spray paint the components of a lithium-ion battery onto any hard surface, suggesting that someone looking to get a little rechargeable power can make like Earl Scheib. The mad scientists ...

This could be way bigger than regenerative braking. A product that allows windows to use natural or artificial light to generate electricity got a little closer to commercialization after a Maryland-based company working with the U.S. Department of Energy found a way to lower the cost of ...

Nothing like a hot Michigan summer to power a few homes. General Motors is making good use of that sun by building a solar array on a two-acre plot of land next to its Orion factory, which is about 40 miles north of Detroit. GM is partnering with Detroit-based utility DTE Energy on the project, ...