New Ways to Catch Rays

  • By Evan Schwartz
  • Posted 04.24.07
  • NOVA

With evidence mounting that the global warming trend is accelerating, finding solutions to our dependence on fossil fuels for our growing energy needs is becoming increasingly urgent. A significant part of the solution may well lie in solar energy. Today, a host of scientists and entrepreneurs are busy developing new means of harnessing the abundant, renewable, and entirely free energy of the sun. In this slide show, take a look at six of the hottest new solar technologies.

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Take a look at six of the hottest new solar technologies.

This feature originally appeared on the site for the NOVA program Saved By the Sun.

Evan Schwartz is a writer and producer for "Saved By the Sun" and the author of Juice: The Creative Fuel That Drives World-Class Inventors (Harvard Business School Press, 2004).

Credits

Images

(crane over troughs)
© NOVA/WGBH Educational Foundation
(trough with sun, subway station)
Courtesy of SCHOTT
(Stirling dish, artist's rendering) Courtesy Stirling Energy Systems, Inc.
(thin-film house)
Courtesy of United Solar Ovonic
(Clark solar array)
Courtesy National Renewable Energy Laboratory/photo by Kim Adams
(solar-painted house graphic)
© Gina Miller/www.nanogirl.com
(bioreactor, algae tubes)
Courtesy of GreenFuel Technologies Corp.

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