The 2.5-acre property has a 51-panel solar system with a 20-year assignable contract with utility company Xcel Energy.
Sun Haiyan of Trina Solar, a solar-equipment firm, says that, as a global company, it has to manufacture locally.
That is not great compared with the 20% and more achieved by a silicon-based solar cell, the 40% managed by a solar-thermal turbine, or even the 18-20% of one of the new generation of cheap and cheerful thin-film solar cells.
First Solar, a solar-panel company in Arizona that went public last year, counts a handful of German firms as its main customers.
Bad timing, then, for Hi-Min Solar Power, a solar water-heater company that grew on the back of close political ties in its home province of Shandong.
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AeroVironment has worked on some strange projects over the years, including building a solar-powered airplane and a working model of a Quetzalcoatlus, a giant flying dinosaur, for an IMAX movie.
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Jeremy Leggett, founder of Solar Century, a leading UK solar-energy company, also gave a cautious welcome to the new research.
But all startups, from a solar-powered panel maker to a girl-powered ballet school, rely on more than venture capital and decades of profoundly sage experience from an iconic investor.
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NASA's slice of the pie includes a plan that would improve detection of near-Earth asteroids, send a solar-powered robot ship (like the NASA concept above) to capture one of the space rocks and tow it back to a stable orbit near Earth, where researchers could study it up close.
The system the researchers tested used a type of solar cell known as dye-sensitized solar cells, a lightweight and inexpensive type where the active layer is composed of titanium dioxide, rather than the silicon used in conventional solar cells.
You want a waterproof, glow-in-the-dark phone with a bottle-opener and a solar charger?
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But some of our favorite designs are the ones that do social good, like Olafur Eliasson's Little Sun -- a portable solar-powered lamp that's being distributed to people who live without electricity worldwide.
In renewable energy news, Apple filed a patent for a solar-powered iPhone, which could be a game-changer for mobile devices.
SunPower has the proven technology and experience building solar power plants around the world to deliver a well-designed solar project that will be a major contributor to helping California meet its ambitious renewable portfolio standard by the end of the decade.
Eichler thinks that such a sun-grazing comet may have triggered a large solar flare and cosmic ray-generating shockwaves as recently as 775 A.D.
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The first night flight of a solar-powered craft in 2010 was followed by a first international flight in 2011, and first inter-continental flight in 2012.
Nanosolar, furthermore, a maker of thin-film solar cells, has a project in Spain that applies nano-science that will provide 16, 500 megawatt hours of electricity each year.
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Suntech, a Chinese solar-power company, has established a low-carbon museum to celebrate ways of reducing carbon-dioxide emissions.
In 2007, Chevron-Texaco's venture capital arm bought significant stakes in two solar energy companies: BrightSource Energy, a developer of utility-scale solar plants, and Konarka Technologies, a developer of photovoltaic materials.
The challenges on the site are incredibly varied and include everything from a multinational food company looking for a "Reduced Fat Chocolate-Flavored Compound Coating" to an electronics firm trying to design a solar-powered computer.
We also showcased several feats of futuristic architecture -- a skyscraper zoo with a built-in ferris wheel and a shape-shifting solar bridge that purifies the air.
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Giffords is also smart-as-a-whip and a fierce advocate of developing solar power and other clean-tech jobs, especially in her sun-drenched southern Arizona district.
From his boat, Ridley wrote a daily blog via a solar-powered satellite phone, describing his near collision with a container ship, battles with 20-foot waves and cravings for gin and tonics.
Such solutions are clearly some way off commercial development, but with Apple rumored to be designing its hotly-anticipated iWatch around a power source based on kinetic and solar power, a battery-free world isn't such a distant dream.
The bankruptcy of a favoured solar-cell manufacturer, Solyndra, was a reminder that governments have a poor record of picking winners in technology, whether green or any other colour.
Masayoshi Son, a wireless tycoon, plans to build huge solar-power stations and a new grid to connect Japanese prefectures.
Solar Frontier, a start-up company based in Tokyo, Japan selling leading-edge solar CIS technology, is opening an office in Khobar, Saudi Arabia to strengthen its position in the emerging solar-power market in the Middle East, which it has described as a strategic priority for long-term growth.
The increase in so-called utility-scale installations masked relatively flat growth in residential rooftop solar and a fall-off in commercial installations.
That mix includes both a solar array and a 5-megawatt biogas fuel cell installation.
One stock she inherited from him was First Solar, a onetime high-flying solar panel maker whose shares have tumbled 75% in the last year.
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