SAN FRANCISCO – From transparent solar panels to fusion power breakthroughs, lots of time, talent and money is being invested in developing more sustainable technologies. We put together a list of some of the ones we’ll be keeping an eye on in 2023.
Let’s start our rundown with the original green power source: the sun.
Solar power has long been considered a staple renewable, and it’s considered competitive with traditional energy sources, but it comes with a couple of caveats. Most notably, the sun doesn’t always shine. And even when it does, most commercial solar panels aren’t as efficient as wind turbines.
That said, efforts are underway to find new ways to make, apply and deploy solar panels that could help them fulfill a larger portion of our energy needs.
One of the wildest advancements in solar I’ve come across thus far is the dawn of transparent solar panels that can be applied like a film over windows or other surfaces to harvest energy. Two companies are pushing this sort of technology forward: Ubiquitous Energy and Solar Windows.
Some electric vehicles are also starting to incorporate regular solar panels as a key feature. Every solar EV I’m aware of still needs to be plugged in to charge up for long-range trips, but you might be able to make up to about 40 miles a day in short trips off solar power alone depending on your car, where you park it, and what kind of solar package it has.
The handful of solar cars I’ve come across, including the Aptera, Sono Sion, and Lightyear 0, are engineered to be lighter, to maximize the benefit of their installed solar.
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