IBM's Watt-sun: great at solar forecasts, useless at Jeopardy

Pop quiz: if you worked on a research project at IBM that dealt with chewing on large amounts of data to predict how efficient solar power arrays could be, what would you call it? If you said "Watt-sun," you'd be on a roll. Tongues may have been planted firmly in cheeks when the name suggestions started flying, but Watt-sun is no joke. It's a solar forecasting platform that continually mashes up data from scads of sources -- from existing models to satellite views to cloud cover imagery captured by cameras lashed to poles -- to try and predict much sunlight solar panels will actually be able to suck up.

Why does that matter? Well, if you were a power company fleshing out your part of the power grid with solar cells, you'd want to know how much juice to expect from them. Factors like weather and the intricacies of the sun's path across the sky make forecasting tricky, but Watt-sun project manager Hendrik Hamann told Gigaom that Watt-sun is about 35% better at its predictions than the next best thing. Watt-sun's been tested in about a dozen solar sites around the country and if it's a good as its creators say, it could be a big help for a country struggling to wean itself off dirtier forms of energy. Alas, the team behind the project doesn't plan to turn Watt-sun into an actual product -- here's hoping they change their minds.

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Solar Roadways wants $1 million to turn the US' roads into an energy farm

At some point, you've probably sat back and said "Couldn't we solve climate change and the broader energy crisis just by sticking solar panels to everything?" It's not a bad idea, mind, but the cost and resistance to such a scheme would make it a nightmare to implement. But what about if we turned the nation's highways into solar farms that we could drive along? Scott and Julie Brusaw have been working on that idea, and after a decade of partially-successful flirting with the US Government, they're taking to Indiegogo to ask us to fund the next phase of their solar roadway.

Each interlocking hexagonal segment is covered with toughened and textured glass that's capable of withstanding 250,000 pounds. Beneath that, you've got a solar panel, a series of LED lights and a heating element that'll keep the ice and snow off the hardware in winter. The lights are used to replace conventional traffic lights, offering constantly updating safety warnings and guide lines that can adapt to traffic conditions on the fly.

The system would require a trench running down one side, which would hold the power cables, but could also be used as the backbone for a potential new high-speed data network. As each panel would also be connected, it'd instantly report a fault back to a maintenance engineer, and also track its location, should someone decide to steal one for their own nefarious uses.

Naturally, a nationwide, decentralized power grid could potentially guarantee energy independence and provide near-limitless power for our EVs and homes. That's why the couple is asking for a whopping $1 million required to hire the materials scientists, civil and structural engineers necessary to turn the panels from neat idea to workable project. There are plenty of pitfalls, and we're wondering if heating the ground to keep the roadway clear wouldn't in itself cause more climate change, but hopefully that's another issue that your cash could fix.

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Via: Fast Company

Source: Indiegogo

Tags: Climate Change, Environment, Indiegogo, Julie Brusaw, Scott Brusaw, Solar Highways Next: The Engadget Podcast is live at 12PM ET! .fyre .fyre-comment-divider

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