Pilot Andre Borschberg landed the Solar Impulse at Payerne airfield about 30 miles southwest of the Swiss capital Bern last Thursday.

The engineering team behind this project said it had now proven that the single-seat plane can theoretically stay in the air indefinitely, recharging its used-up batteries using 12,000 solar cells and the rays of the sun while the sun is shining on it.

The patent shows that the solar cells would charge the rechargeable battery, which will run the media player or the battery can run the media player directly.

Great news, Mr. Jobs!

The Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation of the Sun (IKAROS) satellite uses a special 66-foot sail made of thin-film solar technology that will allow the ship to use pressure as a form of propulsion, and that will be created by the reflection of sunlight off the sails. The satellite craft will also be fitted with solar cells to generate electricity.

IKAROS will launch from Tanegashima Space Center on May 18, according to JAXA.

The 10 megawatts solar farm will be able to magnify sunlight on a solar cell by up to 1500 times, nearly three times of what conventional systems are capable of. IBM will use a “liquid metal thermal interface” to cope with the heat generated and to keep the system running.

Development on the nanomembrane desalination technology and the UHCPV technology was done by scientists at the IBM Research labs in New York and California, and the KACST/IBM Nanotechnology Center of Excellence in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia, which claims to be largest producer of desalinated water in the world, already had several desalination projects under way through KACST. The goal, however, is not simply to provide a source of drinking water but to create an exportable industry around water purification technology.

While the flight only lasted 87 minutes, Solar Impulse was designed to be able to fly around the world without stopping and simply relying on solar power. With its array of 12,000 solar panel cells it took the skies and hit an altitude of 4,000 feet.

The founder of Solar Impulse, Bertrand Picard, felt the solar plane test to be a crucial step in his goals of circumnavigating by air on solar power.
“This first mission was the most risky phase of the entire project,” Piccard said.  “Eighty-seven minutes of intense emotion after seven years of research, testing and perseverance. Never has an airplane as large and light ever flown before!”

Not exactly a sound barrier breaking airplane, the Solar Impulse  runs on four 10-hp electric motors and has a cruise speed of about 40 to 50 miles per hour.

Next up for the Solar Impulse team is night flight testing later this year where they will try and fly longer by trading altitude for airspeed boosted by battery power. The circumvavigation flight is planned for sometime in 2012.

Salaheddine Mezouar, Morocco’s Finance Minister, said, “The project sends a very clear message in the current situation, which is dominated by the need to face up to the challenges of climate change.”

“Morocco is determined to protect the environment in all its future projects,” he said.

Morocco is hoping to cut its dependence on foreign oil and gas imports.

The SunReports solar power assessment tool is both a piece of hardware that you run your solar panels or solar hot water tank through, as well as web software for calculating and tracking the data.

Preliminary tests that the data collectors have been put through showed that several of the hot water systems were configured incorrectly and were operating at night and wasting energy.

The main customers for SunReports will be solar panel installers who will be able include the system as part of an installation package for home owners and small businesses with the estimated cost coming in for “hundreds of dollars” for a five to ten year contract.

SunReports has recently stated that they expect to start making hundreds of thousands of their data collectors this year.

The vessel will be able to achieve a top speed of around 15 knots, equivalent to 15 miles per hour, and can accommodate 50 people on its round-the-world voyage, its Swiss-based builders say. The boat is topped by 5,380 square feet of solar panels, with a bright white cockpit sticking up in the center.

Constructed at the Knierim Yacht Club in Kiel in northern Germany, its design also means it will be able to slice smoothly through the waves even in rough seas w.

PlanetSolar will be launched in late March before starring at Hamburg port’s 821st anniversary celebrations in May and undergoing testing between June and September. The world tour will then start in April 2011.

The electronics company will invest 1.07 billion dollars by early 2016 to increase production of Sanyo’s ‘HIT’, one of the world’s most efficient solar cells. Panasonic aims to become one of the world’s top three solar cell makers within about six years.