Core77 featured an enthusiastic review of Tensile Solar on their website last Friday. The editorial team at Core has long followed SMIT’s work, beginning with GROW and Solar Ivy. This most recent article highlights the potential of Tensile Solar to create large structures that offer shade and solar power.

The post was quickly picked up by other like-minded publications including Inhabitat and Solar Feeds.

Special thanks to Phaedra Riley, LinYee Yuan and Core77 for their support!

Funding has been approved through the University’s Sustainable Campus Initiative to install Solar Ivy on the south-facing facade of the Orson Spencer Hall building.

Each year Utah’s Campus Sustainability Initiative Fund takes proposal submissions from students for projects that can help reduce the University’s dependence on fossil fuels.  Tom Melburn, a student from the university, reached out to SMIT in January to explore the possibility of developing a proposal to install Solar Ivy on one of their buildings.  The proposal was accepted on April 15.

The Campus Sustainability Initiative Fund and the University’s Office of Sustainability will collaborate with SMIT on the installation at Orson Spencer Hall, above.  Check back in here to see how the project progresses.  We will be sure to provide updates as we reach major milestones.

SMIT is excited to be working with Science World Vancouver to develop an innovative new exhibit space.

Science World Vancouver opened to the public in 1990.  For the most recent renovation and expansion of the museum’s facilities they are building a new structure to house a Rube Goldberg machine and exhibit.

The engineers behind the project reached out to SMIT to express interest in cladding the facade of that building with Solar Ivy.  Since then SMIT has worked with the museum’s team to develop a design for an application of Solar Ivy that will provide power to the space enclosed within the tower.

Check back in to see how the project advances over the coming months!

SMIT is very pleased to announce that Solar Ivy will be installed at the Environment Museum of the Montreal Biosphere!

The Montreal Biosphere’s Environment Museum is housed in a Buckminster Fuller dome originally constructed for the 1967 World’s Fair.  The museum presents exhibitions and installations focusing on issues related to conservation, biodiversity and sustainability and is an important environmental education institution.

The installation of Solar Ivy will add diversity to the museum’s platform of educational exhibits and features around renewable energy.  Solar Ivy was selected for its unique aesthetic and analysis-driven design.  Solar Ivy will challenge visitors’ preconceptions of how solar panels look and the spaces they occupy.

SMIT is excited by the opportunity this installation presents: to engage larger communities in conversations about renewable energy technology and the role it plays in our lives and societies.

Stay tuned for images of the final installation!

DSIRE is a project administered by the University of North Carolina and the Interstate Energy Council.  It is a comprehensive database of incentives from federal, state and local authorities as well as utility providers across the United States.  From grants and loans for financing clean energy projects to rebates and tax incentives, DSIRE is a regularly updated source for information about programs new and old as well as rules, regulations and policies for applying.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) developed the PVWatts map and calculator tools to give non-experts access to solar radiation data and estimates for grid-tied photovoltaic systems in the 48 contiguous U.S. states, Alaska and Hawaii.  Users click on the map or type in an address to display the amount of sunlight that falls on a square meter at that location over the course of a year, as well as the local cost of electricity.  After identifying a location the user can export the data to the PVWatts Cost Savings Calculator.

The Calculator takes a PV system size, the cost of electricity and the location’s exposure to solar radiation to calculate system efficiency, monthly and yearly cost savings.

Our friend and fellow NCIIA E-Team grant recipient Eben Bayer has an excellent video up on TED.  Eben and his team at Ecovative have been developing a system for the generation of a moldable and durable material from mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms.  Their process yields everything from packing material to bricks to insulation, the best part of which being that they can composted at the end of their use.

Sourcemap is a project from MIT postdoc Leo Bonanni that proposes a “crowd–sourced approach to resource accounting through the democratization of sustainable design.”  Visit the site to track user–created supply chains for the troubled Boeing 787 Dreamliner, iPhone 3GS or a bottle of water.

As a company that sources components and manufacturing facilities locally, we at SMIT are particularly excited about Sourcemap’s mission.  It has the potential to allow consumers and designers alike to measuring the environmental environmental impact of diverse products and processes and put a face to the name of “sustainability.”

On December 22, 2009 they returned to SMIT’s offices for another video segment on SMIT’s “fashionable” solar panels.

April 2009, Leeser Architecture’s competition-winning designfor a five-star hotel in Zayed Bay, Abu Dhabi includes GROW as a key facade feature.(image via bustler)