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inhabitat

Meet Squid: Key West’s solar-powered boat for dolphin tours

Visitors who want to see the 200 wild bottlenose dolphins that live around the lower Florida Keys now have a more eco-friendly option. Squid, the first lithium ion battery-powered hybrid charter boat with electric motors, takes visitors on four-hour dolphin watching and snorkeling tours. The solar-powered boat’s electricity stores can be recharged at shore, via solar panels or, when necessary, with a diesel generator.

The amount of energy Squid consumes varies day to day, depending on the location of the dolphins. Sometimes the bottlenoses are close to shore and easy to find. Other days, they’re farther away. Even on the longest journey, when Squid enlists its generator, the boat only burns 3 gallons of diesel fuel per trip, or about one quarter gallon of fossil fuel per guest. The previous dolphin watching boat consumed about 2.3 gallons per person.

Forbes

Rugged Solar Panels Power Up Search And Rescue Missions

Save the earth or rescue injured and lost hikers. Which would you choose? Fortunately, you don't have to. A startup called Sunflare has introduced tough rooftop solar that's being used by a search and rescue operation in Washington state. The panels have been mounted to an ex-Swiss Army Pinzgauer vehicle, powering a load of electronics that were formerly powered by the vehicle's gasoline engine.

Solar Novus Today

Squid Boat Harnesses the Power of the Sun Reducing Ocean Impact of Tours

Deep in the light blue waters of Key West, Florida (US) Honest Eco’s founding captain, Billy Litmer, says their dolphin watching tours help their guests “understand and interact with wildlife from a curious yet courteous proximity.”

In creating his eco touring company, Billy invested in everything he needed to guarantee an unforgettable experience for his guests--knowledge, custom boats, and quality gear. Sunflare’s light, thin, flexible and rugged solar panels are a part of the quality gear that makes Honest Eco successful and sustainable.

Diy network

Building Off the Grid: Hawaiian Hideaway

Innovative designer and builder Graham Hill sets out to transform a steep Maui jungle plot into a 600-square-foot, hi-tech dream home with multiple moving walls and other space-maximizing features.

Products for Residential Construction Professionals

Sunflare Develops Prototype For New Residential Solar Shingles

Solar company Sunflare will reveal the prototype for its solar thin-film residential roof shingle at the 2018 Solar Power International show later this month.

The new shingles, made of CIGS solar cells covered in light weight polymer sheets, will feature snap-together electrical connectors and 100 percent waterproofing. They will be able to be installed using standard roofing methods, the company says.

EnergySage

Sunflare Company and Product Overview

There are many property owners who hesitate in installing solar because of how the panels will look on their roof, or because they worry about possibly damaging their roof during installation. Sunflare, a California-based manufacturing company, creates innovative products that help overcome these obstacles.

Sunflare has been in the business of photovoltaic (PV) design and manufacturing since 2009. The company is headquartered in the U.S., but also has offices in Sweden and China.

Sunflare offers a variety of PV products – from parking retrofit systems to semi-rigid products for large-scale ground mount installations. But perhaps their most popular product is their flexible solar panels that are designed for rooftop installations. These panels stick to roofs without any mounting hardware or roof penetration. The technology has an industrial-strength glue that will secure it to a variety of roofing materials, including rubber membrane and metal.

Clean Technica

Sunflare’s Lightweight Solar Lets Solar Go Where It Couldn’t Go Before #SPI2018

One of the most exciting companies we found at the 2018 Solar Power International show in Anaheim this year was Sunflare and its line of flexible CIGS solar panels.

CleanTechnica sat down with Sunflare’s Chief Marketing Officer, Elizabeth Sanderson, and its Vice President of Commercial Business Development, Joshua Held, to chat about their world debut at SPI. “This is our launch to the world, at this show,” Joshua said.

Sunflare may have made its world debut at SPI this year, but is is by no means new to solar. The company has been working on the design of its cells and products for 9 years now and only started actually producing the cells at meaningful volumes last year.

Daily Beast

Off the Grid Doesn’t Have to Mean Being Off Society

When it comes to water and power, “we’re literally getting it from the sky,” says Hill. That concept is certainly not new, but it’s strange to see it reconciled for a building that’s so adjacent to modern life. The solar panels, designed and installed by Sunflare, don’t look like your average photovoltaics propped up on the roof. “Typical solar panels always appear like this alien thing glommed on to your roof,” he says. “They just don’t look good.” Sunflare’s 10 kilowatt setup, he argues, is quite seamlessly fitted into the roof, and looks more or less like a flat fixture of the jet-black roof rather than an add-on component.