May the Roof Tiles above You Change Color

A bit of technological and design brilliance emanated from a group of MIT grads last week, in the form of color-changing roof tiles. The tiles, made of polymers commonly found in hair gels, turn white when hot (to reflect the sun) and black when cold (to absorb the sun).

So on a scorcher of summer day, when you'd normally have the AC's cranking, the tiles turn white and help a home to stay cool from the outside-in. In the winter, when the air outside is frigid, they change back to black and absorb all the energy and heat they can from the sun's rays.

Mentioning "scorcher of a summer day" above made me think of how blazingly hot the blacktop in beach parking lots get in the summer. What about the roads? They are a mass of reflective gold that does nothing but bake all day in the sun. As usual, science is waaaay ahead of me: the Solar Roadways project.

Update: FIsker gets Big Loan

In an update to a story posted here last Thursday, the Department of Energy announced Tuesday that it will loan Fisker Automotive over a half billion dollars (!!!) for the development of their two lines of hybrid cars.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu states that the move will help lower greenhouse gas emissions and save/create 5,000 jobs (read the DOE's statement here). This piggybacks on a similar announcement around Telsa Motors electric sedan launch slated for 2011, and seems to be proving that Obama's team is walking the walk.

It's an Electric...Boogie Woogie Woogie

What's under the cover, you ask? A prototype of Fisker Automotive's new electric luxury roadster. The Karma S, as it's called, was introduced to the public at the AlwaysOn Going Green conference, and is designed to go 50 miles on it's batteries (with a liquid-fuel based generator on board). It will cost around $80,000.

The Karma might not have been the most noteworthy news at the Fisker booth, though; an investor let slip that the company plans to develop and release a $39,000 version of thier plug-in hybrid by 2012.