off grid electric

Four Swiss universities came together to build the US Department of Energy’s 2017 Solar Decathlon overall winner. Eleven teams competed over the course of two years to build a home taking into account modern global demands of “reliability, resilience, and security.”

The Swiss schools – École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, School of Engineering and Architecture Fribourg, Geneva University of Art and Design, and the University of Fribourg – scored perfect 100’s in energy, architecture and engineering categories.

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Tomorrow, Tesla and SolarCity shareholders will vote on the merger of the two companies. While it’s not exactly a done deal, everything points to the merger going through after major institutional shareholders voiced their supports and CEO Elon Musk disclosed that early votes were “overwhelmingly” in favor.

Tesla’s CEO recently mentioned that the combination of energy storage and solar energy will enable developing nations to leapfrog the fossil fuel era and go directly to renewable energy.

The comment is particularly interesting if you consider that through its acquisition of SolarCity, Tesla is acquiring shares in a company that is trying to attempt exactly what Musk was describing. Expand
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On Thursday, Off Grid Electric announced that it had raised US$25 million in a series C round led by the venture capital firm DBL Partners. Previous investors in the company SolarCity, Microsoft co-Founder Paul Allen and eBay Founder Pierre Omidyar’s fund Omidyar Network joined DBL in the financing round. Off Grid Electric, which also advertises under its M-Power brand, offers solar energy as a service in Africa, starting with Tanzania and recently in Rwanda. Expand
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