Solar power technology companies Tesla, Houston-based Sunnova, and German company Sonnen have committed to providing relief to Puerto Rico by sending energy storage products to the island, which has been without power since Hurricane Maria made landfall on Sept. 20. Both Tesla and Sunnova are sending their respective solar power battery systems while Sonnen is installing microgrid systems at emergency relief centers. [ARCHITECT]
Located in London's financial district, media company Bloomberg's European headquarters has been named the world's most sustainable office, according to a press release by project architect Foster + Partners. This new designation is based on the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), a sustainability rating system founded in the U.K. that "evaluates the procurement, design, construction, and operation of a development against targets that are based on performance benchmarks," according to the BREEAM website. [ARCHITECT]
Philadelphia is now the home to the world's first indoor, solar-powered vertical farm, according to farming tech company Metropolis Farms. The company installed more than 100,000 square feet of solar panels on the roof of a local building that will power an indoor farm located on the fourth floor of the structure. The farm is expected to grow the equivalent of 660 acres worth of crops annually. [Metropolis Farms]
This week, Snapchat launched a new augmented reality (AR) art platform that enables users to see installations pinned to specific locations through their smartphones. Using a GPS-enabled filter, the app can point visitors toward the virtual location of the artwork and depicts the installation to scale. The company launched the platform featuring nine sculptures by artist Jeff Koons around the world and is seeking more collaborations. [Techcrunch]
A group of students from Virginia Tech will be the only U.S. team to compete at the 2018 Solar Decathlon Middle East in Dubai, a competition with the goal of building the world's best net-positive energy house. [ARCHITECT]
Researchers at MIT used computer modeling to simulate the atomic structure of concrete, leading to critical understandings of the material's strength. They hope that this technology could soon be utilized to create stronger, more sustainable composite materials in the future. [MIT]
