Back in early August, we saw the first photos of Apple’s new 171-acre solar array (capable of generating 84 million kWh of energy annually). It was impressive then – but these new shots courtesy of North Carolina’s TV Station WCNC-TV and GigaOm – show just how expansive the farm is growing.

When finished sometime later this year, the array (along with a 4.8 megawatts biogas fuel cell plant from of Bloom Energy) will supply some 60% of the power consumed by the data center. Another 40% will reportedly be sourced from renewable sources, such as wind.

Jump over to GigaOm for some additional closeup shots of the new array.

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The $30M project, spearheaded by Phoenix Solar, will cover 65-acres just north of the German company’s assembly plant at Enterprise South industrial park in Tennessee. When it comes online later this fall, it will be the largest solar park in the state.

Thilo Brockhaus, VW Manager of Plant Construction told news station WDEF, “The solar installation can produce 9.58 megawatts DC, which is 7.6 megawatt AC. That provides you with 13.1 gigawatt hours annual power. You could power 1,200 house holds with that per year.”

Brockhaus added that the solar array will cover roughly 12.5% of the plant’s energy needs. It’s the final onsite renewable energy component of Volkswagen’s platinum LEED certification for the plant. Check out video of the new install below.

Photo credit: WDEF

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The project will result in the development of a solid oxide fuel cell generator, integrated with solar panels, and capable of being 30%-50% more efficient than current diesel generators.

“Lockheed Martin shares the U.S. Department of Defense’s top goals of increasing the safety of our troops and reducing operational costs,” said Dan Heller, vice president of new ventures for Lockheed Martin Mission Systems & Sensors. “Alternative energy solutions, such as the fuel cell we are developing for the Office of Naval Research, can help mitigate these challenges, advancing the strength and flexibility of our military operating in some of the world’s toughest conditions.”

In 2009 alone, the military consumed some 375,000 barrels of oil per day, more than three-quarters of all other countries on the planet. To put that in perspective, Nigeria—with a population of more than 140 million—consumes about the same amount. There are currently over 100,000 military generators in place around the world, so shifting to a more efficient means of electricity generation would certainly have an impact; especially on lives saved. Eighty percent of the supply convoys in Iraq and Afghanistan are fuel trucks—with over 3,000 American soldiers and contractors killed in attacks associated with fuel delivery between 2003 and 2007.

In the spring of 2011, Lockheed Martin successfully completed a major test using the military’s standard diesel fuel (JP-8) to run a fuel cell generator for over 1,000 hours.

“This milestone brings us closer to fielding military fuel-cell generators, which could provide the military a safer, less expensive alternative to conventional power generators,” said Steve Sinsabaugh, Lockheed Martin fuel-cell manager.

The $3M project to create a battlefield-ready fuel cell generator is expected to take 32 months.

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The tech company has declared that the new installation will run on 100% renewables (60% on-site) by the end of the year. This will be achieved with a 171-acre solar array (capable of generating 84 million kWh of energy annually), a 4.8 megawatts biogas fuel cell plant courtesy of Bloom Energy, and likely a hearty helping of clean energy credits.

The US Green Building Council has already given the main datacenter LEED Platinum certification – the highest tier of the council’s rating system for environmentally friendly buildings.

You can check out the full gallery of photos from Wired’s spy plane here. 

Photo: Garrett Fisher/Wired

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Scientists studying sediment cores discovered fossilized pollen that could only have come from a “near-tropical” forest covering the continent in the Eocene period, 34-56 million years ago. According to Australian scientist Kevin Walsh, analysis of “temperature-sensitive molecules” contained in the pollen showed the average temperature be near 68 degrees F.

There were forests existing on the land, there wouldn’t have been any ice, it would have been very warm,” Welsh told AFP of the study, published in the journal Nature. ”It’s quite surprising, because obviously our image of Antarctica is that it’s very cold and full of ice.”

Today, the average temperature of Antarctica is roughly -58 degrees F. Scientists say that during the Eocene period, even with polar darkness, the Antarctica region remained frost-free.

Also on Revmodo: 7 deserts that used to be verdant fields and forests

During this warm period, estimates are that carbon dioxide levels reached between 992 to a couple thousand parts per million in Antarctica. CO2 levels today are estimated to be at about 395 ppm on the continent.

“Our work carries a sobering message,” Dr James Bendle, one of the authors of the study, told The Independent. “Carbon dioxide levels are rising rapidly through human combustion of fossil fuels and deforestation.

“Atmospherically speaking we are heading rapidly back in time towards the Eocene.”

The authors concluded that, without drastic changes,  carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere last seen during the Eocene could be reached again in only a few hundred years.

“We haven’t reached Eocene levels yet but we are increasing at a rate faster than any time in Earth’s history,” said Bendle.

Photo credit: Shutterstock.com

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Like others in the green space, I was skeptical back in 2008 when the giant retail chain that everyone loved to hate announced that they were embracing renewable energy solutions. The first five stores were a nice start – but not many of us conceived that the company might make a truly laudable effort to diversify its energy consumption.

Four years later, and over 150 U.S. solar projects later, they’re now the retail leader in renewable energy – beating out other big names such as Apple and Ikea. By year’s end, they hope to have as much as 90 megawatts of capacity in place.

At the unveiling of the 100th California location to have solar installed, Kimberly Sentovich, Senior Vice President of the Pacific Division for Walmart, said sustainability is about living better.

“By using one of California’s greatest resources – sunshine – and employing renewable technology with our California-based partners, we will continue developing solutions that are both good for the environment and good for business.”

According to a report by Businessweek, Wal-Mart is adding an additional 100 solar-powered locations in 2012. They hope to have as many as 1,000 online by 2020. “We are trying to show folks that you can not only pursue these sustainability initiatives, they also make business sense,” Marty Gilbert, director of energy at Wal-Mart, told the site.

In addition to solar, the company also has 26 fuel-cell projects and a 1.1MW wind turbine store coming online in Red Bluff, California next month.

Photo credit: Wal-Mart

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Newly released photos taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter confirm that all but one of the flags is still firmly planted on the moon.

“From the LROC images it is now certain that the American flags are still standing and casting shadows at all of the sites, except Apollo 11,” writes LROC principal investigator Mark Robinson. “Astronaut Buzz Aldrin reported that the flag was blown over by the exhaust from the ascent engine during liftoff of Apollo 11, and it looks like he was correct!”

Robinson, who says the fate of the flags was one of the more common questions received, adds that he was surprised they survived the “harsh ultraviolet light and temperatures of the lunar surface.” In a previous 2011 interview with Space.com, he had severe doubts there would be anything left.

“You know how [if] you leave a flag out over summer, how it starts to fade,” he said. “Now, imagine the extreme UV environment on the moon, and the hot and cold cycling, and it’s been 40 years — so if the flags are still there, they’re probably in pretty rough shape.”

According to Robert Pearlman, an expert on space history and collectibles, and editor of collectSPACE.com, NASA did absolutely nothing to the nylon flags to ensure their long-term survival. “We didn’t design a special American flag to go to the moon to last thousands of years. They literally sent out a secretary to the nearby Sears and bought an off-the-shelf flag and modified it. The natural disintegration of the flag’s material in the harsh conditions on the moon’s surface is to be expected.”

Before Sears’ marketing crew starts advertising their flags as “moon durable”, it should be noted that the colors are likely long gone.

“Even on Earth, the colors of a cloth flag flown in bright sunlight for many years will eventually fade and need to be replaced,” Air and Space Magazine reported last summer. “So it is likely that these symbols of American achievement have been rendered blank, bleached white by the UV radiation of unfiltered sunlight on the lunar surface.”

More details/videos on the moon flags can be found here.

Top photo credit: LROC

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A 2012 survey found that the UK’s night skies are saturated with light pollution, with just 2% of participants able to see 31 or more stars on a clear night. 53% reported seeing 10 stars or fewer within the major constellation of Orion. As the BBC reported earlier this year, only 1/10 of the country today has access to truly dark skies; compared to the 1950s, when nearly everyone could see the now-elusive Milky Way.

“When we saturate the night sky with unnecessary light, it damages the character of the countryside and blurs the distinction between town and country,” said Emma Marrington, rural policy campaigner for the organization Campaign to Protect Rural England.

“But this isn’t just about a spectacular view of stars; light pollution can also disrupt wildlife and affect people’s sleeping patterns.”

Indeed, as we reported earlier this week, a new study recently linked urban light pollution with an increase in major depressive disorder.

While the UK does have some minor light pollution legislation, critics content that one only need try and count starts to see that it’s not effective.

“Light pollution is a disaster for anyone trying to study the stars,” Bob Mizon of the Campaign for Dark Skies told the Press Association. ”It’s like a veil of light is being drawn across the night sky, denying many people the beauty of a truly starry night. Many children growing up today will never see the Milky Way; never see the unimaginable glory of billions of visible stars shining above them.”

To read more about the organizations and people fighting to improve the nighttime skies above the UK, jump here. To conclude, I leave you with this quote:

“Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course… We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead the stars come out every night, and we watch television.” — Paul Hawken

Photo credit: Light pollution in the UK taken on March 27, 2012 by the NASA Earth Observatory; image by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon with annotations by Phys.org

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This reveal comes courtesy of a new study published in Molecular Psychiatry that links light pollution with an increase in major depressive disorder. Researchers used female hamsters (since females, both rodent and human, are more likely to suffer from depression) and exposed them to different sources of bright and dim lights; with the latter typical of light pollution found in urban areas.

After four weeks of this exposure, the hamsters were producing more TNF – a protein secreted in response to injury or inflammation. Released consistently, that alone could play a role in increased risk for depression. The researchers also noted that melatonin, a powerful antioxidant and “synchronizer” of our biological clocks, was suppressed.

“The results we found in hamsters are consistent with what we know about depression in humans,” Tracy Bedrosian, the first author the on the new study, told reporters.

The good news is that by simply minimizing the amount of dim light at night, the hamsters biological functions returned to normal levels. So turning off that iPad, television, or bright light above your head a bit earlier could help. For urban dwellers, light-block curtains might also help.

The researchers found that 8 full hours of darkness daily appeared to do the trick.

You can read the full study here – preferably during the daytime hours.

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Well, maybe. And no, they’re nothing like the sexy, superhero ones featured in the X-Men films. They’re actually just some sterile mosquitoes designed to help curb population control – but the idea has people upset nonetheless.

Here’s what’s happening: Key West’s “Mosquito Control Board” (whose existence only reinforces my resolve never to move to Florida) spends $1 million tax dollars a year on eradication efforts. Naturally, people hate mosquitoes, but the efforts are also to keep the potentially-fatal dengue virus in check; which is spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. About 20 percent of the homes in Key West have dengue carrying mosquitoes, says Reuters. And the potential for that number to increase is only growing.

Currently, the MCB uses trucks and helicopters to spray insecticides that can reduce mosquito populations. But it’s costly, time-intensive, not exactly healthy for animals or the environment, and apparently isn’t as effective at killing the Aedes aegypti mosquito as other species.

Enter the ominous-sounding British biotechnology company Oxitec Ltd. Their idea is to introduce gradually sterile males into the mosquito population to mate with females and reduce the overall birth rate. The company recently added a new factory in Brazil capable of producing more than 4 million of the sterile mosquitoes per week.

“If we upset the balance so there are more males that are sterile than their fertile equivalent, then the female has more chance of mating with one of ours,” Oxitec CEO Haydn Parry told Reuters. “We call it birth control for insects.”

Indeed, at a conference last year, Oxitec announced that it had recorded a population drop of 80% of Aedes aegypti during tests on the Cayman Islands.

Still, residents of Key West are concerned that they’re involved in some kind of Resident Evil-style plot to experiment on them and create a population of genetically-modified, blood-sucking mosquito people.

“Have there been studies of what can happen if someone is bit by one of these mosquitoes?” Key West realtor Mila de Mier exclaimed to Reuters. “Are we the subjects, the guinea pigs of this experiment?”

Thankfully, male mosquitoes do not bite – yet.

The FDA is currently reviewing the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District’s request to use the mutant mosquitoes.

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