Sacramento Energy Plant LEED Certified; Smaller, Cheaper Solar Chargers; Tesla Model S to Get Gigantic Battery Pack; Fluor To Design Solar Power Plant; Picnic Plus Cooladio Solar Cooler

Sacramento Energy Plant LEED Certified. A power plant that provides heating and cooling to California state government buildings has become the largest of its kind to become certified gold under the LEED program, organizers said.

Smaller, Cheaper Solar Chargers. Look how small this thing is. It’s a mere 2.5 x 1 inches, about the size of a book of matches. This Cyrus USB SunDrive Solar Charger might be a good gadget to have on you just in case you need to charge up that cellphone or music player while wandering through the wilderness.

Tesla Model S to Get Gigantic Battery Pack. Tesla Motors says its all-electric Model S sport sedan will join the Roadster in late 2011 and be sold initially with battery packs offering 165 and 230 miles of range. But Tesla has also said that the $57,400 base-price car (which is eligible for a $7,500 federal tax credit) would have a third option a year after launch: a battery pack that will give it an impressive range of 300 miles between charges. But just how big would that pack have to be?

Fluor To Design Solar Power Plant. Fluor Corp. said Tuesday it won an engineering contract to design a solar power plant for eSolar Inc. Irving-based Fluor said it would begin work immediately and study improvements in performance and cost of plants. The company wants to come up with a design package for Pasadena, Calif.-based eSolar that could be used by developers worldwide.

Picnic Plus Cooladio Solar Cooler. This Picnic Plus Cooladio Solar Cooler can keep your food and drinks nice and cool, just like you would with your average cooler. Then you can hook up your cellphone or MP3 player to the solar panel and get it all charged up. Pretty sweet idea for the beach!