Tag: SOLAR

The Web is teeming with the unrealized ideas of both students and established designers who set out to produce astonishing renderings and prototypes for unusual products. Unfortunately, due to the lack of time, money, or technology, many of those products never progress from the planning stages to the mass market. But that doesn't mean we can't salivate over them, nevertheless. As you unwrap ...

Acting on an impulse familiar to many young people these days, Dai Haifei, a 24-year-old architect in Beijing, said to hell with high rents, and built himself a house. The six-foot-tall, solar-powered, egg-shaped abode is made of bamboo, wood and grass seed, and fits easily on a sidewalk. "The seeds will grow in the natural environment and it's cold-proof," Dai told China Daily. He then added ...

After years of work, an MIT scientist has perfected a cheap way to convert and store clean energy using sunlight and water -- much as a plant does during photosynthesis. According to Fast Company, professor Daniel Nocera used solar power captured during the day to split a water molecule into its basic elements -- oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen gas is stored in a fuel cell, which is used to ...

Haidar Taleb, a resident of the United Arab Emirates, embarks on a 200-mile wheelchair road trip this week, and he plans to completely fuel the journey with solar power. Taleb's mission, which will take him through all seven Emirates, is to reportedly "raise awareness of disability and sustainability as well as what we can achieve as individuals if we have the courage and determination to try." ...

Solar power continues to gain traction as a viable energy source. Although the expensive technology still seems out of reach for most consumers, Logitech is installing the increasingly popular panels on a mainstream product. The company's new Wireless Solar Keyboard K750 sports a thin, one-third-inch profile, a series of ambient light solar panels (which can reportedly charge even indoors) and ...

Scott Brusaw believes he may have discovered an efficient method of covering and restoring damaged roads, and his revolutionary surface material could even adapt to changing traffic conditions. The system would also generate serious revenue, and -- most significantly -- power. Brusaw's plan involves blanketing streets and highways with solar panels. According to Wired, "a cul-de-sac paved with ...

It's easy to talk about the benefits of 'green' power, but the bottom line is that the method has to be affordable before people will use it. According to Physorg, a study conducted at Duke University claims that solar power in North Carolina has now become more cost-efficient than nuclear power. Earlier this year, the cost of producing one kilowatt hour (kWh) of solar power dropped to 16 ...

The Solar Impulse is one of the most ambitious projects we've ever seen. The ultimate goal is to fly a solar-powered plane around the world, relying for power solely on the rays of the sun. That might still be a ways off, but the Impulse took to the sky Wednesday morning with an intermediary goal: to survive 24 hours aloft in the night sky (read: often with no sun) without plummeting to the ...

We've already told you that the world's largest airship, called the Bullet 580, will depart on its maiden voyage later this year. Now, according to Inhabitat, the world's first solar-powered blimp is set to take flight over the English Channel as early as next week. The helium-filled Nephelios, which measures 72-feet long and 18-feet wide, is covered with a strip of semi-flexible solar cells. ...

Kudos to LG Electronics for creating the Most Obvious Product That No One's Ever Made. With all these new-fangled concepts coming out for solar-powered cellphone chargers and drink coasters and what-have-you, it makes the most sense to craft an eco-friendly device that performs the best in high-sun seasons and whose traditional counterparts are electrical siphons of the worst sort. We present to ...

A new solar light bulb could be a safer and more affordable lighting option for people who live in developing nations. According to CNET News, the Nokero N100 solar LED bulb can provide up to four hours of light on a single charge -- making it the world's first solar-powered light bulb. The N100 is about the size of your average incandescent bulb, but the green plastic housing holds four solar ...

A new line of 'green' windows could change the way architects design buildings and houses. According to Engadget, Hua Qin recently unveiled its Chin Hua solar glass window at Taipei's International Optoelectronics Week. The slightly opaque window shown in the picture above can generate about 2 watts of clean energy, which is apparently enough to power a mini-fan. But depending on how opaque you ...

digg_url ='http://www.switched.com/2010/06/04/rafael-lozano-hemmers-solar-equation-brings-out-the-sun-at-ni/'; As part of the 'Light in Winter' Festival in Melbourne Australia, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer has created one of his largest projects ever: a three-dimensional, animated scale model of the Sun, tethered in the sky above Federation Square, called 'Solar Equation.' Lozano-Hemmer employs a ...

Scientists at the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Research Center have successfully developed the first solar cells printed on paper, using a process similar to inkjet printing. Organic semiconductors in the form of carbon-based dyes were applied to paper, resulting in a solar cell with a 1.5- to 2-percent sunlight conversion efficiency rate. (Current thin-film solar cells have achieved record efficiency ...

The Swiss architecture firm RAFAA must have been inspired by its Danish-Icelandic neighbor Olafur Eliasson when dreaming up this proposal for Rio de Janeiro. The Brazilian city was recently selected to host the 2016 Olympics, and RAFAA submitted this enormous sun-powered waterfall, called Solar City Tower, to the Games' International Architecture Competition. While Eliasson's $15.5 million public ...