HOME |
RSS | 
Engineers at MIT have been busy creating all sorts of solar powered fun, but their latest innovation promises to make the solar panel manufacturing process easier than ever before. They have discovered a process in which solar panels can be printed on an average sheet of paper, and what’s more this solar cell is foldable, bendable and manufactured with a simpler vapor deposition process, a process MIT brains claim most manufacturing facilities can handle with ease. Read more about this fascinating development over at PopSci,
A lot of people are trying to be more green these days by installing solar panels on the roofs of their homes and businesses. However the ultimate solar panel installation may be on the moon.
Shimizu Corporation construction firm’s research branch, CSP, unveiled a long-term planning project to install a belt of photovoltaic panels across the surface of the Moon. Power gathered from the 13,000 terawatts of continuous solar energy the Moon’s surface receives daily would be beamed back to an Earth-based receiving station via microwave or laser transmission, where it would then be used to power public offices, hospitals and schools across the globe.
The exoskeleton of the oriental hornet is a solar collector and generator that converts sunlight into electricity! A team led by Marian Plotkin of Tel-Aviv University discovered the wasp’s power plant properties, but don’t know why the insects produce electricity.
Their research revealed that pigments in the hornet’s yellow tissues trap light, while its brown tissues generate electricity. Exactly how the hornets use this electricity is still not entirely understood, Plotkin noted.
“When I was running my experiment, people told me it was never going to work,” she said. “I’m so happy at the results.”
While solar cells using human-made substances are usually 10 to 11 percent efficient at generating electricity, the hornet’s cells are only 0.335 percent efficient. For instance, the hornet still gets the vast majority of its energy from food.
Link -Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!
(Image credit: Blickwinkel, Alamy)
Comments Off
Terry Hope was presented with a challenge. He was working aboard an 88-foot sailboat and the captain would not let him bring a standard electric scooter on board. The only way he could have one is if it were to fit into a suitcase, and it had to be rechargeable off the grid. So he developed the Hybrid Electric Kinetic Photovoltaic Vehicle you see here! The battery is recharged with both solar and kinetic power -and it folds up. Get the specs at his website. Link -Thanks, Terry!
Haidar Taleb, a man from the United Arab Emirates, plans to travel 200 miles across a desert in a solar-powered wheelchair that he designed and built himself. If he succeeds, it’ll be the longest continuous distance ever traveled by wheelchair:
“I want to send out a message to disabled people that there are no obstructions. Whatever you think about, you can do,” he says. “Give disabled people a chance and they can perform miracles.”
Along the 200 mile trip across all seven emirates, Haidar plans to stop at schools, universities, and centers for the disabled to share his inspiring message, reports Gulf News. And, by the time his ambitious trek is completed on December 2, he will have broken the record for distance traveled in a solar-powered wheelchair — a record he set himself just two weeks ago.
Link via Popular Science | Photo: The National
After two decades of research into alternative energy, engineer Lonnie Johnson has developed an energy-producing device called the JTEC, which could double our current efficiency in converting solar power into electricity. The concept has scientists, research centers, and the US Air Force excited about its potential. One scientist called the JTEC “a very clever way to extract energy from a heat engine … It’s incredibly elegant.” Here’s a partial explanation of how it works:
Johnson’s latest JTEC prototype, which looks like a desktop model for a next-generation moonshine still, features two fuel-cell-like stacks, or chambers, filled with hydrogen gas and connected by steel tubes with round pressure gauges. Where a steam engine uses the heat generated by burning coal to create steam pressure and move mechanical elements, the JTEC uses heat (from the sun, for instance) to expand hydrogen atoms in one stack. The expanding atoms, each made up of a proton and an electron, split apart, and the freed electrons travel through an external circuit as electric current, charging a battery or performing some other useful work. Meanwhile the positively charged protons, also known as ions, squeeze through a specially designed proton-exchange membrane (one of the JTEC elements borrowed from fuel cells) and combine with the electrons on the other side, reconstituting the hydrogen, which is compressed and pumped back into the hot stack. As long as heat is supplied, the cycle continues indefinitely.
Besides efficiency, the advantages of such a machine are durability, as it has no moving parts, and the absence of polluting waste products. Lonnie Johnson already made a name for himself as the inventor of the Super Soaker. His biography (included in the article) is almost as fascinating as his latest invention. Link -via Metafilter
(Image credit: Ben Baker/Redux)
Dan Roe made these solar-powered kinetic flower sculptures that move on their own, as long as they are in the sun! I can imagine how much my cats would love these. See more kinetic and robotic artworks at his website. Link -Thanks, Dan!
We’ve previously mentioned that the solar powered aircraft Solar Impulse was able to remain in the air for a full day. The similarly powered Zephyr, designed by the company QinetiQ, has now stayed in the air for more than a full week. Its engineers plan to continue its flight for at least another week in order to test its abilities. From QinetiQ’s press release:
Launched by hand, the aircraft flies by day on solar power delivered by amorphous silicon solar arrays no thicker than sheets of paper that cover the aircraft’s wings. These are also used to recharge the lithium-sulphur batteries, supplied by Sion Power Inc, which are used to power the aircraft by night. Together they provide an extremely high power to weight ratio on a continuous day/night cycle, thereby delivering persistent on-station capabilities.
Link via CrunchGear | Photo: QinetiQ
The Solar Impulse (previously at Neatorama), an experimental electric plane with rechargeable solar batteries, has completed a 24-hour continuous flight, with no fuel. The flight proves that the plane’s solar collectors can store enough energy through the day to last through the night.
Pilot Andre Borschberg eased the Solar Impulse onto the runway at Payerne airfield about 30 miles southwest of the Swiss capital Bern at exactly 9 a.m. (3 a.m. EDT) Thursday.
Helpers rushed to stabilize the pioneering plane as it touched down, ensuring that its massive 207-foot wingspan didn’t scrape the ground and topple the craft.
The record feat completes seven years of planning and brings the Swiss-led project one step closer to its goal of circling the globe using only energy from the sun.
“We achieved more than we wanted. Everybody is extremely happy,” Borschberg told reporters after landing.
The flight proves that, theoretically, the plane could stay in flight indefinitely. The next goal: crossing the Atlantic. Link -via reddit
Solar Dog is a prototype cell phone recharging station developed by Erik Schiegg of Switzerland. The user mounts it on a dog’s back to collect solar energy as it plays outside. Schiegg writes:
My Android phone is charged in no time… The dog feels good and I’m feeling good and planet mud is turned a little bit more into planet earth. But this idea would be interesting? for farmers around the world, letting their animals collect electricity, too. Without the cost and waste for installation and the ground.
via Make
The first successful flight of an aircraft powered by the sun was completed in Switzerland yesterday as the Solar Impulse HB-SIA took off and landed safely. Solar Impulse founder Bertrand Piccard had dreamed of the day his plane would take flight for a decade.
With a good weather window on Thursday, test pilot Markus Scherdel was given the go ahead to take the spindly aircraft to up to take-off speed shortly after one o’clock local time. With the airplane lined up on the runway, Scherdel powered up the four motors using the on-board batteries and HB-SIA gained speed until he was able to lift off the pavement.
In a flight very reminiscent of the Wright Brothers first flight in 1903, Scherdel flew 350 meters down the runway at an altitude of only one meter in a flight lasting 28 seconds.
The team hopes to achieve a 36-hour flight by next summer. Link to story. Link to website. -via the Presurfer
The Kurilpa Bridge crossing the river into Brisbane, Australia is expected to carry around 36,000 pedestrians every week. The world’s longest solar foot bridge is 1,500 feet long and sports 84 solar panels. The panels produce all the energy the bridge needs for its LED lighting and sends 25% of the power generated back to the city’s electrical grid. Link -via Digg
Every other day, we get to hear about some new solar powered creation. Here are 13 amazing solar concepts that draw inspiration from plants. After all, plants are Mother Nature’s solar generators. Pictured is the Power Flower by Art Energy Design, which collects wind energy in the petals and solar energy in the leaves!
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by 
A company called GreenSun Energy is developing solar panels that absorb particular parts of the light spectrum available even when the sun is not shining directly at them:
They say the key is the bright colors in hues to capture different parts of the sun’s light spectrum.
GreenSun, the company behind the technology, says unlike conventional solar panels, these can produce electricity without direct sunlight.
It says the colored panels don’t need to face the sun and can absorb dispersed light.
This means they can also harness energy on a cloudy day, although with less efficiency than on sunny days.
The company says production costs are kept to a minimum because they require less silicon.
There’s a video at the link and it will play automatically when you click on it.
Eighteen-year-old Milan Karki of Nepal has invented a new type of solar panel that uses human hair as a conductor:
The hair replaces silicon, a pricey component typically used in solar panels, and means the panels can be produced at a low cost for those with no access to power, he explained….The solar panel, which produces 9 V (18 W) of energy, costs around £23 to make from raw materials.But if they were mass-produced, Milan says they could be sold for less than half that price, which could make them a quarter of the price of those already on the market.
Melanin, a pigment that gives hair its colour, is light sensitive and also acts as a type of conductor. Because hair is far cheaper than silicon the appliance is less costly.
Link (Photo: Tom Van Cakenberghe/Barcroft Media) – via Gizmodo
These new vessels, set to enter service in November, get 3/4 of their power from solar cells and 1/4 from liquefied petroleum:
The technology could cut in half carbon-dioxide output on a typical urban ferry route, Solar Sailor said on its Web site. Makers of ships, planes and autos around the world are trying to cut greenhouse gases from transport, which account for about 13 percent of global emissions…Solar Sailor’s so-called hybrid marine power, a sea-going equivalent to Toyota Motor Corp.’s Prius car, according to Chief Executive Officer Robert Dane, can save ferry operators $6 million in fuel costs over a typical 15-year lifespan, the company says. Even so, recent development of the technology makes it hard to compete with the more established diesel motor industry, Dane said.
