Inhabitat's Week in Green: photovoltaics, footballs, and Greener Gadgets
The Week in Green is a new item from our friends at Inhabitat, recapping the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us.
In other photovoltaic news, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania just unveiled the world's first solar-powered circuits. These tiny chips may one day be integrated directly within computer touch screens, essentially transforming them into multitasking solar panels.
We're also excited to see that the finalists of the 2010 Greener Gadgets Design Competition have been announced. Two of our favorites right off the bat are these wind turbine streetlights that harvest energy from passing cars and Rocco, the kinetic energy-generating rocking horse. Check out all the entries and vote for your favorite!
This week was a big week for efficient aviation as we learned of Portugal's plans to replace PVC airplane parts with lightweight cork and watched as Seymourpowell floated a fantastic plan for a fuel-cell powered luxury airship.
Finally, the states may be getting charged for Super Bowl Sunday, but youth in Africa are kicking around a different kind of football -- one capable of generating energy in off-grid locations. We also saw a similar concept called the swirl ball that makes doing laundry a blast - fill it full of clothes and water and then kick it around until they're clean.
I think the wind powered street lights would work on freeways. At least some of the heavier traffic ones around these parts. Six to eight lanes each direction with just a cement barrier seperating the two inside lanes. When driving fast, i mean as fast as the speed limit allows, you can actually feel the wind move your car at times when an oncoming car passes you on the other side of the wall.
@BUNT2
Why isn't anyone going to read it, and why is no one going to comment on it? Three people already have.
A bunch of the ideas in the article are pretty stupid, but that how this stuff goes. You get a bunch of people working on a problem, throw out the stuff that doesn't work, and end up with solutions eventually.
I can't imagine those wind turbine street lights being all that efficient. Probably take 40 years for it to make up the energy of its cost of manufacture. And that's even if it lasts that long.... The green movement has become rather ridiculous really.
And as for those photovoltaics, many people are working on concentrated photovoltaics, and as aesthetically pleasing as the ones in this article are, I think the best solution is Morgan Solars, who have made a flat concentrated pv, taking up much less space than most concentrated photovoltaics that require a lot of depth in their design. http://www.morgansolar.com/
YAY!!!
GO RPI ARCHITECTURE
@Craptorium
I guess you were right...
How about a chip that feeds off of my biological processes to augment the capabilities of my brain?
Green gadgets? a fan I am.
Next we'll have power generated by hamsters in their hamster wheels.
I love the wind turbines! But what are the turbines made out of? and what's the overall carbon footprint? Those are my only real concerns. Kinda like how solar cells are amazing, but they use some environmentally unfriendly materials to make them.
I love that two of my favourite blogs are cooperating! (: Keep up the good work!
Compact and very powerful nuclear generators function tirelessly in our military vessels tossed about by the roughest seas and built to endure even battle conditions, and yet somehow there is still opposition to building these extremely green powerhouses near our cities.
When you factor in the environmental and time costs to manufacture, the cleanliness and output of nuclear power is not challenged by any solar or wind farms to date.
From April 2010 the government will pay up to £0.44 a unit for home grown electricity. This will encourage many more housholders to install photovoltaic systems....use of solar panels are good for your pocket as well as the environment