stargeek
Solar StyleSolar StyleSolar Style 12/22/2004 01:36 AM
The Solar style gear doesn't seem to be quite ready for retail yet, but you can order a 'sample kit' for 200 bucks, which I'm guessing includes a few different units to try out. The press release lists my arch-enemy AirWater Corporation, though, so these might be a force for evil. Be careful. (Thanks, Kelly!) Press Release [Yahoo] This is a GrokNews Entry: (what is grok?)Solar StyleGrok Headline matches for Solar StyleSolar Style Mini Messenger BagSolar Style Mini Messenger Bag 04/05/2005 11:30 AM
Product Page [SolarStyleInc via T reeHugger] AUSSIE
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 Last year I waded through Jeremy Rifkin's The Hydrogen Economy and wrote a blog post that explained what's promising about hydrogen as a fuel, and its two major drawbacks. I used two charts, reproduced here, to explain how it works and what's holding it back. The chart above shows the energy economy we have today. Red boxes are non-renewable, polluting and environmentally damaging energy sources and green ones are clean and renewable. Whether we use hydrocarbon fuels or electricity to light, heat and cool our homes, it's likely that non-renewable, damaging sources are producing it. Our cars likewise burn fossil fuels, and although hybrid cars are certainly an improvement, they still depend on fossil fuels to create ('reform') the hydrogen that the fuel cells convert into electricity. The chart below shows the energy economy in twenty years, if we can solve the two major dilemmas of the hydrogen economy.  Under this scenario, hydrocarbons are replaced by solar, wind and other renewable, non-polluting, non-damaging energy sources. The central hydro utility is replaced by a local energy co-op, which produces energy for your community from its own solar collectors, wind turbines etc. The compressed hydrogen used to power next-generation pure hydrogen vehicles is produced from some of this electricity, and distributed through local service stations. The excess electricity produced by these cars can be used to provide light, heat and cooling to the home or sold back to the local energy co-op. The cars themselves will have no engine, no pedals, clutch or gearshift, make no noise and produce no harmful exhaust. The entire process will require no burning, no pollution, and no grid at the mercy of multinationals and sheikhs. What are the two catches? First, the current cost of electricity produced from non-renewable sources is very expensive, and the process is cumbersome and not yet terribly efficient. Even more problematic is the $100 billion cost of building the infrastructure to generate, distribute and store the electricity and hydrogen, obsolescing a comparable amount of existing energy infrastructure, and probably causing some consternation to and resistance from the owners of that infrastructure.  Yesterday the University of New South Wales
predicted that by 2010 a new generation of photovoltaic
'harvesters' based on titanium dioxide ceramics will both collect
solar energy and
use that energy to produce compressed hydrogen from water. A 10m
square
array, such as that depicted at right, mounted on just half the
households in a sun-rich country like Australia, could produce the
entire country's energy.This would allow an even more distributed, decentralized model than that depicted above: With each household able to produce its own energy, the local energy co-op might be nothing more than a virtual market, and the need for local service stations selling or even producing compressed hydrogen would be obviated. We'd all change from consuming to producing energy. The university has even higher hopes for the titanium dioxide technology behind this advance: They believe it will allow innovations in other areas such as "water purification, anti-viral and bacteriacidal coatings on hospital clothing and surfaces, self-cleaning glasses, and anti-pollution surfaces on buildings and roads". Anyone know anything about titanium? I know it's a metal, but is it plentiful and easy and clean to extract? Is it recyclable? Durable? Toxic in landfill sites? I sense a bit of grandstanding and breast-beating by UNSW here. Is there another catch they're not telling us about? |
Wired News has a
short regurgitation from Reuters about the increasing number of gadget
users who are turning to solar power to keep them mobile. It's not
perfect, of course -- cloudy days can still easily double the recharge
time of batteries -- but as the efficiency of solar cells improve, we
may well see increased ubiquity of solar power for all our devices,
especially as flexible, wearable panels become available.
Read [Wired]
Straight out of a (low-budget) Bond
flick is the Solar Death Ray, a combination of particle board, 112
mirrors and, of course, Sol. Each of the mirrors are pointed towards
one area, focusing the sun's rays onto a target easily heated up to
930-1100 degrees Fahrenheit. The project page contains bunches of
science facts and enough instruction to build your own, Popular
Science style. In all seriousness, though, watching it melt through
some of the "targets" in their gallery is a bit disconcerting as I
imagine hundreds of maladjusted youth attempting to build their own as
an easy yet tragic way to score a new cat.
Project Page [SolarDeathRay via MAKE:Blog]
Update: Alexander reminds us that giant fresnel lenses are also affordable.
Sol ar-Powered Wallpaper [Treehugger]
You may all remember the
USB-powered ten speed Matrix Vibe. Fondly remembering those crazy days of
USB-powered-everything, I went digging for more alternative-powered
sex toy hijinx. What I found was enough to make any geeky kinkster --
especially an environmentalist -- cream her panties.
Yes, the folks at California Exotic bring frequent campers and granola-munching hippies a solar rechargeable vibrator. Leave it for five hours in the sun (or under a lamp), and it's rarin' to go.
At first, all I could think was, "Dude. Solar powered vibrator." Eventually, however, skepticism set in. As a bona fide female with all the standard features, I'm keenly aware that choice of vibrator can be a matter of widely varying taste. What if you want to be environmentally friendly, but this vibe doesn't heat you up, so to speak?
No problem. Turns out there are tons of solar-powered battery chargers out there. For a similar price, you could be the proud owner of a solar charger instead. With its aid, you can harness the awesome power of the sun to power your favorite vibrators. After all, some QT with your favorite vibe is what the sun's power is really for, right?
And I suppose while you're at it, you could charge batteries for your other electronics too.
Read - Product Page (Mostly Work Safe) [Blowfish]
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which conducts all of its
research in tuneful four part harmony, has developed a system that
uses sunlight (I actually started to write 'solar-powered light')
pumped down fiber-optic tubes to complement an integrated system of
flourscent bulbs. When there's sufficient light outside, a sensor cuts
the electric blubs, letting the light shine in. Obviously, piping
light from roofs to fixtures is something that's best done when the
buildings are actually built, but it's a great idea all the same.
Of course, they don't mention that the light snakes down around your throat as you sit in satori, attempting to harness the power of mind to expand your forehead real estate. (Thanks, Boo Boo Prime!)
Su nlight in a tube [World-Science]
< img src="http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/images/solar_toothbrush.jpg" alt="solar_toothbrush.jpg image" width="119" height="200" class="right border"/>For those with pasty white gums, this Soladey solar-powered toothbrush will provide a loving bronzing that even George Hamilton's dentist will love. Or it will convert light into negative ions to attract positive ions from acidic dental plaque or something—it's Japanese; I hold myself to no accuracy. It's part of a selection of green hygiene products on Treehugger, including a prototype ceramic-bladed razor that wouldn't have needed sharping or replacement blades, but was rubbed out when it was discovered to allow cars to travel 200 miles on just a single gallon of gas.
T op Five - Personal Care [TreeHugger]
The intern was disappointed to learn that this
Japanese woman is not included with Kyocera's new solar panel
(with the world's highest efficiency rating for mass produced solar
cells). I didn't have the heart to tell him that we actually do
receive review models with our review models -- screaming stacks of
them, actually -- but that we feel he's just too young to see the
prostitutional side of technology reviewing (the writers kneeling for
the product companies, that is; the models we set free in a bucolic
reserve).
Oh, and nevermind that these have a 15.7% conversion efficiency rating (That's the highest?) and will be followed up by cells with a 17.7% rating in 2005. Let us do the science talk, okay?
Read - Press Release (Japanese) [Kyocera via MYCOM PC Web]
« The pavilion where Uranus lives. »
A few weeks ago, Janne "Butt Ugly" Jalkanen mentioned a scale model of the Solar System in Helsinki which I hadn't ever heard about. I am, apparently, not alone in this as just about everyone I asked about it hadn't ever heard of it either, expat and native alike, which was rather surprising since it has been around since 1992. Jarkko found the Ursa Aurinkokunnan Malli website for me and I was fascinated by such magnificent nerd porn only a few kilometers away. :) After some prodding, he translated the directions for me and I rode the bus up to Pajamäki one afternoon with a map and my camera. Perhaps I'm just an easily entertained nerd, but this is the coolest thing since the MIT dome was adorned with a complete police car.
You can bicycle or walk around the model as a car tends to be rather cumbersome since the planets are situated in some out of the way places. The model was especially well placed for a long walk in the woods and around a few islands. Take a picnic and a big bottle of bug repellant. The Ursa pages frequently mention the visibility of the model of the Sun from the other planets but, maybe I'm getting old and going blind, unless you have x-ray vision or a pocket telescope it seems to be a bit of a stretch of the imagination.
Since I decided to make an English version of the pages, I also took the liberty to breathe a little love into the HTML and pictures since they've likely been the same for a decade. It's difficult to sex-up pictures of bits of metal atop grey concrete pillars, but I made an attempt anyway. The information guides have a really nice bicycling map with the locations of the planets, but I included one that I made since their map isn't available on-line. I moved the pages into XHTML 1.0 and kept much of the original design while bringing it into W3C compliance and added a few links and the navbar on the left. Jarkko did much of the translation, but I gave up torturing him and translated most of the guidemap texts at the bottom of the pages. I've got a tarball of it all which I'd like to offer to the Ursa folks if they're interested.
It seems a pity that such a neat installation should go so unnoticed, even when in plain view. I'd like to help replace Pluto and maybe get a day set aside during the dark months before the snow arrives where we can get dressed up as comets and ride around the model on our bikes, ending up at the Sun. The possibilities with day-glo, glo-sticks and battery powered lights could really make for a fun event. :) Bring back Pluto!
Tired of all those
old-fashioned sinks use "plumbing" and "pipes?" Sloan Valve has
released a device for you! It is a solar powered faucet that works
with ambient light. A built-in battery powers the automatic sensor
that turns the water on and off. I mean we're getting into some Buck
Rogers territory here, friends.
What better way to save the planet and avoid wrist overuse than with a solar powered automatic faucet.
New Solar Power Faucet by Sloan Valve [Treehugger]
If Marc Baldo has
his way, we might be using spinach to power our future gadgets. He and
other at MIT have developed a process that isolates photosynthetic
proteins from spinach and puts them between two layers of conducting
material, causing a small electric current to be generated when light
was shone on it -- the same proteins that form the chloroplasts inside
the plant's leaves, which convert light into energy via
photosynthesis. The biological solar cells aren't perfect, as they
give up the ghost after around 21 days. Surprisingly, though, they're
already hitting a 12 percent efficiency of conversion -- that's as
good as many conventional solar cells today.
I predict the biological stability of the spinach cells will
increase when married to a fixed solution of olive oil.
Read
[Nature]
The sun can be a harsh
mistress, stealing our fluids and destroying our livelihood with her
evil rays. But she can also make coffee for 10 people in 6 minutes.
The KSol solar cooker, which looks like a cool radar dish, costs a
little less than $200 and focuses the sun's rays onto foodstuffs for
cooking and eventual human consumption.
While this think can't beat a shank steak cooker over a burning trash can, the KSol seems like a nice way to keep the park, alley, or living room from smoking up during the family BBQ.
KSo l & Sun Cook: Cook With The Sun [Treehugger]
The following phrases have been identified by the grok system as matching this entry:
I
really like solar backpacks like the