Thesolarpanel

First of all I would like to start with two commercials found on a fellow blogger’s site. The commercials are really good and are definitely worth watching.
Here you go:

Solar:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGN-8poqd6Q&rel=0]

Wind:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IjUkNmUcHc&rel=0]

Read the whole article here

After watching these commercials we can get down to the more serious part of this post.
Here are 2 sites with arguments on this topic:

• Power struggle: Wind vs. sun hotly debated

It’s not a question of whether the United States should pursue clean-air strategies — but rather which ones, and at what cost. Who stands to save money and who stands to pay more ? Is nuclear power part of the solution ?

Read more here

• Renewable Energy Comparison

The hybrid combination is by far the least expensive option for our area and other areas with a similar wind / solar resource.

Read more here

A conclusion would be of course that both of the alternative energy solutions can be considered better in some cases and worse in other cases.

As we have seen in movies, in the future there might be solar powered space ships and we all know that many of the things we use today were invented thanks to films like Star Trek and others
Anyway, the reason why this could be great is that the spaceships from the future will not have to carry any kind of fuel…

Here are some more ’scientific’ descriptions:

The electric solar wind sail developed at the Finnish Meteorological Institute two years ago has moved rapidly from invention towards implementation. Electric sail propulsion might have a large impact on space research and space travel throughout the solar system.

Read more here

This one is so complex, that there’s no specific part that can be quoted because it takes the subject and describes it from many points of view.

Read the article here

Until now, the only thing that was uncertain about the air-conditioning machines was if these are bad for our health. Now there’s something new on the market. A so called eco-friendly air conditioner will hit the market. If they can’t make it healthy, at least they can make it friendly for the environment

Unlike conventional heaters, the power isn’t converted into heat, it is only used to power the pump that circulates the liquid through the system. The same principal is at work in your refrigerator. The heat pump in your fridge extracts the warmth from inside the fridge and releases it outside which is why the back of your fridge is warm. And best of all, heat pumps can be flicked into reverse to provide cooling in summer.

Read more here

Yes it is.

Google made headlines last year when it announced it that it was going to devote a significant chunk of cash to developing renewable energy that was cheaper than coal (the RE eSolar, a small startup that appears to be applying Lean principles to the thorny problem of how to bring the high costs of solar electricity down.)

Read the rest of this post here

Read more about eSolar here

Read more about Google’s plan here

I had some posts about gadgets but this one is worth a separate post. You don’t have to be a geek to have a mobile phone or an iPod, and everyone had the problem of having low battery exactly when you need your device to work the most.

Here’s a solution:

One can plug a cell phone or MP3 player directly into the jacket, or, the other option is to use the onboard battery which takes up to eight hours to charge. The 70×60×13mm, 100g built-in battery can store extra power for later use, or directly charge your mobile or iPod.

Read more here

I’ve had another post on this topic ( 6 Solar Energy Based Products You Never Heard Of ) but I still came across a few sites with very interesting gadgets that are really worth checking out.

Here are the sites with some examples:

selectsolar.co.uk

• Solar travel shaver
• Eco torch - Green
• Cyba-lite Solar torch

coolest-gadgets.com

• Solar Keyring Torch
• 50-LED Solar Motion Floodlight
• Key Chain Solar Charger
• PowerMonkey Charger
• Solar Birdbath Fountain

aboutmyplanet.com

• Solio Universal Hybrid Solar Charger
• Art Haines’ Solar DIY Car Kit
• Wireless, solar powered, weather proof speakers
• Solar Car Fan

Are solar powered cars the future? Maybe, but at this time these ‘gadgets’ are only subject of development. Until now, no solar powered car has hit the market, but people are trying and they might succeede.

Here are a few examples of ‘future models’:

Read more here

Read more here

And a more primitive one…but still a good car to start with:

Read more here

And here’s a cool toy for those who can’t afford a real solar powered car:

The world’s smallest solar powered car - it zooms along when the sun shines on the solar panel. No batteries - it gets its power just from the sun. No assembly required. Measures a tiny 3.3 x 2.2 x 1.4 cm.

Read more here

Will the windows from the future replace the solar panels? YES, but we need to wait because it didn’t appear on the market yet.

Here are some interesting quotes on this subject:

Read the rest of this entry »

It is a bit soon to tell, but a new promising way to harness the sun’s energy is about to be invented…

Very simply, it’s a way of harnessing the instability of propanol to push electrons onto the grid. It’s not a new way of creating hydrogen, it’s a new way of harnessing the sun’s power using the versatility of hydrogen, and the instability of propanol.

You can read more here or here.

Can solar balloons be the next big thing in renewable energy? I think that it’s possible. At least these would save the trees that are cut down because of shading the other types of solar panels.

This is how these architectural wonders are described:

helium filled platforms constructed from a new fabric coated with photovoltaic solar cells.

Read more here