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Quite soon in the future we’ll be using solar paint on our houses to harvest energy to power the household electricity, as researchers from the University of Notre Dame have developed low-cost solar paint using nano-sized particles of titanium dioxide, coated with cadmium sulfide or cadmium selenide. Once brushed onto any conducting materials and exposed to the sunlight, the paint will then create electricity with a light-to-energy conversion efficiency of 1%. Even though its efficiency isn’t high enough, the researchers are still trying to improve it, so as to make the solar paint both low-cost and high-efficiency for household use.

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Solar Roadways will soon develop solar parking lots for testing, but their real dream is to build a road system with 12-foot-by-12-foot solar panels rather than traditional asphalt. The panels are embedded with LED lights that displays warnings to drivers, illuminates lanes in dark, and moreover with heating system to prevent snow and ice building up on the road. Of course there’re some problems and troubles, but to build a solar road system is still an awesome idea that makes us dream of a glorious future. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Jon Salerno’s Habitat Micro Home provides a clever and practical way to expand the area of your living space. It uses a small car docked underneath a 100 square feet house to act as an extra room so that the total reconfigurable space inside the Habitat Micro Home would reach 132 square feet. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Obviously a bridge could do more things than we would ever think of. According to Italian designers Francesco Colarossi, Giovanna Saracino and Luisa Saracino, a bridge is expected to offer electricity energy while still ensuring a convenient transportation. [Read the rest of this entry...]

One may guess the power of the sunlight over the hottest and driest days in summer, while Eric Jacqmain takes on an experiment to find a more accurate answer by building a fiberglass satellite dish with 5,800 tiny mirror tiles. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Solar panels are used almost everywhere and this time they appear on these Urban Cargo Pants especially made for busy workers. Soft and easy wash, the stylish pant can also offer electricity energy with independently functioning power supply built in two side pockets. Thus whenever you need to recharge a cellphone, you would find help from the pants, isn’t amazing? But to spend $920 on one pant? It must be kidding! [Read the rest of this entry...]

The U.S. military recently developed a new Solar-powered Tent that uses a-Si thin film solar cells instead of conventional solar panels to produce electricity energy. Its hourly power generation ranges from 800watt to 3000watt, and the larger the tent is, the more energy it offers. [Read the rest of this entry...]

At the Eco Products 2010 exhibition Sony showcased these ‘Flower Power’ Solar Windows that can convert sunlight into electrical energy. Compared with other solar windows on the market, the ‘Flower Power’ not only features an aesthetic design but can be specially customized according to the consumer’s preference. So what do you think? [Read the rest of this entry...]

Let’s start the article with a familiar situation: we go out to tour around, record the beautiful sceneries using a digital camera, click, click, click…then suddenly the camera runs out of power! That always makes us feel rather depressed. But fortunately that wouldn’t happen again, coz Weng Jie has come up with the Solar Camera Strap, a camera strap built with solar films on the surface to harvest the sunshine as energy for your device. The idea is really simple, but also practical. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Created at the Knierim Yacht Club in northern Germany, PlanetSolar is the world’s largest solar-powered boat, measuring 31 meters x 15 meters x 7.5 meters. The yacht is covered with up to 500 sqm of solar panels, which are expected to capture 103.4 kW of solar energy to power the engine that merely needs 20KW. Designed with an average speed of about 9mph, the boat could reach a top speed of 17 miles per hour. About 18 million euro has been invested into the project. According to Knierim Yacht Club, the yacht has been ready for testing later this month and the sea trials (due between June and September). If everything goes smoothly, PlanetSolar will start its first world tour in early 2011. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Solar-powered lamps are not that new to us, but the Saint Clair Lamp presented here still surprises us on account of its unique way to get charged. Just as you can see, the lamp needs to be affixed onto the window with the suction pads to obtain energy, since the photovoltaic cells are built at its base. When the dark night comes, the lamp can then be used as a hanging lamp to illuminate your room. Designed by Stéphane Maupin, the innovative lamp has won one of the five VIA project assistance grants this year. [Read the rest of this entry...]

After a lengthy nine months of development, IBM has recently announced its new thin-film solar cell, which is made from cheaper materials while features an efficiency of 9.6% (40% higher than previous prototypes). The new thin film technology uses copper, tin, zinc, sulfur and selenium to take the place of traditional copper indium gallium selenide or cadmium telluride. Besides, the researchers also adopt a new kind of solvent- hydrazine, which is less costly and decomposes more easily. Instead of manufacturing the cells, IBM claims that they’d prefer to license out the new technology when the time comes. [Read the rest of this entry...]

The Center for Architecture Science and Ecology (CASE) has finally developed the stylish solar power glass after lengthy years of research. The system is constructed of rows of pyramid-shaped glass receptors, which will change their directions all the time to keep track of the sunlight. All the energy is stored in a small photovoltaic cell built in the center of each pyramid. The transparent design not only makes the system eye-pleasing and attractive, but means light could pass through the system more effectively for energy storage. [Read the rest of this entry...]

This very sleek watch allows you to see the time in quite a convenient way. Firstly, the Button Watch (it looks just like a button and the watch takes the very name from that only) could be easily clipped to your jacket, you bag or even your hair to tell you the time. Much smaller and lighter than ordinary wrist watches, the innovative Button Watch adopts solar battery panels as its power supply in order to make full use of the natural energy and therefore to save you much money paid for electricity bills. Also using touch screens to display the time, the watch will show the time and date on the glass face whenever you click its surface. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Shown at CES 2010 in Las Vegas, the portable solar charger allows you to charge your electronics anywhere. It is a foldable charger, measuring 83cm ×140cm×35cm when unfolded but measures as small as a wallet if you fold it up. So next time your laptops, cell phones, GPS, or mp3 players are out of power, you can easily charge them with the portable solar charger in a park or even on the road. [Read the rest of this entry...]