Hello my Earth Saving Friends. Happy Monday, hopefully your weekend was a great one and you’re ready to face another week. We’re kicking off today with a post that made me all sorts of excited. How about some new solar cells that are reportedly as easy to make as a boxed pizza?! Yeah, count me in.
That’s right, according to the article I just read, “An Australian scientist has developed a new method of manufacturing solar cells using nothing more than some nail polish remover, a pizza oven and a standard inkjet printer.” What?! You heard right, and some experts are hoping and believing that this new method, if perfected, could be a way to provide cheap and easy access to solar power to people all over the world.
What is even crazier, Nicole Kuepper, the brains behind this new operation, is only 23 years old and a Phd student at the University of New South Wales. The process she uses, while this description is vague, shows just how inventive, and Easy the method could be. Here’s the jist of what goes down:
“Firstly, she takes a standard silicon solar cell and sprays it with a substance similar to nail polish. Then, she inkjet prints something like nail polish remover onto the wafer in a set pattern in the same way that you’d print a normal photo. This enables the creation of high-resolution patterns on the cell at a very low cost. The cell is then metallized with an aluminum spray and baked at a very low temperature of around 550 fahrenheit in “something like a pizza oven.””
Wow. Head over and check it out the new iJet technology and then head over to Northern Tool and check out our extensive line of affordable Solar Powered products!
Got a lot of glass bottles lying around the house from a party, dinner or just your every day life? Don’t feel like taking them to the dump and further killing our planet? Don’t know how to go about recycling them but still want to give them a second life, a second, much COOLER life? Here comes an awesome Do-it-Yourself project my friends, and this one is quite rad.
Round up those glass bottles friends, because I just found a DIY project that converts old glass bottles into solar powered glass bottle lanterns! That’s right, a 6-pack of “light” beer if you will. Head over and check out the full article, but for now, here is what you’ll need, and how to accomplish this awesome Beer Bottle Lantern…Or root beer, if you’re so inclined.
“TIME: 4 hours
PRICE: $23.17
DIFFICULTY: moderately hard
1. Refer to the schematic. Assemble the step-up switching regulator circuit with the TL499A controller, toroid inductor, and support components. Keep the profile of your regulator circuit small enough so that it can fit through the bottle’s neck. Attach one pole of the switch to the circuit. Continue Reading
Every generation has one, the genius, the visionary, the mind that is in a whole different world than his or her peers. Einstein, Beethoven, Edison and now, William Yuan? Time might prove us exactly right when this 12-year-old boy from Beaverton, Oregon and his invention of a newer, more productive type of solar cell is put into production and allowed to shine like it really could.
When William Yuan started thinking about solar cells, he saw the potential, but did not see the current version of solar cell technology living up to it. Yuan was quoted as saying, “Solar it seems underused, and there are only a few problems with it…Regular solar cells are only 2D and only allow light interaction once.” It was this thought that led him to the creation of a 3D Solar Cell that could absorb not only visible light, but UV light as well.
When he first tested his new design, he began wondering if the results were flawed. He could not believe how much light was being absorbed, and how much electricity that was being converted into. It did not seem to make sense that his design was so much more efficient and powerful. According to the article I just read, “If he is right, solar panels with his 3D cells would provide 500 times more light absorption than commercially-available solar cells and nine times more than cutting-edge 3D solar cells.” 500 times more. Wow. If he IS right, which more and more scientists are thinking he is, inventions like this could help completely revolutionize the way the world uses electricity, and more important, makes their own.
For his efforts, Yuan has already received a $25,000 scholarship which will enable him to continue to work on this and making it not only marketable, but cost effective. The true hurdle of any new technology.
It is almost the weekend my good friends, and for that, you should be rejoicing! Another reason to rejoice, is when you find news about alternative energy products, projects, or ideas that gain worldwide notariety. How about the breaking of an unofficial world record using only solar energy? Yeah, awesome.
Here’s the jist of what happened: “A new but unofficial world record for the longest continuous unmanned flight has been set up by British-built spy plane. The aircraft, which was powered by solar panels and a rechargeable battery at night, remained in air for approximately 82 hours and 37 minutes (three and a half days).”
82 hours and 37 minutes using nothing but solar powered energy! Amazing! What is even more impressive, and more amazing, to me, is the fact that the designers and engineers behind the plane believe that in the near future, a plane capable of staying in the air for “weeks or months” will be entirely possible, and available.
Now, to just tweak this idea and somehow put it to use on arguably the largest fuel consumers on the planet, major airlines. Wouldn’t that be something, having every commercial flight across the world powered by the sun. Ahh, one can dream.
Happy Monday fellow green-lovers. Let’s face facts, we all want to be as green and eco-friendly as possible, but when it comes to battling the soaring temperatures of summer, it can get a little, well, difficult. Who among us, when it’s 90+ outside, would not turn on the ol’ A.C. if it you just so happened to own one?! As green as I like to be, I have to admit, when temps reach the 100 degree mark, the air conditioner gets turned on. Guilty.
So what if there was a way to stay cool in the summer and NOT feel guilty? Who wouldn’t take that chance?! Soon enough, that’s a question we won’t even have to bother asking. That’s right, the most overdue product of all time is finally surging onto the market: the solar air conditioner! Doesn’t it just seem altogether too obvious, and shocking that this hasn’t been around sooner? When do you need a.c. the most…when it is sunny…when is solar power most effective…when it is sunny. Bam, problem solved.
Apparently it wasn’t that easy, but I just read an article about how two new extremely awesome products are on the market that might change the way solar powered a.c. is seen. According to the article:
“The Greencore 10200 comes in two models: a fixed one, and a mobile version (which can be had with 2 or 4 batteries). Using a single 170-watt solar panel, it can keep a 600 square-foot room cool. One of the good design decisions was to make it run on DC current, so no AC inverter is needed and conversion losses are avoided. The Greencore solar A/C system is actually a hybrid; when the sun isn’t shining, it can use power form the grid, during off-peak hours, to charge its batteries. This is the kind of load shifting that can save money and smooth out demand.”
Kudos Greencore, with clients like McDonald’s and the United States Navy already using your products, you should have no success marketing it all over the country, and all over the world. Now, send me one to test out, will you?!
Amazingly helpful and insightful little videos seem to be par for the course for Friday’s now don’t they? Why not, you’re ready for the weekend, you’re ready to be entertained and educated at the same time, and I am the same way!
So, for this fine Friday, I found a pretty awesome video highlighting just how EASY it is in todays day and age to actually install, use, and implement such clean and efficient power like Solar Power. The video shows basically the process from ground to roof to turning on the light, all in under 3 minutes. Check it out, then head over to Northern Tool and get yourself stocked up and ready to rock with your own solar projects!
I can not tell you how happy it makes me to see a technology like solar energy going mainstream. It is so different from your favorite band “selling out” by joining big companies ad campaigns, or your favorite sports star joining a rival team (*cough*Johnny Damon*cough*Manny Rameriz*cough). When a technology like solar power “sells out” by going mainstream, it means EVERYONE wins. By taking solar power energy from the dark ages that were the 1970’s (you know what I mean, huge panels installed like monoliths on your neighbors rooftop) to the sleek, modern and efficient age that is today, our entire planet will benefit.
The “where” of where you can buy solar energy products is growing exponentially. In addition to being one of the leading sources, Northern Tool has been pushing the tech for some time now. The good news is, the where’s are growing and will hopefully bring this clean and powerful source of energy to so many more people than ever before. Word on my street is that now, solar power products can be purchased at Sam’s Club, and heck, even IKEA is selling kits. Wow, talk about a great leap forward from 10 years ago.
The bottom line is, with the availability of such products increasing exponentially, I think we are really at a threshold for people actually being able to “do-it-yourself” at home. I am excited to see how many new projects, technologies, ideas and alternatives are created by people being able to simply tinker at home. How refreshing to begin taking steps away from our dependence on gas in all its forms. The time is now!
I can’t tell you how much this makes my ENTIRE dayweekmonth year. Waking up and finding information like this is what makes this job amazing, and it’s projects like THIS that should make the whole world smile.
So here we go, while still in the planning stages of development, this new solar energy project will be a world record once complete. Staged in Gujarat, India, when it is finalized it will be an intergrated “solar city” that is capable of producing 5 GIGAWATTS of energy. No that is not a typo, 5 Gigawatts. Wow.
“The facility is expected to cost Rs 200-billion (approximately $475-million) and will produce all raw materials and manufacture all panels on site. Hence ‘integrated Solar City’. This is expected to reduce costs so that the power produced at the site will cost about Rs 4 ($0.10) per (unspecified) unit. It has not been disclosed whether the project would employ solar photovoltaic or solar thermal technology.”
At 5 times the size of the current largest solar power project, this thing will be an absolute beast. The great news is that India is currently one of the most populous and power-intensive countries in the world; this project could cut a significant chunk out of their energy bill and offset the use to a steep degree. Just how big of a project could this really turn out to be? How about trying this on for size: The current largest solar project being developed in the Mojave Desert is only capable of 900 megawatts. One more time, this new one in India will be capable of 5 GIGAWATTS. Wow. Well done world.
With every single day that passes us, we’re inching closer and closer to the “Future” that we all thought we’d be living in when we were kids. Rumors stirring of solar powered cars, flying cars, wind powering homes, and yes, now, a solar highway. A what? Yep, a SOLAR HIGHWAY.
Basically, here is the problem: The highway systems in this country are absolute energy drains. Lights, signs and other crucial elements to the safety and navigability of our nations roads and something has to power them. In the state of Oregon, they think they might just be onto something. The world’s first highway that is going to be co-powered by solar energy is in the makings right now, and at the price of $1.3 million, it is not cheap. What it IS doing, however, is offsetting the amount of energy required to run the highway…28% of it will now be covered by solar power!
The bad news that might actually end up being good news is this: Oregon Department of Transportation believes they will need at least 20 miles more of solar installations to power the 45-million kilowatt hours a year necessary to power the states highways. And this is just one state.
Clearly this is a project that needs to spread across the entire nation and the whole rest of the world. If Every state had projects like this, think of the massive amounts of energy that could be offset! Keep your fingers crossed, and hopes high.
Hold onto your hats friends, because in a few years, we might be looking back on this post right here and thinking “that’s where it all started….” What is “this,” you might be asking? A solar power breakthrough that might make the storing of the sun’s energy easier than Ever, and that, in turn, might enable a much wider spread adoption of the technology.
According to news reports all over the place, a researcher at MIT might have found a breakthrough that will do exactly this, and the craziest part of it, it is relatively simple. While “Simple” to them probably means vastly different things to us, they basically discovered and developed:
“a less expensive storage technology so energy captured when the sun shines can be stored to be used at night or on cloudy days. They both made a catalyst consisting of cobalt metal, phosphate and an electrode that can generate oxygen by splitting water into its basic molecules, that is, oxygen and hydrogen gas. The oxygen and hydrogen then can be combined inside a fuel cell, generating carbon-free electricity that can power a house or an electric car, whether it is day or night.”
Just how big of a breakthrough is this? How about trying this on for size, it is being called “The most important single discovery of the century…” and while this century is still young, that’s really saying something. Especially when that gem of a quote comes from a genius in chemistry.
Knowing all this, why not start stocking up on solar panels now!