Solar-Powered iPhone Case from Mobius Is A Good Back-Up Plan

by Jaymi Heimbuch

from http://www.treehugger.com/

Image via Amazon.com

Back in early 2009, a solar-power skin for the iPhone was huge news. Now, it's not quite as unusual but it's still pretty exciting for iPhone owners. This time, the company is Mobius, and they're offering a pretty sweet looking case that will power up your battery with the sun.

Image via Hammacher Schlemmer

I love how Red Ferret justifies this case:

It's hard to think about being eco-friendly with your gadgets. After all, just owning one isn't very "green". Just think of all of the materials that went into constructing your favorite device, and how much energy was used to craft it. Then you go out and by cases and accessories, which will no doubt end up in a landfill someday. The very least you can do is try to occasionally recharge it with something other than a wall outlet.

Um. Can I just say "ditto" and be done?

Well, I guess you'll want to know a little bit about it before we wrap up.

The Eton Mobius NSP300B Rechargeable Battery Case with Solar Panel for iPhone 4 is priced at $78 on Amazon. That is certainly not cheap for an iPhone case, especially considering you can make your own solar charger for iPhones in about 30 minutes for about $30. However, the price is part of the sleek package. It's handy that this fits over your phone, rather than being crammed in an Altoids tin.

The skin is a rechargeable battery inside a case, wrapped in a solar cell so you can set your case out in the sun, get a charge, and wrap it around your phone for both added protection and back-up battery power. You can also charge up with solar power while it is on the phone, with the charge going straight to the phone's battery, but that means your phone is sitting out in sunshine and we don't really recommend that for the longevity of your phone. It even has a "Proprietary snap fit design that prevents your iPhone's back-glass from being scratched."

A full battery will provide up to 10 additional hours of talk time, Internet use, or video playback and up to 40 additional hours of MP3 playback. However, it will likely take a couple day's worth of sunlight to fully charge the battery. For every hour of direct sunlight, you get about 25 minutes of talk time. The battery can also be recharged via wall outlet if you want to be sure you have a full back-up battery.

All in all, it looks like a sleek and smart back-up plan if you're going to be off-grid for awhile. And though I already have an iPhone case and avoid getting too excited over solar gadgets, I have to say I think this might just go on my wish list for when I'm on road trips if I don't get around to making that Altoids tin charger.

If you're looking for a fancy and functional skin for your iPhone, this one seems like a pretty good deal.

New Magnifying Film Can Increase Solar Panel Efficiency up to 300 Percent

From: http://www.mnn.com/

HyperSolar magnifying film can increase solar panel efficiency by up to 300%, making solar competitive with fossil fuels.

Image courtesy of HyperSolar

As the U.S. government continues to heap billions in subsidies to the world's wealthiest coal and oil companies, the solar industry has been struggling to make it in the United States. This is sad for many reasons, not the least of which is that we're missing out on one of the biggest growth industries in the world.

Currently there are 16 gigawatts of installed solar power globally. That number will grow to about 1,800 gigawatts in the next 20 years, making it one of the best job creators. U.S. engineers invented the solar panel, and the U.S. should be dominating that market. Instead, foreign manufacturers (particularly in China) have taken our IP and run with it, as we become increasingly dependent on foreign oil and dirty coal operations to meet our power needs. 

Fortunately HyperSolar, a new U.S. company, offers a ray of sunny hope on the clean energy frontier. 

The company does not manufacture solar panels. It makes them ultra-efficient using a field of science called photonics. Similar to a microchip that moves individual bits of data around at hyperspeed, HyperSolar's thin magnifying film routes and separates specific light spectrums, delivering them exactly where they're needed to make an array of PV solar cells ultra-efficient.

I saw an early prototype for such a magnifying optical layer a few years back, but the company was "dark" at the time, so I couldn't write about the innovation. But I'm as excited now as I was then for good reason — HyperSolar's optical layer can increase PV efficiency by up to 300 percent!

Theoretically that means cutting the installation cost of a solar array in half. Instead of a home solar system costing $30,000 (or more) it would only cost $15,000 (or less), making the upfront investment much lower and payback periods much quicker. 

This is a great example of a disruptive technology that could get us to the holy grail of "grid parity" — meaning that solar would be as affordable as other sources of energy like coal and natural gas. And no more polluting coal mines or fracking for natural gas! The sun (for at least the next 5 billion years) will provide free and abundant energy. It's up to us whether we want to invest in that technology or continue to destroy our beautiful landscapes for a few more years of "cheap" (i.e. heavily subsidized) coal. 

Innovations like this make several recent reports ring true. If we have the political will to overcome the stranglehold of the fossil fuel industry on our nation's energy policy, we could become 100 percent renewably powered in a 2030-2050 time frame. Check out these two reports and a new study by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) about how large-scale wind power is now cost-competitive with natural gas:

• Physorg.com: 100 percent renewables by 2030
• WWF: 100 percent renewables (no nuclear) by 2050
• AWEA: Wind cost-competitive with gas

So, what do you think? Can we kick the fossil fuel habit?

Man to Travel 200 Miles in Solar-Powered Wheelchair

by Stephen Messenger

from: http://www.treehugger.com/

Photo via The National

Chances are, you haven't heard of Haidar Taleb yet, but he's on a mission to inspire the world. On Monday, the disabled 47-year-old from the UAE is set to embark on a record-breaking 200 mile voyage across the desert in a solar-powered wheelchair he designed and built himself. "With this journey I hope to raise awareness of disability and sustainability as well as what we can achieve as individuals if we have the courage and determination to try," he says.

For Haidar, who has been confined to a wheelchair since he was diagnosed with polio at the age of four, this scheduled 11-day journey is aimed at touting the wonders of technological innovation and the unrelenting determination of the human spirit -- particularly for those who may face mobility challenges similar to his own.

"I want to send out a message to disabled people that there are no obstructions. Whatever you think about, you can do," he says. "Give disabled people a chance and they can perform miracles."

Along the 200 mile trip across all seven emirates, Haidar plans to stop at schools, universities, and centers for the disabled to share his inspiring message, reports Gulf News. And, by the time his ambitious trek is completed on December 2, he will have broken the record for distance traveled in a solar-powered wheelchair -- a record he set himself just two weeks ago.

Earlier this month, Haidar earned his place in the Guinness Book of World Records for taking his specially-designed wheelchair on another adventure, cruising over 80 miles during a 14 hour trip from Abu Dhabi to Sharjah at speeds of around 12 mph. His endeavor was sponsored by UAE-based Madsar, an initiative aimed at advancing research into alternative energy solutions.

Despite the recognition he's garnering from the ambitious journeys and the eco-friendly device he helped pioneer, the impact of his sun-fueled procession extends far beyond the record books:

While crossing the finish line is the ultimate goal, the journey is equally as important. I want to show the world the advantage of a solar-powered wheelchair, and highlight the hope and encouragement it brings to people with reduced mobility.

As Haidar embarks on his record-breaking trip, with that big, bright sun overhead powering his innovative wheelchair along its ambitious journey, the keen observer just might be able to perceive that subtle glow of inspiration a bit closer to home.

The Truth About Solar Power

From: http://www.time.com/

High-Tech Glitter to Create Flexible Solar Panels

By Adam Hadhazy, Special to LiveScience

From: http://www.livescience.com

Tiny solar cells may be a big step forward in expanding the use of solar power. Credit: Murat Okandan/Sandia National Laboratories

Researchers have unveiled super-small solar cells no bigger than the pieces of glitter on your holiday ornaments and cards. These highly efficient photovoltaics could be game-changers in the burgeoning field of solar power, allowing arrays of microcells to be placed on bendable or curved surfaces and even woven into clothing.

Unlike the conventional, rigid solar cells deployed as flat panels on rooftops, for instance, the new miniscule cells could be encapsulated in flexible plastic and made to fit virtually any object.

"With this technology, one can envision ubiquitous [solar-powered] devices," said Greg Nielson, lead investigator at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico.

The prototype versions of the microcells are stored in vials of isopropyl alcohol, and, in keeping with the winter season, if you shake the vials "it does look like a snow globe with flakes swirling around inside," said Nielson, as the tiny, shiny contraptions catch the light.

How it works

Like most snowflakes, the microcells are six-sided to maximize available space by interlocking like honeycomb, or the panels on a soccer ball.

In the lab, these hexagonal microcells have achieved photovoltaic efficiencies of about 15 percent, denoting the percentage of light shone on them that is converted into harvestable electricity. High-end commercial-grade solar cells can reap about 20 percent currently, though Nielson thinks the microcells can more than match this.

The microcells, made of the crystalline silicon found in standard solar cells, have already demonstrated higher efficiencies than so-called thin film solar technologies presently being explored that use other, cheaper materials, such as cadmium telluride.

Instead of converting a whole wafer of silicon into a typical solar cell, the Sandia team's manufacturing method yields thousands of microcells on thin slices of the wafer, like when making a microchip for a computer.

This technique leaves plenty of raw material to produce more microcells and requires 100 times less silicon than for conventional, thicker solar cells, said Nielson. The microcells themselves range in size from 0.00098 to 0.039 inches (25 micrometers to one millimeter) across and from 0.00055 to 0.00079 (14 to 20 micrometers) thick. (For reference, a human hair is about 0.0028 inches (70 micrometers) in width.)

Although the microcell manufacturing process is complex, the material and photovoltaic efficiency of the microcells should still result in reduced costs compared to today's solar power, Nielson said.

"It's great and important that we reduce cost potential by going this way," Nelson told LiveScience, "but what's more exciting is what you can do with these cells that you can't with anything else."

Many possibilities

Making the microcells ultra-thin opens up many possibilities, the researchers say.

"You don't have large-area wafers that are rigid and don't bend," said Nelson. This means the microcells are conformable and can be tailor-fitted to objects from building facades to sloping car roofs, much like how smaller-sized tiles can be mortared to make a curved mosaic.

The tiny solar cells can also be embedded in plastic sheets. The resulting photovoltaic material might then be crafted into tents or store awnings, Nielson suggested.

People could also wear miniature solar cells woven into the fabric of their clothing to power personal electronic devices. High photovoltaic efficiency is very important in this case because the limited dimensions of the human body offer relatively little space to capture sunshine, said Nielson.

Solar Powered Skins for iPhones and iPod Touch

by Jaymi Heimbuch

Image via NovoThink

It looks like Apple gadget users will have a new way to charge up iPods and iPhone devices with the sun, thanks to the latest from NovoThink. The company has released the Solar Surge, a skin with an integrated solar cell capable of charging the Apple devices on 100% solar power.

As for charging capabilities, the company states that 2 hours of direct solar exposure provides about 30 minutes of talk time on a 3G network or 60 minutes of talk time on a 2G network, and the skin's battery stores 120% capacity of iPhone 3G.

It also comes with a Solar Planner application that helps you assess what your solar needs are to fully charge up your gadget, so you eliminate the guessing for how many hours of daylight you need to get full bars.

One more handy way to get your gadgets off grid - or at least it will be. It isn't quite on the market yet. But at the end of this month, you'll be able to pick it up for $70. A little pricey, yes, but not too bad for a solar charger made specifically to fit and protect as well as power your device. Though you could always hack your own solar charger...

Thank you tipster April.

July 22, 2009 Solar-Powered Moon Rover to Explore Apollo Landing Site

Solar-Powered Moon Rover to Explore Apollo Landing Site

by Ariel Schwartz

Solar power doesn’t have to be limited to Earth-based gadgets — at least, not if Carnegie Mellon roboticist Dr. William Whittaker has anything to say about it. Whitaker and Astrobiotic Technology have teamed up to develop a solar rover prototype that will explore the Apollo moon landing site and find out how materials used in the mission have fared over all these years.

The rover, which has been entered in the competition for the $25 million Google Lunar X Prize, features two motors in the hub of each wheel, a flat radiator tilted up to the sky on one side, and a half-cone of solar generators on the other side to power the wheels, run computers, and beam stereo HD video back to us on Earth.

There’s just one problem left to figure out: how to protect the rover from minus 240 F lunar nights. The team is experimenting with different ways to package lithium ion batteries to be able to function after two weeks of exposure to air that is nearly as cold as liquid nitrogen. Stay tuned to find out the results of the team’s experiments when the solar rover lands on the Apollo moon site in 2011!

+ Astrobiotic Technology

Via Boing Boing Gadgets

Man Builds World’s First Fully Solar-Powered Motorcycle

Written by Jerry James Stone

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Richard Gryzch has built what he claims is the world’s first fully sun-powered electric motorbike.

A project that has taken him more than two years. In fact, to finance building the bike Cryzch sold his other motorbikes and even a house.

He calls the bike a Solar Flyer. A name inspired by those Radio Flyer wagons.

“Everyone told me I was crazy for doing it,” he said. “But I’m riding it and it works. And it could change everything. No gas, just hit the throttle and go,” he boasted.

Details about the bike are scarce, but it travels up to 50 miles on a full charge and has a top speed of 90 mph.

“People look at me at the stop light and just say, ‘What is that?” Gryzch said. “I just shrug my shoulders and tell them, ‘it’s solar powered.”‘

Still, Gryzch plans to outdo himself. He hopes to hit a travel range of 300 miles. I hope he does too!