11Aug2010 |
Solar Powered Mobile Phone |
Samsung India has launched the World's first solar powered mobile phone - the Samsung Guru E1107. It's also a torch and an FM radio. Full charging takes 40 hours. But you get 5 - 10 minutes of talk time off an hour's charge. The Samsung press release is here. |
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05Aug2010 |
Solar Soccer |
Qatar is bidding for the 2022 World Cup (Wikipedia). It gets hot in Qatar in the summer - 40C. Too hot to be running around on a futy pitch. So they're inventing cooling technology for the stadiums for the fans and the players. Part of the electricity for the cooling systems will come from solar panels mounted on the stadia - which will feed into the national grid when matches are not being played. There are some great stadium designs from Albert Speer and more pics here. Video of the stadia is embedded below from YouTube. |
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30Jul2010 |
Flexible Solar Panels |
SoloPower recently introduced a line of flexible and rollable solar panels for use on rooftops called the SFX1-i. Ease of installation saves time and money. Costs are further reduced via their special manufacturing process. The panels are built on a thin, flexible foil substrate in a high throughput, low-cost, roll-to-roll process developed by SoloPower. |
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12Jul2010 |
Solar Planes First Night Flight |
Solar Impulse, the solar powered plane we've been following for some time (see here and here), has made its first night flight. The flight lasted 26 hours. It was kept aloft during darkness by 400kg of batteries that were fully charged during an ascent to 8,700m from the 12,000 solar panels on its 63.4m wing. A fabulous achievement. |
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21May2010 |
Bamboo Solar Office Supplies |
Lexon have a range of office supplies made out of bamboo and using eco-friendly power sources. Such as the solar powered calculator and light above. They also have a hand cranked radio and solar powered clock. They look great too. |
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12May2010 |
Auto Sola Mowa |
This automated mower from Husqvarna is (partly) solar powered. It can also send SMSs if it runs into trouble or it's lonely. SkyNet here we come. |
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28Apr2010 |
Geely's Solar Bug Concept |
Geely showed off their latest solar bug at the the Beijing Autoshow 2010. Dubbed the IG (Geely Intelligence) it was originally shown at the 2009 Shanghai show. Now the drive train is a hybrid. The solar power is used for the aircon system. Look at those doors. Don't mention the DeLorean... More pics here. |
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12Apr2010 |
Solar Plane Flies |
Solar Impulse, the solar powered plane we wrote about last year, has had its maiden flight on 7th April after seven years of research and development. Total flight time was 87 minutes and height was 1200 metres. Never has an airplane as large and light ever flown before! |
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29Mar2010 |
Solar Roads Update |
We first wrote about Solar Roads back in September 2009. Since then they've been hard at work and have made their first prototype. They made a 12 x 12 foot panel, not only is it a solar collector, it also has built in lights and heating elements. There are lots of pictures of the process on the Solar Roads web site. Still very cool. |
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