Solar Power to the Rescue
The best thing about the summer? All that sun to power your gizmo’s, well luckily we don’t rely on solar power in Britain. It’s been nothing but rain this summer, not that we mind. It makes everything oh so green and soggy. It does mean that we miss out on some cool stuff though, like the worlds largest solar powered boat, currently attempting the world’s first circumnavigation by solar boat. But it won’t be visiting Blighty, apparently England’s too gloomy for it to power itself. But that’s not all that we get to miss out on, have a look at these innovative gizmos that probably won’t work in Britain.
This brings whole new life to your office printer. Researchers at MIT have found a way to print photovoltaic cells onto paper. This is done using special ink and is as apparently as simple as printing out that monthly report. Presumably they mean when the printers working properly, not when it’s decided it’s never going to speak to your computer again. Though the cells have a very low efficiency of around 1% (if you have no frame of reference for this number then rest assured it’s pretty awful) they do have a huge amount of potential. They can be replicated incredibly easily, and work just as well when folded so this may be the future we’re looking at now (well it’s definitely a small part of it at least).
The Solar Toilet
Of course what could solar power be apply more to then the great leveller; the 
toilet. Bill Gates has offered $41.5 million worth of grants to those who’re willing to reinvent the porcelain throne. One of those who’ve stepped forward is Michael Hoffman, a Caltech environmental scientist and engineer, who’s proposed idea is to use solar power to break down the end product of toilet time into hydrogen which can be used as fuel. With the capability to handle up to five hundred people a day that’s potentially a lot of hydrogen.
A big glass ball lens to be precise. Markus Kayser, who has come up with some other cool solar projects including a solar powered 3D printer, brings you the Suncutter. Despite being described as low energy it can cut programmed shapes repeatedly into material as thick as 0.4mm plywood. It doesn’t have very many practical uses at the moment, though Kayser does use it to create some original sunglasses, and schlepping it into the desert to do your cutting doesn’t seem like the best way to conserve energy. But still it demonstrates that we’ve barely begun to explore the possibilities of solar power, have a look at this for raw power.
Talking of harnessing raw power, if you’ve got a design project you need fulfilling why not submit a brief on the Creative Services Exchange?
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