More Cool but Impractical Solar Tech
Well, this week’s review of new solar innovation has proven nothing except that we are getting sillier and way more “out there” with our ideas. Apparently the idea of being able to do anything with solar power has made the inventors of our day a little punchy with power.
All of their ideas, I admit, are still very cool, but practical? Well, that’s another matter.
Photo Credit: berkshirefinearts.com
First up are the solar concept cars. I must admit, they are very cool, and yet they make me giggle at the same time. I honestly can’t say I envision these cars in mass production or that I’ll be sharing the road with them at any time soon. In fact, to me, they mostly look like a bunch of Erkel’ed up bicycles that may get 150 miles per gallon, but are likely to be screaming death traps if they come in contact with the gas guzzlers that dominate the roads today.
The solar xylophone is pretty neat. Still not a practical purchase, but cool all the same. Made by MAKE Volume 12, the solar xylophone is really a regular xylophone that fits into a special box containing small solar panels – one for each key on the xylophone. Each panel is connected to a mallet stationed over one key and as the panels soak up enough energy the mallet attached to that panel will strike it’s corresponding key. Over the course of the day, the mallets will play random music as the panels heat up, making a sort-of solar wind chime effect.
Photo Credit: alvarezperea
And now for the totally useless, and yet completely adorable new invention: the solar powered Winnie the Pooh bobblehead. This is definitely what happens when solar innovators have an excess of money and time and are given no particular direction. A noseless Pooh bear with a tiny solar panel at its base sits in the room soaking up rays. As it stores energy, Pooh’s head will bobble at a rate of three bobbles per minute. That’s it. It has no other function, just bobbling along through life.
I hope these new solar tech gadgets are not someone’s idea of a symbol for our society – I can’t speak for anyone else, but I know that I bobble at least five times a minute.
Posted on April 15th in Solar Products by Jennifer.