What Will They Think of Next?

Whenever I’m asked to write a blog about solar innovation, I check out the latest gadgetry sites and find all sorts of things I’d never imagined and think, “What will they think of next?”…and then the next week comes and I find out. It’s always something new and completely mind-blowing.

The wow for this week is the solar-powered purse. When I saw the caption I thought to myself “Surely they are using the word purse in some unusual manner. How (or why) could a pocketbook be generating solar energy?” They are, in fact, just what the name indicates – purses with a solar panel on it.

Photo Credit: Noon Solar.com

The bags, made by Noon Solar, are rectangular and have a very thin, flexible solar panel on one side that can store enough solar energy to power a cell phone or mp3 player – or both, at the same time. What’s even cooler is that they are very unisex in design, so they can be utilized (or revered, whatever) by anyone.

OK, I was wrong, there is something even cooler than a solar-powered purse: a solar-powered air conditioner. Regardless of the argument over global warming, no one can debate the reality of rising energy costs and one of the most costly and rapidly rising home utility costs is in air conditioning.

Chromasun has designed a solar-powered air conditioning unit that attaches to your home and uses PV and solar thermal technology to absorb sunlight and waste heat, which will then be converted into energy to cool your home. Conventional solar cells are also contained within this device, which will use the sunlight they store to provide your home with some of its electric power. The cells manufactured for this element were made with 95 percent less silicon than typical solar cells. The solar air conditioner will work most efficiently in hot, dry climates, like the land down-undah and will (keep fingers crossed) be on the market early 2010.

The world of solar power has reached new heights. First Solar, a large solar panel manufacturer, has announced that as of March 20, 2009 it has created enough solar panels, since their inception in 2002, to generate a grand total of one gig watt (1GW) of power.

Photo Credit: OregonDOT

The company noted that it took them over six years to manufacture half a gig of power’s-worth of panels and only eight months to double that figure. They believe that by the end of 2009 they will be able to produce more than 1GW per year; that’s the equivalent of the production levels of an average nuclear power plant. To give a better idea of what 1GW of solar power means to our day-to-day lives, it’s enough energy to fully power several large cities while producing and storing more energy round the clock (other smaller companies can only harvest power during the clear daylight hours) in any type of weather.

Posted on April 10th in Solar Products by Jennifer.