Tag Archives: solar power
Solar powered Blood Pressure meter
Blood Pressure meter
There are places on Earth that are so far fetched and distant from any urban civilization, that electricity isn’t all too common as it is to many. These off-grid places do have a hard time catching up with a lot of facilities enjoyed by many today, including medical aid. A few researchers with some really great intentions in their hearts have designed a Blood Pressure meter device, powered by solar energy. This one needs no electrical outlets to plug in and is juiced up solely by the sun. With a device like solar Blood Pressure meter, doctors in areas far away can now keep tabs on cardio-vascular diseases amongst people.
Currently being tested in Uganda and Zambia in Africa, this Blood Pressure meter is not too expensive either — $32. An innovative way to keep health issues in check using green energy, this Blood Pressure meter will for sure make the work of doctors in off-grid areas a lot easier.
Do some green deeds while sleeping
Ecotypic Bed
Sleeping till late hasn’t really been too productive for any of us before but here is Ecotypic Bed. Well, sleeping and lazing around on the Ecotypic Bed could do a lot more!
Designed by Arthur Xin is a marvel of technology. Packing a battery below, this Ecotypic Bed generates electricity from the activities carried out on the bed. Basically, everything you do in bed and around the bed is turned into energy. This electricity generated is then use to power up the LED reading lamps, the speakers that play some soothing music to wake you up, and also LED lights that help the plants on this one grow.
The Ecotypic Bed has hooked on a bunch of straps and pulleys for you to exercise with, that helps generate electricity too.
“This is a green bed.” It has everything you need! A LED reading lights, speakers and a flower box.
There’s a battery below the bed which turns the activities you do on the bed and around the bed into energy.
Do everything all day long on the Ecotypic bed!
wireless keyboard running on solar power
Most people enjoy getting rid of wires for their computer peripherals and electronics, but the cost of batteries that these peripherals need to run on at times is far more than one is willing to shell out. And to fix up that void, Logitech has taken a logical step ahead to come out with a solar-powered keyboard. 
The Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750 features laptop style keys and is as slim as one-to three-inch on the profile. The keyboard also comes with ambient light solar panels fit on either side of the face of the keyboard so that you never need to plug it into a socket for recharging.
Logitech claims that the low power integrated circuits in theory can function smoothly for three months without seeing any direct sunlight. It uses a 2.4GHz nano unifying receiver, so you can plug it into your USB ports and you’re good to go!
Some green festivals that you should know about
With the going green movement gaining pace throughout the world, people have also started to celebrate green festivals as sustainable fest that 
unite green businesses, social and environmental groups, visionary thinkers and thousands of community members in a lively exchange of ideas, commerce and movement building fun. Here are some of the green festivals of the world.
The Big Tent, Scotland
Set on the beautiful landscape of Falkland Estate in the Kingdom of Fife in Scotland, Big Tent is a fantastic weekend of music, arts and family activities mixed with stimulating debates on social and green issues. The festival offers incredible food and drink in their One Planet Food Village which celebrates the best in organic food and drink.
Croissant Neuf Summer Party, England
Croissant Neuf Summer Party (CNSP) is a big family that started almost 20 years ago. There is event called ‘Big Top Mania’ that provides a children zone with shows especially for children, a great collection of games, toys and circus equipment for children of all ages to try out and a dedicated area for toddlers. There’s a great selection of workshops for grownups and children, highlights include Lantern Making – with the chance to join in the lantern parade on Sunday evening. CNSP is the Europe’s biggest solar powered venue and has been the main Glaston-bury ‘Greenfield’ and Big Green Gathering venue. CNSP has always championed renewable energy and sustainability. All of the electricity on site is generated by solar panels and wind generators, from the massive sound system and stage lights of the main stage to the toilet lighting and lights above each gate and fire point. Everything that possibly can be, is recycled. All the food and drink on site is organic, as local as possible and fairly traded where appropriate.
Boom Festival, Portugal
Boom Festival is an art, music and cultural event where a whole world of people involved in the alternative, psychedelic and independent culture get together. Boom happens every two years in sync with the Full Moon of August. The festival is working on many projects to ensure the event has minimal environmental impact. In 2010 Boom featured water recycling system onsite, Photovoltaic panels, windmills and generators powered by 45,000 liters of waste vegetable oil, composting toilets and a 150 person Eco Team to manage waste. In a new initiative, the Boom Environmental Program has also launched the BOOM LAB, where Boom engineers, scientists and artists work ‘freestyle’ to develop independent technologies based on renewable resources.
Isle of Wight Festival, England
The Isle of Wight Festival is a music festival which takes place every year on the Isle of Wight in the UK. Many notable artists like The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Muse, Stereophonic, Donovan, Ray Davies, Robert Plant, David Bowie, Manic Street Preachers, Bryan Adams and many others have performed in it. Generators partly run on bio-diesel, solar power are used, while rangers have set up a wildlife and bee haven near the site using funds from festival-goers.
Lightning in a Bottle, USA 
The Lightning in a Bottle Festival is an electrifying mix of music, arts and culture with a real bohemian feel. Held annually at the Oak Canyon Ranch, the four-day event features live music, art installations, yoga workshops and plenty more. A green festival running almost entirely on solar energy and bio-diesel, lightning in a Bottle is organized by Do-Lab, the LA-based organization known for designing interactive art installations for festivals such as Coachella and Vegoose. Annual fixtures include sustainability workshops, music from various underground and well-known bands and art exhibits.
Osheaga, Canada
Now in its fifth year, the Osheaga festival attracts tens of thousands of music fans to Ile Ste. That’s a lot of wear and tear on an island that is supposed to be a natural paradise close to the city. Plus, a mega concert can create tones of waste if things are not managed with the environment in mind. Luckily, the Osheaga organizers are big into green. Car should be left at home as there is free public transit to the site. Snacks and drinks are served in recyclable or bio-degradable containers. Also the stage for Osheaga employs a number of clean technologies, such as a super energy efficient sound system, and LED lighting.
Oya Festival, Norway
Oya festival is the largest outdoor music festival in Oslo, Norway and promotes a diverse line up from across the globe. Litter at the Festival are sorted into different categories, food is organic and sourced locally, electric and hydrogen-powered cars are used by staff on the site, its four stages are powered by 100 per cent renewable energy sourced from hydroelectric dam instead of polluting generators, and it provides eco-friendly diaper change stand and eco-labeled sun block.
Pasteurizing water with solar power
The AquaPak is a small device that can pasteurize water. The pack uses solar energy to heat the water that has been placed inside up to temperatures to pasteurize it and thus make the water safe for drinking for both those out enjoying the great outdoors and for those that lack any other source of safe drinking water. 
In laboratory testing, the AquaPak killed 99.99 per cent of the pathogens that were present in the water. The pack achieves this by using solar energy to get the temperature of the water inside over 65 degrees Celsius. The pack can take four to five liters of water at a time and it can take around two hours to reach pasteurization temperatures. Simply fill it with water and lay it down flat in the sunlight. The pack can be refilled many times a day, allowing it to pasteurize enough water for a family of four to use in countries with bright, hot days.
The AquaPak is a cheap and simple method to provide safe drinking water to many people, thus significantly reducing needless deaths. The AquaPak is available for sale in many countries for use by those who enjoy life outdoors, for example camping or hiking. It allows them to reliably and efficiently rid the water they collect from rivers or streams from any pathogens.
Key ring and tourch running on solar power
There is a new device that acts as a key ring as well as torch running on solar power. The device has powerful LED torch even though it looks small in appearance. This device can be charged from both Ambient light and solar light. The tiny size of the torch makes it convenient to carry around with ease anywhere you go. 
It used three LED’s along the edge which can provide light for around 2-3 hours when the internal battery is fully charged. It takes around six hours for it to get fully charged. The solar panel and LED’s are housed in a shockproof rubber casing to protect the torch.
The key ring torch measures only 5.9 cm x 3.4 cm x 1 cm and is priced at £7.95.
charge your iphone with solar power
The very concept of keeping an iPhone fully charged? Laughable. But using the sun as a power source? That’s positively preposterous.
Apparently crazy is on the menu over at Dexim HQ. Their new solar- powered P-Flip, promises to juice an iPhone’s talk time up to eight hours. The rigging basically looks like a bulky black and camouflage case. You slide the iPhone in and the panels soak up sunlight and transfer it over to the phone’s power-hungry battery.
While the P-Flip manual claims a full solar charge takes 10-12 hours, Dexim’s website says 15 hours. It doesn’t matter if it’s cloudy, foggy or smoggy — the battery charges up at the same rate no matter the conditions. 
The side button and an array of three LED mini-lights tell how much energy is left. The middle light also keeps informed if a solar or USB charge is taking place.
The P-Flip is also digitally ambidextrous, flipping both horizontally or vertically — cool for hands-free viewing of videos in either direction. There’s an included USB cord too that can used to sync the phone with iTunes on a PC or Mac.
In any event this solar charging case isn’t a bad idea. Anyone who needs their phone charged and won’t be near an electrical outlet for a while would be smart to get one.
Spain boasts of worlds largest solar station
Spain has opened the world’s largest solar power station, meaning that it overtakes the US as the biggest solar generator in the world. The nation’s total solar power production, which benefits from the peninsula’s 340 days of sunshine a year is now equivalent to the output of a nuclear power station. Spain is no stranger to the harnessing of renewable energies. It has hydro-electricity plants – only china and US have built more dams – its wind power sector, like solar power, has received generous government subsidies. The new La Florida solar plant takes Spain’s solar output to 432MW, which compares with the US output of 422MW. The plant at Alvarado, Badajoz, in the west of the country, is a parabolic trough. With this method of collecting solar energy, sunlight is reflected off a parabolic mirror on to a fluid-filled tube. The heated liquid is then used heat steam to run the turbines. The mirror rotates during the day to follow the sun’s movement.
The solar farm covers 550,000 square meters (the size of another 77 soccer pitches) and produces 50MW of power. Protermosolar, the association that represents the solar energy sector, says that within a year another 600MW will have come on-stream and projects that by 2013 solar capacity will have reached 2,500 MW. The northern, thought thinly populated, region of Nabarra is already producing 75 per cent of its energy from a range of renewable including wind, solar, hydro and biomass. Spain’s wind farm now produces around 20,000MW of electricity and on one day in November they accounted for 53 percent of demand. 
Last year solar energy met 2.8 per cent of demand out of total of 12.9 percent of all available renewable. In March, the government in Madrid announced a plan to increase the renewable source to 22.7 per cent by 2020, slightly ahead of EU targets. Spain is now the fourth largest manufacturer of solar power technology in the world and both solar and wind power technology exports have become valuable earners.
Solar powered train in Belgium
Trains already have a reputation for being a very clean form of transport but Belgian commuters can now boast railways which are partially powered by solar energy.
A public-private consortium consisting of Belgian rail management company Infrabel and solar developer Enfinity has installed 16,000 solar panels on the roof of a 3.4 km long tunnel between Antwerp and the Dutch border, creating enough electricity to power 4,000 trains a year.
The unique feature of the project, designed to produce 3.3 gigawatt hours a year, is that the energy produced does not flow into the national grid but is used directly by the trains. Enfinity says that by cutting out the middle man, the grid operator, it can offer electricity about 30 per cent cheaper.
Enfinity and the other investors, such as the councils of the towns of Brasschaat and Schoten which border the tunnel, expect to see a return on their joint investment of 15.7 million Euros ($22.12 million) within nine years. Enfinity says the solar panels used in the project are made by Chinese company Jinko Solar, which it said offered better returns than European competitors.
Passengers on a train entering the solar tunnel, which was inaugurated in June, reacted positively. “We have solar panels at home so we know that it works and it’s pleasant to see that we don’t have to pay too much for electricity. So yes, I think it’s a nice initiative,” said passenger ElsKrols on her way from Antwerp to the small town of Noorderkempen.
Energy Windows
Everyone must have come across solar powered windows before but may not have seen anything as beautiful as the one by Sony. With flower power on their minds, Sony showed off its new Hana Mado Flower Window at the Eco products 2010 exhibition in Tokyo on December 10, 11 and 12. Using dye-sensitised solar cells to convert light into electrical energy, the window is also easy to install on already existing buildings. 
As a demonstration, Sony hooked us a little fan to the window and every time the light was blocked, the fan stopped moving. The technology also is comparatively cheaper than other solar technology we come across today.
Sony’s windows come in a range of colors too though the company isn’t really sure when the windows will show up in the market.