Eco homesGarden Ark

The eco home like Garden Ark is to be made available in an easy to assemble kit form and is constructed from natural materials such as FSC-certified wood, soil and grass. The user of eco homes can plant his or her garden on top of the roof to match the surroundings.

Santander Building to be the first zero CO2 office

Solar-powered building designed to be carbon neutral.

Designed by MarioCucinella Architects, the Eco Santander Building is designed to be the first carbon neutral building in Milan. The Eco Santander Building is equipped with 4000-square-meters of photovoltaic panels on its roof, which generates all the energy the building needs to satisfy its cooling demands.
Santander Building

The Eco building is on the outskirts of the city and is raised 13 meters above the ground with piazzas, pathways and green areas below. The carbon neutral building maximizes the use of natural light and ventilation to further reduce the energy required by the eco building

Nepalese teenager replaces silicon with human hair for cheap solar energy

Solar panel made using human hair costs 75% less than conventional solar cells.

Milan Karki, born in one of the poorest countries in the world - Nepal, has tried to end energy crisis in the country and the world with a solar panel that is about 75% cheaper than industrial made solar panels of comparable capacity.

The secret to this low-cost solar panel is not as hi-tech as one would imagine as all the teenage inventor did was to replace the expensive silicon normally used in solar cells with a comparably cheaper product – human hair. The young inventor says that human hair due to the presence of Melanin is sensitive to light and also acts as a type of conductor.

human hair solar panels_2

The panel produced using this technique costs around £23 and produces 18W of power at 9V.The inventor believes that if the product is mass produced, the panel could be made available in developing countries at half that price, which would make it four times cheaper than other panels available on the market today.

E. INK

Electronic Ink displays powered by solar energy.

Korean manufacturer Neoluxiim has developed a new range of solar-powered E-ink displays that support rotating display images and text. The new displays are self-contained units with everything from the power generator, the program that run the displays and the unit itself is packed into a single unit.

The solar panel is capable of drawing power from commercial-grade indoor lighting that helps the display run in places where the sun doesn’t shine. The company claims that the system is just 7.5 mm thick and can work with any light source that offers more than 400 lux of illumination.

The panel is efficient enough to power the display for up to 18 months of continuous use. In addition to the use of green energy, the E-ink displays require no maintenance and can easily be configured and left alone without any additional effort.

Sunny Flower spreads its petals to harvest solar energy

Solar-powered portable electronics charger.

With the number of portable electronic devices an average human owns on a rise, inventors are looking for green ways to charge these devices. Solar energy seems the most promising way to charge our electronic gear and there has been no shortage of solar-powered gadgets on the market. Industrial designer Fandi Meng has designed the “Sunny Flower,” which promises to offer your gadgets a green charge every time.


The device works by spreading its petals onto glass or any other surface to absorb sunshine and recharge its built-in battery. When the device is fully charged its indicator light will shine to catch your attention. After a complete charge the petals of the flower can be brought together into a compact stick which can then charge various mobile devices.

sustainable library in Kazakhstan

Sustainable library uses computer modeling techniques to lower energy requirement.

BIG Architects have unveiled plans of an incredible library that is to be developed in Kazakhstan. Dubbed, Nursultan Nazarbayev, the library design will be comprised of four parts – a circle, a rotunda, the arch and the yurt. The structure will offset or maximize solar glare depending on the climate and the need.

BIG Architects, Eco Architecture, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Library, Sustainable Architecture, Solar Glare, Solar Energy, Solar Gain, Environment


The designers minimized the cooling load on the design using some advanced computer modeling to calculate thermal exposure on the building envelope. The overall design of the library makes some parts receive more light than others, which needed the designers to create a geometric pattern of the entire structure to regulate solar gain.

SOLAR ENERGY

Solar energy today means clean and green mean of energy, but solar energy is being harnessed by humans both intentionally and UN intentionally since the very solar day they came into existence. Simply sitting in sun means absorbing solar energy to aid our bodies with vitamin D, preserving food with the drying process using solar energy is another primitive but very effective mean of harvesting the solar energy.
Solar energy moved along with the development of human societies, Babylonians, Arab, Moorish, Mughal’s, and almost all Indian civilizations used solar energy as a natural lighting system, using reflective mirrors embedded into beautiful patterns in there buildings, along with the water and mercury pounds to reflect sunlight into desired directions. Solar energy took an absolute new meaning with the development of photovoltaic solar cells and very quickly became a popular idea of an alternative source of energy that could counter fossil fuel. But it was not until the last decade of the 20th century when solar energy became the ultimate symbol of self sufficiency triggered by general séance of chaos because of the war on terror.
Means of solar energy are evolving on daily bases, energy efficient and low cost means of solar energy are being explored to make solar energy a more viable source of power generation. Solar reflectors are being used to concentrate solar energy on one focal point in order to harvest the heat of the sun that is then used for running sterling engines and other types of turbines. Micro solar panels are being made for cost and energy efficient utilization of solar energy. Solar paints and ivy’s along with charges that use solar energy to power out gadgets and cell phones are becoming popular very quickly. Solar energy is free and you don’t need to kill innocent people to secure it for one nation only, every one in the world gets there fair and consistent share of solar energy every morning. It wont be wrong to state that solar energy will fuel our future beyond the boundaries of fossil fuel saga.

A green Ride

Niklas Palm, a design student at the Umeå Institute of Design, has shared with us his latest creation, the Audi IceKraft_, which is a wind and solar powered vehicle to make your icy rides green. The vehicle has a computer-controlled sail that is connected to an electrical engine that turns the sail to the optimum position. The power comes from solar cells that are covering the entire body of the vehicle.
The driver is positioned on his stomach facing forward and controls the Icekraft_ with two handles attached to the front blades. When for example the left handle is pulled toward the driver’s body, the vehicle leans to the left and creates a carving effect that makes the vehicle turn left.