Solar Panel Roof Tiles

Shaped just like regular roof tiles like I have on my house, these dark blue Solé Power Tiles are roof tiles designed to sustainably convert sunlight into electricity “without compromising aesthetics”.

Made by SRS Energy in Philadelphia, who say “the Solé tiles are made from a high-performance polymer often used in car bumpers, are lightweight, unbreakable and recyclable. Flexible solar technology by United Solar Ovonic is embedded inside each tile, allowing them to function independently of each other. Meanwhile, the performance of the system as a whole is monitored remotely by SRS Energy and US Tile. The director of engineering at SRS Energy is J.D. Albert, who also developed the electronic ink technology used in Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader.”

Coming in 2010, it’ll be interesting to see if they catch on. Bright blue roofs that is.

[Via: Springwise]

Green Your Storage

From time to time many of us have had to use storage facilities temporarily to store all that useful stuff that we just don’t need this minute. A company we have previously mentioned, Hall Street Storage, has now rebranded itself to iStoreGreen.

It purchases 100% renewable energy certified by Green-E* for its electricity. Beyond clean energy, it became known for creative green actions like offering biodegradable packing peanuts, clean reused packing boxes, smart green alternatives to bubble wrap like shredded paper from the office’s paper shredder, and a room for those who store to place discarded items that are given to local charity, rather than thrown into dumpsters and then landfills as with other storage spaces. Also desks for the company’s offices and shelving for the storage spaces are made from the wood reclaimed from the remodel of the Brooklyn building, plus they also have solar hot water heating.

It’s great to see a company using a traditional business model but greening it up so that they provide a better experience for customers at the same time as benefiting the planet. If you’re in Brooklyn or Manhattan (and soon, coming to more locations) and need storage, check out iStoreGreen.

Get Solar Electricity For Your Electric Car

An interesting video for you, the first half is about Zap Electric cars, a company with a very tall president with very small cars. The second half is about how they have teamed up with Akeena Solar panels to offer one heck of a consumer solution for around town driving, 100% home powered from solar panels.

The video is from Hippy Gourmet a US PBS and syndicated television series that’s in its ninth season and reaches over 34 million homes each week.

Solar Shaver Eco Product Review

I like the idea of a solar shaver, available from Nigel’s Eco Store. It’s clearly designed for traveling with a nice picture of an airplane on it. Leave it out in the sun for a few hours (or days if you forget about it like me), and it’s fully powered for your, er, shaving needs.

I use a razor usually and found changing to a shaver a little difficult. For a start this one just didn’t get that close, it was an effort to get a clean shave. I could have shaved my whole face by the time I had done one cheek with this. I’m not sure whether it was this shaver or electric ones in general. It is pretty handy, it’s small enough not to be cumbersome, either when carrying around or using. The only problem was when it ran out of juice (it lasts surprisingly long), you then have to put it in the sun for a while to recharge it. With half a shaved face.

With an intergrated cleaning brush in the cap, the solar shaver is available from Nigel’s Eco Store for £29.99.

Solar Powered Purses

While we don’t do free promotional spots for companies that contact us without doing some hands on testing of their products, we do come across some cool looking companies sometimes. Noon Solar create biodegradable bags with flexible solar panels for charging your phone or mp3 player whilst on the go.

California Shows It’s Solar Hot Spots

Issac from Cooler Planet dropped me a line to tell me about a new map they created that depicts the concentration of solar installations (both number of systems as well as the total watts) in California, USA.

It charts the growth of solar power over the last few years, only for California, but it’s quite interesting. In 2002, only 1,675 grid connected photovoltaic installations were registered with the California Energy Commission. Now in 2008 there are 29,628 installations recorded, which is a 17 times increase in just 6 years! In the last 3 years alone total installations have more than doubled.

Take a look at the map here.

Spinning Streetlamps

Solar powered streetlights and signs are not that unusual, but Panasonic have installed the solar and wind powered streetlights around their Panasonic Center in Tokyo.

“During the day the solar cells on top and the turbines generate power that’s stored in a battery at the base. At night the battery is used to run the streetlights, though the turbines continue to spin and produce power even in the dark.” [Via: OhGizmo!]

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