Sounds great, a chocolate calculator but the only probem with that would be what happens when you eat some of the numbers? So of course it is not a chocolate calculator, it is however a calculator that looks like a nice bar of chocolate, it is even wrapped up similar to a real bar of chocolate, so there is bound to be a few accidents if we ever see it over here, so you have been warned.
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Yes its true, Picard Lederwaren the German leather bag manufacturer have come up with a collection of state of the art laptop bags. But these are not just any old laptop bags they have a large solar panel fixed to the top flap cover, this is where the free power comes from. The bags are of the standard size, which is ok if you have a standard laptop, and can be carried by the handle or on the shoulder with the strap provided.
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Gadgets can be pretty power hungry beasts and cause unsightly bulges in your pants, so here’s the eco friendly solution, the Picard Solar bag, not only does it carry it also charges.

I like the idea of my gadgets being charged whilst I carry them around but I don’t like it to the tune of $670 that’s just a crazy amount of money, I’d rather having bulging pants any day.

The Picard Solar Bag will be available form Picard in August, found via Random Expensive Good Stuff, thanks Juergen.

If “An Inconvenient Truth” got you thinking about putting a solar panel or wind generator in every corner of your life, here’s one place to start. Tammock Trading and Marketing, a Swiss company, has invented the first, powerful solar-powered backyard grill.
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Yeah, you’ve always wanted it, clean, pure energy, that’s cheap as free.

Well you can,,,

Ok,, do you have $50,000 USD lying around? If so, here’s the deal for how to generate your own power through a combination of solar power, electrolysis, and fuel cell power generation.

Thanks to a great article from the folks at Wired Magazine.

A guy named Stephen Friend, who is obviously a friend to the environment (what, if I don’t do the pun, it’ll just go to waste) put together a complete energy generation system that uses local water and solar power to generate energy.

He used his smarts to put together a complete mail order power generation system from the folks at the FuelCellstore.com. There they have all the stuff you could need to generate, store, and release naturally generated power in a safe and managable way. Read the rest of this entry »

Scientists from the University of Tor Vergata, located in Rome, announced that they developed a new type of solar panel made with the pigment of blueberries. The panel, as opposed to traditional ones, eliminated completely the use of silicon. The result is a much cheaper product and more efficient to a certain extent because the panels are more flexible and in the near future they could even become transparent sheets.

The technology is based on the idea that organic semiconductors could reduce drastically the cost of production of the solar panels, which is one of the main drawbacks of this alternative energy source. It is estimated that the standard solar panels manufactured with silicon have an efficiency rate of 15%, meaning that the electric energy produced is 15% of the solar energy captured. Read the rest of this entry »

Imagine a long weekend ahead of you, and all that you want to do is to take a long drive out of town and pitch a tent in some remote area in order to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Unfortunately, your currently lifestyle is too tangled up with electronics to warrant a divorce from gadgets even when you take a sabbatical away from civilization, which means you will have to learn to conserve energy in these devices as asking Mr. Bear’s permission to borrow his power outlet is definitely out of the question. Thankfully, we have to sun to help us out in such situations and it is devices such as the SolarPort 4.4 that make outdoor activities an enjoyable moment without worrying about your digital camera running out of juice at the most inopportune moment.

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Loopwing, I don’t think can even say it without smiling.

Go ahead give it a try!

The Loopwing is a new wind turbine from a Japanese company.

There are, aside from the fact that it’s a great looking home wind turbine to save you and your family lots of money on electricity by using good old free wind power, some great features on the Loopwing.

It’s quiet balanced “globe-rotating” style blades have a number of features not found in typical home turbine systems.

It can operate in winds as low as 3.6 miles per hour (1.6 meters per second). That’s a very light breeze.

Another advantage of the beautiful design is that it reduces vibration greatly over other designs. This is likely due to the length of the wing chord, and that along the length, vibrations can be sent towards the edge of the “globe-rotating” style blades, and thus they likely don’t end up shaking the whole system. (It’s only a theory).

It’s quoted at being 43% efficient, which, if true, isn’t half bad, especially when you consider that the more expensive solar cells don’t approach 20% efficiency, a bundle of these babies could be just what the doctor ordered, (I’m looking at you San Francisco, Chicago, and anywhere in Wyoming!)

The length of the blades really seems to be the real trick for this new wonder.

Click through for the Loopwing factoid image.

Thanks Gizmodo via Treehugger Read the rest of this entry »