Beads that change color in the sun. Great for getting girls into science and teaching them about sustainable energy. Accompanying educational materials describe tons of cool project and experiment ideas. Beads will change colors over and over.
$10.99 at Entertainment Earth

SolSisters Solar Chimes 64.99 at eco-gardening.com

Unique Solar Chimes in the form of singing sisters will transform your garden or home with meditative and melodious tones that are generated by solar power alone, doesn’t require batteries, electricity or even wind. It will work in direct or indirect sunlight. Direct sunlight makes the brightest tones. These handmade SolSisters Chimes are individually colored so no two are alike. Uses high quality suction cups for ease in hanging.

Renaissance Lantern w/Flickering Light $29.99 from SmartHome.com

This solar powered LED light simulates the flickering of a candle for an entire night while charging itself during the day. It automatically turns itself on at night and off in the morning.
LED bulbs can last up to 30,000 hours. Add a romantic accent to your garden path along with a green touch.

BigBelly Solar Trash Compactor from seahorsepower.com

Readers who regularly follow my posts here at Great Green Gadgets might wonder what’s up with no posts in the past several days. The reason is that my wife and I have been moving from our place in Boston to San Diego (where we will get to in a few weeks, right now we are starting a very slow journey across the country) Now that all the packing is done and the movers have taken away all our stuff we can turn our attention back to Great Green Gadgets.

Speaking of Boston - we lived in Jamaica Plain where a great green inventor,James Poss, also lives. He invented the BigBelly made by Seahorse Power Company which is a solar powered trash compactor bin that is becoming more popular in urban areas. Here is a good article from our Boston Globe on the BigBelly. and another more recent article from the BBC.

The BigBelly is becoming a welcome visitor to busy urban settings, popular beaches, and other areas that generate large volumes of trash from pedestrians that necessitate the garbage cans be emptied frequently so it doesn’t wind up looking like this picture.

The solar powered trash compactor might be emptied only once or twice a day, not the 15 or more visits by greenhouse gas emitting sanitation trucks seen in some downtown trash cans. Some as in this Treehugger post might object to the fact that all this trash is just being put in the landfill but realistically, that trash would have never made been recycled anyway in our current level of mass eco-consciousness. Perhaps someone could find a means to separate and then recycle the components of BigBelly’s compacted trash to make it even more eco-friendly. As a person commented on the Treehugger post, Perhaps a way could be found to convert the compacted garbage into fuel pellets for plasma arc gasification systems.

While its great to reduce trash and greenhouse gases with the BigBelly, bigger solutions to our cities’ trash woes will be needed, like ways to reduce the paper and plastic trash from convenience stores and fast-food restaurants as well as figuring out a way to educate and encourage people to take great pride and responsibility for our communities.

Sun Jar Solar Light UK£ 19.99 or $39.69 at nigelsecostore.com

Perhaps you have heard of carrying moonbeams home in a jar? Almost as cool is the Sun Jar, a solar night light inside a jam jar from Designer Tobias Wong. Simplicity is the word here, all you do is set it down in the sun somewhere during the day and then when night comes it will automatically turn on for up to 5 hours. The frosted glass diffuses the light to a romantic glow from the energy efficient let light inside. The orange light is similar to that of a candle.
Also available at SuckUK - with lots more info and photos.

Solar Two, an “older’ concentrated solar power plant in the Mohave Desert - (replaced by newer technology)

In yesterday’s post I revealed how little I knew about concentrated solar power. In fact I had never heard of it before saw the video clip posted yesterday. Presumably there are more people out there who are like me and are curious about this technology. This wiki link is a comprehensive look at solar thermal energy.

What baffles me is why hasn’t there been more attention to this proven source of renewable, clean energy? Why when we think of solar power don’t we think of solar power plants just as much as we think of panels of photovoltaic cells on rooftops? Concentrated solar power can involve a huge array of hundreds or thousands of mirrors that concentrate the solar rays reflected by mirrors to heat molten salt to 565°C (1050°F). The salt then boils water which drives a steam turbine to generate electricity. There are other ways to do this as well.

Wired has a good article about the huge Solar Plants in the desert. Currrently, there are at least nine solar power plants in the Mojave Desert known as the Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS). It uses parabolic trough solar thermal technology along with natural gas to generate electricity. The facility has a total of 400,000 mirrors and covers 1,000 acres. These plants produce 354 MegaWatts, making the system the largest solar plant of any kind in the world.

(more…)

Solar thermal power generator tower in Seville, Spain

Europe is leading the way by putting online the first commercial solar power station which generates 11 Megawatts of electricity free of any greenhouse gas emission. It currently can power up to 6,000 homes. The video states that plans are being discussed to make an gigantic array of millions of these special mirrors in the Sahara, possibly enough to provide a significant source of power for all of Europe. More info in this BBC article.

I hope someone in the United States is paying attention! Imagine a similar arrangement in the Southwest desert.

BoGo Solar Flashlight $25.00 - (gets you one for yourself and one for donation) bogolight.com

The New York Times this morning has a good article about a company, bogolight.com that makes a solar flashlight. That isn’t very newsworthy in itself, but the interesting thing is that the acronym for their name “Bogo” means “Buy one, Give one”. What they are doing is for each solar powered flashlight you buy at $25.00 they give another one to various charities working in developing countries. This is very helpful in remote areas, refugee camps and similar place where there tends to be little light available after the sun sets. These flashlights can help children to study and read, help make women a little safer, and reduce the need for using kerosene or other fires for lighting. Regular flashlights in the developing world often tend to be crappier, don’t last long and require expensive batteries which also don’t last long.

Their website states the solar panel on the BoGo lasts up to 20 years, charges in 8 hours, and provides 4-5 hours of illumination. The solar panel provides power to 3 standard NiCad or NiMH AA rechargeable batteries. It also uses the super bright Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) - 6 super bright LEDs provide enough light to read at night. (from the bogo website)

Solar Orb Light $39.95 at
Hammacher.com

Summertime barbecues are approaching fast, some cool backyard lighting that also shows your support for solar power might be something to consider. This 10″solar orbs make awesome landing strip lights for any extraterrestrials planning to drop by for veggie burgers.

These waterproof lights can be placed in a garden pond giving a meditative effect from the reflections and colors that slowly turn blue, pink, red and green. Other possibilities include placing them in trees or structures. It also comes with a stake if you want them stationary in the ground. The built in solar panel recharges the internal battery during the day and a photo-sensor automatically knows when night comes and will turn on provide about 8 hours of light.

Wireless Amplified Speaker with Solar Charge TX/RX from

$163.681 USD AU$199.00 from igadget.com.au

This speaker derives it’s power from AA rechargeable batteries that can be charged by two separate sources, either a DC plug pack or by it’s built in solar panel. The speakers are contained in a weatherproof housing and a 46 meter wireless range that will allow you to celebrate your tunes in the great outdoors. It’s 900Mhz frequency allows the music signal to transmit through walls and floors with crystal clear sound. The speaker can be used in conjunction with portable MP3 or CD players, DVDs, TVs, PCs or any other audio device. Unit supplied with transmitter, receiver, power supplies, rechargeable batteries, connect cables and remote control.

One down side is if you are living outside Australia you will have a harder time finding it. (the igadget.com site didn’t seem to offer it) But you should be able to have it shipped for an extra fee.

The more cool Solar gadgets out there the better!