Hasta La Gadget!

Don’t you just hate it when at night you want to go to the toilet, or when you accidentally drop your phone and it’s too dark to see anything, especially right after you wake up and you’re all groggy? Granted that’s what bedside lamps are for, but if you’re into sustainability and solar power, then this concept device dubbed the Clip Holding might be a device you wish would be made a reality. Designed by a bunch of folks at the Shannxi University of Science and Technology, the Clip Holding is rather simplistic in nature, although chockfull of functionality.

Basically its design looks like a giant clip, with one side featuring a solar panel array which will be used to store energy for later use. Once the device has been fully charged, all the user would have to do is flip it over to the other side which features an LED plate. To activate the LED plate, all the user would have to do is touch a switch and let there be light! It’s simple, unassuming and with its clip design, we expect that it could have more uses rather than sitting at your bedside – too bad there’s no word on whether it will be made a reality. Any takers?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Toyota Smart INSECT is aptly named, Marine Drone can help clean up the ocean [concept],

If you’re on the go a lot, you know it’s hard to keep your gadgets charged up, especially if you use them frequently. Anyone who owns a 4G smartphone knows that if you surf the web, make a few phone calls, and update your Facebook page, you’re lucky if your device can last half a day. If you’re away from an outlet, your only option is some sort of external battery.

A new solar charger has turned up that will work with just about any gadget on the market called the Switch 8 Solar Recharger.

The folding solar panel connects to the included “Sherpa 50″ battery via a USB port. A bunch of tips will be available to allow direct charging of specific devices like the iPhone or Android smartphones. The battery also has a USB port allowing you to charge any USB device with its own cable. It’s maker, GoalZero promises the device is to fully charge a smartphone in three hours, and its portable battery module can be recharged with 10 hours of sunlight.

The device has an MSRP of $119.99(USD), but can be found at REI for just $99.95, including the flexible Luna LED light shown in the picture above.

Over at Inhabitat, the election hangover is finally starting to wear off, and we’ve been looking forward to see what President Obama‘s re-election could mean for clean tech and renewable energy. The first bit of good news came on election night, when Obama called for action on climate change. That’s all well and good, but what does it actually mean? For starters, it could mean the EPA enforcing stricter regulations. But the thing that most people in the renewable energy sector will be watching is whether the wind energy tax credit is renewed before it expires at the end of the year.

Continue reading Inhabitat’s Week in Green: Dyson Spheres, bladeless wind turbines and airless bike tires

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Inhabitat’s Week in Green: Dyson Spheres, bladeless wind turbines and airless bike tires originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Nov 2012 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Going green seems to be the in thing these days, and it looks like the numbers might be able to prove that. Launching in England is the world’s largest community-owned solar project under the Westmill Solar Cooperative. They are claiming to be the world’s largest community-owned solar project by attracting 1,650 investors and raising almost £6 million in just 6 weeks, a pretty impressive feat we’ll have to admit. Taking that money, they have purchased an existing 5MW solar farm near Oxford, a solar farm which managed to generate 4,900MWh of electricity last year. According to Westmill executive Phillip Wolfe:

“Solar power will become the world’s greatest energy source in our lifetime; heralding a new era of sustainable and ‘democratic’ energy supply. As the success of Westmill shows, solar energy enables ordinary people to produce clean power, not only on their roof tops, but also at utility scale.”

[Image credit – Neil Maw]

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Solar-powered Internet school helps South African children, V3Solar creates cone-shaped solar cells with 20 times more electric output,

When it comes to corporate social responsibility, companies do have a department dedicated to ensure that the less fortunate and in need of help in this world will be given a hand. Samsung is one of them, and recently they shared about assisting a village in South Africa by turning it into a solar-powered Internet school. The Samsung solar-powered Internet school is located in Phomolong, which is a rural area near Johannesburg, South Africa. Both students and villagers did not have access to modern educational facilities and access to the Internet prior, and in under a year since it was launched, the kids there have managed to discover the wonders of the Internet – and I am quite sure, too, the likes of Facebook and Twitter.

The entire school is exclusively solar-powered, and it was specially geared towards increasing accessibility to education and connectivity across the continent of Africa. Perhaps this is a working model of an example that could be implemented across remote rural areas in Africa that have limited or no access to electricity. [Press Release]

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Samsung launches solar powered internet schools in South Africa, Samsung solar-powered laptop up for pre-order in the US,