Hasta La Gadget!

Imagine being able to capture solar power in the vastness and emptiness of space itself, before you send it down to the earth for humanity to consume. After all, it is not as though the world’s oil reserves are unlimited – no sir, we have been making effort to ensure that the world’s energy consumption is as efficient as possible, but this latest idea from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) might just be feasible – to come up with the ability for the military to “capture” solar power in orbit, before projecting it back down to earth.

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Solar Power Harvested From Space Beamed Down To Earth original content from Ubergizmo.

Last week we mentioned that the Ivanpah solar facility had gone online in California and was now creating 392 megawatts of electricity. We also mentioned that while the facility had … Continue reading

Apple’s work on an upcoming smartwatch includes explorations of induction charging and solar-powered batteries, according to a new report from the New York Times. As part of a larger piece about battery tech in general, the NYT revealed that Apple has been working on tests involving wireless induction charging for the smartwatch, and methods for incorporating solar panels into the display to draw power from the sun, and potentially ambient light.

Both of these are noted as technology in the testing phase for a wrist-mounted Apple wearable, which means they’re not necessarily very far along and likely not on tap for an Apple iWatch should it arrive sometime within the next year. The solar charging in particular, for example, is said to be years away from making its way into shipping product, according to the NYT’s source.

It does address a major pain point with current wearable tech, however, which might inform a hypothesis of what Apple is focusing on with any wrist-based smart device it is working on. We’ve heard from 9to5Mac that the iWatch will have a health and fitness focus, working with a new app that will come pre-installed on iOS 8 called “Healthbook.” Hardware details remain thin, but Apple did previously look into motion-based kinetic charging, which also lends credence to rumors that it’s exploring a range of power options.

Battery life for wearables is a huge concern, and the reason why is continued adoption: No end user is eager for the chance to have to remember to charge yet another device, of course, and the problem is made worse when, in forgetting to charge a wearable even once, they notice no overall impact to their lives. The double challenge then is to build a smartwatch that becomes integral to a user’s general routine, such that they’ll actively remember to charge it with the same frequency as their phone, and also to make it so that charging is a fairly infrequent requirement.

Apple has managed to sell a lot of things to people who neither users nor critics ever would’ve predicted they’d “needed” to begin with, with the iPad being the big shining example. They can probably do the same for the smartwatch, and these reports of their progress in its development signal to me they’re innovating in the right areas.

iWatch concept at feature image created by Todd Hamilton.

There is this particularly famous song that goes “London Bridge is falling down”, which is a ditty that I suppose most of us would know by heart. The city of London has plenty of bridges, actually, and London Bridge is not the only one. It seems that there is another addition to the number of bridges in that part of the world, which so happens to be a solar bridge. Not only that this is the world’s largest solar bridge, where it is called the Blackfriars Bridge. The Blackfriars Bridge happens to be part of the Blackfriars Station in London, where it has been fitted with 4,400 photovoltaic panels. The installation of these solar panels will hopefully reduce the station’s CO2 emissions by an estimated 511 tonnes (563 tons) annually.

Work on the Blackfriars Bridge kicked off in spring five years ago, and it is nice to know that the station has ended up operationally complete in time for the 2012 Olympics. Apart from that, it took nearly another year after that to complete the solar array installation, and by this year, the full refurbishment happens to be completed.

Apart from the solar panels being installed, part of the complete installation includes a new entrance on the south bank of the River Thames, a quartet of new platforms as well as an improved Underground station. The station happens to be one of the major points of a £6.5 billion (US$10.72 billion) Thameslink Programme, which has the intention of increasing train capacity on one of Europe’s busiest stretches of railway that runs from north to south through central London.

It uses Panasonic 250 Wp panels to soak up the sun, covering a total area of 6,000 sq m (19,685 sq ft). Sporting a maximum output that is estimated at 1.1 MWp (megawatt peak), this array of solar panels are tipped to generate 900,000 kWh of electricity annually, which is more than half the amount required to keep the station going.

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[ Largest solar bridge in the world is in London copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

The smart minds over at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are on the lookout to increase the level of efficiency that solar cells currently have, and in order to do so, they would need to assist these solar cells to take greater advantage of the sun’s rays. These MIT scientists are currently testing out solar cells with a layer of carbon nanotubes which is touted to “make it possible to take advantage of wavelengths of light that ordinarily go to waste,” at least according to a statement which was issued from MIT itself.

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Hot Carbon Nanotubes Could Increase Solar Panel Efficiency original content from Ubergizmo.