Posts Tagged ‘solar’

Paradigm-shift theory applied to energy for transport

August 20, 2013 4 comments

20130820-105932.jpg Technology differs from science in its core purpose. The purpose of technology is to make things we understand work; that of science is to discover how things we don’t understand work. In mathematical terminology, science searches for the founding theorem, while technology pursues its many corollaries. Science is constrained by the faith it has placed in, or the frantic search for, a unifying paradigm; technology has, in principle, more freedom to apply science in many different ways.

However, in practice science and technology tend to operate a lot closer to each other. Read more…

Transparent photovoltaic surface is a gamechanger

July 27, 2013 1 comment

20130727-093642.jpg Aix-en-Provence based Wysips® (What You See Is Photovoltaic Surface), a subsidiary of Sunpartner, is ramping up the production of a transparent photovoltaic surface. Since winning the CTIA prize for groundbreaking innovations in Orlando, Florida in 2011, Wysips has further developed the technology reaching 90% transparency and packing enough power generation in an 0.5mm layer beneath the tactile surface to offset the energy consumption of the ‘network search’ function of a mobile phone and placing emergency calls.

Read more…

New Pegasus, the photovoltaic donkey

20130615-092355.jpg A new Pegasus roams the countryside of Macedonia. In the heart of the wine region, near Kavadarci, a donkey quietly grazes while recharging its batteries through the two solar panels deployed on its wings. As its owners lead it through the hills, Pegasus offers its 1000W batteries to anyone who might need them and allows his human companions to recharge their laptops and cameras when they camp at night.

Imagined by Philémon and Arnaud Verley, two artists from Lille, France, Pegasus is an experiment rather than an innovation. It has a use but no market. Yet the experiment illustrates brillantly how art and technology can team up to sketch out a different future where power generation could become portable and distributed amongst users.