Tag Archives: energy

Top 5 solar-powered designs to incorporate into your daily life

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One resolution that we should all be striving towards collectively by now – is to start living more consciously and in an eco-friendly manner, which includes paying attention to, and giving consideration to our energy sources. Curbing fossil fuel consumption has now become a priority, and we have a more positive energy source in mind as an alternative – the Sun! Solar energy has pretty much won over the world, and we see it being utilized in all aspects of design, whether it’s solar-powered kitchen appliances, homes, or even hotels. And, we’ve put together a collection of ingenious solar-powered products that will make a MAJOR difference in your everyday life. From a versatile solar-powered light that charges your phone and folds flat when you travel to Garmin’s new solar watches – these solar-powered designs are bound to make some eco-friendly waves this year.

1. Sunne Light

Marjan van Aubel and Dutch lighting brand Sunne teamed up to create a self-powered solar light that energy by day to light up your home at night. This is their first product and it is called the Sunne light. It is a sunlight-mimicking lamp that gathers solar energy and is exclusively powered by it. It aims to bring the power of the sun into your home!

Why is it noteworthy?

The Sunne light has been equipped with photovoltaic cells and is meant to be hung before a window. The suspended lighting fixture collects solar energy through the entirety of the day, and at night it utilizes this energy to illuminate your home. It features an integrated battery that stores the solar energy it collects, eliminating any reliance on an external or additional power source.

What we like

  • Inspired by the horizon
  • The lamp remains suspended in the air

What we dislike

  • Hefty price tag

2. The MEGAPUFF

The MEGAPUFF is the Solarpuff’s bigger sibling and is designed especially for camping enthusiasts, travelers, trekkers, or anyone living in an area prone to power outrages. The MEGAPUFF is larger in size, and teams up with a larger battery that doubles up as a power bank, illuminating your surroundings pretty well and keeping your gadgets charged at all times.

Why is it noteworthy?

Since it has a larger design, the MEGAPUFF  provides a brighter light, capping at 3oo lumens (more than thrice as bright as the Solarpuff). It features adjustable brightness as well as color temperature, letting you choose between 7 different light settings, varying from a cool white light to a warm yellow light, a deep red light (for repelling mosquitos), or a blinking red light for emergencies.

What we like

  • Powered by a solar panel, making it an eco-friendly design
  • Once fully juiced, it can charge your phone from 2%-82% in under an hour

What we dislike

  • Requires 8-10 hours of direct light to charge

3. Garmin Instinct 2X Solar models

Garmin released the Garmin Instinct 2X Solar and a Tactical Edition of the Instinct 2X Solar. The Instinct 2X Solar was created for outdoor enthusiasts who love spending time in the great outdoors, while the Tactical Edition was designed for their military and law-enforcement clients who require extra charging capability.

Why is it noteworthy?

The new edition Instinct 2X Solar comes in a relatively large, 50mm polymer case which is designed with military-grade shock, water, and thermal resistance. Designed for military ops, the Instinct 2X Solar Tactical Edition does a little more: It features night vision compatibility and has Garmin’s Jumpmaster mode for calculating high-altitude points during skydiving or parachute jumps.

What we like

The Instinct 2X Solar models are added with a new feature for tracking the wearer’s performance during obstacle course events

What we dislike

  • The watch strap comes with only one option

4. The Invisible Solar

The Invisible Solar are panels that look like these clay tiles but actually have cells underneath them that will be able to generate solar energy and power the building they are placed on.

Why is it noteworthy?

The common monocrystalline silicon cells are made from non-toxic materials and are the “invisible” part of the solar panels. Each panel is able to reach a 7.5-watt peak (peak energy capacity) and weighs around 2 kilograms each.

What we like

  • The ceramic tiles look opaque but are still able to absorb the sun rays that will power the cells
  • They are even self-cleaning as it has photocatalytic properties

What we dislike

  • Aesthetics are unassuming

5. SAMMANLÄNKAD

IKEA and Little Sun teamed up to create SAMMANLÄNKAD. It is a collection of solar-powered lighting accessories that includes an aesthetically designed table lamp and a cute portable light bringing the spotlight to an “alternative source of energy to power everyday objects,” according to IKEA.

Why is it noteworthy?

The solar-powered table lamp piqued our interest due to its cohesion with the movement of planet Earth at an angle and path around the sun. Thus, the half-sphere-shaped light is encapsulated by a reflective metal plate and the Earth’s planetary motion is closely mimicked by the two metallic rings.

What we like

  • The lighting accessory doubles as a pendant lamp thanks to the adjustable metal frame
  • The light source can be removed from the housing for use as a torch if need be

What we dislike

  • The products look difficult to clean + maintain

The post Top 5 solar-powered designs to incorporate into your daily life first appeared on Yanko Design.

Petrofac and Seawind Ocean Technology join forces to deploy two-bladed floating wind turbines

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Energy efficiency and power are usually results of joint efforts of different resources. Turbines are just some of the more efficient producers of energy and we believe this technology will continue to be used. It will also improve and speed up for the better as more innovations and inventions are introduced by many companies.

Petrofac and Seawind Ocean Technology have started on a new partnership that will implement the use of two-bladed floating wind turbines. Petrofac will be using Seawind Ocean Technology’s turbines in many of its projects. The London-based company is known for its focus on building and operating facilities while Seawind is known for its turbines.

Designers: Petrofac and Seawind Ocean Technology

Seawind turbines can introduce improvements to most sea conditions including deepwater and cyclone-prone areas. The two-bladed floating turbines come with a concrete floating structure that can be used on most sea conditions. With a major partnership, Petrofac will help in the installation, assembly, and maintenance of the said turbines.

Seawind’s twin-blade technology can last up to 50 years. It can improve rotor stability and make generation more efficient. Officially called as the 6-126 turbine, this turbine comes with a teetering hinge that separates the shaft and rotor. Another advantage of Seawind’s tech is that the turbine is protected from harmful and heavy loads. The turbine also offers higher speeds as made possible by an active yaw control.

Seawind will benefit from the services Petrofac will be providing. Petrofac will offer design verification, engineering, procurement, and construction. This will be Seawind’s first-ever floating offshore wind turbine demonstrator in the European waters. We can expect the system to be operational by Q1 2024.

Petrofac will continue to deliver to clients results that are made possible by technology that works and innovation. Effective offshore application is possible with both Petrofac and Seawind’s efforts. The combined technologies and services will make harnessing energy with improved speed and efficiency. Another advantage of the system is that it can be assembled in a harbor with cranes. Sea installation won’t require any installation vessel.

Let’s take a look at the Seawind 6-126’s technical specs. Its rated capacity is 6.2MW while rotor speed is 20.8 rpm (rated power). The rotor’s diameter is 126 meters. The turbine can go beyond 50 meters and tip speed is 137 meters per second while the operating wind speed can go 3.5-25 m/s (12.5-90 km/h). It can withstand cyclones up to 70 m/s (250 km/h) with 90 m/s (325 km/h) gusts. All these are just numbers but we believe the technology will work and offer many benefits once operational.

The team-up of the two big companies is expected to succeed in this renewable energy project. Both have good track records in design and implementation. Petrofac, specifically, has obtained several contracts and partnerships with other groups in the UK and the global market that will support different projects concerning water, hydrogen, carbon capture, and storage. Seawind Ocean Technology, on the other hand, will continue to deliver strengthened execution capability.

The post Petrofac and Seawind Ocean Technology join forces to deploy two-bladed floating wind turbines first appeared on Yanko Design.

This credit-card sized antenna harvests energy from 5G signals into wireless power for IoT devices!

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Harvesting abundant sources of renewable energy and then converting them into something valuable has been the quest humankind has been on for decades. This makes even more sense in current times when we are on the brink of exhausting earth’s vital resources, causing unrepairable harm to the planet. As scouts of this very quest, the team at Georgia Tech’s ATHENA lab has created a 3D-printed energy harvesting antenna that’s capable of garnering electromagnetic energy of the 5G signals to juice modern-day gadgets. The technology is literally about putting the overcapacity 5G network bandwidth to judicious use – turning it into a wireless power grid that could shape the future of our relentless energy requirements for IoT devices or mobile devices.

They’ve created a flexible Rotman lens-based rectifying antenna (rectenna) that can collect the millimeter-wave in the 28-GHz band – the first of its kind. Previously there have been attempts to harvest the 24 or 35 GHz frequencies, but they were not practical since they only worked when they are in sight of the 5G base station. Emmanouil Tentzeris, Professor in Flexible Electronics in Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, rightly summed it up by saying, “The fact is, 5G is going to be everywhere, especially in urban areas. You can replace millions, or tens of millions, of batteries of wireless sensors, especially for smart city and smart agricultural applications.”

This one is by far the most potent wireless power grid capable of powering devices at acute range – much better than any existing technology aimed at doing so. The credit card-sized iteration of the technology has a spiky plate around the center, which assimilates the 5G network’s millimeter waves. Just to compare, the rectenna design antenna developed by the team is almost 21 times more capable of sucking power from any direction – making it a viable bendable energy harvesting system capable of being employed in future technology implementations for the end-user.

It could be anything from an energy harvesting phone case, a credit card in your wallet that could charge your smartwatch at the end of the day, or a deck of cards that does more than its core intended purpose. For now, however, the innovation is only capable of powering low-energy IoT devices like sensors on your thermostat, but still, it the first step in the limitless possibilities that it promises.

Designer: Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology

NFTs are both priceless and worthless

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It is no longer possible to ignore NFTs, the crypto off-shoot that can tie intangible assets to specific, unalterable tokens. Interest in NFTs (non-fungible tokens) has spiked over the last year, and is now breaking into the mainstream with several h...

Nest makes its Seasonal Savings program free for all thermostat users

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To help customers save energy (and money) this summer, Nest is offering its Seasonal Savings feature for free to its connected thermostat users in the US and most of Canada. The feature makes small tweaks to Nest thermostat settings to help reduce en...