NSW Farmers Association. Chilote House Shoe. Make a Greenhouse Out Of Recycled Plastic Bottles. If climate change is to be prevented and environmental consciousness is to prevail, then our children must be well educated in sustainability-focused initiatives. With that in mind, the school children at Mill Lane School in Chinnor, Oxfordshire collected 1,500 plastic bottles over the past 18 months in order to construct a greenhouse. After the year and a half of collecting plastic drink bottles, the pupils nailed them to the wooden greenhouse frame. Once the greenhouse was completed, they made full use of it by planting tomato seeds for the gardening club. It is reported that they’ve grown five feet in just two weeks — so maybe there is something to be said for plastic greenhouses! Rare pyramidal orchids were also been planted within. The school was also awarded vouchers through the RHS campaign for school gardening in order to buy the materials needed to build the greenhouse frame.
. + Mill Lane School via Thame Today Image: nist6ss. Printable A3-Sized Solar Cells. Solar energy sounds like a dream, but buying and installing the equipment necessary to harness the power of the Sun can be expensive. But what if you could print your own solar panels? The researchers at Australia's Victorian Organic Solar Cell Consortium (VICOSC) — a collaboration between the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), the University of Melbourne, Monash University and industry partners — have managed to print photovoltaic cells the size of an A3 sheet of paper. "There are so many things we can do with cells this size. We can set them into advertising signage, powering lights and other interactive elements. We can even embed them into laptop cases to provide backup power for the machine inside," said CSIRO materials scientist, Dr. Scott Watkins. These cells produce 10-50 watts of power per m2, and could be used to laminate the windows of skyscrapers, giving them an additional source of power.
Image courtesy of CSIRO. Electricity-Free Speakers. Charge Gadgets By Walking. How much oomph is in your stride? Each step you take releases enough energy to light up a bulb, and rather than let it go to waste, SolePower stores the energy as usable electrical power Developed by Matt Stanton and Hahna Alexander when they were students at Carnegie Mellon, the shoe insoles consist of similar parts as a mechanically-powered, hand crank flashlight. The duo initially designed the power-generating inserts to light an LED in the shoe for students walking to and from campus late at night. The energy from each heel strike is converted into rotational energy that spins the small magnetic rotors, which then generate an electrical current within coils of wire.
Together with the external power pack, the device weighs less than five ounces. Other power-generating, in-shoe concepts exist. Images: SolePower Photo Gallery.