Horizon announces versatile Sunbox solar power charging system

People who are trekking in the wilderness, stranded at disaster sites or living in developing nations all have one thing in common – lack of access to an electrical infrastructure. Solar charging devices such as the Solio, iCharge and Joos Orange have been designed to meet the needs of some or all of these groups. One of the latest such systems, Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies’ Sunbox USB 3.0, is particularly versatile.

The Sunbox gathers solar energy through a 1.8-watt waterproof photovoltaic panel. Whenever the sun is shining, that panel automatically starts charging the power system module, via a 3-meter (9.8-foot) cable. That module incorporates a 6-volt 3,000 milliampere-hour battery, two USB ports, and an LCD screen that displays the battery’s level of charge. A full charge requires 6 to 10 hours of sunlight. (more…)

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IBM is bringing electric power–in the form of solar panels–to data centers with trouble getting power in the first place.

The company tomorrow will detail a pilot project that couples solar power with water-cooled servers that run on high-voltage direct current. The method results in about a 10 percent energy savings by reducing the losses that normally happen in converting from alternating power from the grid to the direct current servers run on, according to Kota Murali, the chief scientist of nanotechnology at IBM India who developed the pilot as a side project.

That level of energy reduction is significant for large data centers with many servers, but the implications of solar and servers are potentially profound for places that don’t have access to reliable power, Murali said.

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How to make a solar powered can cooler

The summer sun can be very severe and dehydrating. While cold drinks are often considered as a ‘solution’ to beat the heat and re-hydrate the body, very often, these canned drinks do not remain cool in spite of using Styrofoam coolers. Here is an elegant way to make use of the sun to keep the drinks cool – by making a solar powered can cooler!

It is easy to make one yourself and this DIY project is detailed in simple steps in the tutorial here.

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15 advancements in solar power that could fight global warming


The growing effects of global warming, resulting from the rising of earth’s average temperature, caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases which in turn is a result of consistent deforestation and burning of fossil fuels, has to be brought to a standstill without further delay to protect are planet from its evil and scrupulous actions. The expansion of sub-tropical deserts, change in the pattern of precipitation, thawing of glaciers, permafrost and ice-caps, extreme climatic behavior, drought, heavy rainfall, shifting temperature regimes, all of these include the endless evil effects of global warming on mother earth.

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How to make a solar powered laptop charger


This is a project where you will create means to provide power to electronic gadgets like laptop with the help of solar energy. These kinds of gadgets are portable, but the chargers can’t be carried along with us in the outdoors. Suppose you are in the outdoors and you don’t have the charger with you and at the same time it is quite urgent for you to use it. How will it be possible? In this kind of situations, solar powered charger comes handy.

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Their days of sitting in a ramshackle, sweltering school building, or taking lessons under the shade of a tree, could be about to change. Children in the farthest corners of rural Africa are the target of a mobile, solar-powered classroom that was launched in Johannesburg this week.

The classroom, built inside a 12-metre-long shipping container by electronics firm Samsung, has an array of gadgets including laptops, a video camera and a 50-inch e-board in place of a blackboard.

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Apple planning solar farm near data center, report says

Apple plans to build a solar farm next to its massive data center in Maiden, N.C., according to a Charlotte Observer report.

The company has won approval to reshape the slope of 171 acres of vacant land it owns adjacent to the data center in preparation for a data center, according to permits issued in Catawba County. However, the permit offered no details about the solar farm project itself–dubbed Project Dolphin Solar Farm– including its size, the newspaper noted.

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10 most unusual solar powered gadgets 6


With all sorts of iPhones, iPads and tablets coming our way, would it not be fun to be a lane apart? To be equally stylish, but with a twist. Those who have already ‘upgraded’ themselves are going to regret for having been in a hurry. Had they waited a bit more, there was fortune coming up for them. There are many cool gadgets that would work when charged by the Sun. This is possible nowadays. Style up your lives in an eco friendly way to cope with alarming global concerns coming up at such a fast pace. This will help in keeping the environment clean.

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In the simplest terms, what we are dealing over here is an electric lawnmower that runs on power of batteries that are eventually charged by an array of solar cells. It is going to cut all running costs and hassles, that you might have encountered till date, with your conventional fuel guzzlers. Not to mention, the numerous benefits it offers in terms of low maintenance and even lower environmental impact. Besides, it is not going be noisy even after you intend to make the worst possible use of it.

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A Chinese firm showed interest in entering into a joint venture with Pakistani private sector for introducing solar-powered bikes in the country. A delegation of Chinese businessmen on Saturday visited Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) and expressed keen interest in developing cooperation between the private sectors of the two countries.

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