The Times writes this morning about that wind-power invention by West Seattleite Chad Maglaque; he entered it in Google’s Project 10 to the 100th, which will publish word tomorrow of the 100 finalists (from among 100,000+ entries) who made it to a public vote. 1:55 PM UPDATE: Thanks for the tip from Todd – Google has just announced it’s delaying the announcement of the 100 finalists till March; read the announcement here.
I’ve been waiting for something like this! I’ve always thought it would be great if you could walk into a store purchase a solar panel or wind combine and just “plug it in”. The public really needs something that is user friendly. Not everyone has the education or money required to fully research and buy renewable energy options for their homes. This invention is great!
i’m thinking every little bit helps.. it may not cut your electric bill that much.. but think of the electricity it could save if we all had just one…
if nothing else, that’s electricity someone somewhere doesn’t have to burn coal to generate.
Solar panels are available off the shelf at Fry’s in Renton. There are several different models, a couple that are fairly large in both size and output.
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It typically only take 15% light to produce full voltage, although amps need more sunlight.
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I’ve personally used solar panels for ~30 years to charge battery backup systems… remembering an earthquake while living California where I was the only one in the apartment complex not without power, everyone else was using flashlights. My neighbor had a battery powered TV he was turning off during commercials to conserve the batteries.
He made it clear he was jealous of my power source, so I lent him another flashlight.
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That particular quake took out over 100 transformers from the wires swinging into each other and shorting out; taking out the transformers. Took 3 days for the power to be restored.
I like the idea in theory (although the aethetics give me pause, they’re no worse than TV antennas) but wonder how well birds will stay away from them. Talk about bird strike. I can see it taking out the local population, baby birds starving in their nests, and silent spring once more. Not to mention what hitting a bird would do to the little windmill. It would also capture an awful lot of bugs. “Hello, I need my eaves cleaned, and – oh, yes, – would you scrub my windmill, too, please.”
Maybe some kind of wire mesh would keep the birds out.
Ooooo, very cool. I want one! I’m struggling with outrageous winter heating bills right now, and I’d love to run my laptop, TiVo, and few other gadgets off renewable energy at home. Why is that so hard (and expensive)?! I’ve got two blenders in my workshop, how do I get started?!
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