Hair solar

A Nepali teenager has come up with a way to use hair to replace silicon in solar cells. The melanin in the hair is photo sensitive and a conductor, and can be bought for pennies a kilo. Panels could be made for £23, or less when production is scaled up.

There's no real explanation of what Milan Karki has done to the hair to take advantage of melanin's attributes. If I find them I'll investigate further.

The Solar Fridge

An English student has designed a solar fridge for use in Africa and elsewhere where power supplies are unreliable or nonexistent. It uses evaporation to keep its inner chamber at around 6 celsius and can be fashioned from scavenged materials.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse