The people at HyMiniwere kind enough to send me one of their solar and wind power charging kits to try out, and I have to say that it is pretty cool. While I cannot condone buying one just for the sake of buying one, if you were actually in need of a new charger for your cellphone this would definitely be the one to get. In the kit that they sent me, there was the HyMini wind unit itself, a solar panel that plugs into it, assorted adapters for different electronics, and a regular wall plug so you can charge the internal battery by regular power if necessary. Here are some pictures of the parts:

I started the test of the solar part of the charger by hooking up the solar panel and charging up the enclosed battery pack. After a few hours of sitting on my windowsill, I unplugged the solar panel and plugged in my wife’s cell phone. The cell phone started charging immediately and in the same amount of time that the wall socket takes, her phone was all charged up. Pretty cool.

Next up, I wanted to test the wind turbine that is built right into the main unit. Since I don’t have much wind outside and I definitely don’t have much inside the apartment, I had to create some. Out came the big fan we use in the summer. I hooked the HyMini unit on the side of a lamp right in front of the fan. The little green light lit up to let me know that I was, in fact, charging the battery with wind power. After a while I disconnected the entire thing and later that night I charged my wife’s phone again - and it worked just as well.

This kind of charger would be fantastic for anyone who enjoys camping or riding their bike a lot (you can attach the wind turbine to your handlebars!), or would be great for an emergency kit. (which we most definitely do have, living in CA). Like I said before, I would not suggest to anyone to buy a new charger just to “go green” as if the charger you have works fine for you then you would be buying one product just to replace a different perfectly good one. But if you do spend a lot of time outdoors or away from home, or your charger kicked the bucket, this would make for a really good alternative to a “socket only” cell phone charger. You can check them out and/or order one at HyMini.com.

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OK I will bite…could it be true that a study shows that people are not interested in saving money, saving energy, or living in a home powered by solar power? According to The Guardian in the UK, these are the results of a study by the National House Building Council foundation. The article in the paper actually starts with this line:

People are not ready for zero-carbon houses and are not that interested in energy saving when they buy a house, according to research published today.

Really. People are not interested in saving energy when buying a home - very interesting. Even without all the talk about global warming and “going green” you have to wonder how an entire study could come to the conclusion that people have no interest in zero-carbon houses and saving energy. And to add insult to injury, “Most would prefer a higher specification bathroom or kitchen to personal investment in energy efficiency measures.” Once again, an ugly side of human nature takes first place in that being selfish about how nice your bathroom is much more important than saving energy or even their very own planet…where their bathroom is located.

And just so no one wonders, I like a nice bathroom. But would I take one over having solar panels on my house? Not in a million years.

Someone who really gets the green home aspect of building is Michelle Kaufman of Breezehouse fame. Her interview in Fast Company tells of her experiences with what people want from their homes - and it includes solar power, natural materials, and energy conservation. So what does she hear while talking to people about going green?

People do want to go green. They want lower energy bills and healthy environments for their families. It’s a no- brainer, but there are not many solutions out there.

That makes a lot more sense to me. I know I am in the business of talking all things “green”, but I doubt that if I asked someone outside of my world if they wanted to own a house that had solar panels, conserved energy, and was zero-carbon, that they would actually say no. One has to wonder who funds studies like that…could it be home builders or energy companies that stand to lose money because the general population is getting interested in alternative energy or conservation? Hmm…

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Now that summer is coming, everyone is going to start thinking about backyard barbeques and hanging around outside after dark. Did you know they make lights that get charged all day by the sun and can light up your backyard all night? Why not use the sun’s power to light up your party instead of paying the electric company! If you cannot find them at your local hardware store (which I am sure you can), you can always look online at a place like The Solar Light Store.

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Um, wow? Eventually this outta lower the price for the rest of us, don’t you think? From BizJournals:

A Massachusetts company backed by Silicon Valley venture money said Tuesday that it has successfully conducted the first-ever demonstration of manufacturing solar cells by inkjet printing.

Cool…

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ACCIONA will dedicate Nevada Solar One, a 400-acre, 64 MW plant, which is providing clean energy to more than 14,000 homes in Nevada, this Friday February 22, 2008. The plant employs more than 184,000 enormous mirrors that track the sun’s rays and convert that heat into clean energy. The result is a “sea of mirrors” spread across the desert.

Its use promotes economic growth, ecological balance and social progress. ConCentrating Solar Power (CSP) teChnology Innovation continues to reduce the cost of concentrating solar power. The parabolic trough technology used in Acciona’s Nevada Solar One plant represents a major renewable energy success story of the past two decades and has the potential to compete directly with conventional fossil fuel powered technologies. The plant employs 760 parabolic concentrators with more than 182,000 mirrors that concentrate the sun’s rays onto more than 18,240 receiver tubes located on their focal line. Fluid that heats up to 735°F flows through these tubes and is used to produce steam that drives a conventional turbine, which is connected to a generator that produces electricity. The plant produces enough energy to power more than 14,000 households annually. That is pretty cool stuff…

Building on its corporate mission to demonstrate the technical and economic viability of sustainable energy, Acciona launched its landmark Nevada Solar One plant in Boulder City, Nevada, in June 2007. Acciona’s Nevada Solar One project is the first CSP plant to be built in the last 17 years, and the third largest plant of its kind in the world. Designed, built and operated by Acciona Solar Power, the
plant demonstrates that concentrated solar power production is possible on a commercial scale.

Features

• Produces power during peak demand with near zero CO2 emissions
• The first concentrating solar power (CSP) plant built in the United States in more than 17 years
• The third largest CSP plant in the world
• Has a nominal production capacity of 64 MW with a maximum capacity of 75 MW
• Produces enough energy to power more than 14,000 households annually
• All of the plant’s electricity production is being sold to Nevada Power Company and Sierra Pacific Power Company under long-term
  power purchase agreements (PPAs)

Imagine if we just covered a tiny part of the desert with plants like these - I imagine we could power at least Los Angeles!

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But can it be built? The company EnviroMission Ltd. is working on a giant Solar Tower in Australia that should have the capacity of providing electricity for at least 200,00 homes - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Solar Tower technology is created when the sun’s radiation is used to heat a large body of air, which is then forced by the laws of physics (hot air rises) to move as a hot wind through large turbines to generate electricity. A solar thermal power station using Solar Tower technology will create the conditions to cause hot wind to flow continuously through its turbines to generate electricity. Pretty cool!

They are talking about a 2,000+ foot tall tower surrounded by a lot of ground cover around it to collect and guide the hot air towards and up the tower. I imagine that this will be a while in the making, but the idea sure is intriguing. There is plenty of space out in the desert in this country - along with installing wind turbines and solar panels, we should be thinking of using something like this. Combine all three technologies and we might be on to something!

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