Solar – Kristen Baumlier

Category: Solar

SolarQue: A New Tube-shaped Solar Cooker

Posted on January 6, 2013January 15, 2013 by Kbaumlier

This past summer something shiny caught my eye at the Ingenuity Festival in Cleveland, OH. The SolarQue, a new lightweight tubular shaped solar cooker, was being demonstrated at the festival. Lots of people were interested in the design of the cooker, and also in eating the free food samples that were cooked in the cooker.

The SolarQue is shaped like a small pop-up projector screen and has a unique shape. Its design was born out of a technology that is used to heat water, the “evacuated tube.” The cooking tray, which slides into the tube can hold up to 3 pounds of food. The unit is made of pyrex and gets as hot as 600+ degrees in the full sun. It can heat up wherever there is light, even in freezing conditions.

I talked for a little bit to Ohio inventor behind the product who is a veteran solar designer and has experience in off-grid living. He found the shortcomings of many solar ovens and appliances and worked to create the current design. Many solar ovens take a while to heat up, and also are fairly heavy.

What is nice about the SolarQue is that it is less that 3 pounds and can cook up to 3 pounds of food in the tray. It takes about 10 minutes to cook hot dogs, and about 20 minutes to make scrambled eggs.

I tasted some of the potatoes that were cooked in the SolarQue. You can order a unit from their website, and the patent for the device is currently pending. Got sunshine? Why not cook with the sun?

Image Source:
http://www.solarque.com/

Links:

http://www.solarque.com/

SolarQue – Youtube video

Land Art Generator Initiative NYC Renewable Energy Public Art Competition 2012

Posted on January 10, 2012January 10, 2012 by Kbaumlier

Freshkills Park is a new public park in New York City. It was once the world’s largest landfill (formerly called Fresh Kills Landfill) but will eventually become the city’s biggest park, almost 3 times the size of Central Park. The park will be transitioning into its final farm in stages over the next 20 years, and will be designed to be a symbol of sustainable natural ecology within the context of the constructed city environment.

The park already is providing sustainable energy, and there are plans for more. The landfill below the park is currently generating methane gas, which is being sold to a local utility at an amount, which is enough to heat 22,000 homes. Due to the proximity to residential areas, the wildlife, and its role as a public park make it a unique site that requires sustainable energy that also can provide a visual, educational, or unique experience while conserving the natural environment

Got any artistic ideas of how renewable energy can be installed at the site? In partnership with New York City’s Department of Parks & Recreation, the 2012 Land Art Generator Initiative design competition is being held for a site within Freshkills Park. The competition is free and open designers, artists, engineers, architects, landscape architects, university students, urban planners, scientists and anyone else can enter with public art installation proposals. There is $20,000 in prize award money, and also a $1000 contest for high school students

The website promotes artist doing solution –based art and says, “The time is now for artists to go further and take an active role in solving the problem through their own work: solution-based art practice.”

All proposals should be pieces that are large scale clean energy generation which will continuously distribute clean energy into the electrical grid, with the potential to provide power to thousands of homes. Got an idea? You need to register with the website, and submit your final proposal by July 1, 2012.

To read more, you can check out the Design Brief and competition information on LAGI’s website.
Image Source:
Land Art Generator Initiative

Links:

Design Brief for Fresh Kills LAGI Competition

Land Art Generator Initiative

New York City’s Department of Parks & Recreation

The New Look of Solar Panels: SMIT’s Tensile Solar Structures

Posted on January 5, 2012January 5, 2012 by Kbaumlier

SMIT is a brother and sister design team, Samuel and Teresita Cochran, who have been working with architectural designer Benjamin Wheeler Howes to develop new innovative solar applications.

Their new design called Tensile Solar Structures are lightweight, modular systems that produce solar power and have a new look.

Usually the use of large solar photovoltaic panels are considered to be an eyesore, and a necessary evil of clean energy. Providing solar with a new look, Tensile Solar Structures are light, have a patterned appearance, and look like a piece of modern sculpture.

Tensile Solar is inspired by the intersection of fabric architecture, modern composite materials, and thin film photovoltaic technology.

The panels are supported by posts and high tensile stainless steel cables at their edges, Tensile Solar Saddle structures are free standing canopies and awnings. They span areas up to 850 s.f. and can deliver up to 3 kw of power.

Possible uses for the solar panels could be a shade cover in a backyard, a cover for a parking lot, or in other locations. The designs are patented, and both preconfigured and custom structures are available.

Image Source:
www.tensilesolar.com

Links: