Crave

So what happens after 2 a.m.?

(Credit: Unplggd)

Usually a blight is something you'd want to avoid, but according to Unplggd, if designer Vincent Gerkens has his way, the more blight out there, the better.

Fortunately he's referring to Blight, a concept that involves attaching solar panels onto venetian blinds. As the Unplggd article points out, Blight is a word play on "blinds" and "light," which I probably would not have figured out on my own. The panels soak up the sun during the day, and at night they light up your life. Or room. Or whatever you need illuminated, I suppose.

Basically, sunlight charges a battery cell on the top of the blinds. Then when you're ready to do some reading or conduct your weekly game of Canasta, you now have the power of light (!), at night, using no extra power.

Hopefully this will hit the mass market soon, as I'm sure many YouTube videos will follow showing just how well these can illuminate a room. This is a start, but other than the obvious OCD nature of the guy in the video, it doesn't tell me much.

Soon even more star power than usual will be absorbed by the Staples Center and Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.

In an initiative to reduce the overall carbon footprint of the two venues, Solar Power Inc., or SPI, has been hired by AEG to install its line of photovoltaic solar-panel power systems on their roofs, beginning in October.

The Staples Center, which seats approximately 20,000, is home to the LA Lakers, LA Sparks, and LA Clippers basketball teams, the LA Kings hockey team and the LA Avengers arena football team, as well as host to concerts and events such as the Grammy Awards.

When installation is complete, approximately 24,196 feet of the Staples Center roof will be covered with 1,727 of SPI's photovoltaic modules, which include cells made by Motech Industries, adding up to a 345-kilowatt solar-power system.

The famous roof "surfboard," bearing the Staples logo, will not be removed, but rather will be incorporated into the new design, according to SPI.

The Nokia Theatre LA Live is a slightly smaller, 7,100-seat venue that has hosted the 2008 American Idol finals, the American Music Awards, the ESPY Awards, and numerous concerts. Approximately 836 photovoltaic modules will be installed, covering about 11,663 square feet of its roof and supplying a 167-kilowatt solar-power system.

"Our investment to purchase these state-of-the-art photovoltaic solar-energy systems for both Staples Center and Nokia Theater LA Live, making them the first facilities of their kind to do so at this level, reaffirms our commitment to ensuring that our venues are the most environmentally friendly in the industry," Zeidman said in a statement.

The solar installation can be added to the venues' list of "green efforts," which includes things like waterless urinals and energy-efficient fluorescent and LED lighting.

QuickerTek solar panels for MacBook Air fold up to a rectangle about 10.5 inches.

(Credit: QuickerTek)

A new solar panel kit for the MacBook Air will both charge and power the laptop at the same time.

QuickerTek, a Wichita, Kansas-based company that sells accessories for Apple devices, calls its new portable solar power gadget the Apple Juicz MacBook Air Solar Charger.

The Juicz comes in three size and power options and has a one-year warranty, QuickerTek said Tuesday. As usual with solar energy, all that "free" power is going to cost you.

The smallest 19-watt Apple Juicz, which takes 14 hours to recharge the laptop, will sell for $500; the 8-hour, 29-watt model is $600 and the 5-hour, 58-watt model is $1,000.

In addition to laying out the initial money for the solar kit, you'll also need to shell out another $100 for a compatible MagSafe power adapter, or pay QuickerTek $25 to upgrade your existing power adapter. (For $500 to $1,000 you'd think they could throw in the adapter modification for free.)

You'll also need a bit of space to use these.

While each solar panel kit folds up into a rectangle about the size of a piece of paper, unfurling them for use requires room. The 19-watt model unfolds into 30 inches by 30.5 inches and the largest 58-watt model folds out to about 5 feet by 3.5 feet.

That doesn't sound like a big deal when you picture your green, conscientious self sitting outside this summer on a patch of grass, or at a picnic table, with your solar panel spread out beside you and passersby inquiring about your oh-so-ingenious gadget. In reality, how's this going to work when you're jockeying for space around an outdoor table at a coffee shop?

Correction: Spokespeople from SunPower and MMA Renewables said the size of the installation at Nellis Air Force base has been revised to 14.2 megawatts, not 15 megawatts as the Air Force and those companies originally said.

Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, the land of lots of sun and plenty of land, will be home to a 70,000 solar-panel installation which, at 14 megawatts, will be the largest in North America.

The U.S. Air Force on Tuesday said Nellis and SunPower have finished the first phase of the project, which will save the base $1 million a year and roughly $83,000 a month, when fully commissioned.

Nellis Air Force Base solar panels

(Credit: U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class Nadine Y. Barclay)

The project, started in July of this year, will bring the final two-thirds of the panels online in the next two months.

The SunPower solar panels will be installed on 140 acres of Nellis Air Force base land and use trackers that move the mounted panels to follow the sun during the course of the day. The trackers improve output by 30 percent.

A different view of Nellis' SunPower panels

(Credit: U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Larry E. Reid Jr.)

The 15-megawatt installation will be one of the biggest solar farms in the world. The Bavaria Solar Park in Germany is a 10-megawatt plant, and the Serpa Power Plant in Portugal is 11 megawatts.

But those solar parks act as power plants, whereas the Nellis installation will power only the base, which employs between 12,000 and 14,000 people, according to a representative. By comparison, Hewlett-Packard installed a relatively large corporate solar array in its San Diego facility last month that can generate 1 megawatt of electricity.

Under the contract, the base will pay a less expensive rate for electricity over the life of the panels, which typically have a 25-year warranty.

Update: The deal is financed by MMA Renewables, which includes equity investments from Citi and Allstate and debt provided by John Hancock Financial Services.

It is a purchase power agreement, or PPA, where Nellis will purchase electricity that the panels generate at fixed rates. The panels themselves are owned by the financiers.

In a release from April of this year, Nellis said that the installation will supply over 25 percent of the power used at the base.

An astronaut fixed a torn solar panel on the International Space Station on Saturday in a risky procedure that involved riding a robotic arm to the damaged area in order to install cufflinks on the torn wing, according to the Associated Press.

In an emergency mission, spacewalker Scott Parazynski rode the 90-foot robotic arm to the far end of the shuttle complex as the crew extended the wing to its full length. He then clipped a hinge wire and, guided by fellow spacewalker Douglas Wheelock, installed the cufflinks. The 2.5-foot-long rip had occurred while astronauts were unfurling the new array on Tuesday, but NASA officials weren't sure how the damage was incurred, Reuters said.

The International Space Station is a research facility that is in orbit 240 miles above the Earth's surface. The station uses the solar panels to generate its electricity by capturing sunlight and converting it into power.

Check out this CNET News.com gallery for more photos of the International Space Station and the ripped solar array.

(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET Networks)

One of the most noticeable trends at this year's ICFF was the prevalence of nature-inspired design, whether it be pillows with birds printed on them or wall fixtures with antlers. There was also, predictably, a heck of a lot of "green" design and LED lighting. This prototype, called the Corona Solar Light, was one of my favorites.

Designed by Shane Kohatsu and Emi Fujita, these are long skinny outdoor lights that resemble sunflowers or some other kind of tall, long-stemmed plant. In the "head" is a solar panel, which charges the light during the day so that the LED-infused "crown" (get it? Corona?) will be illuminated at night.

Corona lights can also be removed from their "stems" and attached to walls or placed on tables. Cool, right? Unfortunately, they can't turn to face the sun like real sunflowers would, but I suppose there's still some R&D to be done in the rapidly evolving field of luminescent biomimicry.

(Credit: SCI FI Tech)

We're all for alternative energy and all that, but it's not too often that we see a green technology that we must have. And if you drive, we suspect that you may feel the same way about the "Sunsei SolarCharger."

Manufacturer ICP Solar says the solar panel will keep your car battery perennially charged with energy from the sun as long as you keep it on the dashboard or attached to the windshield. SCI FI Tech says its "trickle-down" power is meant more for maintenance than regular charging, ensuring that any 12-volt battery is full without overcharging it. All we know is that, if it saves us a single towing bill, it's worth it.