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By Evan Ackerman

When it comes to charging gadgets, the most important criteria has to be versatility. Maybe you’ll find yourself near an outlet. Maybe you’ll find yourself with some AA batteries. Maybe you’ll find yourself drunk. Or maybe you’ll find yourself out in the sun, in which case a solar panel would be just what you need.

This solar panel comes in the form of a 4 port USB hub. Yes, USB ports generally provide their own power, so most of the time, this thing will be under a pile of stuff on your desk and plugged in and the solar panel will be useless. But there’s also a 700 mAh battery in there which charges up from your computer, sun or no sun, and you can then disconnect the hub and carry it around to charge anything with a USB interface. When the battery runs out, you can leave the hub in the sun to recharge it.

The idea of fusing a solar panel with a battery is certainly not a new one, but it’s a great combination… Solar charging is slow and restricted to midday, but adding a battery means you can store up the power and use it anytime. And why the heck not make it into a USB hub? For only $22, there’s pretty much no reason not to get one of these if you’re in need of a couple extra USB ports and a portable charger for your gadgets.

[ USB Fever ] VIA [ Techchee ]

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By Andrew Liszewski

In a move that is expected to save the city almost $12.9 million over the next 10 years, Philadelphia is installing 500 BigBelly trash compacting garbage cans over the next couple of months. While conventional trash cans need to be emptied 19 times a week, the BigBelly receptacles can accept 4 to 8 times as much garbage since it’s being compacted, which means they only need to be emptied about 5 times a week. So instead of the 33 workers that are usually needed to empty trash bins, the city now only needs just 8. And when they’re full, the BigBellys will automatically phone the Philadelphia Streets Department HQ letting them know they’re ready to be emptied.

[ BigBelly Solid Waste Management System ] VIA [ Inhabitat ]

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By Andrew Liszewski

In my mind they’re definitely a sound of Summer, but gas-powered mowers are noisy, messy and of course produce harmful emissions just like an automobile. But an electric model that’s tethered to a power cord can be problematic too, particularly if you’ve got a large piece of property to maintain. So the Neuton CE 6 seems like a better alternative since it provides all of the benefits of an electric mower, like being quiet and clean with no engine emissions, without the hassle of a long extension cord trailing behind you. It uses a removable, rechargeable battery with 360 watt-hours of juice that should be good for about 1/3 of an acre, or for about an hour, depending on the grass conditions.

The Neuton’s battery takes about 12 hours to recharge, which could be problematic if you run a landscaping business, but it should be a non-issue for homeowners who only cut their lawns on a weekly basis. Now the Neuton CE 6 will set you back $499, but the rechargeable battery should last for about 5 years, so when you remove the cost of gas, it might be worth it in the long run.

[ Neuton CE 6 Battery-Powered Mower ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]

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By Andrew Liszewski

Well this seems like a pretty obvious bit of synergy. The Woodway EcoMill is billed as an “all green” treadmill because it uses no external sources of electricity. Instead, the display and the elevation system are actually powered by a battery that’s recharged while the EcoMill is being used.

And even though it isn’t a motorized treadmill (that would involve breaking some of those annoying laws of the universe) it still features a 900 watt eddy-current braking system to regulate the walking or running speed, as well as a near frictionless drive system.

Surprisingly it can support a user up to 800 lbs in weight as long as they limit their activities to just walking (probably not a problem) or 500 lbs if they intend to run. It’s also available in either green or black since it’s important to provide options when you’re charging $8,500.

[ WOODWAY EcoMill ] VIA [ bookofjoe ]

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By Andrew Liszewski

Remember the NoPoPo? It was the water-powered battery from Japan that went out of its way to advertise the fact that it could also be ‘recharged’ using urine. Well the Japan Trend Shop is now selling a compact LED flashlight/lantern that includes one of those NoPoPo batteries.

Since the batteries are only rated at 500mAh and can only be recharged 4 times, the flashlight is better suited for an emergency kit as the NoPoPos will hold a charge for up to 10 years. And if for some reason both water and urine are in scarce supply, the batteries can also be topped off using other liquids like beer or soda. It’s $39, which isn’t exactly a steal, but the NoPoPos are AA sized so when it reaches the end of its lifespan you can always just swap it out with a standard AA battery.

[ Japan Trend Shop - NoPoPo Water-Powered Flashlight Set ]

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By Evan Ackerman

A Spanish company called iUnika has come out with a family of netbooks, most of which are entirely unremarkable except for one, which is powered (at least partially) by the sun. It weighs 1.5 pounds, runs Linux, costs about $220, and has a sizable solar cell on the lid that (I assume) charges an internal battery.

Unless there has been some huge breakthrough in cheap and efficient solar panels, my guess is that you’d have to leave this thing out in the sun for, oh, about a week before you’d be able to do much with it. Okay, maybe not a week, but seriously, solar charging is slooowwww and laptops (even netbooks) use a bunch of power, so the ratio of charging time to operating time is not going to be good. But it’s better than having to rely completely on available electricity, and if you’re in the market for a cheap, efficient, and versatile travel netbook that can offload pics and check email and stuff, this may not be a bad idea at all.

[ iUnika ] VIA [ Gearlog ]

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By Andrew Liszewski

The dragon-like structure you see under construction in these photos is the ‘World Games Stadium’ in Taiwan, which is being built for the upcoming World Games. And what looks like dragon’s scales from afar are actually 8,844 solar panels which is enough to satisfy all of the stadium’s energy needs, and then some. The 14,155m2 roof has the potential to generate 1.14 gigawatt hours of electricity every year, which is actually enough to power 80% of the stadium’s surrounding neighborhood when it’s not in use. It was designed by Japanese architect Toyo Ito, cost around $150 million to build and can hold 55,000 spectators.

And in case you were wondering, the World Games is kind of like the Olympics, except that the 30 different competitions include diverse sports like sky diving, billiards, frisbee, sumo and tug of war. In other words, events I’d actually like to see.

[ Deputy Dog - taiwan's cutting edge solar powered stadium ] VIA [ Inhabitat ]

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