The GE SXSW Merry-Go-Round is a Sun-Soaking Attraction

Carnivals of your youth may have been a good time, but they’re still showy electricity exploiters. The GE SXSW Merry-Go-Round, however, introduces a new way for a carousel to operate without guzzling valuable resources.

General Electric’s pavilion at the South by Southwest Conference introduced this refurbished 1926 children’s ride and replaced its internal engine with an electric motor, fed by cutting-edge, thin-film solar panels. Incorporating ecomagination technology, the company’s demonstrated how simply such machines can be controlled using renewable resources. The solar cells that run the carousel could be found lining the adjacent lounge, equipped with enough extra juice left over to charge visitors’ cellphones.

The GE SXSW Merry-Go-Round is a flashy exhibit of a technology that yields the lowest carbon footprint of any existing solar panel system, topped with GE Tetra Contour LED lights.