Top 100 Solar Inventions - Part 2: Architecture & Power Plants (SUPER GALLERY)

The power of the sun is incredible, and with Earth Day coming up, we thought we’d highlight some of the top innovations in solar technology. This is part two of the solar cluster, featuring 30 solar powered communities, cities, individual pieces of architecture and other larger scale inventions.

If you missed part one, which featured 70 solar powered gadgets and fashion, you can still check it out here.  All together, this makes 100 incredible solar innovations!

The main image on this artical is of the COR Miami, a residential and commercial highrise in Miami by Chad Oppenheim.

Architecture

Solar & Wind Powered Pre-Fab Spa - Desert Winds Eco Spa (GALLERY)

When thinking of a spa, I envision a natural, calm, quiet setting, not over the top sterile environments like Las Vegas. But Vegas may be the best place for this environmentally friendly Desert Winds Eco Spa. The concept is for a solar and wind powered development. It would be composed of pre-fab … [More]

Norway’s Green Jail - Bastoey Eco-Prison (GALLERY)

Bastoey, the world’s first ecological prison opened in Norway, is a place where inmates learn about the environment. Prisoners of the minimum security facility play important roles in keeping the jail eco-friendly, from learning about food production and recylcing. The facility lives by a philoso… [More]

Ecological Towers - The Green Tower, Siberia (GALLERY)

British designer Sir Norman Foster has revealed his designs for the Green Tower, a new ecological tower in Khanty Mansyisk, Siberia. The tower design takes the local weather and nature of Siberia into account. The 280- meter tower centers around a south-facing atrium to maximize daylight and solar … [More]

International Solar Power Home Contest For Students - Solar Decathlon 2007 (VIDEO)

The Solar Decathlon 2007 is an international team competition sponsored by the US Energy Department on Washington DC’s Mall. University students from around the world are challenged to design and construct solar-powered, energy-efficient homes. They must be able to power lights, refrigerators and … [More]

Going Green With Plant Power - Cradle 2 Cradle Spinach Concept Home (GALLERY)

Stop the presses, they have found a good use for Spinach other than for torturing young children. Get this house design that uses Spinach for much of the exterior surface. It was conceptualized by Cradle 2 Cradle and uses filtered storm water to grown the spinach.  The house can generate twice the v… [More]

The Lighthouse - Green Skyscraper Combines Wind Turbines and Solar Panels (GALLERY)

The Lighthouse is an innovative green skyscraper that will soon be constructed in Dubai.  It promises not to be your typical skyscraper:  For energy, it will have “three enormous 225 kilowatt wind turbines (29 meters in diameter), and 4000 photovoltaic panels on the south facing façade.” In addit… [More]

Environmentally Friendly Rotating House - Generates More Energy Than It Needs (GALLERY)

We have already told you about the rotating tower in Dubai, now this house designed by Rolf Disch also rotate on a central axle. According to ScifiTech “The front of the house is composed of triple-glazed glass to point toward that glowing ball of gas in the sky during the winter, while a heavily … [More]

Anti-Smog Architecture in Paris - Vincent Callebaut’s Green Innovation Centre (GALLERY)

In a battle to claim title to world’s cleanest cities, Paris has come up with a concept for anti-smog architecture. What looks like the top half of a drinking straw poking out of the water, and a giant white and green football laying on a road is actually a new prototype by architect Vincent Calleb… [More]

Structure Produces Energy & Oxygen - The Air Tree in Madrid (GALLERY)

This “Air tree” currently being built in Madrid, Spain is designed to help the environment while simultaneously acting as a social center. The structure has solar panels which create electricity that is sold to the local electric company. Although it’s completely self-sufficient, the Air Tree is n… [More]

First Green Gas Station - Office dA Design

Office dA, a Boston based design firm, has created this gas station in the heart of Los Angeles. It creates quite a paradoxical relationship for those who seek it out. For the everyday user of this gas station, it’s just another funky monument in the “look at me!” culture of Los Angeles road… [More]

Solar-Powered Hotel - Grand Hyatt Dubai (GALLERY)

Hyatt is proving that the hotel chain is taking climate change seriously, and is taking concrete action to save the environment.  Grand Hyatt Dubai had its main water heating system converted from diesel oil-fired to solar-powered recently. Their intention is to reduce United Arab Emirate’s carbon… [More]

Solar-Powered Safeway - Greener Groceries (VIDEO)

Safeway is the world’s first grocery store to run entirely on solar power. The North American food retailer installed solar panels on the roof of a California store and hopes to add them to about 24 more in an attempt to be more eco-friendly. Safeway also has “state-of-the-art refrigeration system… [More]

Solar Energy - The Solar Chimney (GALLERY)

To be built in Austrailia, SolarMission Technologies “are developing the world’s first commerical Solar Tower (aka Solar Chimney).” The Solar Chimney will be able to generate 200MW of electricity equaling enough power to roughly 200,000 households.  The construction of this very tall tower (2 1/2 t… [More]

Solar Powered Skyscraper - The Time Residences Tower

The British consortium is building the world’s largest gadget; “The Time Residences tower, a solar powered skyscraper that will use the electricity thus generated to rotate through 360 degrees.” Tav Singh, director of Dubai Property Ring said, “We didn’t want to build just another building or … [More]

Street Lights

Solar Powered LED Streetlights

Energy efficient, solar powered LED streetlights are being tested in China in efforts to devise further ways to save energy. Solar panels sit on top of each streetlight allowing solar energy to be collected during the day… the energy is then utilized to power the streetlights during the darkness o… [More]

Solar Powered Communities - Green Street Technology (GALLERY)

Our world may just look like this in the future. We are gearing towards making solar power replace conventional sources of energy with concern for global warming and the depletion of fossil fuel reserves. This sensible concept has an infrastructure based on solar power to energize every aspect of … [More]

Dual Renewable Energies in the City - Japan Uses Wind and Solar Streetlights

Urban planners are hard at work to design street lamps that will be self sustaining, and they’re innovating all around the world. As the latest spin on the trend, Japan is experimenting with lamps that are both solar and wind powered. The lower part of the structure turns and stores energy in a b… [More]

Solar Trees - Streetlights Go Green via Solar Power and LEDs (GALLERY)

Here’s a great innovation in street lighting: self contained streetlights that are solar powered. They do not require underground lighting to install. The solar panels charge built in batteries which power LED’s. Less light pollution, less power, the lights have detectors to turn off and on automati… [More]

Power Plants & Large Scale Solar Innovation

Renewable Energy Solution To Power The Entire World - Energy Islands

We’ve already seen the power of waves and the oceans current harnessed into useful electricity, and solar and wind almost seem like they have been around forever, however no one has really conjured up a way to utilize them all. Combining all of these technologies into one to create a floating “E… [More]

Tower’s Energy Could Power 20 Earths - Energy Tower May Reverse Global Warming

Global warming, energy problems, and water shortages could be solved by one gigantic invention: the Energy Tower. Researchers claim that the tower, which stands 3,000 feet high and measures 1,200 feet across, could produce up to 20 times the energy the entire world uses today. It relies on solar p… [More]

World’s Largest Solar Farm Opens in Spain - Powers 20,000 Homes

The world’s largest solar power farm has opened in Spain with an installed peak power capacity of 20 megawatts. It surpasses the solar farm at the Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada which is rated at 14 megawatts. The new solar farm features 120,000 solar panels and covers 100 hectares (247 acres) in J… [More]

Air Force Base Goes Green - Nellis AFB Has Largest Solar Power Plant in North America

The largest solar power system in North America is now online. The plant is located on Nellis Air Force base in Las Vegas. It will save a staggaring $1 million in power cost for the base plus reduce CO2 emissions by 24,000 tons per year. “The photovoltaic system is made up of 72,000 solar panels,"… [More]

Solar Power With Panache - Sanyo Solar Ark (GALLERY)

Going green requires a huge commitment of space as well as financial resources. Designing a solar power facility that doesn’t “overpower” the surrounding landscape was accomplished by Sanyo. The aesthetically-pleasing green energy project is called the Solar Ark and is located close to the geograp… [More]

Solar Balloons - Sunhope (GALLERY)

The award-winning Sunhope project by Joseph Cory and aerospace engineer Dr. Pini Gurfil is a breakthrough low-cost easily-deployable system that collects solar energy with a minuscule environmental footprint. Traditional solar systems require vast resources: high initial investments, large land req… [More]

Solving the Energy Crisis - 10,000 Humongous Foil Balloons (GALLERY)

Party balloons may be the next big thing in solar power. Cool Earth has made some giant balloons with gizmos inside that will convert the collected sun and focus it onto a cell. They have been given a big chunk of moola to make 10,000 balloons to cover 80 acres in California and hopefully in a coupl… [More]

Greening The Persian Golf - Abu Dhabi Solar-Powered Plant

Here’s some more ecovation from Abu Dhabi. Solar-powered plants will be built by Sener from Spain and Masdar from Abu Dhabi. These plants are expected to produce 1,000 megawatts within 10 years time. The design scheme involves mirrors on the ground which will reflect the sunlight to the top of the t… [More]

Mind Melding Old Mech with High Tech - Infinia Solar Dish

Don’t ever throw out those old ideas! This solar dish powers a 17th century invention for a unique approach for every home to be self sustaining. $50 million was recently invested to move forward this no maintenance energy maker. Infinia solar dishes power a Stirling engine that heats a gas to drive… [More]

Cities & Communities

Green Cities of the Arabian Peninsula - Ras al Khaimah (GALLERY)

A brand spanking new 1.2 million square meters city in the United Arab Emirates is in the works that is intended to be completely self-sustainable. With cutting edge solar technology as its source of energy, the Ras al Khaimah eco city development in the United Arab Emirates, was designed by Rem K… [More]

Indoor City 2 - Crystal Island in Moscow (GALLERY)

At 1500ft (450m) high, the Crystal Island project won’t be the tallest piece of architecture on the planet, but covering 27 million sq ft (2.5 million sq. m) of floor space, it will be gimungeous. Basically, the structure in Moscow will be a city within a building and will have its own weather s… [More]

Top 100 Solar Inventions - Part 1 >
(Gadgets & Fashion)