Living off the grid

DON'S SOLAR SCOOTER
Don Dunklee offers a set of plans for a street legal, affordable, and dependable solar-powered scooter. The PV panels fold in for driving and out for charging. Don rides his scooter five miles to work each day and folds out the panels for charging the battery while the scooter is parked at work. And he has now been doing this for 2-3 years and has traveled thousands of miles using solar power. What will they think of next!!!??? See another photo and read about it here: http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/PV/pvscooter.htm

GERTIE THE GAS GUZZLER
Andy Baird took up full-time RVing and converted Gertie the Gas Hog, which once got 8mpg, into a solar-powered home on wheels. He spends less on gas and electricity than he did when he drove to and from work in a Honda. And now he leisurely meanders north in the spring and south in the fall. All because he solar-paneled Gertie. Check it out here: http://www.andybaird.com/travels/saving-the-earth.htm

NANO-TOWER DESIGN
Better design, better results, right? Not yet. The Georgia Tech Research Institute unveiled a new solar panel in April with a different design. The solar panels I've seen are flat, but the new design has "an array of nano-towers" that are like microscopic blades of grass. That adds surface area and thus traps more sunlight, resulting in a big jump in current generated, about 60 times more than traditional solar cells. Wow, I'm impressed. But now comes the part that confuses me: to generate electricity, a cell has to churn out voltage as well as current. And this invention falls short because of "too much resistance within the cell to produce the type of electricity that's needed." Surely, if these folks keep working on this new design, they'll find a way to make it work better. Read the full aticle: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20070411/techbit-better-solar-panel.htm