Charge your gadget by tree

If you're stuck for a way to charge your iPhone then this new product, the Electree, might be just the ticket.  

This great gadget is shaped after a bonsai tree, but instead of leaves it has solar panels on its branches. It stores up the energy it collects allowing you to charge your gadgets wirelessly.  

But it comes at a price - around about £175 if you can get your hands on one.

Solar tree installation at CDW

Another impressive installation at this year's Clerkenwell Design Week was the 'Solar Tree', designed by Ross Lovegrove and manufactured by Artemide.

The structure combined solar power with night LED lighting in London's St. John's Square during the week and provided visitors with a piece of urban furniture modelled on natural forms.

Comprising 20 'stems' which led to six leaf-like solar panels and four large LED lights, the installation functioned completely independently for up to three days and could feed energy back into the grid.

A great installation. Find out and see more on Design Boom.

images © Ashley Bingham (A&M photography)

Photosynthesis conveys link between nature and man at Milan Design Week

This year's Milan Design Week sees an installation by Japanese architect Akihisa Hirata who has designed 'Photosynthesis', an installation for Panasonic that celebrates the biological process of storing solar energy.

Panasonic wish to show a potential link between nature and man-made materials through the installation and  'Photosynthesis' will be exhibited at Interni Legacy from the 16th until the 30th April. The installation will transform the Cortile della Farmacia courtyard into a space in which the visitors can experience the natural and technical, futuristic and traditional simultaneously.

The installation creates an artificial ecosystem with solar panels representing leaves, energy storage batteries as the fruits and LEDs and OLED panels represent the flowers.

Find out more on Design Boom.

Invisible ink makes a come back

The solar energy association in Austria has recently issued its annual report. This may not be a mention-worthy event usually except that this year they have printed it on light sensitive paper.

When indoors the paper appears to be blank but as soon as it is exposed to sunlight the details start to appear.  This is a great way to reinforce the message from the association but must be a bit frustrating if its raining outside!