What do you get when you combine a few trees, some scaffolding, solar power, water recycling system, ancient and modern technology combined, and a whole lot of creativity? A darn cool tree house…

[Via Digg [Via SciFi.com Tech Blog]]

A new company named Soliant Energy has created a rather ingenious way of minimizing Photovoltaic materials and silicon by rotating to follow the sun and focusing the sun’s rays onto a smaller piece of PV. Using those techniques, Soliant Energy has been able to get the same power output of traditional PV panels from up to 80% less PV surface area and a significantly smaller initial investment. On top if it being more affordable, the design also makes it more ideal for roof mounting than traditional pole-mounted solar panels that track the sun.

I’m going to have to look into these when the product matures more and is finally released to the public. Hopefully, by the time they are released, they become more affordable and more efficient. With solar energy becoming easier to attain for the common man, this could be the shift that this world needs to greatly reduce our reliance on oil.

[Via EcoGeek[Via MIT’s Technology Review]]

Just today I was joking with Lauren that the US should making it illegal to use traditional incandescent light bulbs given our current knowledge of the environmental and monetary savings associated with using compact florescent (CFL) bulbs. Well, ironically, Treehugger.com agrees with me for good reason (thought they beat me to the punch by a few days)!

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