Solar energy may seem freely available to anyone with the right tools to collect it, but there is still a price we have to pay – and it is geography. Researchers may be pushing solar cells technology to ever greater levels of efficiency, but even the current leader in the field captures less than half of the sunlight reaching it. To gather practical amounts of power, solar panels still need a huge surface area – so, still no good for our favorite modes of personal transportation? Not so, say these three cutting-edge vehicle designs.

(Images via: Gizmodo)

Problem: as you drive your panel-studded car around, your angle in relation to the sun changes and your solar cells fail to fulfil their (modest) potential. Solution? Change the shape of your car. The BMW Lovos concept car may look like it lost a fight with a combine harvester, but in fact all those metal plates are individual solar panels that independently rotate to capture the maximum possible sunlight, and even double as airbrakes. (Presumably they would require a lot of power – well, you see the problem).

(Images via: TechFresh)

Or you could stick to a more conventional design by flattening your vehicle and sweeping your solar panel in an unbroken arc over the top of it, as with the Quaranta from Italdesign Giugiaro. It looks gorgeous, but it is still a long way from being an electric car – that huge panel only collects enough juice to charge the battery and feed the onboard electronics. Under the bonnet the Quaranta is a cutting-edge 4WD 268-horsepower hybrid.

(Image via: Autoblog Green)

No, the designers of the SunRed solar powered motorbike do not expect you to squint through a tiny window as you gun your wheels down the road. The clamshell cover only opens out fully when the bike is at rest, providing an impressive 3 square metres of solar panelling. Nice idea if married with a bigger battery (this concept design only stores enough power to propel you 13 miles) and it focuses on the longest part of a vehicle’s life, the time it is at rest. So how about a design that blends all three of these innovations – and would it make garages a thing of the past?

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Trying to limit the environmental impact of your kitchen? No matter how many food scraps you compost or eco-friendly detergents you use, there are your traditional old appliances, encouraging you to do things the bad old way. They need to be rethought, incorporating all that we now know about sustainably closed loops and thrifty environmentalism…and here are two designs from the forefront of that kitchen eco-revolution.

(Image via: Dezeen)

The Flow2 Kitchen doesn’t rely on fancy electronics – but it is a technological marvel. Aside from a little plumbing and wiring this unit is a free-standing sideboard complete with sink, cooker and refrigerator. The key to its success is “low-tech” physics, cycling round in an energy-conserving, resource-hoarding loop. Newly washed pots drip their excess water onto edible plants. The fridge uses evaporating water to suck heat away from it – yep, no electrical supply needed (your utility budget will sniffle with joy). Food scraps go into the built-in vermicomposter, where your very own population of worms will nibble it down into compost ideal for the garden or for those plants under your drip-tray. And if you have kids…what better demonstration of the entire point of recycling?

(Image via: Kontrastblog)

But perhaps you like hi-tech – and perhaps you have more than a little money to throw around, in which case can we interest you in the rather science-fictional delights of the Brand Aion? The work of French designer Antoine LeBrun, the Aion works in a similar way to part of the Flow2 by conserving water, diverting any excess into the plants housed in the lid.

(Image via: Kontrastblog)

However, shut the lid and things get really clever. The whole device turns into a low-energy dishwasher – using a vegetable soap created by the plants growing above it. You keep track of how far along the cleaning cycle it is via the digital readout glowing on the front. Meanwhile, all that greenery is cleaning upwards as well, by scrubbing the air in your kitchen and leaving it as pristine as your crockery. When it becomes available (yes, it’s still in the early stages of prototyping), expect this device to get everyone in a lather.

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Image via: Gana Art Gallery.

Think that there’s nothing uglier than an evil-smelling, dust-streaked pile of old car tires? You need the creative vision of Korean artist Ji Yong Ho – because shredded rubber can be beautiful.

Image via: Gana Art Gallery.

We mean ‘beautiful’ in a quirky, gnarly, decidedly unnerving way, as you can see. The raw material is from a natural source (latex trees) but after becoming the vulcanized product of human industry, as Yong Ho says, “the look is scary“. Being tough and flexible, tire rubber is a powerfully versatile modelling material in the hands of the right artist. Yong Ho’s interest is in turning some of our millions of unwanted tires into animal art with a difference.

Image via: Gana Art Gallery.

His creatures are often fantastical and fearsome versions of ones we already know – in other words, mutants. They are designed to provoke questions over mankind’s current obsession with genetic engineering and applied ecology, and to evoke an emotional response. They only look fierce until you notice their expressions.

Image via: Gana Art Gallery.

(Except with this one, of course). Yong Ho deliberately picks creatures we regard as “monsters”, then tries to render them in more sympathetic tones. (Spiders? Good luck with that one).

Image via: Gana Art Gallery.

Yong Ho’s first US exhibition was held in New York in 2008, and his work is widely available in art auctions worldwide (through companies like the world-famous Christie’s). He is officially represented by the Gana Art Gallery.

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In our search for the best way to array our new-fangled solar paneling, we’re going back to the oldest design of all. A few years ago the solar tree was little more than a stylish concept drawing, as with the above gadget-charging proposal…

(Images via: Metaefficient)

…but now you can find solar trees lining streets. Artificial trees are making headlines for other reasons, but the variety featured above are designed to light our sidewalks, not scrub the air. With luck these are the shape of Northern European streetlights to come – by day trapping the energy from sunlight, and by night expending it downwards using directed LED lighting. For anyone having problems with the phrases “Northern Europe” and “sunlight” occupying the same sentence, the lighting allegedly stores enough during one full day of sunshine to be able to illuminate for four nights running. Efficiency? Getting street lighting off the grid will reduce European electricity demand by a whopping 10%.

(Images via: Yanko Design and EcoTech Daily)

But we can all join in the fun. If you want to charge your favorite gadgets while you hit the surf, stick the Solar-Tree in the sand, hook everything up, and away you go. The device promises to fit every conceivable gadget. Top marks for the idea – but we have questions. Exactly how much energy can you collect from a panel that size – and how much will it cost in the shops?

(Image via: Inhabitat)

Individual solar trees are all very well – but what happens when we make a forest of them? Designer Neville Mars has developed the idea of a photovoltaic “parking grove” – a place where electric vehicles can tap into a constantly renewing source of energy. The overlapping panels automatically rotate to find the sunlight. Who would believe a car-park could look like that? Stunning. There is only one thing missing, a piece of sustainable, eco-friendly technology that has served our planet well enough for the last few million years – because there is no beating the original.

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