This week in Geek: Solar powered digital eye implants give sight back to the blind, the world’s tallest LEGO tower built by 4000 4-year-olds and a fungus that eats plastic to solve a world of problems. || Join the chat: on.fb.me || 29 years old and hearing myself for the 1st time! – youtu.be Photovoltaic Retinal Prosthesis for Restoring Sight to the Blind – youtu.be Record breaking lego tower – www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg1BTHFlSNE

Join Dahl Winters, from the Research Triangle Institute, as she explains the fundamentals of solar photovoltaics and gives a hands-on demonstration on how to build a solar iPad charger. Part of the NCSSM Renewable Energy Seminar series, this presentation was recorded at NC School of Science and Math, March 29, 2012. For more information on professional development opportunities in STEM education, visit: www.dlt.ncssm.edu

An alternate way of using the Sun’s energy other than using expensive and fragile Solar Panels.

Home made 10′ x 3′ solar water bag system for heating pools. It’s a stackable low cost inflatable solar panel system for heating pools without the need for a perminant structure, permits or home owner association approvals. It steals some of the water from a pool jet, heats in the sun and puts back into the pool. You can make one bag in an evening out of a commonly available heavy black plastic sheet and some common PVC parts that connect to garden hoses and low cost garden hose valves.

Experiments and numerical simulations demonstrate the benefits of arranging photovoltaic panels into macroscopic three dimensional structures. Article can be found here: www.quantumday.com

A recent flurry of eruptions on the sun did more than spark pretty auroras around the poles. NASA-funded researchers say the solar storms of March 8th through 10th dumped enough energy in Earth’s upper atmosphere to power every residence in New York City for two years. “This was the biggest dose of heat we’ve received from a solar storm since 2005,” says Martin Mlynczak of NASA Langley Research Center. “It was a big event, and shows how solar activity can directly affect our planet.” Mlynczak is the associate principal investigator for the SABER instrument onboard NASA’s TIMED satellite. SABER monitors infrared emissions from Earth’s upper atmosphere, in particular from carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitric oxide (NO), two substances that play a key role in the energy balance of air hundreds of km above our planet’s surface. “Carbon dioxide and nitric oxide are natural thermostats,” explains James Russell of Hampton University, SABER’s principal investigator. “When the upper atmosphere (or ‘thermosphere’) heats up, these molecules try as hard as they can to shed that heat back into space.” That’s what happened on March 8th when a coronal mass ejection (CME) propelled in our direction by an X5-class solar flare hit Earth’s magnetic field. (On the “Richter Scale of Solar Flares,” X-class flares are the most powerful kind.) Energetic particles rained down on the upper atmosphere, depositing their energy where they hit. The action produced spectacular auroras around the poles and …

No matter what your energy source is, the sun’s targeting Earth today and we might all suffer some short circuits. The planet is currently being hit by a huge solar storm of charged particles that could leave our high-tech gadgets high and dry. Triggered by two solar flairs, the largest event of its kind in 5 years will pound earth all day. The upside? Known as a Coronal Mass Ejection, or CME, it could make for one heck of a light show, with Auroras Borealis and Australis that may extend well past the polar latitudes. But this big, gassy solar burp speeding toward us at more than 1200 miles an hour has a gnarly downside. The geomagnetic storm might send modern technology like satellites, electrical grids, and communications systems back to the Stone Age. It might be a good day to take the stairs, ride your bike, and switch your GPS with an old-fashioned map.

Lecture Date: Tuesday, January 24, 2012. One of the greatest challenges humanity faces is finding a way to provide the world’s population with clean energy. Since sunlight is our most abundant source of energy, solar cells, which absorb sunlight and create electricity, will become increasingly important over the next several decades. There have been great advances recently using silicon and thin films of semiconductors to make solar cells and solar electricity is just starting to become economically competitive. It is still important, however, to drop the costs further so that it will be possible to utilize even more solar energy. After providing an overview of the solar cell technologies that are currently commercially available, Professor McGehee will describe a relatively new approach that could make it possible to print solar cells in roll-to-roll coating machines similar to those used to make newspapers. Professor McGehee will show how solar cells can be made with organic semiconductors and explain how these cells work. Lecturer: Michael McGehee, Stanford University.

www.esolarpoweredgenerator.com can be a device that works with the principle called the Pv Power. This works by converting solar panel technology into electrical energy.

Hank explains the power of solar energy and describes how it may fit into our diversified energy future. Follow SciShow on Twitter: www.twitter.com Like SciShow on Facebook: www.facebook.com TAGS: solar energy, solar power, desert, power, watt, watts, coal, fossil fuel, natural gas, oil, nuclear, tidal, hydroelectric, wind, biomass, photovoltaic, photoelectric effect, edmund becquerel, efficient, efficiency, international space station, polysilicon, silicon, n-type, p-type, distributed power, concentrating solar power, power plant, plant, turbine, concentrated photovoltaic, CPV, gigawatt, hydrogen fuel cell, feasible, feasibility, law of conservation of energy, climate change, global warming, carbon, emissions, electric, electricity, scishow, science, infusion, hank green