Portable Solar Phone Charger for only $5..Really?

      Instructables user ASCAS has shared a project with worldwide viewers on how to make a solar-powered phone charger for simply $5. It's as small as a smartphone and does not include a back-up battery, which is more of a hassle to carry than being environmental friendly. ASCAS has tested the device on both Apple and Android devices and it has performed well with both devices.

       Materials include a 6V Mini Solar Panel, a torn apart 12V USB charger unit, the smartphone (for testing), phone's charger cable, and a flexible and foldable plastic card. With these materials, you will need a hot glue gun, a 30W soldering iron, and a leatherman multitool. You will need to assemble the parts together and also add a stand onto the solar panel to charge your phone with convenience. 

Clear instructions complete with photos are to be shown here. 

Solar Energy Helps Power 4th Grade Classrooms

           In Durham, North Carolina, a classroom of fourth graders have been learning upon the subject of solar energy and other energy sources from their teacher, Aaron Sebens, and have came up with the idea of having their own classrooms powered by solar power energy. The video below features the journey they came across from arising to the idea to making it a reality, where it ends in having a celebratory party, whereas Aaron and his students officially "flips the switch."
           To fund the project, Aaron and his class has launched a crowd-funding campaign that asked for support throughout America and around the world. The students had originally hoped to raise $800 but significantly, beat their expectations by raising to more than $5000.

 

Solar Technology around the World

     It has been reported recently that China has been the most highest demand towards renewable energy investors. Costs of solar technology had been falling drastically over the years and is expected to ease China's power shortage by 2015. Solar supplies are expected to be leveled to the same price as electricity fees that is passed on right now. Soon, there will be the era of Solar Panels around every residential and  commercial rooftops in a large scale in a short period of time as well as the supply of coal and oil dropping slowly but surely in our economic crisis with Obama's viewpoint towards the production of oil and gas.


     South Korea had also been following the crowd towards solar energy and the government had been, without a doubt,  the greenest government in the world. Largest industries and companies such as Samsung, LG, and Hyundai are making massive investments towards wind, solar, tidal, and nuclear energy onto vehicles, power supplies and home appliances.

Nepal is also not far behind in introducing solar technology.
Did you know you can conduct energy through human hair?
     In a recent discovery in Nepal, Malin Karki, a Nepalese teen who attends school in Kathmandu, invented  a solar panel that conducts static energy through strands of human hair called melanin. These pigments of hair are connected to each pin designed in a square panel that can produce up to 18 watts of power that costed him as low as $38 as a whole. Inspired by a book written by Stephen Hawking, he may have started an amazing revolutionary idea around the world.