Strawberry trees offer free public solar charging for gadgets

In a bid to bring more renewable energy choices to the public, while educating people on the benefits of solar power, one Serbian startup is building public solar charging stations that will energize mobile gadgets and serve as a social hub.

The vision of Strawberry Energy is to make renewable energy sources more accessible for all people, and to show that solar power and other clean energy solutions aren't just abstract concepts, but are instead practical and desirable. The way they're helping to get that message across is through their public solar charging stations, dubbed Strawberry Trees, which offer free charging for mobile devices, and in some cases, free WiFi.

Because so many of us are dependent on our phones, our tablets, and our music players, all of which are likely to run out of juice just when we need them, offering a way for users to recharge them with the power of the sun might be a great entry point for showing how solar energy has a place in our everyday lives.

The Strawberry Tree public solar stations, which are designed to be permanently installed in busy public places, include 16 charging cords (so users don't have to have their charger with them), and can serve as a meeting place and WiFi hotspot.

Currently, 12 of the Strawberry Tree charging stations are installed in Europe, with ten of them in Serbia and two in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and have proven to be popular with the public. The company recently signed a US distribution agreement with 3fficient Energy of California, which could open the door for wider adoption of these public solar chargers. According to 3fficient, the California Community College system has already expressed interest in the Strawberry Tree system.

Strawberry Energy also makes two other versions of the solar chargers, the Strawberry Mini, which is a smaller portable model that could be used for festivals and events, and the Mini Rural, which is even smaller and is designed for offgrid and rural use in areas without electricity.

Su-kam makes its first solar installation in Tripura

Su-Kam Power Systems, a power back up solutions provider, has made its first solar installation at Agartala in Tripura. 

The off grid Solar PV (photovoltaic) plant has been installed in the Ujjayanta Market Complex in the city recently, Su-Kam said in a statement. 

The company was assigned to commission, install and maintain this solar project by Tripura Renewable Energy Development Agency (TREDA) in Agartala. 

"As part of our solar plan this fiscal, we shall continue making solar power available to both the residentialas well as commercial sector in North East India," Ashish Sethi, Vice President, Solar Business, Su-Kam said in a statement.

French developer EDF commissions 30 MW solar project in Madhya Pradesh

French developer EDF Energies Nouvelles is commissioning the 30MW Khilchipur solar project in India.

The facility in Madhya Pradesh is the developer’s first PV installation in the country and five further PV projects totalling 120MW are under development in Rajasthan.

EDF won the quintet in a call for tenders by the Indian government and the schemes are all due to be commissioned during 2015.

Work is being led by ACME Solar Energy Private Limited, in which EDF Energies Nouvelles has a 25% interest.

Stop mosquitos breeding with this £6 solar device

Pranav Agarwal has developed a solar-powered device that aerates the surface of stagnant water in order to prevent mosquitos from laying their eggs and therefore from proliferating.

Mosquitos like to lay their eggs in stagnant or still water -- the females need the surface of the water to be still in order to deposit up to 400 eggs at a time and the larvae need to stay in contact with the surface of the water in order to breathe. The Solar Scare Mosquito aims to curb the spread of mosquito-carried diseases such as malaria and dengue by disrupting the insects' breeding grounds. It works by sitting on the surface of the water and generating air bubbles at regular intervals to produce ripples in a radius of up to two metres.

The device -- which Agarwal built for less than $10 (£6) -- features a bubble aerator, an air pump and a solar charger. It floats on the water and runs at regular intervals in order to disrupt the surface of the water and kill off mosquito larvae. In tests, the tool managed to reduce mosquito populations in a small pool to almost nothing within a week. Agarwal has outlined how to build the device in a blog post.

Avoid Soft drinks

More and more, many of us exchange drinking regular water with soft drinks. But soft drinks are not a healthy alternative, as we well know. But how unhealthy is it really? What potential adverse effects can drinking a certain amount of soft drinks lead to? This info graphic was prepared and summarized to get these important points across.

The Aquatic Archers....!

Archerfish are remarkably accurate in
their shooting; adult fish almost always hit the target on the first shot.
They can bring down insects and other prey such as grasshoppers, spiders and butterflies, on perches, up to 3 m above the water's surface. This is partially due to their good eyesight,but also their ability to compensate for the refraction of light as it passes through the air water interface when aiming for their prey. They typically spit at prey at a mean angle of about 74 degrees from the horizontal, but can still aim accurately when spitting at angles between 45 and 110 degrees.

Awesome Invention!

When Cynthia Koenig, a young social entrepreneur from New York, learned that millions of girls and women around the world spend hours each day collecting water from distant sources, she decided to create a new way to help people in poor communities transport water and it's called the WaterWheel. Koenig's WaterWheel allows people to roll water in a 50-liter container versus carrying it in 5 gallon (19 liter) jugs. Koenig estimates that the WaterWheel can save women 35 hours per week in water transport time, as well as prevent the physical strain that comes from balancing 40 pounds of water on top of their heads for hours each day.

Every day around the world, over 200 million hours are spent each day fetching water, often from water sources miles from home, and this task usually falls to women and girls. By freeing up valuable time, the WaterWheel allows women to spend time on income-generating activities that can help pull her family out of poverty. The time savings also means that there is a greater likelihood that girls will be allowed to stay in school, further reducing the rate of intergenerational poverty.