Sharp, partnering with battery specialist Eliiy Power, will soon start selling the world’s first storage battery for household electricity systems.

These new batteries will allow houses with solar panels to store the power generated by the sun overnight (a full day and a half if necessary), allowing them to operate independently of a power grid.

The companies involved hope that reducing the reliance on traditionally-generated power will help reduce Japan’s greenhouse emissions. Hopefully these batteries will make it to the States so we can do the same.

The price is expected to be around ¥500,000 (about $4,650) when the battery is released next year.

This new battery is expensive, but would pay for itself over time seeing as solar power is free after all of the equipment is installed. Besides, you’ll get that warm, fuzzy feeling knowing that you’re polluting less.

Mauricio Clavero has designed a street lamp that is solar powered and only uses a third of its energy unless its built-in motion detectors sense someone walking by. The lamp is built using LEDs and can be placed in area with no access to electricity due to its attached solar panels.

It comes in two versions: urban and country side. The differences between the two? Well, you got us there, but there’s most likely a difference in performance since you don’t often see streetlights in the countryside.
This is great for money conservation, but it could be a bit weird to be the only person walking down a street at night and having each lamp you pass turn on fully. It’s an interesting idea, nonetheless.

Researchers at Idaho National Laboratory have developed a flexible solar panel able to collect infrared energy instead of the usual photonic energy.

The panel uses an array of nano-sized antennas that are able to harvest 80% of the available energy (most modern solar panels can only harvest close to 20%). The possibilities are endless with energy-collecting materials like this, and may at one point be used to coat roofs, charge batteries, and even be integrated into polyester fabric.

There is a catch though. The panels cannot currently convert this infrared energy into power that’s useful for electronics. It’s excellent technology for capturing energy, but converting it to 50-60Hz power is the part that isn’t quite working just yet. Hopefully they can iron out the kinks soon so we can take advantage of these panels.