Strange solar gadgets, odd not-tent-but-not-houses, Navy robots, and crashed UFOs…all the best from TreeHugger this week.
The Robotic Hull Bio-inspired Underwater Grooming tool or Hull BUG is a new autonomous robot that can sense where a ship is and isn’t clean, and spiff up besmirched spots. And the Navy expects it to be a big deal for fuel efficiency.
Spray-on solar power is closer than we think. A new nano-ink process may one day become a standard manufacturing method for solar panels.
Spray-on is great, but what about zip-up? An idea for lightweight, inflatable solar panels would brings renewable energy access to any building.
A crash-landed UFO is using solar power to clean up two of the grungier canals in the Japanese city of Osaka
And just to stick with odd solar stuff, check out a couple of the stranger uses: how about using the sun to rotate your hanging baskets, or cool your picnic?
Temporary housing could get a face lift with this cool concept for a not quite tent, not quite house buBle. And offices could get a face lift of their own with a concept for breathing wall partitions.
And finally, Kindle news. Turns out, it might be justifiably more green than printed books.
TreeHugger’s EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.