The Federal Regulatory Energy Commission (FERC) has officially permitted the usage of Google Energy as a utility. The internet search giant can now sell energy, but unlike other electricity providers, Google wants to go carbon neutral. The company plans to focus on building numerous solar panels and fuel cells to power its own infrastructure (which partially it already does), while whatever it generates extra, can be sold to the consumers. Not bad an idea.

Here’s a cool (ing!) solution for the car which stays in the parking lot for extended hours, under the heavy and scorching heat of the sun. Poor car, it isn’t lucky enough to tuck under a tree shade. So here’s an idea from Leon Zhu, who proposes to use a foldable film of solar cell that can actually cover up the car from top, giving it the shade it requires. Not only that, it also stores energy collected from the sun shining on the unfolded solar panel. Now that’s a double gain for the car!

Although Amazon Kindle is still the king of the jungle, it is not confident enough to retain the title for too long. Another predator enters it’s domain, this time the world leader in consumer electronics, LG. But what you see above is not just a conventional eBook reader. The device is super-efficient when it comes to battery life. Just keep it under the sun for about 4-5 hours and you get an additional 1 day worth of power. LG’s thin-film solar cell energy conversion efficiency is about 10% which the company promises to inrease to 14% by 2012.

With the varied complications in climatic changes and for a better environment, there have always been an eager approach towards the use of  renewable sources of energy. One such energy is the wind energy and what we see here is the world’s largest wind farm, capable of generating 209 megawatts of power which approximately is the annual electricity consumption of 200,000 homes.

Till now we have come across ample lighting options that not only displayed different designs but also had ideas that promoted recycling[scrap lights, bottle lamps] and upcycling[cassette lamps, ink cartidge lamps]. The one discussed here brings our attention to the wonderful nature’s gift, water, as a form of energy. The design of this Light Drop wall lamp compels us to think about conserving our ‘precious’ water which is an inevitable requirement for all organisms.

Solar energy has found its way even in toys. Looks like the widespread acceptance of the technology is taking over the world. Well that’s good news. So check out the 6-in-1 Solar Robot Kit. The device allows you to construct 6 different robots “which means once you’ve finished making one robot, you can take it apart and turn it into a solar powered boat, windmill, or car and that’s just 3 of them.”

GE has always been a pioneer in energy and utility innovation. Recently it introduced the idea of Net-Zero Energy home. As the name suggests, the house will be extremely energy efficient. Although GE targets to commercialize the idea by 2015, the initial architecture is already planned.

Charging cell phones wirelessly seems like a far-fetched thought, but the idea gets real with Nokia’s new cellphone prototype that is able to power itself “wirelessly”. The cell phone in this case utilizes radio waves from air to convert the involved energy to recharge itself.