Refrigeration Without the Refrigerator

I read about a device that a young British woman purportedly recently invented. There was a link to it on a favourite French language blog of mine. You basically stick a metal cylinder inside another sort of cylinder, fill the gap between them with sand and wet that sand, and the water's evaporation (from the sun) keeps the inside cylinder cold enough to hold perishables for several days. All you need to do to keep it going is add more water to the sand. You can read the original piece about it in the Daily Mail here.

The thing is that this is far from being some revolutionary invention. Zeer pots have been around for a while and use the same passive cooling process using two pots. I looked for them here on the amazing AfriGadget website (you wanna talk about innovation and sustainability -- check them out) but couldn't find them. Mohammed Bah Abba, a Nigerian teacher, has been credited with their invention on numerous websites.

Old Sol

I found this story via Digg. Apparently, 90% of Israeli homes are equipped with solar water heaters. They started popping up when restrictions on hot water usage were imposed during an energy shortage, and now all new home builders are legally required to install them. Hawaii just passed a similar law. In places with lots of sunshine, it seems to be the economical thing to do, which is what made it logical for a country like Spain to develop solar power more extensively and to mandate its use in new and renovated buildings. (For those interested, here's more information on the different types of solar water heaters, their installation and their maintenance and here's some information on solar collectors in general.)

A Swiss company called Mindset AG has recently announced its own contribution to the mix of electric cars nosing their way into the market. It's still a prototype, but this one's a bit different from the rest -- it's solar powered. The company plans to sell around 10,000 of them next year if you're willing to part with around $78K. (via Inhabitat)