Top 10 DIY Projects that Harness the Power of the Sun

By Kevin Purdy

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Cheap, powerful, and available almost everywhere—solar energy is a truly great thing. With these 10 sun-powered projects, you can turn a sunny day off into some brag-worthy, possibly money-saving backyard tech.

Photo by david.nikonvscanon.

10. Engrave wood with a "sun laser"

Leave them alone long enough, and nearly every kid will investigate, or at least hear about, the devastating effects of magnifying glasses and clear, sunny weather on insects. Route that fascination with concentrated sunlight into some wood engraving. Aluminum foil (or, preferably, foil tape), sunglasses, a razor blade, and a magnifying glass are all you need to get creative with an old piece of wood or other dark objects. You'll need to provide supervision, lest bad aim turn into a kindling incident, but it's a great project for kids, as well as a unique way to leave your mark with style. (Original post)

9. Heat water in your backyard

It's not an efficient way to keep your hot tub filled, but the kind of solar-powered water heater detailed at the Instructables link above can get a big batch of water up to 170F without requiring any work from your water heater, and the kit costs around $5 with the right parts suppliers. Even if you pay a bit more, think about how often the backyard grill, deck, or pool could use a little cleaning with some hot, soapy water. This project gets you a free source of ever-ready cleaning water, and at a pretty neat price. (Original post)

8. Start a fire with a soda can and chocolate

This little project is the most reliant on a strong bit of sunlight, but totally worth the effort when you pull it off. The chocolate polishes the bottom of a soda can, which better focuses and intensifies sunlight reflections, creating a cone of fire-starting power that leaves your fellow campers impressed—or the other attendees at the park picnic grateful you were there when they forgot the matches. (Original post)

7. Convert a lawnmower to solar power

If you've got a small-ish lawn, a battery-powered mower is much easier on your and your neighbors' ears, and it saves you the hassle and cost of gas refills. Take those eco-benefits to the next level by converting a gas-guzzling push mower to use a solar-charged battery. Appropedia's version is a definite weekend project for an older model, but if you've got a newer battery mower, it's not too hard to simply start charging it with a solar panel instead of your wall socket, and this guide will help get you there. (Original post)

6. Estimate your home's solar potential

A solar-powered house sounds like a neat idea in abstract, but how would you know if your house's roof could really sustain worthwhile energy? Luckily, a big search company has overhead images of just about every house out there, and mashup tool RoofRay can use that image, plus your location's average sunlight and some roof details, to get a starting estimate on whether you can use the sun to push back on your power meter a bit. (Original post)

5. Extend Wi-Fi to your backyard

Probably the least practical and most expensive of the projects listed here, the solar-powered Wi-Fi extender is definitely the most rewarding from a geek cred and green power perspective. Popular Science explains in great detail how to solder and network together a semi-standard Linksys Wi-Fi router, range extender, solar panel, battery, and higher-powered antenna, and then set it up to grab Wi-Fi from your household's main network and expand it to the great outdoors—or, at least, the outdoors behind your house. That leaves you with regular web access anywhere around your property, without having to worry about running cables across the lawn. (Original post)

4. Cook with a cardboard box

There's an entire realm of recipes and cookbooks that purport to help you get cooking done in the summer without turning on your oven. Skip the gazpacho and the house-warming heat with an oven built from aluminum foil, construction paper, plastic, and a few other household items, including a firm cardboard box. It's great for saving energy, saving time, and feeling like you really made the most of a warm, sunny day. Want to get a bit more efficient and physics-y with your outdoor oven? Try a parabolic solar cooker. Photo by thescarletmanuka. (Original post)

3. Build a greenhouse for $50

If you're lucky enough to live where plants and food grow all year, you already know the power of photosynthesis. For those who could use a little more prep time for their seedlings, a longer growing season, or just a buffer against the occasional plant-punching dry spell, The Door Garden explains how to take some light construction materials—$50 if you happen to have most of it lying around, about $150 purchased new—and build a greenhouse that will withstand most winters and thrive in every other season. Just got a few plants you want to get started with condensed solar power? Try the mini-greenhouse made from a window. (Original post)

2. Charge an iPhone/iPod with the sun

We're big fans of the MintyBoost DIY USB charger kit, a great project for electronic beginners and pros alike. It was only a matter of time, then, until someone switched the power source from AA batteries in an Altoids case to a lithium-ion battery with solar charging capabilities. Completing the modified kit isn't a great leap more difficult than the original, and once you do, you'll be glad to get a lot more use out of your windowsills, and hand over a lot less money at the grocery store every few weeks. It's not necessarily the most effective method of charging, but it's undeniably cool. (Original post)

1. Sun jar garden light

The solar-powered outdoor lights they sell at your local garden/home improvement store can be subtle or original-looking—if you want to pay a premium. Otherwise, you're stuck with painted plastic and models that hold a pretty weak charge. The sun jars constructed by our own Jason, on the other hand, cost only about $11 each—less if you have jars or batteries on hand—and give off a pretty neat glow, powered entirely by solar energy from earlier that day.

Original here

Severn tidal power scheme should not go ahead, warns Environment Agency

John Vidal

The Weston barrage, running 10 miles across the Severn estuary between Weston-super-Mare and Cardiff, is the largest of four tidal power schemes being considered by government Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

A giant tidal energy scheme which the government is counting on to meet ambitious new green energy targets set this week should not be built because it would be so ecologically destructive, the chair of the Environment Agency has warned ministers.

The government's roadmap to a low-carbon UK called for a 34% cut in emissions by 2020, with the power sector contributing the bulk of that saving. The Weston barrage, running 10 miles across the Severn estuary between Weston-super-Mare and Cardiff, is by far the largest of four tidal power schemes being considered by government and would be the centrepiece of the nation's renewable energy plan.

It could generate 8.6 gigawatts of zero-carbon electricity from the Severn – the equivalent of eight large coal-fired power stations – and would be the single largest renewable energy project in Europe.

But the £5bn flagship scheme would permanently flood nearly 35,000 hectares (86,000 acres) of internationally protected wetlands. It would also destroy some of Britain's most important fisheries in the Severn, Wye and Usk catchment areas, said Lord Smith in an interview with the Guardian.

"The great wall across the Severn channel poses the classic environmental dilemma. It would generate 5% of all the UK's electricity needs but at a huge cost in terms of fishing and habitats. These immense environmental impacts outweigh the carbon reduction benefits which you would get. We are advising the government on this pretty strongly," said the government's chief environmental adviser.

"There must be ways of harnessing tidal power from the estuary without the gross impacts that the Weston scheme would have. I regret that we are not putting as much effort as we could into tidal reefs and defences. We should be addressing the possibility of tidal power around the country. Tidal energy should be one of the key ways of generating electricity", he said.

Smith's comments will not be welcomed by the government which this week committed itself to generating 20% of the UK's energy from renewable sources within only 11 years, but it is meeting technical and planning delays with wind power.

A decision on the barrage will be given next year but ministers are keen to see it started because it would contribute more to emission cuts than any other scheme. The energy minister, Lord Hunt, said this week: "The Cardiff-Weston barrage has the potential to save the equivalent of the yearly CO2 emissions from all homes in Wales."

The barrage, which would be a huge engineering feat on the scale of some of the world's biggest construction projects, is shaping up to be one the most contentious environmental issues of the decade. The National Trust, the RSPB and WWF, together representing more than 5 million people, have said that a barrage would be "economically dubious" and "ecologically disastrous".

They have also argued that 5m tonnes of CO2 would be emitted during construction and another 5m tonnes during transport of the materials, undermining claims that the barrage would help reduce emissions.

Smith also warned the nuclear industry, another part of the energy and climate change secretary, Ed Miliband's "trinity" of low-carbon electricity plans, that climate change could seriously affect their costs. He said the agency would demand that nuclear power companies build major sea defences to protect nuclear power against the sea level rises expected over the next 100 years.

"Virtually all the new [nuclear] stations are by the sea. We will look at them on a case-by-case basis but all sites must be fully defensible. The power companies know that they will have to defend them on a very large scale. Protection against flood risk must be absolute."

Smith also questioned Miliband's intention to preserve low-cost mass air travel, revealed in the Guardian this week. Calling for a debate on the future of aviation, he argued that climate change made it doubtful people could fly so much in 40 years' time. "By 2050 we should have reduced greenhouse gases by 80%, which means we will have 20% left. How much of that 20% should be taken by aviation?

"Aeroplanes will get more efficient but they will not be able to completely remove their carbon emissions. By 2050 we will need to have decided how much flying we can do. "

Original here

Orchards may vanish by the end of the century, conservationists warn

An apple crop being harvested in Somerset. Their price is set to rise this year. Photograph: Mark Bolton/Corbis

Small traditional orchards could vanish from the British landscape by the end of the century unless action is taken to save them, environmental experts and campaigners warned yesterday.

Natural England and the National Trust claimed 60% of England's orchards had isappeared since the 1950s as they launched a £500,000 project aimed at halting the decline. The crisis has been even worse in some areas, such as Devon, which has lost almost 90% of its orchards.

The organisations argued that if nothing was done, a focal point for communities across the country and a crucial habitat for flora and fauna could be wiped out forever.

The loss of orchards would be accompanied by a huge loss of apple varieties, some unique to just a few square miles, and many of them with wonderfully eccentric names such as the Hangy Down, the Oaken Pin and Polly White Hair.

Steve Morris: 'Sixty per cent of smaller orchards have vanished' Link to this audio

David Bullock, the head of nature conservation at the National Trust, said: "Traditional orchards have been disappearing at an alarming rate. We are in real danger of losing these unique habitats."

Bullock also said that unless more was done to map the many disused orchards in England, rare varieties would be lost, with no records kept of them ever having existed.

In a blossom-filled apple orchard at Killerton, a National Trust estate in Devon, the scale of the crisis was spelled out.

Though cider has grown in popularity over the last few years, it tends to be made from apples grown intensively and treated with chemicals. Many smaller traditional orchards have been built on, or uprooted to make way for arable crops and pony paddocks.

That meant the loss of habitats for birds, beetles including the threatened Noble Chafer, mammals — such as long-eared bats — moths, lichens and fungi.

For the purposes of the new £500,000 project, traditional orchards are defined as having at least five trees widely spaced and allowed to grow gnarled, hollowed and eventually fall where they stand . They are not intensively managed, are treated with few or no chemicals and are often grazed by animals such as sheep or geese or cut for hay.

Lucy Cordrey, the project manager, said: "Traditional orchards have become an extremely rare and precious habitat. We need to do something to stop this decline. Orchards bring people and wildlife together. It's about food, the culture behind them, the heritage. They are magical places to be in."

Under the two-year project old orchards are being restored and long forgotten or neglected ones rediscovered and mapped. Workshops are being set up to train people in skills such as pruning and grafting and communities are being told how they can revive old orchards, plant new ones and market the fruit they produce.

Sue Clifford, director of the environmental charity Common Ground, said she was confident the traditional orchard would be saved.

Clifford, whose favourite apple is the west country's Slack-ma-Girdle, said: "The interest is escalating. In the last two or three years we've seen a change in people's attitudes.

"We've been trying to excite people since the late eighties about traditional orchards. We've tried to say to them, look there's 2,300 varieties of eating and cooking apples, several hundred more of cider apples. And that's just apples. Think of the pears and the plums and the

damsons. And I think people are starting to realise that orchards are beautiful places. They are fantastic for wildlife and they are good for community spirit. "

Traditional orchards, traditional apples

Here are just a few of the varieties of apples to be found in the orchards of the Killerton estate in Devon:

Killerton Sweet

Unique to Killerton, a pale green cider apple. One of the varieties used in the estate's popular 6% cider.

Killerton Sharp

Also found only at Killerton. A little drier and sharper than the sweet, and gives the cider a bit of bite. Ripens in October.

Philbert Nut Bush

A bright red Somerset apple. Excellent in chutney but also makes a tasty desert apple.

Star of Devon

Originally from the village of Broadclyst just a few miles away from Killerton. A pale yellowy-green pithy apple.

Ten Commandments

Split it in two and you find 10 brown dots - hence the name. Pale green and yellow, becoming red as it ripens in late September and early October.