When most of you hear about solar energy the first things that spring in mind are heating your home, heating water or vehicles that are powered with solar power, right? You will be surprised how many other uses of this renewable source are there and some of them are pretty cool. Technology is taking full advantage of the good old Sun and it seems solar energy will be soon part of our everyday life and for a good reason. Here is a list with some of the stuff that can be done with this cheap alternative energy:
Transportation Signaling Devices
Solar energy is frequently used in various types of transportation signaling. It is pretty much everywhere nowadays: offshore navigation buoys, lighthouses, aircraft warning light structures, and increasingly even the road traffic warning signals we see every single day. Simply put – this completely renewable source of energy is not just cheap, it also saves lives by making naughty drivers behave. Pretty cool, don’t you think?
Environmental Monitoring Equipment
Long story short, the sun keeps you safe from earthquakes and landslides! How cool is that? Solar energy is widely used to power environmental monitoring equipment that prevents natural disasters. In addition to that it also serves for corrosion protection systems for all kinds of infrastructure like bridges, pipelines and others.
Water Supply
It seems the Sun is the King of Elements – on top of protecting us from disasters it also provides water in places that are normally really hard to supply. With the use of alternative energy water is pumped up in remote areas as part of portable systems. Such type of water pumps are very innovative and are constructed for submersible use or to float on open water. Another advantage of the renewable energy includes powering large-scale desalination plants via an array of solar modules with battery storage.
Charging Various Devices
OK, you have probably heard that one, but it is still very cool. Solar power is being used by more and more companies for creating chargers for pretty much every device that we use in our everyday live including laptops, smartphones and tablets. Considering the fact the batteries of those normally die when you need them the most, this will definitely help a bunch of people. Imagine the opportunity to charge your phone anywhere for free? I can’t wait for these solar charges!
Recycling
We all know recycling is really important, we don’t want to deplete the whole planet and leave it filthy and sucked dry to our kids, do we? Well, solar energy is here for the rescue! More and more cities around the world are using it to build solar-powered trash and recycling compactors. It is super effective and it saves a ton of money (which means less money for taxes, hurray!), because those devices can hold approximately five times more garbage than normal bins and thus are reducing litter and drastically cutting down collections. You can see them in Philadelphia, New York, Chicago and many other cities and let’s hope many more will follow.
