Engineering

File this under the "why didn't I think of that?" topic. A researcher at MIT in Cambridge, MA, is combining thin film solar power technology with interior decorating to create energy harvesting textiles that could be used in the home as curtains, wall coverings, or on the exterior of the home to generate electricity.

Sheila Kennedy is an architect and professor at MIT, and she has developed prototype curtains that incorporate thin-film solar cell technology. Thin film solar cells are currently not as efficient as their silicon cousins, but can be manufactured quickly using techniques not much different than newspaper printing.

Curtains are only the tip of the iceberg in terms of home useage. Sheets of material could be rolled out onto a roof, or incorporated into awnings or shades.

Kennedy plans to incorporate small rechargable batteries into the hem of the curtains, and envisions that someday appliances could be directly attached to the textiles rather than plugged into a wall socket.

Kennedy's textile technology is currently on display at the Vitra Design Museum in Essen, Germany, in a prototype home called the Soft House.

Source: "Capture Power with your Curtains", CNN website, July 1, 2008.