Environmental Innovation: Getting the People Involved – Blog Post 22 - Make-Up 1

This week I discovered two articles that I found interesting, both about environmental innovations.  Each article takes a different approach to greening the world.  The first article, titled “Totally Transparent Solar Cells Could Turn Our Windows Into Solar Panels,” is about a new technology that is being developed at Michigan State University.  This technology is a film that goes over windows or other surfaces and absorbs infrared radiation and then refracts it to the sides of the glass, where solar cells can convert it into electricity.  It is an improvement on a film that absorbs and reflects infrared radiation in order to save money on cooling and heating buildings.  Richard Lunt, one of the professors working on the project, said, “Ultimately, we want to make solar harvesting surfaces that you do not even know are there.”  Lunt is looking at society today and trying to figure out where he can make the most improvements.  He is now starting a company to help sell his products to help better the world.  As great as this idea is, the only way people can respond to it is really with green consumerism.  Can the process of creating new green technologies be done better?

The second article I read, titled “NASA Wants You to Come Up with the Best Wave Energy Technology,” takes a pretty good shot at answering this question.  This article was basically about how NASA and the Department of Energy (DOE) have made a computational tool for modeling wave energy technology available online to the public.  The wave energy computational technology, called the Wave Energy Converter Simulator or WEC-Sim, can let a person design a new wave energy technology from scratch or improve an already made model.  WEC-Sim then allows a person to see how much energy a certain design can capture.  The idea of making WEC-Sim available to everyone, from garage inventors to universities, is a big deal in my eyes.

             I absolutely love this idea.  This idea provides the tools necessary to design a WEC to the general population.  It provides a space for people to work off of each other’s idea, collaborate, and come up with the best possible innovation.  Additionally, it can get people interested and excited about sustainability and alternative energy technology.  I would love to see more innovations made in a similar way.  There are two major questions that I have in regards to this computational tool.  If a design is chosen to be made, what will the designer get?  Will the designer get recognition or compensation?  Second, how will NASA and the DOE search through all of the innovations and find the best ones?  There will most likely be tons of bad ones, so this is probably one of the biggest problems with the process.  It may be less efficient when the group gets too big. 

Regardless, this idea is a great one and a revolutionary one.  A place or forum where inventors can work on each other’s ideas to make the best product for the good of society not only increases the worth of the final product but makes people feel involved in the process and in the environmental movement.  The first article describes a great environmental innovation that was designed in a university setting, where people outside of the university can only really interact with it through green consumerism.  The second article describes an environmental innovation that uses the minds of as many Americans and universities that feel like participating.  Although results do come from the first idea and it may be more efficient, a better product may come out of doing work in the way that the second idea was done.  In addition, the second way strengthens people’s activity in the environmental movement.  Which way is better? 

           

           

Works Cited

Schiller, Ben. "Totally Transparent Solar Cells Could Turn Our Windows Into Solar Panels." Fastcoexist.com. N.p., 12 Sept. 2014. Web. 19 Dec. 2014. <http://www.fastcoexist.com/3034696/totally-transparent-solar-cells-could-turn-our-windows-into-solar-panels>.

Treacy, Megan. "NASA Wants You to Come Up With the Best Wave Energy Technology." Care2.com. N.p., 8 Sept. 2014. Web. 19 Dec. 2014. <http://www.care2.com/causes/nasa-wants-you-to-come-up-with-the-best-wave-energy-technology.html>.