Founded in 1998, Pelamis Wave Energy Converter uses a technology that used the motion of ocean surface waves to create electricity. The machine was made up of connected sections which flex and bend as waves pass; it is this motion which is used to generate electricity. Developed by the now defunct Scottish company Pelamis Wave Power (formerly Ocean Power Delivery), the Pelamis became the first offshore wave machine to generate electricity into the grid, when it was first connected to the UK grid in 2004.
Wave energy research was pioneered by "Salter's Duck", developed by Professor Stephen Salter of the University of Edinburgh. With an efficiency of around 90%, the duck moves up and down with the waves. The Pelamis is cylindrical, with four main tube segments linked by hinged joints. Each segment measures 120m long and 3.5m wide, and weighs 750 tons when fully ballasted. The machine operates semi-submerged, extracting power from the wave-induced motion of the hinged joints. This power is resisted by hydraulic rams, which pump high-pressure oil through smoothing accumulators to hydraulic motors. Each module contains a complete electro-hydraulic power generation system, with a single seabed cable linking several devices to the shore. The machine is held in position by a mooring system combining floats and weights that prevent the mooring cables from becoming taut.This maintains enough restraint to keep the Pelamis positioned but allows the machine to swing head on to oncoming waves.

The Pelamis is ideally moored in waters around 50–60m deep (often 5–10km from the shore). This gives access to large swell waves but avoids the costs of a longer submarine cable.
Wave power is perhaps Portugal's most promising form of renewable energy. Large, powerful waves come in from the Atlantic over a long coastline. Estimates predict that wave power could make up to 30% of the country's gross domestic product by 2050. Wave also has the potential to become one of the lowest cost forms of electricity generation, with opening costs now around half those of wind energy and a quarter those of solar PV.
Source: https://www.power-technology.com/projects/pelamis/

German Architect Andre Broessel believes he has a solution that can "squeeze more juice out of the sun", even during the night hours and in low-light regions. His company Rawlemon has created a spherical sun power generator prototype called the beta.ray. His technology has combined spherical geometry principles with a dual axis tracking system, allowing twice the yield of a conventional solar panel in a much smaller surface area. The futuristic design is fully rotational and is suitable for inclined surfaces, walls of buildings, and anywhere with access to the sky. It can even be used as an electric car charging station.
"The beta.ray comes with a hybrid collector to convert daily electricity and thermal energy at the same time. While reducing the silicon cell area to 25% with the equivalent power output by using our ultra transmission Ball Lens point focusing concentrator, it operates at efficiency levels of nearly 57% in hybrid mode. At nighttime the Ball Lens can transform into a high-power lamp to illuminate your location, simply by using a few LED's.

The station is designed for off grid conditions as well as to supplement buildings' consumption of electricity and thermal circuits like hot water."
*Source:http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/spherical-sun-power-generator/

Zhenan Bao, Stanford researcher, and her team have designed polymer solar cells that are flexible and can be stretched to power the 'super skin'. Ms Bao had successfully built a sensor flexible and very sensitive to any pressure. It was able to detect even touch-down pressure of a fly. She had made this over a foundation of a flexible organic transistor made of supple polymers and materials which are carbon based. Touch-sensing is achieved by the fluctuations in the current flow which is caused by an elastic rubber layer shaped like myriad inverted pyramids.
Changing the transistor's semiconducting material according to the type of material kept on sensor, the sensor can sense whether it is touching a chemical or a biological material. The semiconducting material can be just a nanometer or two layers only thick for the expected detection to occur. By changing the structural characteristics of the transistor as needed, the super skin detects chemicals in liquid or vapor state and bio matters like proteins. Super skin being able to detect diseases by sensing the biomarker proteins corresponding to individual diseases, this can be taken a step further by fitting robots with super skins and allowing the robots to detect by touch whether a person has s disease-confirming biomarker or robot can test the sweat for drunkenness etc. When the sensors detect the nature of the materials being tested, they have to send the data to a computer or a researcher.

Instead of connecting to a power supply or batteries, incorporating polymer solar cells is a better idea as this will enable the sensors to be portable and less cumbersome and be more eco-friendly.
Today Bao has managed to make a green savvy version of the transistor made with materials that are biodegradable. Whatever materials go to make the transistor and its parts will not pose a threat to the environment. The super skin is much more than a human skin and now is totally eco-friendly, and will be powered by renewable energy source like solar energy.
*Source: http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/artificial-electronic-super-skin/

The e-reader does not consume much power. But if you love to read online and think you should do your bit towards using renewable energy, you have Toshiba and KDDI joining the ranks of LG to provide solar-powered e-readers. Biblio Leaf is the new kid in the e-reader block to match LG's solar eReader. Biblio Leaf has a six-inch e-ink display and 2 GB memory that can be enhanced with a microSD card. With 3G & Wi-Fi connectivity, touch pad and buttons to turn pages etc, there is a battery onboard which can be recharged by a solar panel. Once charged fully, some 7500 pages can be read non-stop.
It matches Kindle's size 8.5 by 5 inches and has 800 x 600 pixel resolution. It has a 6-inch display size. Its solar panel is mounted on the front side and is rather small in size unlike LG's which panels are bigger and are on the top that can be turned over. Many e-readers are concerned about the charging process. Biblio Leaf has a good and eco-friendly design in this matter. It takes 12 hours in full sun to recharge the batteries and you can put into 2 hours of use.

Perhaps the solar panels are slow, when it comes to recharging, but this device is surely better than the others, because it takes less time to power the batteries. The Biblio Leaf is surely the smartest choice of e-Readers on the market and it will please any environmentalist.
*Source: http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/e-reader-biblio-leaf/