Home & Garden...

Inhabitat, one of my favorite blogs, has a super slick recent post on this great new green building solution, Solar and Wind Photovoltaic ‘Leaves’.

SMIT (Sustainably Minded Interactive Technology), one cool sustainable design group has released info on a new product called GROW. GROW, draws its initial design inspiration from growing ivy, and is a sun and wind energy system. SMIT actually has a GROW 1 and a GROW 2. Both systems are balanced around the same idea of clean energy delivery; they're just different builds.

GROW.1 is currently on display at MoMA, and is one of the neatest designs I've seen in a while. GROW.1 is designed in a leaf-like shape and pattern and based around a modular brick system. Each of the bricks has five solar "leaves" with a flexible piezo generator "stem."

The bricks provide sustainable energy, true, but another bonus is that each brick itself is sustainable. The photovoltaic and piezo, can be stamped out and upcycled, and the plastics can be recycled.

GROW .2 resembles leaves fluttering in the wind. See a cool structure photo here. The leaves are made of 100% recyclable polyethylene. They look like they could be a hassle if they fail, but SMIT notes that if one does happen to fail, it's easily replaced. This looks like a great system because of the adaptability of a product that can really fit anywhere. (you have to see it to understand) - you could see this on roofs and building sides and even mobile homes.

There's much more to learn about GROW and what it can offer in both solar and wind capturing benefits. Visit the SMIT website to learn more and see plenty of pictures.

Oh, by the way, look for another post later today. I was sick yesterday, and mostly away from the computer, so today we get an extra post to make up for it. Yahoo.