Mounting on the green building success of their previous stores, including the green Boulder REI we wrote about previously, REI today opens the doors to its second generation of green prototype store in Round Rock, Texas.  The Texas store is projected to consume 48% less energy than a typical store and generate a portion of its power from a solar panel installation, building integrated photovoltaics, and a solar hot water system.  After that, Round Rock will rely on Solatubes to displace a portion of articifial lighting and the purchase of green power generated from biomass digesters. 

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University of California, San Diego is in the process of installing Solar Trees by Envision Solar on the roofs of two of its parking garages.  The Solar Trees are designed to provide clean energy for the campus, shade for vehicle parking, and future infrastructure for electrical vehicles.  Each Solar Tree at UCSD will generate more than 17,000 hours of clean energy per year, which is enough to power more than four single-family homes.  In aggregate, with two parking garages topped with Solar Trees, you can imagine the power they’re generating. 

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METALAB and Ttweak have taken a novel approach to marketing the first proposed LEED certified condo building in Houston.  The two designed a sales center for MirabeauB using two 20-foot containers.  On the roof, solar panels generate ~180 kwH per month and can fold up during bad weather. 

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This solar cell tree charger by Vivien Muller is kind of interesting.  You can use it to recharge your cellphone, camera, or whatever, because it has 54 tiny photovoltaic panels and an internal battery that stores energy.  The modular parts are connected and can be rotated infinitely creating a different tree for your favorite sunny spot at home.

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Update 8/08/2012 – Parans is now available through Wasco.

The interesting thing about fiber optic lighting is that it creates the ability to put natural light in places where there is none.  Generally, here’s how it works.  Using a building-mounted panel with computer-controlled, sun-tracking lenses, natural light is channeled through optical fibers to luminaires that diffuse the light (see diagram below).

Since early 2008, HUVCO Daylighting Solutions has been offering a fiber optic lighting system like this, or the Parans System, which was developed in Sweden.  Although light only travels about 60 feet through optical cables, the ability to direct light in this manner is quite interesting.

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