Even while it feels like certain things are moving backward, efforts to power the world with solar energy instead of fossil fuels continue to reach for the sky, innovating advancements that make a renewable future more achievable. Tesla’s Solar Roof tiles are about to become commercially available, flexible solar panels are cheaper and more efficient than ever, we’re several steps closer to transparent solar power-producing windows and there’s even a product so thin and tiny it’s called ‘solar glitter.’

Solar Blinds by SolarGap

Designed with apartment-dwellers in mind, these smart solar blinds are inexpensive, easy to install, and work best when the blinds are open. If you have a window that gets a little too sunny at some point in the day, these could be an ideal gadget to reduce your electricity costs by up to 70 percent. They work best on the outside of your window, producing up to 100 watts of electricity, which is enough for one window to charge your laptop. You can use a smart app to control the blinds and monitor how much power they’re producing.

Plug and Play Smart Flower Solar Device

The Smart Flower features solar panel ‘petals’ that unfurl at sunrise, automatically directing themselves toward the sun and continuing to move throughout the day for optimal placement to produce 40 percent more energy than a static solar panel setup. Taking its inspiration from the shape of a sunflower, the smartflowerPOP will juice you up with 3,400 to 6,300 KWH per year.

World’s Largest Solar Storage Facility Works 24/7

Tesla and SolarCity opened a 13 MW solar far in Kauai, Hawaii featuring 54,978 solar panels and a 52 MWh battery bank, large enough to run twenty-four hours a day and provide up to 44 percent of the island’s power, compared to its 92 percent dependence on fossil fuel in 2011.

Wattway: The World’s First Solar Panel Road

There are a lot of reasons to be skeptical of a solar panel roadway, the first and foremost being that integrating an emerging technology into infrastructure may not be the best idea for long-term success. Solar power is rapidly changing, and the tech used for France’s ‘Wattway’ and similar projects will likely soon be obsolete, not to mention the probability of the panels being damaged. But The idea could still have weight for some applications, and Wattway is expected to generate 280MWh per year.

Solar Glitter Can Make Almost Anything Solar-Powered

An innovation called Dragon SCALEs by Sandia National Laboratories acts like solar glitter, shrinking solar panels down to tiny, flexible snowflake-inspired cells that could theoretically be applied to just about anything. Making use of recent advancements in micro design and micro fabrication, the panels can be folded like paper, rapidly and cheaply installed, and turn just about any object into a solar power generator.

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Iconic for its role in the counterculture movement of the 1960s, the Volkswagen Bus has seen many an amateur transformation into campers over the decades since, and now it’s gone solar electric. An Oregon couple decided to put their own spin on the classic DIY project by fusing the original aesthetics of a 1973 VW van with electric vehicle batteries and photovoltaic panels mounted to the roof, creating a modest but highly functional recreational vehicle for their family trips.

Brett Belen, an engineer who spent years working on solar electric vehicles before taking on the project, wanted a highway-friendly camper with a large roof surface to pack on the largest possible solar array. He mounted four 305-watt LG panels to a pop-up frame that tilts up to 40 degrees, taking in lots of sunlight on the road while flat and then positioned toward the morning sun when open and parked for the night.

The space beneath the open panel provides extra elbow room inside the van for Brett, his wife Kira and their two children. This works almost exactly like Volkswagen-produced camper vans, with the sides enclosed by waterproof tent material. A rear window allows them to look out onto the scenery of their chosen camping spot, while the inside is equipped with folding tables and storage space for gear.

The battery bank consists of 12 Trojan T-1275 lead-acid batteries in a custom battery box tucked beneath a bench seat in the back, providing a range of up to 50 miles per charge. While other battery types could provide more power, Brett emphasizes that he wanted to stick to materials that the average person can afford. It’s not top of the line, but the setup is still enough to take the Belens on a 1400-mile trip of the West Coast. Learn more about the specifics at the family’s website.

The ocean already makes music of its own, but in one Croatian town, its natural sounds are enhanced with the help of an interactive jetty-turned-instrument called ‘Sea Organ.’ Created by architect Nikola Basic in collaboration with engineers, craftspeople and a musical professor who tuned all of the pipes, the 230-foot installation on the coast of Zadar emits a constantly-changing concert of harmonic sounds with the flow of wind and water.

A system of polyethylene tubes and a resonating cavity are disguised beneath a set of marble steps leading straight into the Adriatic Sea. The channels connect to 35 organ pipes, and each set of steps containing five pipes is tuned to a different musical chord. As waves and the wind push air into the pipes, they create a haunting chorus of sound. The rougher the sea, the louder and faster the music.

The Zadar-Morske Orgulje, as it’s known locally, is also topped with an interactive display of LED lights that seem timed to show the movement of the water under the marble. This 22-meter-diameter, disc-shaped solar-powered installation called ‘Sun Salutation,’ also created by Basic, only serves to make the music of the sea even more magical.

Images via Flickr Creative Commons: linssimato, J We, Suzanne Hamilton, EyeofJ

Anyone passing through New York City’s Bryant Park can avoid the headache of searching for free outlets at coffee shops to juice up their phones, powering up at outdoor tables with built-in solar charging stations. Solar company Green Barrel Energy Inc. teamed up with street furniture manufacturer Landscape Forms and the Bryant Park Corporation to provide free power with cables that fit most electronic devices.

Each small round table is set on swiveling wheels (lockable, so they can’t be stolen), making them portable enough to move out of the way for special events or to keep the rotating panels in the sun throughout the changing seasons.

The round design promotes social interaction, encouraging people to gather around and have a conversation as their gadgets charge. The six prototypes are currently being tested in Bryant Park, and six additional tables are coming soon, along with more in other areas throughout New York City and eventually, the United States.

The compact footprint makes it easy to fit the tables into existing public spaces, working with a variety of seating, umbrellas and ground surfaces. Waterproof and weatherproof, it can be left outdoors full-time without needing any special storage during rain or snow.

Solar power projects go truly off-the-grid in mobile applications that range from practical if goofy solar panel-equipped Ray Bans to donkeys that stroll around with photovoltaics mounted to their backs. While some are just for fun, others have the (solar) power to bring electricity to remote places, or get around restrictions that hold back renewable energy progress.

Shrub Rover Solar-Powered Camouflaged Car

It looks like an ordinary shrub. Then it starts inexplicably rolling along the ground as if it has gained sentience a la the plot of a particularly terrible horror movie from the 1950s. The Terrestrial Shrub Rover by Justin Shull is a solar-powered, foliage-covered vehicle that lets drivers explore new territories in disguise (as long as you wait to actually drive it until after dark.) Cameras on the outside display the car’s surroundings on screens within so you can see where you’re going.

Pop-Up Solar Power Station

Solar installations can be costly and time-consuming to install, but load them into a shipping container so that they can pop right out when it’s opened and you’ve got a convenient mobile solar power station. The Ecos PowerCube is available in 10-foot, 20-foot and 40-foot ISO shipping container footprints with solar panels hidden within protective drawers. Batteries inside the container store power. Once unrolled, the panels increase the size of the array to three times the footprint of the shipping containers.

Solar-Powered Wheelchair

The winning entry in a competition for inventions that can make a significant difference to people with disabilities, this solar-powered wheelchair can run continuously on the power of the sun. Designed by students at the University of Virginia, the wheelchair features a custom-built 11-square-foot solar panel that doubles as a sun shade and enables the wheelchair to travel indefinitely at 1mph without drawing power from the battery.

Autonomous Solar-Powered Lawnmower

The equivalent of a Roomba for your lawn, this open-source robotic lawn mower runs entirely on solar power so you don’t have to sweat it out on a hot summer day. No need to even control it via remote, since it’s totally autonomous. If you’re handy with electronics, you can try making one yourself – instructions are available at Open Electronics.

Freshwater Floating Solar Power Plant

The world’s largest freshwater solar power plant will be installed over reservoirs and lakes in India’s southern state of Kerala in a $72 million, 50 megawatt project. Using freshwater gets around the problem of landowners overcharging for solar developments, with projects paying rent to the owners of the bodies of water. The total cost will end up being around 15 percent lower than equivalent land-based projects.

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Offbeat Off The Grid 15 Mobile Solar Gadgets