One of fifty top entries in this year’s Greener Gadgets Design Competition, Vincent Gerkens’ Blight offers a brilliant twist on staid venetian blinds. Rather than serving simply to block the sun’s rays, the design re-envisions blinds as sun-soaking solar panels that store energy during the day and illuminate your interiors at night.
Named after a combination of the words “blind” and “light”, Blight creates a seamless link between the indoors and the outdoors, storing sunlight during the day and giving it back at night. The smart design takes advantage of the large surface area of extended venetian blinds by lining each panel with flexible solar cells. Once night falls, stored energy is transfered to a layer of electroluminescent foil, which provides energy-efficient light.
Gerkens states: “With Blight we have not produced a new object; we have just created the design of an everlasting product: the Venetian blind. We use all the current functions of this object and add a little technology to give it a new function – to catch solar energy and convert it into electricity.”
There’s lots more innovative eco gadgets to check out, so head over to the to the Greener Gadgets website to see all 50 entries! And remember, we’ll be awarding $5000 to the top three designs so be sure to vote for your favorite!
+ Blight
+ Greener Gadgets Design Competition
If you wanna turn day into night and night into day then use illuminating solar blinds.
A very interesting idea indeed..its amazing how we are now focused on harnessing solar energy in every way possible. Has this product been thru any kind of lab testing?
Also I would love to see such products being tested as part of DOE’s “Solar Decathlon Competition” !
I think this Blight Blids has a great future in tropical countries like India. Someone should tell us who manufactures these blids commercially and I can ensure huge orders are placed for shipment to India!
Chari, R.K.
This looks Great. Does somebody know where I can buy them?
That thinking out of the box! Brilliant!
i would name them The Slight or from slat-light rathr than blight, because of blights negative meaning
thanks
hellow nice.. info i had here in http://www.inhabitat.com
i would like to know if you can turn them off or they just keep on glowing until they run out and i want to know also the price and if they are available in mexico
i want to know iif you can turn them off at night or if they just keep glowing and i also want to know the price and if they are available in mexico
Interesting idea, but there’s a company that has been doing this for years. I saw them at an expo in Washington DC two or three years ago. You might want to check out thier site at http://www.radiantblinds.com
Interesting idea. Can it ever produce enough power to justify it’s price, when and if it is every produced for sale? Nay Nay I Say! Never , ever. SS
Brilliant! I’d definitely invest in such a product – I don’t imagine they’d do well in a bedroom without light blocking curtains and I wonder what they’d look like from outside. Might be cool. Good luck!.
“lined” beats “blight”.
Wow, now those are like WAY cool! I like it!
RT
http://www.online-anonymity.at.tc
My question is can you turn the lights off an on at night, or do they just glow until they run out of energy? It’s cool, but it kind of just mimics glow-in-the-dark paint.
Great concept – but “Blight” – ???? I’d check that with some marketing psycholgists if I were you – or just look it up.