Green Daily

I totally covet solar panels, but as a renter in the city, right now it's only a dream. However, I just found out about something slight more attainable city dweller: solar powered curtains.

Yes. Curtains. Think about it. Their job is to block the sun. How cool if they could multipurpose, right? It turns out that the technology to turn curtains into solar power plants exists, but no one has marketed it to regular folk. Yet.

Sheila Kennedy, a professor at MIT, is looking into ways to create a DIY kit that people can pick up at the hardware store and install at home.

To oversimplify, thin-film photovoltaic material is used as a curtain, it absorbs energy and stores it in rechargeable batteries that are in the hem of the curtain. You download the batteries into your home power system, and use the power to run your home.

Sounds simple and delightful, right? I can't wait until we can all redecorate using Ace Hardware's best solar window treatments.