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New Building Lights Itself at Night

by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 03. 1.06
Science & Technology (alternative energy)

glass-wall.jpg

A building under construction in Japan will use sunlight to illuminate its rooms after the sun goes down. Sections of the walls of the new office complex will be constructed with a new building material that contain super-thin, transparent solar panels and as many as 320 light-emitting diodes that release whitish-blue light at night. The material, a joint venture between Japanese construction company Shimizu and Sharp electronics, can convert about 7% of solar energy into electricity, which is enough to illuminate the building for an average of 4.6 hours every night, according to NikkeiNet Interactive (subscription required). The building is going up in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, on the southeastern edge of Japan. We'd love to see a similar, more practical version of this technology that directly lit the interior, but, hey, solar and LEDs together...lots to like here. ::New Scientist via ::Boing Boing

Comments (9)

I've just found out that this was submitted to Digg.

If you feel like digging it:

http://digg.com/technology/New_Japanese_Building

jump to top MGR [TypeKey Profile Page] says:

I wouldn't like to work there. It would be like working just under the sun, and trust me when I say that it can get vVERY irritating. By the way. what happens at night, there is just no light at all.

jump to top legado says:

"I wouldn't like to work there. It would be like working just under the sun, and trust me when I say that it can get vVERY irritating. By the way. what happens at night, there is just no light at all."

did you even read the article?

jump to top Anonymous says:

"I wouldn't like to work there. It would be like working just under the sun, and trust me when I say that it can get vVERY irritating. By the way. what happens at night, there is just no light at all."

did you even read the article?

jump to top joe says:

Sounds pretty cool to me. Thanks for the article.

Neat article. Thanks and great work

jump to top Rambin says:

fyi: interestin stuff

jump to top Jay says:

it would illuminate the building for 4.6 hours
------------------------------
thats for the dumbass who cant read
aka
Ledgado

jump to top Abdizzle says:

Sounds pretty cool to me. Thanks for the good article.

jump to top nikeshoes says:

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