When I was a kid, I had dynamo powered lights on my bike. They worked great as long as you were moving along, but quickly dimmed if you slowed down or stopped. Now a California company called High Tide Associates has updated this technology for the 21st century with the RollerGen, a bike mounted generator that charges your portable electronics. Rather than the wimpy 3-5 watts of my old dynamo, the RollerGen can spit out a whopping 30 watts, which get stored in a small battery called the BOS (bar of soap). This sits next to the generator in a small rack over the rear wheel, and there’s enough extra room for your electronic gizmos. This all sounds great, but I wonder how the RollerGen works in the rain. Also, at $495 for the complete system, it seems pretty darned expensive compared to the alternatives. RollerGen , via GeekSugar.com

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RollerGen charges your devices with pedal power

Solar panels are generally big, ugly things that you stick on a building not for beautification purposes, but for ecological purposes. Well, these glass pyramid solar cells help you out on both fronts. Developed by the Center for Architecture Science and Ecology, the system is comprised of pyramid-shaped glass receptors that follow the sunlight throughout the day, focusing the light down on a small solar cell at the center of each pyramid. Not only are they smart and efficient, but they’re damned handsome as well. You can’t argue with that combo, can you? NY Times via Inhabitat

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Glass pyramid solar panels save energy without looking ugly

Despite its current impracticality , Honda keeps plugging away at its hydrogen vehicle prototype . The company just revealed a component that brings its hydrogen vehicle closer to reality — a more compact solar hydrogen-making machine that you install in your personal garage, turning water into hydrogen fuel . The Honda Solar Hydrogen Station uses solar power to perform this alchemy, able to produce a half a kilogram of hydrogen during the day (or using cheaper electricity at night), and refueling that car when you park it in the garage that night. The idea is to create enough hydrogen for a car to make its round-trip daily commute without using any fossil fuels. We can only hope mass production will someday bring the price of each vehicle below the hundreds of thousands of dollars it costs now. Via Ubergizmo

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Honda unveils a home solar hydrogen-producing station

Japan’s Tajima Motor Corp recently took the wraps off its newest electric vehicle called the EV Mini Sport. The single seat car resembles something more along the lines of a formula-style race car , but the creation is targeted towards mainstream consumers. The car has the ability to reach up to 43 miles per hour, making it fine for city transportation, but nothing you’d want to actually try to race in. Tajima’s EV Mini Sport goes on sale this month in Japan for 2,079,000 yen ($23,018, without a battery). Via Nikkei

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EV Mini Sport offers eco-friendly racer without the speed

Kent Displays has been working on its no-power reflex LCD for a while now, but now the company has sprouted a new arm — Improv Electronics — and that arm is clutching the new Boogie Board LCD Writing Tablet. It’s not a tablet computer meant to take on Apple’s upcoming offering or HP’s Slate. Instead, it’s a clip you can write on and erase on its pressure-sensitive display, and it only uses power — from a watch battery — when it needs to erase. It’s good for 50,000 erase cycles, the company says. The Boogie Board already sold out at Amazon , but when they returned Imrpov will be selling each Boogie Board for $30 — or “15 times less” than a sheet in a steno notepad all things considered, the company says. Read the full press release after the jump, if you’re into that. Via TFTS

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No-power Boogie Board LCD tablet wants to replace paper

The Eolic is a foldable, portable wind-powered generator. So you just prop it up, face it towards a stiff breeze and start channeling that wind into a fully-functioning Xbox 360 during a hurricane. It’s a pretty neat idea, although in order for it to be truly useful it’s got to generate a sizable amount of energy. And if it’s not a very windy day, the chances of that happening aren’t great. But still, it’s a clever and unique idea. EcoFriend via LikeCool

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Get your own portable wind turbine!

Part of “going green” means monitoring your energy output, a task now made infinitely easier with the introduction of the Onzo from the UK. The kit is composed of a display that shows your current consumption and sends that information wirelessly to a sensor unit. The device can store up to ten years of information and also offers a USB connection to your home PC. Although the design is final, the company has yet to firm up a price for the product that is scheduled to go into production later this year. Via DesignBoom

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Onzo kit helps track your green energy goals

Designer Kai Malter Roever has come up with a sparky little idea for cyclists — a tire pump-bike light hybrid. Just 20 seconds of pumping will (as well as toning your biceps) give the LED light attached to one end of the pump 45 minutes of illumination. Once it’s charged, just fix it onto the clamp, and adjust the beam either up or down. The PUYL (Pump Up Your Light?) is, as yet, only a concept, but it’s a concept that won it this year’s design award at Eurobike, and there’s a patent pending on it. You can see another view of it after the jump. Via TreeHugger

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PUYL pumps tires, illuminates cycle track ahead

There’s no shortage of solar powered devices for charging up your mobile gadgets , but few can match the chic style and clever versatility of the Regen ReNu. Its solar panel is used in tandem with one of several optional bases, including a basic iPod/iPhone dock, a sound dock with speakers, and even an LED desk lamp. With a built in battery that’s constantly storing away juice even when your iPod isn’t docked, the ReNu can then transfer that charge into your device just as quickly as any regular dock. It can even switch over to pulling power from a wall socket if needed, useful for cave dwellers like myself who don’t have a lot of ambient light in their space. The ReNu is slated to be available early next year for $199.

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Charge up your iPhone the green and stylish way with ReNu

Bozen, Denmark’s E-Move Charging Station is the work of that country’s entrepreneur, Valentin Runggaldier, and — while those renders make it look like a flight of fancy — it’s actually real and going through a test. The idea is to provide a place for electric vehicles to charge up (in this case, eight of them), giving commuters another option than the outlet at home. It also benefits from the fact that it wouldn’t require a lot of infrastructure to be installed, as a city-wide smart grid would. No word on how much longer it takes to charge a vehicle up at an E-Move power station, but Mr. Runggaldier would like to sell his concept to governments if the tests prove promising. Check out more in the gallery below.

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This solar kiosk could be your ‘gas’ station one day