Indoor solar panels efficiently harness light energy wasted in office spaces

You do not need to bring the sun indoors to power up these newly innovated solar panels. The brainchild of U.S. based firm Solaroad Technologies, these cylindrical solar panels named “CubeTube” can efficiently harvest energy when used indoors. So how do solar panels work indoors? By simply harvesting the energy given out and wasted by office lighting. They can also be easily clipped on to office walls or used as desktop devices too. Due to its curved surface, the CubeTube can harvest light energy from all sides. The device can also be used as a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) and have PC’s connected directly to it. It can run a workstation for hours with the energy stored in it, or switch the workstation back to the grid if the power saved isn’t enough.

Though using a desktop PC isn’t advisable since they eat up a whole load of power. This awesome innovation should be for sale by the year 2011.
[Energymatters]