POWER CURTAIN

Ask, Oct 2008 by Moss, Meg

Here's another green idea for powering our houses: use curtains to gather energy from the sun. Solar textiles are made with ultrathin photovoltaic materials, solar cells that can capture and convert the sun's energy into electricity for household use. Sheila Kennedy, an architect who is working on designs for this technology, calls it "soft power." She has developed an entire Soft House that uses these fabrics as curtains, room dividers, and even roofing material to harvest more than half of the house's power needs.

Small batteries sewn into the hem of the curtains download the solar energy into a larger battery to make electricity to run appliances. Kennedy envisions that someday soon we might even plug our TVs directly into the living room drapes.