Toyota’s Solar Flowers exhibit has left San Francisco (see photo), arriving at its final tour stop in Glendale, Calif.

The oversized flower sculptures, on display at The Americana at Brand, are partially powered by solar panels on the backs of their petals and bases of their stems. Some of the flowers are up to 18 feet tall.

Five flowers provide seating for up to 10 people, access to free Wi-Fi service, and power to charge cell phones and laptops. Hours of operation are from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, now through Oct. 18.

The flowers are part of the 2010 Toyota Prius marketing campaign, whose theme is “Harmony Between Man, Nature and Machine.”

Glendale bus riders will find solar-ventilation bus shelters spread throughout the area, which feature rooftop solar panels that help run fans and circulate air. This experience is designed to demonstrate the Prius’ Solar-Powered Ventilation System, which uses a fan to draw outside air into the cabin to reduce cabin temperature when the car is parked in direct sunlight.

“It’s exciting to see how the public has really embraced both the displays and the vehicle,” says Tim Morrison, corporate manager of marketing communications for Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A.

But the solar panels are no small order. To feed Texas’s energy needs, the photovoltaic plants would need to cover an area of 30 miles by 30 miles.

In the study, researchers found Texas has the potential to generate 148,000 megawatts of juice from solar technology. Currently, the total solar capacity of the United States is only about 9,000 megawatts.

The types of solar engineering include parabolic troughs, parabolic dishes/sterling engines, central receivers, linear fresnel reflectors and solar water heaters. All sorts of complicated stuff, but it sure sounds impressive!

Luckily, things like photovoltaic are quick to produce and cheap. Other contraptions, such as setting up mirrors can increase energy intensity and superheat liquid that can be used to produce power even on cloudy days and at night.

Via CleanTechnica.

Last month, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report confirming global warming is upon us and attributing the growing threat to the man-made burning of fossil fuels.

Opportunities to increase solar energy conversion as an alternative to fossil fuels are addressed in the Physics Today article, coauthored by George Crabtree, PhD, senior scientist and director of Argonne’s Materials Science Division, and Nathan Lewis, PhD, a professor of chemistry at Caltech and director of its Molecular Materials Research Center.

Currently, between 80% and 85% of our energy comes from fossil fuels, but they are a finite source distributed unevenly beneath Earth’s surface. When fossil fuel is turned into useful energy through combustion, it often produces environmental pollutants that are harmful to human health and greenhouse gases that threaten the global climate. In contrast, solar resources are widely available and have a benign effect on the environment and climate, making them an appealing alternative energy source.

“Sunlight is not only the most plentiful energy resource on earth, [but] also one of the most versatile, converting readily to electricity, fuel and heat,” Dr. Crabtree says. “The challenge is to raise its conversion efficiency by factors of five or 10. That requires understanding the fundamental conversion phenomena at the nanoscale. We are just scratching the surface of this rich research field.”

Book Pick of the Day: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Solar Power for Your Home

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