Oscar G. Torres

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Month: March 2008

  • Presentation on Helios-The Power Tree

    Background: Energy Consumption Has reached a level that is having a drastic effect in our society, environment and economy due to greenhouse gasses produced from burning fossil fuels. World power usage in terawatts (TW) from Wikipedia: Possible Solution Use energy that is “clean” and that does not harm the environment as much as fossil fuels. […]

  • Helios: The Power Tree

    I decided to rename my solar tree to “Helios-The Power Tree” or Helios Tree for short. I don’t want people to confuse my flexible solar PV cell tree with the Solar Tree a project by Ross Lovegrove of LONDON. My tree has an organic form and is a blue color and silver leaves. The idea […]

  • More Cup Art

    Here are some more cups, weeeee! made on 02/08/08 02/15/08 02/21/08 03/06/08

  • Is Apple going cheap?

    I bought a new MacBook Pro last Thursday. While I was customizing the preferences, not even two hours after I opened the box, the letter “i” key fell off the keyboard. I looked at the fallen key, and noticed that the little latches that hold the key in place were broken. It must have been […]

  • Soldering the solar cells.

    Soldering 192 solar cells is going to suck! I spent around 8 hours prepping and soldering and only managed to complete 30 solar cells. As I was soldering away, I realized that I need to attach these cells to the tree somehow. I am thinking about using hot glue but if that melts the foam, […]

  • Eyebeam's FEEDBACK exhibit

    Last night was Eyebeam’s FEEDBACK exhibit on sustainability. There were many interesting projects by various artist like Rebecca Bray and Britta Riley’s DrinkPeeDrinkDrinkPee, Mouna Andraos, The Power Cart, Michael Mandiberg, The Real Costs and Jeff Feddersen, The Off-Grid Outlet just to name a few. Jeff Feddersen also happens to teach my sustainable energy class at […]

  • Solar Tree Update

    I received the solar cells that I ordered from Jameco Electronics and I was very disappointed. Although the solar cells are the size I ordered. They optically appear smaller than I imagined them. I also came to the conclusion that I will not have enough solar cells(due to budget issues) to fill up the whole […]

  • Solar Tree, carving the form.

    I’m still waiting for the leafs of the tree to arrive. I ordered 200, 3v, 22mA solar cells that are supposed to get here today or tomorrow. Time is now a factor in meeting the deadline to finish this tree. The solar cells need to be soldered in series (in groups of four) to get […]