I tinted my ride to dodge da 5-0, plus it powers my AC, playa

While American Auto Manufacturers are currently blowing exhaust up our.. bums about their plans to increase standards to 35 mpg by 2020 (Wow really?!?! That’s TWELVE YEARS! Twelve years ago I would have just spent 5 minutes connecting to Prodigy online service on my Pentium 133 Mhz processor at 28.8 baud per second, you cheap, lazy bastards), There has been some innovation that could ACTUALLY help the environment, and is pretty neat as well.. Solar Window Tint!

A Group at MIT has recently perfected a type of glass treatment that is able to catch and transfer solar energy, which is then stored by solar cells. It’s called a “solar concentrator,” and what it does is pull in the light, and it is transferred to a dye in the glass. This allows it to be channeled to the sides of the glass, where solar panels store the energy. In the past the dye system they used was not as effective, but now with this breakthrough, it is 10 times more effective then it was previously.

The great news is that in a few years this could be a standard on at least some of the more Hybrid-ie cars. As Engadget recently noted, the Prius is already planning to incorporate solar panels to power the Air Conditioning. The Auto Manufacturers might still be dragging their.. bums on helping the Environment, but unless you live under a HUGE FRIGGIN’ TREE (or you know, use garages), the possibilities of car energy are as endless as the Auto Manufacturer’s excuses for doing basically nothing since 1973.

Thank Technewsworld via Engadget