Great Idea

This lamp produces light with no fuel or cords. It works by placing weights on the top of the lamp. As gravity pulls the weights down, it produces enough energy for 4 hours of light, powered by LEDs. This is a great way to reduce energy costs, both economic and environmental.

A shocking amount of wasted energy exists that could potentially provide electricity, light or heat. For example, the energy in all fossil fuels originally comes from the sun during photosynthesis. Efficiently capturing even a small amount of it would be remarkable.

Solar power is just one possibility. Others include wind, oceanic waves, geothermal heat, biomass energy--even raindrops. Hybrid cars already capture some of the energy expelled in braking. More power sources, coupled with more efficient power use can attack both the supply and demand side of the world's energy problem.

I'm not a huge environmentalist, but there is obviously room for improvement in the energy situation.