^{[image courtesy Inhabitat]}

Solar power: Scientists have been mucking about with it since the ’40s (at least), but photovoltaic energy still falls into the realm of novelty. So why hasn’t solar made it out of the dark ages already? The simple answer is: money and land. Sure, sunlight itself is free — but building a solar array costs $10,000 and requires 300 square feet just to get 1 kilowatt per hour (a kilowatt-hour averages 8.6 cents in the US).

Prototypes from the SunHopes project skirt the land issue by getting vertical — with energy-capturing balloons! Taking home the “Forward Thinking” award from the Re:Vision sustainable design competition, SunHopes’ 10-foot-wide balloons produce 1 kilowatt per hour while gracefully floating up out of everyone’s way. Better still, the project aims to minimize cost, with each balloon netting a target cost of $4,000 — a considerable bargain compared to the $10,000 it currently takes to build a solar field that produces the same amount of energy.

The price tag (not to mention the visibility) is probably too high for SunHopes to start littering suburbia with towering silver saucers just yet, but a wide array of niche applications — off-the-grid living, emergencies, naval operations — make this an interesting opportunity for solar power to gain a new foothold in the sky. [via Inhabitat]

Looking like something straight out of a Barbarella DVD extra, this swingin’ cephalapad (oof) belongs to some lucky design-minded couple in Mexico City. Conceived by Arquitectura Organica’s Javier Senosiain (the mastermind behind such jaw-dropping works of organic design as the Quetzalcoatl Nest ), the house boasts spiral staircases, indoor gardens and a knockout mountain view. Its shell is made of ferrocement, an earthquake-resistant material consisting of cement, sand and water slathered on a wire frame. If you crave more Nautilus eye candy, check out Senosiain’s site. [via BoingBoing; photo courtesy DVICE.com]