Solar Christmas lights are bringing grid free holiday cheer.

A great present to give your pocket book this coming Christmas is the gift of not running up a high electric bill.

This holiday outdoor lighting set up runs on the light of the sun.

Instead of dirty energy, which is like giving a kid a lump of cool for Christmas, nearly clean photovoltaic PV solar panel runs this string of lights.

Although it sounds counter intuitive, here is how the lights work.

In the day light the panel collects the power from the sun, stores it: At sundown the lights turn on.

There is no need for another power source.

If you are looking to save money this season, then Solar Christmas lights will help you accomplish this goal.

These lights are helping Americans have a less grid dependent Christmas this coming season.

How about a solar powered wreath?

MIT engineers have invented what they call a solar concentrator; solar windows for the home.

Solar concentrators contain special dyes that help the windows absorb light differently.

The edges of the windows have energy cells that collect energy from light.

Solar concentrators to be used in solar windows:

The beauty of the above concentrator technology is that it does not need to move the track the sun, it can exist in a window and still harness sunlight efficiently.

According to Discovery Channel.com and Science Magazine, project leader Marc Baldo, claims the solar windows can obtain energy from 40% of the sunlight.

Dr. Baldo also claims that the concentrator can increase the ability of standard photovoltaic (PV) panels by 50%. This is huge, allowing photovoltaics to absorb 80% of the light energy that hits them.

According to MITs website, these windows or the dyes, will be available to the public within the next three years.

Dr. Baldos research team, includes EECS graduate students Michael Currie, Jon Mapel, and Timothy Heidel, and postdoctoral associate Shalom Goffri from the Research Lab of Electronics. They reported their discoveries in the magazine Science in June of 2008.

Thanks to the MIT Solar Concentrator invented by Dr. Baldo and his team, solar powered windows will be even cheaper and will be able to sell back more energy to the grid within the next three year.