The Soft House project harvests electrical energy from a set of curtains by using ‘organic photovoltaic nanotechnology’ material to convert sunlight into power. The idea is that the curtains convert the sun’s rays all day, then switch to insulating and even lighting the habitat during the evening and night. The research team reckon they can harvest up to 16,000 watt hours of power a day, which is around half of the needs of an average US home. [Thanks Matthew]. Cue joke –

“Doctor doctor, I keep thinking I’m a pair of curtains.”
“For goodness sake, pull yourself together man.”