HOUSEHOLDS of the future could use flower power if an innovative idea by North-East design student Paul Richardson gets off the ground.

After being given a brief to design something for the home of tomorrow, the third-year Northumbria University student hit upon the idea of giving households the capacity to grow their own energy.

He designed batteries in the shape of flowers that can be left in gardens to collect solar and wind power.

When the flowers are fully charged they can be picked and brought inside to provide colour and power.

Paul has even designed a special vase with a plug so his power flowers can run a variety of small appliances, such as a kitchen radio.

Paul's design has won him £1,750 from the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce (RSA) and a four-week placement with competition sponsors DCA Design International.

Paul, 20, of Rookhope Grove, Bishop Auckland, County Durham, said: "The flower is in two parts. The first part is a flower which uses renewable energy to charge up.

"Once it is charged up it turns green and you can take it into your home and place it into a base in the shape of a vase. You can then plug appliances into the vase.

"The idea is you have a flower patch of these flowers and you pick the ones which have charged up and turned green. Once in the home they blossom into a red colour when they are out of charge.

"They would only power something for a couple of hours, but it would get across how important energy is because homes cause 33 per cent of the world's carbon emissions and people often don't think of that."

Paul is developing his interest in design with DCA Design International on his placement before travelling to New York to work with a design company there.

His work will go on display, along with other winners, in an RSA Student Design Awards online exhibition at the www.rsa-design.net website from May 21.