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Korean electric vehicle solution
By Paul Ridden
00:08 August 20, 2009 PDT
Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have developed an electric transport system where the vehicles get their power needs from cables underneath the surface of the road via non-contact magnetic charging. As well as potentially saving Koreans a lot of money by reducing crude oil imports, widespread adoption of the technology also offers the potential of improving air quality in currently polluted cities. Read More
Process to clean wastewater also produces electricity and desalinates water
By Darren Quick
00:05 August 17, 2009 PDT
Desalination plants generally employ one of two methods to produce clean water – reverse osmosis or electrodialysis. Unfortunately, both processes require large amounts of energy, but an international team of researchers has proven a process that cleans wastewater can also remove 90 percent of salt from brackish water or seawater while generating electricity. Read More
Entech Solar energy hybrid has hopes for bright future
By Jeff Salton
02:44 August 14, 2009 PDT
Renewable energy technology company Entech Solar has completed a preliminary design review and prototype of its next-generation concentrating solar product, ThermaVolt II, which combines concentrating photovoltaic and thermal (CPVT) technology. The company says its product delivers four to five times the amount of energy compared to traditional photovoltaic systems and costs less to produce. Read More
Milan trade fair to commission world’s biggest rooftop solar power installation
By Karen Sprey
20:27 August 10, 2009 PDT
Bigger may not always be better but when it comes to solar power generation it's a plus. The rooftop photovoltaic power installation at the Milan trade fair will cover around 270,000 square meters (2.9 million square feet) and have a peak installed capacity of at least 18 megawatts (MW). This will put it ahead of the biggest existing rooftop solar plant at General Motors in Zaragoza in Spain, which has a peak capacity of 12MW. Read More
Going Green: Renewable energy on the move
By Paul Lester
20:23 August 10, 2009 PDT
Learning more about consumption levels and investing in a standby-saver or two to cut down on waste energy is a great way to start becoming more green in the home, but there are also ways to utilize renewable energy when you're out and about. Read More
Going Green: Standby savings in the home
By Paul Lester
01:38 August 7, 2009 PDT
Cutting down on unnecessary electricity usage has clear benefits for both the environment and your hip pocket, and devices that tackle the issue of standby power are an obvious place to start. Paul Lester takes a closer look at some of the current solutions on the market. Read More
MotionPower energy system testing expanded
By Darren Quick
22:58 August 3, 2009 PDT
When we first came across MotionPower, a prototype system that converts the kinetic energy from cars driving over it into electricity, we mentioned we would keep tabs on the technology to see if it could make the leap to real world implementation. Well, the company behind the MotionPower system, New Energy Technologies, has taken the next step along that road by expanding the durability field tests of the device. Read More
Going Green: Monitoring energy consumption in the home
By Paul Lester
23:42 August 2, 2009 PDT
Perhaps the first step on the road to being green comes from learning a bit more about the various appliances in the modern home and how much energy they actually use. There are a range of home energy meters available for just this purpose, reporting not only current usage in monetary terms, but also estimated CO2 emissions, power consumption and historical data that can be used to identify and cut down during periods of excessive consumption. So what are the options? Read More
Organic solar power efficiency gets a boost
07:24 July 30, 2009 PDT
Few would argue with the attractiveness of solar as an alternative energy source, but the cost of conventional photovoltaics has long been a stumbling block on the path to making it a viable option. This is changing rapidly. Grid parity, as the target for equaling coal burning production costs is called, has recently been claimed by solar manufacturers and research dedicated to improving solar systems continues on many fronts. Photovoltaics using organic molecules is one of them. This technology promises cells that are cheap, easy to make and flexible, and this flexibility makes them suitable for a diverse range of applications like powering your mobile phone, or lining your backpack or window shades. The problem is that currently they only last a few thousand hours and are inefficient, converting less than 6 percent of light into electricity. Work by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) could help change this. Read More
Smart concept for public transport solar ‘bike’ - but can the public be trusted?
23:05 July 28, 2009 PDT
Young German industrial designer, Tobias Bexten, has come up with a nifty little idea for city transport. The STEM is a compact electric three-wheeler, powered by a lithium-ion battery, that would be available for pick-up and return at a city-wide infrastructure of rental stations. But, if a popular Parisian bike rental scheme is anything to go by, Tobias could expect to see half his bikes stolen, and the rest vandalized, hung from lamp posts and tossed in rivers. Read More
Vertical Landscapes: The only way is up for green cities
By Darren Quick
06:24 July 28, 2009 PDT
Demand for office and housing space in ever diminishing land space has led to taller and taller buildings reaching for the skies in cities around the world. This shortage of land in many cities has unfortunately also led to a scarcity of natural vegetation in urban settings. We’ve looked at several vertical-farming concepts - dedicated buildings that provide space to grow crops in city centers - but a new architectural system from Vertical Landscapes (VL) seeks to invite nature back into our cities on a broader scale. The architectural system transforms buildings into columns of vegetation to add a much needed touch of green, help clean the city air and possibly even produce small scale crops, all while retaining the building’s usual use for office or housing space. Read More
Biodiesel goes to the birds
By Darren Quick
23:47 July 23, 2009 PDT
Scientists in Nevada have found a new and environmentally friendly source of biodiesel – “chicken feather meal”, a delightful material that consists of chicken feathers, blood, and innards made from the 11 billion pounds of poultry industry waste that accumulates annually in the US alone. Read More
Texas to benefit from largest offshore wind concessions in the USA
By Paul Lester
18:56 July 23, 2009 PDT
The push for more dedicated use of renewable energies has been given a boost recently by Texas startup Baryonyx Corp, which has successfully procured the lease for what will be the largest offshore wind concessions in the USA. A total of 8,000 acres of land in Dallam County and 38,000 acres in the Gulf of Mexico will power ‘Tier4’ data centers by generating a potential 3GW of energy. Read More
SCORE Project seeks funding to roll out Bio-Mass Stove in developing countries
By Paul Lester
20:01 July 22, 2009 PDT
Two years ago experts began work on a revolutionary new stove that could help reduce poverty in third world countries. The £2m SCORE project (Stove for Cooking, Refrigeration and Electricity) was designed to offer cooking, refrigeration and energy production from a wood-powered generator and subsequent developments have now brought the project to a point where it can be mass-produced. Read More
Off the grid street lighting: coming soon to a street near you
By Paul Ridden
23:12 July 21, 2009 PDT
It provides light where there is darkness, it gives a sense of safety and security, but it's also a power leech. The humble street light. Thankfully, the move away from the grid is already well underway with companies like Urban Green Energy busy transforming these familiar towers of light into self sufficient beacons that harness the power of the elements - in this case, it's a hybrid solution that uses both the wind and the sun. Read More
New GE LED outdoor lighting helps banish danger in parking lots
20:30 July 20, 2009 PDT
If you’ve ever crossed a parking lot at night and found yourself nervously hurrying from one reassuring pool of light to the next, you’ll be pleased to learn GE believes it has come up with a way to banish lurking shadows from large outdoor areas. The GE Evolve LED area light produces less glare and a more uniform level of light, reducing hot spots and dark spots. And, as an added bonus, it’s 30% more energy-efficient than traditional outdoor lighting. Read More
Plantagon Urban Greenhouse concept
By Paul Lester
07:05 July 20, 2009 PDT
While perhaps not as architecturally ambitious as the Dragonfly concept we looked at last week, this urban farming design from Swedish-American company Plantagon has the same environmentally-friendly ambitions along with a distinctly eye-catching design of its own. Read More
Capturing more heat from low-temp resources to aid geothermal power
By Darren Quick
01:29 July 20, 2009 PDT
Geothermal power is cost effective, reliable, and environmentally friendly, but it has previously been limited to geographic areas near tectonic plate boundaries. New technologies, such as that employed in the Raser low-temperature binary geothermal plant, promise to expand the opportunities for geothermal plants. Now scientists at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have devised a method for capturing significantly more heat from low-temperature geothermal resources to further boost the possibility of virtually pollution-free electricity. Read More
Polaris launches Electric Neighbourhood Vehicle
By Gizmag Team
01:15 July 17, 2009 PDT
Polaris has announced a low emission electric powered Neighborhood Vehicle, the Polaris Breeze, the first product of its new On-Road Vehicle Division. The Breeze is designed for multiple consumer uses such as golfing, comfortably transporting up to four passengers, or easily carrying light cargo loads. The vehicle is targeted towards master planned communities, and will be available in limited quantities in September 2009. Perhaps more importantly, now that electric vehicle manufacture has been added to the company skills base, what other electric capability might be added to other Polaris products? Read More
The Dragonfly: vertical farming vision for New York's skyline
By Paul Lester
04:17 July 16, 2009 PDT
Building another skyscraper in the middle of New York may not seem like an environmentally-sound project. That is of course, unless said skyscraper is capable of providing a sprawling urban populous with self-sustaining production of food, reuse of natural resources and biodegradeable waste. Enter The Dragonfly, a dazzling, ethereal design from Vincent Callebaut Architectures which underlines the future potential of vertical farming. Read More
Incandescent light bulbs may have a bright future after all
By Alan Brandon
21:47 July 15, 2009 PDT
In the face of legislation being enacted around the world, the future of the trusty incandescent light bulb has been looking dim. Ireland has banned the sale of incandescent bulbs, and the United States is set to phase them out by 2012. And it’s no wonder - the apple of Thomas Edison’s eye is something of an energy hog, especially when compared with modern bulbs such as compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs and LED-based lights. But now a new technology from Deposition Sciences Inc of Santa Rosa, California, is promising a brighter future for the venerable incandescent. Read More
Portable solar powered fridge goes off-the-grid
By Paul Ridden
18:55 July 15, 2009 PDT
A fridge that positively thrives in direct sunlight might seem a bit of a strange idea, but if you find yourself in a baking hot country where keeping your medical supplies cool and fresh could mean the difference between life and death, or you just want to sell some chilled refreshments to passers-by, then you need a portable, stand-alone chill solution. Industrial Insulation Systems (IIS) has developed a solar powered fridge/freezer which can be tailored to meet the needs of these off-the-grid scenarios. Read More
The M3 mobile water desalination system cuts the cost of producing clean water
By Darren Quick
04:57 July 15, 2009 PDT
Desalination is a popular source of potable water in Middle Eastern countries, where large energy reserves and the relative scarcity of water suitable for drinking led to desalination in the region accounting for close to 75% of total world capacity in 2007. If that figure hasn’t already dropped it almost certainly will as access to clean water becomes an issue for many places around the globe. And the shortage isn’t just limited to developing countries, with places like California and parts of Australia facing their worst droughts in recorded history. A new mini-mobile-modular (M3) “smart” water desalination and filtration system could help determine the feasibility of desalination in areas that may be considering it for the first time. Read More
Nanotechnology breakthrough promises cheaper, more efficient solar cells
04:44 July 15, 2009 PDT
The quest for alternative fuels has become one of science’s major pre-occupations and finding ways to cheaply produce energy from the sun is a key battlefront. Researchers at Berkeley, California, have found a way to make cheaper, better solar cells using tiny nanopillar semiconductors measuring just billionths of a meter wide. The underlying theory is that a 3-D solar cell has more surface – and, therefore, will be a much more efficient light-collector – than the usual 2-D solar cell. Read More
Four time World Solar Challenge winner unveils new car - the Nuna5
By Paul Evans
19:20 July 14, 2009 PDT
The team that won the World Solar Challenge for the last four years running has unveiled its latest solar racer. Like its predecessor, the Nuna5 from Delft University's Nuon Solar Team is covered with six square meters of solar panels but is 30kg lighter at a super low 160kg excluding driver. Read More
matthew.rings
- November 24, 2009 @ 06:31 UTC
