ecoGizmo

As a green energy source, geothermal heat is tough to beat, but until recently, it was believed to be economically feasible only in areas with shallow tectonic (volcanic) activity. Now, with a generous grant from Google.org, the search engine giant's philanthropic arm, two scientists from Southern Methodist University (SMU) have pooled together the results from more than 35,000 data sites to paint a very different, almost rosy, energy picture for the United States and, indeed, the world. Read More

The 3rd International Holcim Awards for sustainable construction projects from across Europe were recently announced at a ceremony in Milan, with the German architectural firm realities:united taking first prize for its Flussbad proposal. Led by architect Tim Edler, Flussbad would transform a stretch of the River Spree in Berlin into a 745 meter (almost 0.5 mile) -long "swimming pool." That's about the size of 17 Olympic pools! It is hoped that the project will provide Berlin residents with a new way to use the city's historic center, whilst taking advantage of a currently unused section of Berlin's inner city river. Read More

Can you imagine the power of 50,000 steps a day? Well, Laurence Kembell-Cook, the director of Pavegen Systems imagined it and created Pavegen tiles - a low carbon solution that aims to bring kinetic energy harvesting to the streets. Not surprisingly, the tile is receiving a great deal of attention as a solution for power-hungry cities with a lot of walking traffic. Read More

Chicago-based STL Architects is hoping to impact the identity of Taichung City with its impressive Taiwan Tower concept. The designs have been submitted as part of the Taiwan Tower competition, where architects have been challenged to design a monument that would enhance the urban culture for Taichung citizens. STL's dramatic design would create a monument in the center of the city in the form of a circular tower. Read More

Team Tokai has just reached the finish line in Adelaide, Australia, to become the winner of the 2011 World Solar Challenge. The victory makes it back-to-back wins for the Japanese team which took out the previous event in 2009. Read More

Four days into the 2011 World Solar Challenge and things have proven even more challenging than usual for the participants. Teams have had to contend with huge road-hogging trucks, cars catching alight and bushfires that saw the race route closed by police, leaving the top three teams cooling their heels at an unscheduled stop at the end of day two while both the vehicles and the participants recharged their batteries. Read More

Italian architecture firm Stefano Boeri Architetti hopes to merge vegetation and urban architecture, with its Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest) project. The Milan-based firm has designed a model that could see the "reforestation and naturalization" of metropolitan cities, by growing forests sky-ways. "Bosco Verticale [is a] device for the environmental survival of contemporary European cities," says Stefano Boeri. Read More

The 11th World Solar Challenge got underway on Sunday with participants starting out from Darwin, Northern Territory, on a 3,000-kilometer (1,864 mile) solar-powered car race across the red center of Australia. The start follows three days of scrutineering and a day of qualifying that saw Solar Team Twente from the Netherlands take pole position in a field of 37 teams from 20 countries. But the margin was tight, with the team’s 21Connect solar car coming in just 0.00.3 seconds ahead of fellow compatriots and four time winners, the Nuon Solar Team. Read More

Last July, in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the X PRIZE Foundation launched the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE. As with previous X PRIZE competitions, this one was intended to encourage private sector scientific research, by offering a cash prize to whichever team could best meet a given challenge. In this case, teams had to demonstrate a system of their own making, that could recover oil from a sea water surface at the highest Oil Recovery Rate (ORR) above 2,500 US gallons (9,463.5 liters) per minute, with an Oil Recovery Efficiency (ORE) of greater than 70 percent. Today, the winning teams were announced. Read More