Environment

August 1, 2007 Xerox has developed a new, lighter business paper optimized for digital printing that saves on mailing costs and significantly reduces the impact on the environment by using half as many trees. The new High Yield Business Paper is made via a mechanical process that uses less water and chemicals and results in a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by up to 75% according to Xerox.  Read More

July 31, 2007 Sustainable generation of electric power is the key to realizing the vision of a world free from dependency on fossil fuels – the challenge is to ramp up the production of electricity to a level that can begin to approach the energy we get from burning coal and oil, without the perceived dangers of going nuclear. The combined threats of Peak Oil and global warming are spurring science into a furious new age of innovation. With almost daily breakthroughs in solar energy capture, battery technology and tidal energy harvesting, but the biggest contribution to green power thus far is coming from wind farming. The common windmill design used to capitalize on air currents, while centuries old, operates at around 1% efficiency in terms of the power it harvests from the wind, due to the deflective blade design and friction losses. But a new technology unveiled last year in China seeks to dramatically boost the output of wind-driven generators by using the virtually frictionless advantages of magnetically levitated turbines. Since there’s virtually no touching of moving parts, the Maglev wind turbine requires far less servicing than a traditional windmill – which dramatically lowers the operating costs to under five U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour. If projections are accurate, giant 1-gigawatt versions of these machines could have a 12-month ROI - a scenario sure to catch the eye of investors worldwide.  Read More

July 16, 2007 Not long ago, extra curricular involvement during school holidays for pre-teens culminated in a talk entitled “what I did on my school holidays” about a trip to the zoo or some other out-of-the ordinary excursion where children were encouraged to show their ability to learn from their surroundings. Behold then, the modern equivalent – the 31st annual Shell Eco-marathon UK this week saw the involvement of hundreds of British school children. With an eye on fuel efficiency, children as young as 11 were pushing the boundaries of vehicle design and engineering to achieve fuel consumption figures of over 1,000mpg. Sandbach School triumphed in the schools class with an incredible 2,250mpg, sufficient to take 12th place overall in the open competition in their first year. The winner was once again the world fuel consumption champion Microjoule with 10,517 mpg. Just wait ‘til these kids leave school.  Read More

July 11, 2007 A new test facility that aims to cut the cost of large-scale solar thermal energy production has been inaugurated at Almería in southern Spain. Research scientists from Europe’s largest solar energy research institute, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, helped to develop the facility which uses a linear Fresnel reflector one hundred meters long to focus sunlight onto a steel absorber tube in which water is heated up to 450 degrees Celsius and used to drive electricity producing turbines. Finding more efficient ways to harness the sun’s rays is a key part of the shift towards renewable energy and solar thermal power, as one of the most efficient methods currently under development, is predicted to provide about 10% of the world's electricity by 2050.  Read More

June 28, 2007 This aerial image of Google’s corporate headquarters in Mountain View turned up in a press release this morning, pointing out that the 1.6 MW Google Solar "Campus" is now the largest commercial photovoltaic system in the United States. Take a look at the image in higher res and see if you had the same reaction we did. Google doesn’t smelt aluminum, cast large metal objects or refine petroleum – it’s activities are confined to a bunch of people quietly working away at computers. Recognising that Planet Earth is drowning in its own excrement no longer needs a PhD or an election and this is the largest photovoltaic system in the whole U.S.A.? It’s just not that big!  Read More

June 28, 2007 The tidal motion of water offers us an amazing source of energy - it's immensely powerful, predictable, reliable and can be harvested with no emissions and very little impact on the environment. Following successful testing off the coast of Devon, Marine Currrent Turbines is set to begin construction of the world's largest ever tidal turbine system off the coast of Northern Ireland - kind of like a wind farm that sits underwater. The 1.2MW generator will push enough power back into the commercial grid to supply 1000 homes, and will serve as a prototype commercial test of this clean, sustainable energy source.  Read More

June 26, 2007 Would you have ever thought it conceivable to grow vast amounts of produce in the heart of densely populated cities such as Hong Kong, Tokyo or New Delhi? A new model for agriculture is proposing just that. Vertical farming is the latest concept to address the impending crisis in world food production and follows the same methodology that town planners have used for years to cope with growing populations and space limitations; build up, not out. Aiming to bring food production to the places where most of the consumption occurs, the concept envisages specially designed skyscrapers that contain multiple levels of viable farmland providing all-year-round food production in a controlled, parasite-free environment.  Read More

June 22, 2007 With over half a billion fluorescent light globes disposed of each year in the U.S. alone, there is no doubting the significance of a product that allows existing fluorescent fixtures to be converted to Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) by simply changing the bulb. The world's first true replacement of glass fluorescent lighting tubes, the EverLED TR from LEDdynamics utilizes the existing fluorescent ballast, while achieving the equivalent light output of the tube it replaces.  Read More

June 22, 2007 SANYO has broken its own record for the world's highest energy conversion efficiency in practical size crystalline silicon-type solar cells. The company achieved this solar energy breakthrough by demonstrating an efficiency of 22% (beating a previous record of 21.8%) at a research level for its HIT solar cells, the first time that a photovoltaic manufacturer has broken through the 22% mark in conversion efficiency for this type of cell.  Read More