Green Energy

Arguments still rage on, but it's generally accepted that we need to roll out more sustainable power solutions and break away from our reliance on fuels that are going to disappear one day. As advances in solar, wave and wind technologies gather pace, Dutch design house NL Architects has been looking at ways to bring wind turbines closer to where the power they produce is needed, instead of being located on remote hillsides. Inspired by a vertical-axis turbine called Eddy, the team thinks the answer may lie in tree-like creations named Power Flowers. Read More

A first-of-its-kind biomass-fueled, heat and power generation system has been developed by a partnership between Nexterra Systems and General Electric, and is heading to the campus of the University of British Columbia (UBC) next year. The Bioenergy Research and Demonstration Project will meet around six percent of the total annual demand for electricity and up to 25 percent of the university's campus requirements for steam. UBC has just announced that the project has secured a substantial federal and provincial cash injection. Read More

VTT, the Technical Research Centre of Finland, is currently field testing a prototype large-scale solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) that the organization hopes will provide efficient, cheap grid power from natural gas and biogas. The VTT system is unique in that it uses a single 10 kW planar SOFC stack to produce a year’s worth of electricity for a typical apartment block. Read More

The Danish company Dantherm Power has recently announced its plans to sell solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) plants as environmentally-friendly power stations for private homes. Even though the project is only in its infantile stages, the company predicts the now bulky prototype will evolve over the next few years as the green alternative to power generators, or act as a buffer for buildings that are powered by renewable but intermittent energy sources such as wind or solar. Read More

As winter tightens its icy, gloomy grip on the Northern Hemisphere, many of us are turning to our fireplaces or wood-burning stoves for physical and psychological warmth. Unfortunately, however, burning wood releases carbon into the atmosphere – a conundrum for people who want to minimize their CO2 footprint but still stay warm. U.S. company VIASPACE Green Energy, however, has just started selling a product that it claims will provide customers with fire fodder, while being almost carbon-neutral: fireplace logs made from compressed Giant King Grass. Read More

When Gizmag paid a visit to the Paris Green Air Show in June, there was one craft on display that seemed to steal the show. The Green Cri aerobatic electric airplane hadn't even left terra firma, yet was surrounded by eager onlookers for much of the time it was there. Now the four-engined prototype has returned to Le Bourget airfield for its maiden flight in the sunny skies above Paris. Read More

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

Mobile operator Orange and renewable energy specialists GotWind know they’ve hit on a good, marketable idea. The companies have joined forces for a third consecutive year to showcase their outdoor charging solution at next month's Glastonbury Festival, the United Kingdom’s largest and hippest open-air music bash. This year Orange has unveiled a mobile phone charger prototype it’s calling the Orange Power Pump. By treading on what is essentially a standard camping air foot-pump, the kinetic energy created drives a small turbine inside the Power Pump. The energy is converted into electrical current, which recharges the mobile phone. The idea is not only simple, it cleverly encourages you to dance and charge your mobile at the same time. Read More

A retractable alfresco umbrella that converts sunlight into electricity to charge laptops, mobile phones, iPods or any other portable device that might be used relaxing or working outdoors is in development following a partnership between Skyshades, a supplier of shade structures, and Konarka Technologies, the developer of Power Plastic. Read More