Author: gavril

Solar power plants are springing up faster than ever these days. Italy’s power plant being built has grabbed a whole lot of attention lately. Well, its time for Taiwan to now bask in the glory of the sun. A 4.6MW solar power plant is currently being built at the Kaohsiung County in Taiwan. Taipower, a state-run utility firm is currently in talks with Taiwan Sugar Corp to lease the land it owns for the project.

Local residents are however opposing the solar power project, taken that they have other ideas for the land’s use. This will be the biggest solar plant of its type on the island. Taipower also plans to install a 4MW capacity solar power station on a Taiwan Sugar-owned land in Tainan. 97% of Taipower is owned by the government, and the firm currently produces around 75% of the electricity used. The Taiwan Government hopes that around 15% of the nation’s energy needs will be satisfied with renewable energy by the year 2025. We hope so too!

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Futuristic contraptions with weird names seem to be the “in” thing today. Give them a punch of green features, and people tend to love them even more! Well, the latest vehicle in this category is the Mooovie. The need for three “o”s in a name sure set us thinking. A confusing name aside, the Mooovie won the Gold Award of Best Advanced Technology in the first “Science & Future” International Concept Car Design Contest, and for a good reason. The vehicle designed by Han Jing, graduate from School of Fine Art, Tsinghua University, came up with this vehicle, that can switch between a 3-wheel and 2-wheel mode.

The vehicle is great for use in cities and highways too, with zero emissions, thanks to its electric powered motor. It compresses to a two-wheeler on cramped roads. The three-wheel mode lets you drive at a higher speed. The vehicle also uses an intelligent automatic drive that can control the distance between vehicles. An interactive wheel-display keeps the driver entertained and informed. The Mooovie is sure to grab hearts around, if commercially available.

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Tuning to the radio-waves could create jobs for the people of Madagascar, thanks to 22 year old Becky Barber who came up with a radio design that could help with job opportunities. Becky came up with a radio constructed out of bamboo. The solar powered device, Becky hopes, could help build a social enterprise opportunity in Madagascar. Two thirds of the population of Madagascar lives below the poverty line. Using sustainable and naturally occurring resources to construct radios like these could help provide the people with jobs.

Becky has visited Madagascar loads of times before, where her parents live, working for charities since the last 26 years. Bamboo is available in Madagascar in certain areas on a plentiful scale, and the cost of production of these green solar powered bamboo radios can be pushed down. Hopefully, Becky’s plan works out and workshops with good salaries for producing radios like these and perhaps a few more products out of sustainable sources spring up in Madagascar.

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The Mormons have taken a green step, with their house of worship going solar powered. The Latter Day Saints church will be powered by energy from the sun. The new 20,000 square foot church will use around 158 solar panels on its roof to power up. Located at Farmington, Utah, the church had its panels test run, producing around 910 kilowatt hours of electricity in six days. Of this just 300 kWh of energy is required to for the Sunday service. The panels will generate enough energy for the building’s self sufficiency. The church’s library is equipped with an energy performance display. This displays information on power generated, power consumed and cumulative savings.

Currently, the Mormon Church owns around 17,000 meeting houses, and having them go solar powered to an extent will help save up a whole load of energy. Besides this, the Mormon community also owns a solar powered church in Tahiti and a building heated with geothermal energy in California. A solar powered example set by the Mormon Church.

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Rumors are running wild. And they out to, taken that Bugatti are planning to cease production of the iconic Veyron supercar. That’s left everyone wondering what the automotive company will come up with next. Another machine we can drool and dream about? Hopefully! Rumors of a 1,200-horsepower Super Veyron have surfaced too. And according to a few, the company is working on a green supercar, pushing the extremes of battery power to a whole new level.

A test car, based on Bently’s Continental GT is under tests currently, using two electric motors and a high-tech lithium-ion power cell that will when combined deliver 800 horsepower and 1,600 lb-ft of torque. And this isn’t the first time Bugatti is going electric. They’ve tried it before with the Type 56 in the 30’s which received a good enough response. An electric supercar by Bugatti in the future sure seems likely.

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Smashing beer bottles has never been a greener affair before. This time, you can spread awareness of recycling by smashing beer bottles, in a controlled environment. Blow off the steam by smashing bottles at the Glassphemy glass-pulverizing installation. The rectangular shaped structure is made out of bullet-proof glass, and can easily sustain the impact of a bottle smashing on it. The Glassphemy, created by Macro Sea, works as a glass recycling center and a great stress reliever too!

Standing 20 feet high and 30 feet long, bottles from bars are kept besides the structure, ready to be hurled and soothe your nerves too. The breaking grass sets on a lighting system by Jason Krugman. A cement mixer, powered by a bike, polishes the shards and grinds them to sand. Macro Sea also has a contest wherein you can submit your ideas on finding uses for the broken down glass. This sure is an aggressive means to recycling.

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Italy now has something more to boast about besides awesome architecture and breath-taking scenic views. The largest solar plant being built currently in the country will now be supplied by the Japanese firm, Sanyo. The Sanyo Electric Co. will supply the giant solar power plant with solar batteries to the plant, confirming to doing so in a statement on Wednesday. The project is a consortium by the Deutsche bank AG, and a long term consortium has been indicated by choosing Sanyo.

Sanyo’s HIT solar panels will be used for the plant, with each cell containing 32,202 solar panel modules. The solar cells can generate around 7.6 megawatts of electricity. The construction on Italy’s new pride, the largest solar power plant, will be completed in September.

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The punks loved them, doctors study them and the pirates flaunt them on their flags. You guessed that right, we’re talking about skulls. Now this may sound weird and disgusting to some, but skulls are now inspiring artists more than ever. And using recycled materials to make skulls of different shapes and sizes gives this emblem of death and danger a new lease of life. The Skateboard Skull is made by a Japanese artist Hiroshi using old skate decks. The artist loves skating, and instead of having the decks thrown away, he came up with the Skate Board skull. Artist Brian Dettmer from Atlanta came up with the cassette-tape skull, made from old derelict cassettes. Subodh Gupta from India came up with the kitchen utensil skull, representing the poor and starvation.

Noah Scalin’s Skull-A-Day project had him creating skulls everyday out of things he could lay his hands on, one of which is a recycled cardboard skull.

Using discarded Apple keyboard keys, Roger of RubyRed T-Shirt designs came up with a T-shirt skull. Recycling is turning into an aide for artists to flaunt their creativity.

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The aviation industry has yet another reason to go green. The age of bio-fueled powered planes is here, but the guys at PC-Aero have decided to give it a skip and look further ahead in the future. The dream of having solar powered aircrafts may soon turn into a reality. The Elektra One aircraft by the firm spends its resting hours in a hangar that soaks in the sun’s energy to recharge the plane. The hangar, known as the Green Village Airfield uses photovoltaics to charge up the Elektra One. The project is in its infant stages, and plans are being drawn up and developed. The one-seater Elektra One can fly for 3 hours before needing to recharge, without a bit of CO2 emissions.

Using high-end batteries, electric motors, light fiber composite structures and solar cells, planes like these will keep the skies free of CO2 emissions. Hopefully, this dream turns into a reality quickly and more aircrafts with higher seating capacities are developed.

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The eco-friendly concept now steps into your bathrooms too. Water needs to be conserved, and using eco-friendly toilets and waterless sinks is one of the best ways of doing so. Well, to join the eco-friendly brigade, Niagara Conservation has come up with a toilet that saves a incredible amount of water. The toilet, known as the Stealth boasts a high efficiency and was recently Alex Wilson’s Cool Product of the Week. The Stealth is the only toilet in the world that uses just 0.8 gallons of water per flush.

Using a patented hydraulic technology, the Stealth has a quite flush, saving 37% less water than a usual high efficiency toilet, though performing in the same manner. Energy is harnessed with water filling in the tank, and a patented air transfer system to pressurize the bowl’s trapway. A press of a button quickly, powerfully and quietly flushes and empties the bowl. Eco-friendliness for your toilet, the Stealth!

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Outgo those age old books, pencils and paper we’ve used before to sketch and take notes. Make way for greener technology, the Boogie Board LCD Writing Tablet. Using this tablet, according to the company’s website, by just a few people can save around 3 million trees. Using a telescopic stylus, you can draw, sketch and doodle to your heart’s content on the pressure sensitive LCD writing screen. The screen measures around 8.8 x 5.6 inch, and to erase the data on-screen, all you need to do is touch a button. So that kicks out the use of erasers too.

And yes, the little tablet needs no recharging too! Using a sealed 3v watch battery that never needs replacing, the Boogie Board will remain a reusable writing, drawing and sketching surface for as long as you need. You can buy one of these from iMPROV Electronics, Amazon.com and Brookstone for just $35.

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Just like a child who’s just received a $100 bill from his grandma and is finding ways to blow it away, the city of Olympia had a few extra dollars, around $650,000 to spend. So, they brought 48 solar powered parking pay stations. These were installed around the city and were ready to use. But just when Olympia was about to pull away the plastic coverings from these high-tech meters, the city council voted 4-3 not to use them! And so, high-tech green technology stays unused in the city of Olympia, leaving the people guessing as to why these meters were installed, when parking in the city is free.

Now tax payers are sure going to feel around their pockets soon and realize their money has been wasted on a useless though green and high-tech technology. So, the council will go to vote yet again, this time hoping that a vote is passed in favor of these solar-powered parking meters.

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You buy a printer. Hook it on to your computer. Print out the stuff you need and empty out the cartridge. Where does the empty cartridge go after you dispose it away? To the e-waste dump at your city’s landfill! So, the Northern Territory Government came up with a way to recycle these cartridges, turning them into bicycle parks! The Simpsons Gap bike path, a popular tourist spot in Central Australia, has been upgraded with the use of recycled printer cartridges by the Northern Territory Government.

Around $130,000 was spent on the project, with the Territory Government ever willing to lend a hand in pushing forward technology. The path was tested by Environment Minister Karl Hampton, who appreciates the use of recycled plastics in parks, supporting the Territory Government’s environment reforms and initiatives.

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Weather change has never been more artistic and eye-catching before. Maybe you stop, look around and run for cover at times when the rains show up all of a sudden. No-one gives a damn about winter winds and the lovely spring breeze in a busy bustling city. Well, the World Financial Center Plaza will have an artistic way to weather change, with a kinetic outdoor sculpture that will light up through December the 31st. Known as the Weather Beacon, this multi-media sculpture by Erik Guzman translates weather data into moving gears and flashing lights. So how does weather data enable the moving of gears and flashing of lights? By receiving them via radio waves! These are then transformed into visual representations of spring breezes, winter winds. The Weather Beacon flashes and has its gears moving about through the day and into the night.

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The Big Apple is getting a facelift, environmentally speaking, and is going from dangerous red, to clean green. To start with, the cities two tallest sky scrapers will go green, with retro-fitting. The second tallest building, the Bank of America, last week won the platinum rating from the U.S. Green Building Council, the first commercial building of its kind to ever do so. Completed in 2008 at a cost of $2 million, the building, 54-story high, uses a 4.6-megawatt power generation plant and is self sustained. It was also made out of 87% recycled materials with concrete from 45% recycled content. This tower at One Bryant Park co-owned by Durst Organization, saves 8 million to 9 million gallons of water every year with rainwater capturing, water recycling, and waterless urinals. Also New York’s tallest building, the Empire State Building is aiming for the green stamp, with retro-fitting since last year, to reduce energy usage by 38%. The Big Apple is destined for a green horizon.

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Water reservoirs have never looked better before. When was the last time you cast a water reservoir a second while passing by? Well, this one, unlike its peers and ancestors, is sure to grab a lot more attention. And that’s simply because of the beautiful skin it flaunts. Known as the Balance Tower, this reservoir in Barcelona is part of a pumping station built by ATLL, a Spanish water supplier. It conceals a water reservoir inside it. The Balance Tower boasts a media skin, by ag4, with moving images. The structure uses a concrete core spread across 768m2 covered in a patchwork of metal and photovoltaics. LEDs in the joints of the skin emphasize the structure. The 18,000 LEDs light up at night, powered by the photovoltaics that soak in the sun during the day, to display images and text with a resolution of 3650 pixels. The power generated is fed into the grid during the day, and grid power is used to light up the Balance Tower at night. An eye-catching water storage tower, this one sure is a whole lot different.

Roll over for the video……

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Ever heard of a town called Voltageville? The map of the United States probably won’t have it, and no, this isn’t a modern day rendition of Atlantis, the city below the sea. Voltageville, is what Vacaville, California, has been nicknamed, and yes, you guessed that right, it has something to do with electricity. And why the electric nickname? Simply because this small town, halfway between Bay Area and Sacramento, has the maximum number of electric car charging stations per capita than any other city in the country. Vacaville now has a gas station sized quick charging station of 50-kilowatts for electric vehicles. The charging station can charge up a 16 kilowatt-hour battery pack of the all-electric Mitsubishi i-MiEV in just half an hour. Installed by Pacific Gas & Electric, this is the first fast DC charger in the country. Perhaps we need a lot more Voltagevilles around.

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Walking on lighted tiles was last seen in the Wizard of Oz. well, you can have some of these in your own yard now. Walk across your yard on solar powered illuminated tiles for that light walk. These illuminated pathway tiles soak in the suns energy to convert it into electricity. A solar panel, the size of a matchbox is integrated on each tile. This is juiced up by solar energy, and powers up the four LEDs inlaid in the tile, at night. The LEDs glow with a bright diffused light. Measuring 11 1/2″ sq, these tiles are made out of four planks of PVC and are designed to look like hardwood. That’s not all. These tiles interlock with each other on every side, allowing customizable setups.

And if you’re worried about the rains and similar weather conditions, fear not. These tiles are 100% water proof, and do not fade or rot, unlike wood. The LEDs work efficiently for 20,000 hours. These are sure to grab the attention of passersby. Buy them here for $100.

You’ve probably watched a superbike race before with those awesome chiseled bikes roaring across the racetrack to the finish line. Well, the TTXGP North America Round 1 that took place at the Infineon Raceway in California was a slightly different event, taken that the two-wheeled machines used in this one were silent, clean and green. This was the first electric superbike race to ever take place in the continent. Shawn Higbee mounted on a ZeroAgni bike crossed the checkered flag first, facing stiff competition from Michael Barnes, riding for Lightning Motorcycles, who unfortunately had to cycle through a reboot, though yet placing second. The third place spot was filled in by Michael Hannas of ElectricRacebikes.com. Motorcycle racing has never been a cleaner affair before. No smoky burnouts at this race.

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