Author: gavril

Accused of being a ‘green hypocrite’ for using a private jet to fly to the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit and giving the world a sermon on global warming, Prince Charles has decided to have his place of dwelling go green. The Prince has planned to install solar panels on roof of the 180 year old mansion, the Clarence House in London. These panels are anticipated to fulfill the heating and lighting energy needs of the building. However, officials state that no such modifications will be done if they harm the appearance of the century old building. This change would burn a £150,000 hole in the Prince’s pocket.

According to Jerry Stokes, president of the firm SunTech Europe, the Prince is excited and eagerly awaits the installation of these solar panels that will enable him to do his part to save our environment. Hopefully, the people of Great Britain look up to this example set by the Prince, and go green themselves.

[Dailymail]

Shipping containers are used to transport goods all over the world. These bulky and massive boxes made of steel usually go waste when unused. The Subway restaurant company came up with an idea that will help recycle these containers and also save the energy of construction workers rebuilding the World Trade Center in New York. And how is that possible? By building a subway restaurant in a shipping container that will be operated with a crane and lifted into the sky to cater to the needs of construction workers instead of having them use the elevator to ride down during lunch breaks, and back up after they finish. This will also help save time during lunch breaks. This Subway outlet is unique not only in its operation, but also its menu.

The regular Subway menu is available, with additions of hotdogs, hamburgers and pretzels! As the building is being built, the outlet will be lifted upwards. Recycled containers have probably never been put to such an ingenious use before.

[Neatorama]

If you are one of those fickle minded people who can’t decide where to construct the fireplace, or if you simply love ingenious designs, here’s something that will make you drool. The Roll Fire is basically a donut shaped fireplace powered using bio-ethanol. This circular design enables the fire burning in the middle to be rolled around your room. For those who cannot afford to build a fireplace in their homes due to lack of space, this bio-ethanol fireplace acts as a great
substitute. Designed and manufactured by Conmoto, the fireplace uses bio-ethanol, a renewable energy resource made out of sugarcane or potato and is similar to the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages.

The Roll Fire also comes with a wall mount and a stand. The Roll Fire sure beats the use of common fireplace that burns up wood and emits those dreaded greenhouse gases.

[Notcot]

Concept hybrid vehicles are being showcased all over the globe today. However, a hybrid Expedition Vehicle isn’t something we see or hear about a lot. The EVC (Expedition Vehicle Concept), designed by Prodan Dragos, is a vehicle that can adapt and be configured according to the needs of the user. It can be changed from a camper to an open top cruiser in just a few minutes and boasts of a 250mm ground clearance, a nano-polymere body and a 4×4 hybrid drive train. This vehicle can eat up off-road areas easily and is designed to be used for exploration. The car can seat four people and has a great legroom with swiveling front seats. The vehicle also has large hexagonal windows,
which brighten up the car. These different sized hexagonal windows set into the roof also acts as photovoltaic cells juicing up for additional electrical charge.

The car also has three workboxes upfront that can be used to store a number of things needed outdoors. The headlights of this vehicle can be detached and used as flashlights when the car is packed due to an in-built battery pack. This new concept hybrid vehicle is sure to perk up the off-road experience.

[Diseno-art]

Do you love the environment and dig simulation games? Well, here’s a game that should fulfill both these passions! City Rain, the game released by The Ovolo Corporation, Montreal, is a simulation and puzzle game that emphasizes strongly on saving the environment. Somewhat similar to Tetris and Sim City, this new game requires the player to save and reorganize a city ridden by pollution and transform them into greener places to live in. A percentage of all sales of this game will be donated to organizations that are fighting to save the environment. City Rain is meant to educate people about the environment and is available for use on PCs and the Xbox.

The game is a tweaked version of the original City Rain game developed by Mother Gaia Studios and is available for download for USD$10. Get addicted to this awesome new game, and educate yourself about the urgency of saving our environment and the ways in which we can make our city a better place to breathe and live in.

For all those budding musicians and professionals alike, Sanyo, now part of the Panasonic group, has unveiled its Eneloop Music Booster, the newest addition to the Eneloop Universe. This device is convenient for musicians who use AC adaptors to power up their effects pedals, amplifiers, mixers, and other gadgets on stage. Measuring
W65×D42×H120mm in size and weighing about 280g, the Eneloop Music Booster has a built-in high capacity rechargeable lithium-ion battery that can be used in places with no electrical outlet. This sure beats the use of the common AC adapter that is useless without a power outlet around. Also, dry cell batteries tend to cause inconsistent
sound quality due to changes in battery voltage. This new baby from Sanyo however, shuns away these bad habits that can harm an entire onstage performance.

The music booster also has two 9V power ports that can power two 9 volt devices at the same time. It also has a power indicator, an LED basically, that’s green in color when the power remaining is over 60%. It turns orange when the power drops to 60% and below, and red when 30%. The Eneloop Music Booster is a savior for those who tend to take the stage often, and will be shown off at the largest musical instrument trade in the world, the NAMM show in the US in January 2010.

[Akihabaranews]

The wood burning stove from Scan 58, a leading design company from Denmark, is something you can brag about to your neighbors. These beautifully designed stoves look splendid and are efficient too. The stoves have lesser emission rates and are made entirely out of environment friendly materials. This is probably why these stoves deserve the Swan Label, the official Nordic ecolabel. A product is labeled by Swan when it is considered to be the cleanest in the market. Wood, a renewable resource, is used to fuel these stoves, and their CO2 emission does not exceed the quantity absorbed by the growth of new trees.

The Scan 58 Series of stoves are built around an elliptical chamber, with a splendid view of the fire burning inside. They compromise of three burning chambers that are combinable with three plinths. You can also chose from three top plates made of steel, glass or heat accumulating soap stone. These stoves are capable of heating 300m3 with a heat output of 8kW and a 76% heating efficiency. Four different models are available with different configurations and trims. Make your home unique with the Scan 58 stove!

[Appliancist]

For those who jump out of their seats every now and then, and leave their computers on, here’s an innovative way to save power! This plain and simple little button can put your PC to ‘sleep’ when unused and ‘wake it up’ when you need to resume your work, with a single tap. The USB One Button Power Saver needs to be plugged into your USB port. It doesn’t matter how long you need to leave your computer idle, just tap the button and your PC will slip into the sleep mode. This helps save power. The power saver button makes sure your PC and monitor draw as little energy as possible when unused. When you come back to your desktop, you can resume work from where you left it by simply tapping the button again. The USB One Button Power Saver will cost you $12.99. This innovation is yet another USB device that helps make our life simpler – with the click of a single button.

[Redferret]

A hybrid car may be on the wish list of many, but those long price tags make them out of reach. These vehicles tend to cost more because of the technology they use. However according to John German, an author and ex-engineer, the latest breakthrough in the field of clean energy storage, the Lithium ion battery, will enable hybrids to be more affordable in future. These batteries may not help plug-in hybrid vehicles and full electric vehicles to a great extent, since they do not store any more energy than the ones available, and hence will not increase the drivable range of EVs and PHVs anymore then they currently are. According to German, hybrid vehicles that use this technology will find a stable place in the automobile market in the next 10 to 15 years. This may seem far fetched, but the wait seems worth. The lithium ion technology will, hopefully, replace those CO2 puffing vehicles in your drive way with cleaner hybrids in the future!

[Autobloggreen]

Wind power will soon let you ski in peace without causing adverse effects to the environment. Mass Megawatts Wind Power Inc, a company currently testing the wind turbine generator, will ensure that wind power is used more efficiently in ski resorts. These developments will help improve the efficiency of the Multi-Axis Turbosystem wind power generator. The Multi-Axis Turbosystem is basically a stack of turbines connected to a generator with benefits of reduced vibrations, noiseless operations and maintenance costs. Also, unlike the usual three blade wind turbines, the Turbosystem has its drive train and generator at ground level and uses less steel to build. The use of wind power in mountainous regions is very practical. Since ski resorts are always up there, where the wind blows the most.

Energy is used on a large scale to power up chair lifts, hotels, lodges and other equipment in ski resorts. These wind powered generators can be used efficiently to satisfy these energy needs. So let’s hope the wind blows the right way, and these tests are successful in providing a cleaner energy source for ski resorts!

[Cleantechnica]

Toyota joined the club of companies developing solar powered services with its plans to build solar charging stations for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. Toyota Industries Corp has designed the station to have a solar panel with an output of 1.9kW and a storage battery with a capacity of 8.4kW. The converter has a maximum output of 3.2kW in grid-connected operation and 1.5kVA in self-sustained operation. The charging station compromises of a solar photovoltaic system and storage system to store the energy reaped from the sun. When the energy from the storage runs out, the electricity derived from the grid is used as a backup. This enables vehicles to be charged undisturbed at any time. When energy is in excess, the power station is capable enough to transfer the extra power to utility companies. Twenty one such charging stations will be built at eleven places by the municipal government of Toyota City in Japan which will be operational in April 2010. Toyota’s plans will certainly help increase the use of cleaner vehicles and reduce the pollution created due to emission of greenhouse gases in future.

[Techon]

Doha is undergoing futuristic and environment friendly changes in the way traffic guidance operations are carried out. Several road projects are underway due to which traffic guidance systems are needed. With the support of the Qatar Science Club, The Public Works Authority (Ashghal) will soon resort to the use of robots instead of the traffic police. These robots are designed to guide traffic in areas where road projects are being executed in Doha and the outskirts. So what makes these steps taken by the authority’s environment friendly? Well, these robots are to be powered up using solar energy! Fabricated out of light fibers, these intelligent machines are made to withstand the climatic conditions of Qatar. According to the Assistant Secretary General of the Qatar Science Club, Rashid Ibrahim, these robots are designed to work for 24 hours continuously (a superhuman task!), and will be powered by solar energy from a solar cell that will be connected through a battery. He hopes that more robots like these are produced to meet the needs of the whole of Ashghal.

[ThePeninsulaQatar]

You buy yourself a huge solar module for your home, and you still run out of electricity due to a lack of back-up systems. A solution to this problem has been devised by Panasonic with their newly partnered company, Sanyo. The fact that the cleaner options to energy like solar power, wind and reclaimed heat aren’t available all the time act as a
huge hurdle when it comes to complete dependence on them. Hence backup storage systems are required to help sustain the energy requirement. The two companies have designed this storage battery especially for use at home. The battery is a lithium-ion cell and can power up a home for an entire week. A system will enable the user to monitor the usage of the battery on a T.V. The company plans to roll out this device which will be available by the year 2011. This lithium-ion battery will excel the existing fuel cells which are considered as efficient power storage for home use.

[Engadget]

The World Water and Solar Technologies (WWST) have taken a step in installing solar powered water purification units across the globe. As a joint venture with the Humanitarian International Services Group, two Mobile Max Pure (MMP) water filters have been installed which are juiced by solar power. These units can produce 3.5kW of solar power and provide 30,000 gallons of clean and drinkable water and are placed in strategic positions for maximum usability. The MMP needs a water source, an open space so that the sunlight reaches the solar panels, water storage areas and security. The solar panels generate electricity which is used to pump out the water from the source that is passed through a series of filters and ultraviolet light. Clean water is thus produced without the use of chlorine and fossil fuel.

It costs just US$5,000 per year to maintain a MMP per year because of its capabilities to use solar energy efficiently. These MMP’s will be a relief to those who have no access to drinking water, especially in war-struck countries like Sudan and Iraq.

[Gizmag]

Three wheelers aren’t seen much around the globe except for the Southern and Eastern Asian countries. This new vehicle designed by Alexander Vittouris is a recreational three wheeler with a difference. The body is fashioned from bamboo! Christened as the BamTrike, the vehicle is characterized as a Personal Mobility Vehicle. It shuns the use of fiberglass, and opts for a body made out of recycled bamboo fiber and Polyactide resin instead. The one behind the wheel of this vehicle can sit comfortably in a reclined position. The vehicle also has enough storage space to keep those little essentials you carry around. The overall height of the vehicle measures just above 900mm. The BamTrike was designed to fit into a standard bicycle lane and is not intended to be used in normal traffic. This unique three wheeler
fabricated from bamboo will certainly give the rider a natural feel.

[Yankodesign]

Solar photovoltaic cells that are thinner than human hair sounds incredible, doesn’t it? That’s exactly what Sandia National Laboratories scientists have been developing recently. Made out of crystalline silicon and fabricated using microelectronic and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) techniques, these photovoltaic cells are expected to be cheaper and more efficient than the ones available now. They measure around 14 to 20 micrometers thick and 0.25 to 1 millimeter across. These solar cells are anticipated to be mass produced in the future and can be wrapped around unusual shapes like clothes, which will enable people to charge the cells as they walk about.

According to Sandia’s field engineer Vipin Gupta, photovoltaic modules could have inverters, intelligent controls and storage built in at chip level. The best part of this new development is a reduction in installation and manufacturing costs. These awesome little innovations when developed fully and available in the market will change the way we use the energy from the sun!

[Physorg]

With companies sticking out their thumbs to solar cell technology, Sharp recently unveiled their first solar cell that will survive a trip and a stay in space. These solar cells are flexible and can be twisted, folded and turned around corners when needed. This enables the solar cell to suitably cover the satellites and other outer space objects. This design by Sharp measures 20 microns in thickness. To create the prototype, Sharp clubbed together indium gallium crystals, gallium arsenide and indium gallium arsenide. Each of these was first grown on solid substrate molecules and was then added to the film. Sharp has developed a prototype of this solar cell and hopes to start manufacturing them by the year 2012. This may seem a far fetched plan, but when put to use, we will finally be able to reap the benefits of solar energy, right out of the heavens.

[Gizmodo]

Los Angeles has always been a sought after city for housing. Now, houses that love the environment as much as you do are being constructed by RLG properties in Atwater Village in LA. Taking advantage of the small lot ordinance, the company is constructing 23 homes. Each of these will boast 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms and an open floor plan. Priced at $599,000 onwards, The Mews, designed by Corsini + Stark, have a whole lot of concepts and technologies that make these houses environment friendly and energy efficient. Some of these include extensive day lighting, natural ventilation, Grasscrete permeable paving, appliances that use energy efficiently, an installed solar system and bamboo flooring.

Look through the over sized windows for a beautiful view of the hills of the Griffith Park located nearby and enjoy sunrises and sunsets. If you ever plan to move to LA in the near future, move to this beautiful green and clean neighborhood.

[TheGreenMews]

Dubai may have its financial troubles. But that hasn’t stopped the country from plucking the moon out of the sky. Designed by Varabyeu Partners for an international design competition, the New Moon will be the center piece of a new landscape park, Zabeel Park, in the City of Dubai. The structure is designed as a crescent, a symbol of energy and power. The building has five levels with an observatory each. These five levels symbolize the Five Pillars of Islam; faith (Shahadah), prayer (Salat), charity (Zakaat), lent (Sawm) and pilgrimage (Hajj). The outward siding of the structure is made of steel frame with different transparency levels and is decorated with Arab calligraphy.

The transparency levels make it possible to control the buildings lighting and air temperatures, ensures circulation of air and protects the insides from direct exposure to the suns rays. This helps create a microclimate in the building and reduces the use of the power supply systems. To further cut energy consumptions, solar panels and batteries should be installed on the exterior of the building. The New Moon was built according to LEED Green Building standards. This is yet another marvel in Dubai; and what makes it cooler? It is environment friendly!

[WorldArchitectureNews]

Part the waters for the Orcageno superyacht! Pharos Marine unveiled plans for this hydrogen diesel- electric yacht baby lately. The yacht has a slender hull form with an axe bow which offers lower resistance with a low entrance angle. The yacht can cruise up to a distance of 13,000 nautical miles. The minimal surface design reduces the brunt on marine life and shoreline erosion. The yacht is propelled by a hydrogen diesel-electric combustion engine that uses hydrogen fuel, a cleaner option to diesel that produces three times the energy, without leaving a trace of carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide in the air.

The hydrogen tank is safely built and isolated. It is made out of stress resistant materials to prevent any leakages of hydrogen gas. The tanks also boast leakage sensors and an emergency shut down system if any malfunction occurs. The yacht can also be propelled using diesel oil. At a speed of 10 knots in hydrogen mode, the Orcageno can swallow up 3500 nautical miles and at 18 knots; it can easily cover 1800 nautical miles. This super sleek and environment friendly yacht designed by Pharos Marine is a sure winner in the luxury boating business.

[SuperyachtTimes]