Eco Factor: Self-sufficient multiple use building powered by renewable energy.
Mostly bamboo is seen as a traditional building material that is no longer in use in many parts of the world. A team of designers at Geotectura is trying to merge the traditional benefits of bamboo with the need for sustainable buildings of today in a multiple-use building dubbed the Bamboo Diamonds.
Eco Factor: Universal charger harvests solar energy to charge handheld devices.
MOSeco has unveiled its new ES905 universal charger that has been designed for all those who’re always interested in a camping trip. The universal charger has been designed to harvest solar energy during the day to charge a wide range of portable electronic devices, including mobile phones and digital cameras.
Eco Factor: Self-sustainable blimp for military uses harvests solar energy for propulsion.
DARPA is working on a high-altitude reconnaissance and surveillance platform dubbed the Integrated Sensor Is the Structure (ISIS) that will be able to hover above the horizon near conflict zones and feed real-time radar data to troops and smart weapons. This fully-automated blimp is designed to take off from a permanent ground base in the U.S. and fly automatically to any point on the planet within 10 days.
Eco Factor: Device monitors energy consumption and helps users conserve.
Tendril has announced that the company will be launching its next generation in-home energy display next week at DistribuTECH, the nation’s leading trade show focused on utility energy distribution and efficiency. Dubbed Vision, the revolutionary device allows people to link directly with their utility to get meaningful and real-time information about their energy use and cost.
Eco Factor: Zero-emission bus powered by electric motors.
Students at UT Delft in the Netherlands have come up with a prototype Superbus, which has been designed to make public transportation attractive. The all-electric machine is outfitted with a carbon-fiber shell, a low chassis and 16 individual gullwing doors.
Eco Factor: Self-sustaining tower designed for Olympic Games 2016.
RAFAA Architecture & Design has proposed a self-sustaining tower for the 2016 Olympic Games to be held in Rio de Janeiro. Dubbed Solar City Tower, the architecture will help Rio start a global green movement for sustainable development of urban structures.
Eco Factor: Concept car powered by electric motors.
The Audi E/0 by designer Constantine Taranova is a futuristic zero-emission vehicle that has been designed for fashionable women of the future who will love to spend their time in a pedestrian city. The all-electric vehicle can be used in two different modes – Audi E and Audi 0, depending on the area of use.
Eco Factor: Liquid metal battery made using earth-abundant elements.
The problem with the global adoption of renewable energy is the high cost of the system and the high cost of the batteries that can store surplus power for times when renewable energy generation isn’t possible. Researchers at MIT are trying to solve the riddle with a new battery technology that offers low cost per watt and is made using earth-abundant elements.
Eco Factor: Sustainable holiday retreat created in the Scottish Highlands.
Zendome in association with Scottish owners, English designers and German furniture designers have created the Ecopod Boutique Retreat on the shore of Loch Linnhe. The geodesic dome hotel is a completely removable piece of architecture that leaves no permanent footprint on the land.
Eco Factor: Mechanical watch powered by onboard solar panels.
Cabestan Watches has developed a unique timepiece that will be powered by onboard solar cells that are specially designed for small surfaces and low luminosity. Dubbed Sol Invictus, the timepiece has taken the new iconic chain and fusée, drums and vertical tourbillon from the WTV and combined them with a revolutionary new technique for producing and treating silicium crystals for efficient solar cells.
Eco Factor: Concept lamp reduces energy use with LEDs.
In addition to food, water and radios, one thing that camping enthusiasts never forget is taking a flashlight along with additional ambient sources of illumination. Industrial designers Kyeore Kim, Jaesuk Han, Sungkuk Hong and Sena Joo are trying to reduce the weight of their backpacks with a concept solution dubbed FLEXI.
Eco Factor: New technology to generate biofuel using artificial photosynthesis.
Taking inspiration from nests of a semi-tropical frog called the Tungara frog, researchers at the University of Cincinnati have found a way to artificially create a photosynthetic material from foam which uses plant, bacterial, frog and fungal enzymes to produce sugars using solar energy and carbon dioxide.
Eco Factor: Massive solar power plant designed to generate 250MW of energy.
Cobra Energy has unveiled plans to develop a massive $1 billion solar power plant in Australia that will be able to generate up to 250MW of renewable electric power. The power plant will also be one of the biggest solar developments on the planet.
Eco Factor: All-electric lawnmower concept.
We know mowing lawns is boring and a back stretching routine. That only when you do it manually, but if you mow the lawns with the Lawnmower Scooter by industrial designer Vicky Petihovski, the experience isn’t only different and less painful, it is also environmentally-friendly.
Eco Factor: Artist creates shoe replicas from discarded computer chips.
American artist Gabriel Dishaw knows about the growing problem of e-waste and isn’t just sitting around and wondering about the consequences. The eco-conscious artist is rather finding solutions in pieces of art in the form of shoe replicas that are created entirely from discarded computer chips, bolts, wire and circuit boards.
Eco Factor: Solar-powered airport expansion.
Foster + Partners have unveiled the expansion plans of the Queen Alia International Airport that will allow it to grow without disruption over the next 25 years. Slated to be complete by 2011, the airport should be able to handle around 9 million passengers each year, nearly three times as many as it does now.
Eco Factor: Energy generating shock absorber generates electricity from bumps in the road.
Mechanical engineering students from the State University of New York are developing a regenerating shock absorber that recovers a vehicle’s vibrational energy and converts it into usable electricity. The researchers have built a 1:2 scale prototype that generates 2-8W of power during typical driving conditions at a speed of about 45mph. They predict that a full scale system on all four wheels of a car will be able to generate up to 256W.
Eco Factor: Zero-emission trike powered by renewable energy.
A 19-year-old student from west Wales has won the UK Young Engineer of the Year Award for a zero-emission trike that harvests solar energy on the move. The inventor, Shawn Brown, from Llanybydder in Carmarthenshire beat hundreds to win the prestigious competition.
Eco Factor: Energy-efficient server cooling tech developed by Green Revolution Cooling.
We’ve seen data center operators chose unconventional places to store servers in an effort to reduce the amount of energy it requires to cool these units using conventional techniques. Austin based startup Green Revolution Cooling is now trying to reduce energy consumption by developing a liquid cooling enclosure that it says can cool high-density server installation for a fraction of the cost of air cooling in traditional data centers.
Eco Factor: Charger automatically cuts off power when your phone isn’t charging.
According to AT&T about 80 percent of mobile users leave their chargers plugged into the wall socket even after charging their cellphones. Though it might seem a little mistake, the consequences are big. The company estimates that at the rate of three to four times each week for eight hours, these chargers waste enough energy that can be used to power 24,000 homes for a year or brew three to four million cups of coffee each day.