Phil Pauley has unveiled a new hybrid solar and wave energy generator called Marine Solar Cells (MSC) aimed at creating a clean, sustainable and economically viable source of energy. The solar-wave plant will help to capture large-scale renewable energy and can also be helpful in offshore energy generation and local marine conservation. The unit captures wave energy through natural buoyancy displacement and solar energy through photovoltaic cells. The cells require minimal maintenance and help generate higher energy yields.
Wind turbines aren’t really the only way to harvest energy from the wind. Recently, we came across this amazing design for a wind-energy generator that left us feeling like fleas! Called the Windstalk concept, these energy generators were designed by New York design firm Atelier DNA and are inspired by stalks that simple oscillate in the wind, generating energy. To be used at the Masdar city, the project uses 1203 stalks in all, standing 180 feet high anchored to the ground with concrete bases 10 to 20 meters in diameters. Also, the stalks include LED lights on the top that glow brighter with higher wind intensities! Using piezoelectric ceramic discs to generate energy, these are indeed the prettiest wind-energy generators we’ve seen, and walking through these sure seems like a flea’s journey around the hair-pores of your pooch.
At first, we thought this one to be the modern rendition of the Biblical Tower of Babel. On a closer look however, this structure turned out to be a wind-harvesting energy generator called the Downdraft Tower. Using vertical currents, influenced by the temperature and consequent weight of air molecules, the tower keeps spraying water on its top that attracts cool dry air and causes it to grow heavy. Turbines at the base of the tower then begin spinning with the wind speeds nearing 50mph, generating about 1,500 megawatts per hour! A revolutionary design that could make those extensive wind turbine farms obsolete, the Downdraft Tower could certainly help turn our grids green.
The Gulf, the world’s oil-well, is looking for greener ways to thrive too, and the Gulf International Trading Group recently completed a solar power installation for the Court of HH Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi. The installation on the roof of the building is hooked up to the Department of Electricity and Water Authority’s main generator. Part of the Masdar and ADEWA, this project further goes to prove the economic visions for the Emirate of Abu Dhabi 2030.
Nevada will soon play host to the biggest wind farm in the United States if all goes as planned. Playing home to a total of 350 turbines at a cost of $1.5 billion, the 990 MW project was proposed by a subsidiary of Good Energies. Today, wind energy in the United States sports a capacity of 42,432MW, and this new wind frm could generate as much as four average-sized coal-firing plants. As part of the project, the subsidiary Wilson Creek Power Partners will also put into place buried power collection lines, communication cables, access roads, meteorological towers, one or more substations and switchyards, an operation and maintenance building and an overhead transmission line.
Wind turbines aren’t really a pretty sight on a clear landscape. Artist Patrick Raynaud, hailing from the city of beauty, Paris, has come up with a great way to turn wind turbines into a lot more than just a green-energy generating eye-sore. Using a bunch of lights, Raynaud turned a turbine in Hanover, Germany into a pretty art installation that glows brighter with the winds turning more powerful. Commissioned for the Hanover Expo-Region Climate Protection Programme, this green energy-generator-turned-art-installation is indeed a beautiful sight against the night sky!
Ever dreamed of growing chickens in your backyard? Here’s the perfect way to do so, and that too in a green and eco-friendly way, that makes us love it as a whole a lot more! Called the Front Yard Full Monty Coop, the structure uses solar panels to power up and keeps your chickens happy. That’s not all. Measuring 4′ wide x 8′ long, this coop also propels itself by 16 feet every hour using energy from the solar panels, keeping your chickens active, ensuring that they walk around.
Wireless keyboards are great. Making trips to the store to pick up new batteries for them is a task though. Instead, Logitech have come up with a pretty novel way to keep wireless keyboard all juiced up, using the light emitted by desk lamps to charge up instead. Working on the same principals like those good old calculators we’ve used before, with a bunch of solar cells lining the top that make use of ambient light to power up, the Logitech’s Wireless Solar Keyboard K750 works so long as there’s light around, natural or otherwise.
Like we’ve said before, no electric car is truly carbon neutral, since these vehicles too indirectly pollute the environment, charging up by plugging onto grids that are more than often powered with coal firing plants. In an attempt to make the Focus truly green, Ford has tied up with SunPower and is offering a 2.5-kilowatt rooftop solar system to people who buy the upcoming Ford Focus Electric. The system is expected to generate about 3,000 kWh of electricity a year, enough to drive around for 1,000 miles a month! The idea behind the initiative is an attempt to offset the coal-generated energy your car feeds on while charging up at night, by sending clean renewable energy out to the grid during the day time with these chargers.
We’ve featured Samsung’s shiny green solar powered laptop before, the NC215s. first launched in the Asian and African markets, given that these are the places that face maximum power outages, and any renewable-energy-powered portable device seems the best way to keep up with technology, the manufacturer is now planning to launch these in the United States too. The laptop features a 10” screen and sports solar panels on the outer side of the screen. Simply having this one exposed to the sun for a couple of hours helps it soak up enough juice to power up for a considerable time.
