Goodyear unveils a tire capable of generating electricity for EVs
One of the very few stressful situations that electric vehicle owners face today is range anxiety. People looking to invest in EVs or currently owning one do spend hours of time imagining what it’d be like to be stranded on a lonely highway, far away from an EV charging station. A few unlucky souls have faced nightmarish situations like these in the past too. However, Goodyear is looking to change this scenario and has shown-off a new heat-gathering, electricity-generating tire concept at the 2015 Geneva International Auto Show!
The future is bound to be sustainable and for that, we’ve got to make moves in the present. That’s just what the Dutch Windwheel Corporation has drawn up. In an attempt to visualize the future of Rotterdam, the institution has crafted a beautiful mashup between a wind turbine and a dwelling space. It’s made of steel and glass and is decked with three inset circles, built to perform different functions. The outer ring rotates to treat visitors to spectacular landscapes, the middle one hosts 72 stationary apartments for residents within the building while the inner circle is the actual wind turbine. The ingenious waste management system ensures that the waste produced by residents is converted to biogas while the rainwater harvesting and recycling processes will keep everyone well hydrated.
London will soon have world’s biggest offshore farm off the Yorkshire coast. The Dogger Bank Creyke Beck Project will have an array of up to 400 turbines 80 miles of the Yorkshire coast. The project will cover 430 square miles will generate 2.4 gigawatts which is enough electricity to power about 2 million homes. The cost of the UK’s biggest offshore farm will be £6bn to £8bn, and it is likely to fulfil 2.5 percent of the country’s electricity needs. According to the government the project will also create 900 jobs near Yorkshire and Humberside. Dogger was chosen as a location for offshore wind farm because of its shallow seabed which is about only 30 metres deep. It is easier to lay foundations and construct large turbines; however, any company has not yet started the work.
Depending completely on fossil fuels to power up the earth isn’t such a great idea anymore, not in the current circumstances of extreme pollution and a degrading environment. Instead, the only way out of this big muddle we’ve all got ourselves into, is renewable energy. Albatern, Scotland’s wave energy company, is looking at better ways to powering up, using a new system called the WaveNET. This one uses an array of floating generators, nicknamed Squids, which harvest energy from rising and falling waves.
We’ve always advocated the use of bicycles, given the fact that these two-wheeled contraptions promise to take you from to your destination without spewing venomous clouds of carbon in the air. To make cycling even more greener than it already is, the Netherlands is welcoming home the world’s first solar cycle path, one that’ll soak in the energy of the sun to generate electricity.
The sun shines quite brightly during those moments when the overcast sky finally decides to skip out on long coffee breaks. Keeping this in mind, farm owner, Mark Bennett, joined hands with solar company Ciel et Terre to create a floating solar farm that plays home to 800 photovoltaic panels with a capacity of 200kW. The floating solar farm is located in Berkshire and uses Ciel et Terre’s modular Hydrelio system. Speaking to NCE, Bennett said, “We are speaking to big utility companies, to agricultural companies – anyone with an unused body of water. The potential is remarkable.”
Just when we’d thought ‘clean coal’ was a paradox penned by a cheeky copywriter, Boundary Dam project encouraged us to look closer at what a phrase like this could actually mean! Located in Saskatchewan, this is the world’s first commercial coal-fired power plant that captures its carbon dioxide emissions! By doing this, the project aims to capture and sell around 1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, annually.
Alex Salmond’s SNP may have lost the independence referendum, but the drive remains to put the country on the path of becoming the “Saudi Arabia of renewables”. There has been much talk about the impact Mr. Salmond’s seeming infatuation with wind farms will have on the Scottish public. So the question is: what does the future hold for wind energy in Scotland?
There’s something good cooking at Finnair! Very recently, this Finnish airline announced flights from Helsinki to New York powered by an environmentally sustainable biofuel. Simply put, Finnair plans to fly planes using cooking oil. To do so, the airliner will use biofuel by SkyNRG Nordic, a joint venture between SkyNRG and Statoil Aviation. This biofuel is manufactured from cooking oil recycled from restaurants and will work as a better alternative to conventional jet fuel.
California is currently at the forefront in the United States, bringing home new renewable energy options and stepping away from conventional coal-fired power plants. Not so surprisingly, the state could soon be powered 100% by renewable energy and Stanford has recently presented a “roadmap” to accomplish this goal by 2050. Using wind, water and sunlight to its benefit, California could soon begin basking in clean and green energy, while reducing emissions and its carbon footprint.