Category Archives: Alternative Energy
This was honestly the last bit. Solar power reaching your clothes. After paper dress, leopard skin, diamond studs, now solar panel material clothes and bags. That’s the intention with Konarka’s flexible solar film. It is a thin film solar panel material to integrate solar power charging function into clothing and bags. The Powerbrella is the latest development Konarka is exploring in partnership with SKYShades a Florida-based company making retractable and fixed architectural ‘SKYbrellas’. It is designed for use at outdoor venues such as cafés and restaurants, hotel and resort swimming pools and outdoor lounges to provide customers coverage from the sun while the suns energy is used to power their laptop, cell phone or other portable devices.
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Till now we harped about eco-friendly batteries that juiced up gadgets and vehicles with every other substance like ethanol, corn, water, etc. except fossil fuels. But today we are here to tell you about a cell that runs on air….which can be translated as a battery that breathes like human body. Based on STAIR, St Andrews Air technology, this battery sucks in oxygen and reacts with carbon inside. Such a super cell can open up new possibilities to charge the new generation of electric cars. Also the smaller version can be utilized to power gizmos like cell phones, laptops, music players, gaming consoles, etc. Chemistry professor Peter Bruce is heading the 1.5-million pound project to develop the battery. He states, “The key is to use oxygen in the air as a re-agent, rather than carry the necessary chemicals around inside the battery. Our results so far have far exceeded our expectations.”
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E.ON has awarded a sum of Euro 980,000 to Dr. Neil Fox from the University’s School of Chemistry and the Department of Physics. It is for a project that is going to be undertaken where solar heat would be exploited to produce electricity. This will be done using devices like thermionic energy converters. Dr. Fox is using special electrodes for these converters using nano particles of industrial diamond powder which is available abundantly and is cheap. The project, known as the Lithiated Nanoparticle Diamond Energy Converter project, should enable a TEC to operate satisfactorily on solar power, leading to a renewable-powered generation device that has no moving parts or fluids, is free of maintenance and is able to deliver reliable electricity production over a long period. It is an ambitious project and and because of the grant, the project now has the people and the equipment to work on this.
[Bristol]
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Car and bikes and bikes and cars, they are all getting serious about cutting down the environment’s carbon footprint and Vectrix isn’t a company to stay far behind. Now introduced is the VX-1E an all-electric operation, giving you a clean and quiet way to get around. It can reach maximum speeds of 50 mph and can charge up anywhere by plugging into a standard 110/220V outlet. It is even easy to use by just twisting to speed or slow down. Other features include front and rear disc brakes, motorcycle-spec fork and shocks, and under seat storage. These are examples we must learn from. And maybe make an effort to go green by swapping fuel guzzling comfortable roadsters to these healthier options.
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Toyota’s new Prius has come up with an updated model by using Kyocera Corp’s solar panels which are mounted on the roof. The cells used are polycrystalline Si solar cells which is a cheaper option compared to other solar cells. In total, the solar panel is composed of 36 cells arranged in six rows and six columns. Each cell is half the size of the standard 15 x 15cm cell. With a cell conversion efficiency of 16.5%, the maximum output of the entire panel reaches fifty-odd watts. The portions where three bus bars are believed to exist were covered with a black component. Electricity generated by the solar cells directly drives the ventilation fan.
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To inspire people to get used to a good habit, the best way is to instill them the habit at a very early age. This is how something as intelligent as a Power House Green Essentials Edition comes to use. This is an educational and fun kit for children above the age of 12 where you can build your own lab and learn all about alternative energy and sustainable living by conducting experiments and building energy-related models. By building a model house and nine other energy-related devices, you can learn about energy from the sun, wind, plants and electrochemical reactions while also learning how to transform, store and use all these different energy forms.
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This is Metropolis Magazine’s 2009 Next Generation contest’s winning entry. It is absolutely a brilliant design and it’s really astonishing that we have implemented this till now. It is called Wind-it and designed by French designers Nicola Delon, Julien Choppin and Raphael Mernard. They have drawn up plans to install wind turbines on and inside of derelict electrical transmission towers. These new additions would pump wind energy directly into the grid without having to develop an extensive infrastructure. If this is installed in a third of France’s towers, it would provide about 5% of the country’s energy needs.
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I don’t get it. People have been coming up with such strange ideas for New York city, I can’t seem to wonder where is the space for all this! There was news sometime ago regarding a settlement in air and now here is a vertical farm based on the wings of a butterfly. Yes, literally that. Belgian based Vincent Callebaut Architectures has come up with a dragonfly vertical farm concept in the city located along the east river at the south edge of Rooselvelt Island in New York city. The tower will apparently be self sufficient in water, energy and bio fertilizing. It will have 132 floors and 600 vertical meters and will be able to accommodate 28 different agricultural fields for the production of fruit, vegetables, grains, meat and dairy.
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Not only is the charming American president Obama serious about the go-green campaign. Most of Europe is also getting serious. Stepping aside from inventing hybrids and bringing back the bicycle tradition, here is a new idea. The London Eye that has attracted over 33 million visitors ever since its birth in 2000 will become more environmentally friendly under a £12.5 million upgrade. Merlin Entertainments Group, which owns the Eye, will improve heating and ventilation in the 32 capsules to make the attraction more energy efficient. Ceiling-mounted TV screens and better wi-fi are also being installed.
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It’s a fast growing green world and to keep up with the cell phone era, new technologies have to be invented every day. New and green technologies, of course. So when people are busy inventing green alternatives and options for their mobile phones, there is also a huge market opening up for green mobile accessories. Sprint for one has launched an eco-friendly charger and carrying case. Another one in the list is Solio’s Mono hybrid charger that can generate power either from the sun or from an electrical socket depending on which is easily available. The Solio charger includes a large internal Lithium-ion battery that can easily be recharged via a USB cable, AC Travel Charger or solar energy. Then there is the Nite Ize Sport phone carry case which is made from recycled plastic water bottles and comes in two colors and sizes.
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