Solar energy teamed with flower power, how can any of this every go wrong! Artist Dan Corson created these solar-powered flower-shaped installations that stand 33 feet high, each. Besides looking extremely beautiful and making regular human-beings feel ant-sized, these installations also generate energy! Each of these “flowers” packs solar PV panels with 48 solar cells, producing up to 4.6Wp. Together, the flowers produce 1,104Wp!
The green-as-a-leaf-in-spring Tesla Model S sedan has been on just about every clean energy lover’s mind off late. The car is an exceptionally luxurious ride that powers up with electricity and enables users to enjoy the comforts of a creature-comfort-packed sedan, while keep the environment green and rosy. Now, the eco-friendly city of Portland, Oregon, will begin using these electric sedans as taxis. These Model S cars will serve as luxury eco-touring vehicles for Tesla Trips.
Those who understand true luxury know what it means to be seated in a Mercedes-Benz S Class, and not a lot of automobile enthusiasts would argue otherwise. It’s a downright pleasure to note that the German automaker, one of the biggest luxury car manufacturers in the world, has finally given its flagship luxury saloon a green touch. Mercedes-Benz has officially announced the 2014 S 500 plug-in hybrid, the first S Class to go eco-friendly. The car uses an 80-kW electric drive with externally rechargeable battery that powers this saloon for up to 20 miles.
Soon, the world won’t have to send satellites to outer-space to aide communication. Titan Aerospace has recently developed two solar-powered UAVs capable of flying on solar energy and staying up in the sky for weeks. Called the Solara 50 and Solara 60, these two solar powered aircrafts are designed to fly up to 65,000ft and include a 50m wingspan and a single large battery-powered propeller. The battery is juiced by thousands of high-efficiency solar cells placed on just about every surface of the aircrafts.
One of the reasons electric vehicles haven’t caught on completely yet, is the fact that people think they’re too slow! While that certainly was the case decades ago, times have changed and there are a bunch of EVs out there that leave gas-guzzlers in the dust. To prove this, we’ve been reading up on the world’s fastest electric vehicles, and here’s what we dug out. The fastest electric vehicle today is the JR-Maglev MLX01 train, introduced in Japan. Touching speeds of 361 mph, this jaw-dropping train zips by quicker than you would imagine!
Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has recently come up with a fantastic way to promote green mass transit. The University has been tirelessly working on narrowing down a system that can ferry passengers around, encouraging them to leave their cars at home, without harming the environment. The result is this driverless shuttle bus called the Navia. Developed by France’s Induct Technology, the electric 8-passenger vehicle will travel the 2 kilometer route to JTC Corporation’s CleanTech Park.
The world’s biggest railway system and network, the Indian Railways, is now planning to have solar power meet a substantial amount of its energy requirements. The Indian Railways is currently facing a huge demand for air-conditioned coaches. This obviously means that diesel needs have increased, subsequently increasing operating costs. To cope with the increased demand for AC coaches, the Indian Railways has decided to resort to solar energy.
Yes you’ve heard it right; the White House will be given a greener shade. Fear not, this iconic monument of the United States will not step away from its lustrous white exterior. Instead, the building will soon use green renewable energy, with solar panels being propped up on it this week. Back in October 2010, the Obama administration had pledged to put solar panels on the White House as a sign of the president’s commitment to renewable energy. It has indeed been quite a few years since the announcement and the move is finally in place.
Well, homes with gardens on their roofs are a pretty sight and aren’t really an innovation that could be termed as groundbreaking. Since quite a while now, people living in urban concrete jungles, looking for green spaces, have begun planting gardens on their roofs. This obviously has lots of advantages, including a regular supply of home-grown food as well as better air quality. What caught our eye lately however, are these green roofs, which have found a home on top of public transport vehicles! Landscape artist Marc Granen came up with the idea and a system christened PhytoKinetic that uses condensation from the vehicle’s air conditioning system to water the roof.
The world needs and alternative source of energy as fossil fuel and coal reserves aren’t going to keep our lives powered up forever. Moreover, these energy sources pollute the environment more often than not, making them a hazardous as well as expensive to use. The answer to it all, of course, is solar energy. Harnessing solar juice to power up is one of the best ways to go in the future and UC Berkeley scientists think the same too, with a detailed computer model that depicts the electric power grid and the benefits of hooking it up to solar energy sources.
