Dubai is swinging towards the greener side and most recently, London-based Baharash Architecture was roped in to sketch the 2nd phase of what will be the Dubai Sustainable City development, a one-of-a-kind green residential community that will stun the world. With the master plan by Stringa Planning Studio in place, this 46-hectare city will generate nearly 50% of its own energy.
The festival season is just around the corner and keeping your mobile phone juiced up this time around will be a lot easier, thanks to Vodafone’s Power Pocket, a concept that draws on the heat energy released by the body, turning it all into electricity that charges up mobile phones! The Power Pocket concept is currently available in the form of prototype hot shorts and sleeping bags. This gear enables you to generate energy as you walk, jump, party and sleep, using all of this to charge up your mobile device!
We’ve been advocating the use of solar energy to power up our world since years now and we do think that the world could, if given a chance, turn completely dependent on cleaner sources of energy that are renewable, clean and do not destroy the environment. Giving solar energy yet another application, a team of engineering students at the University of Virginia came up with a solar-powered wheelchair that won the design competition for World Cerebral Palsy Day.
The United States welcomed home the nation’s largest bike-sharing program called the Citi Bike, begun in the city of New York. The program will enable thousands of residents to hop on to rented bicycles and travel around the city in a more energy efficient and a less environmentally-hazardous way. Most city residents find it difficult to own a bicycle due to storage space crunches and this bike-sharing program could indeed work wonders for them!
The world is in dire need of greener and more energy efficient ways of powering up modes of transport and electric vehicles are quickly catching on in recent times. We’ve spotted one such effort to turn the automobile industry greener, taken up by a bunch of students, as part of the MindDrive initiative. The initiative, based in Kansas City, has been focusing on electric car design and students have been working on several electric car concepts.
Retail giant Wal-Mart has been pulled up yet again and has found itself in troubled waters with the Los Angeles and San Francisco municipalities. The company was recently slapped with a total of $110 million US federal and state fines and has pleaded guilty to criminal charges of mishandling hazardous waste as well as pesticides!
Google has stepped on the green road and is busy making its way towards a more environmentally-responsible future. The company has recently stepped behind the wheel of Makani Power, a United States-based company that generates energy from wind turbines hooked on to tethered kites. The company is now part of Google X, the research and development wing of Google that has been known to keep its operations hushed up.
We’ve been keeping a keen eye on the solar powered Solar Impulse plane and its energy efficient exploits since quite a while now. An extraordinary aircraft powered by solar energy that has been crowned as the flag-bearer for a cleaner aviation industry in the future, the Solar Impulse has made headlines yet again! The Solar Impulse and its pilot André Borschberg have recently broken a world record, completing a 950 mile flight on solar energy alone!
The east has always been forward in terms of technology. Recently, we’ve heard tidings from China, where electric taxis will soon begin doing the rounds. With the initiative kicking off in Hong Kong, these flaming red taxis will keep a substantial amount of pollutants away from the Chinese atmosphere. The fleet currently boasts 45 BYD e6 models. These cars sport a 300 mile range on a single charge.
Tired of that conventional digital camera that you’ve been using all along? Well, you can now satisfy your shutterbug-needs in a greener and more energy efficient way! Termed as the world’s first camera with a retro-shooting ability, the Sun and Cloud Self-Generating Digital Camera sports a solar panel and a hand crank, both of which can be used to power up this cheerful little device.
