A new retractable roof made from Tenara, a light weight strong and flexible waterproof architectural fabric has been installed over England’s Centre Court Celebrations. The air management systems are currently being tested in preparation for its official debut in May. This new roof will is made out of translucent fully recyclable fabric, minimizing building materials while allowing daylight to stream down from above. The design will conclude the All England Club’s Long Term Plan, providing greater security for the grass courts, decreased play delays and more comfortable viewing for fans. Even though the roof will halt the rain from pouring in, moisture from the lawn and people as well as humidity must be controlled in order to provide optimum playing and viewing conditions.

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If you have the money, the sense of design and the heart to save the world, you can work wonders. As is proven by artist Katherine Harvey who created a huge 21 foot tall, 15 foot wide chandelier installed at the Santiago Calatrava's Galleria in Toronto. She made this by transforming plastic recyclable containers into a massive chandelier. It doesn’t look very pretty but this wasn’t apparently made to look pretty but to send out a message on the horrors and the evil of plastic consumption.

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I want to live in this place! It’s amazing! Imagine having to go to your home on a cycle in this century! Ok, maybe that’s not as appealing to most of you, but what about going underground and ride to your home or friend’s home or wherever at Abu Dhabi’s eco-friendly 50,000 one mile square Masdar City in a personal transit vehicle or PRT or in normal layman language – a robot or electric taxi! These vehicles are electrically-powered, centrally-controlled pods and can carry four to six people and go in speeds of up to 25 mph, following magnets embedded in the pathways. The really neat thing is that no cars will be allowed in this zero-carbon, zero-waste city.

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The PiSAT Solar's K-Light is a very useful product especially while going on a hike or if you take a trip to someplace that is low on electricity. The unit, in 10 hours of daylight charging can give up to 20 hours worth of battery power for use in the low-power 8 LED mode or 10 hours of life if used in 16 LED mode. It's also switchable between flashlight and lantern modes making it a good option for camping trips. K-Light is designed for up to 10 years of full daily use in such a scenario and PiSAT is working on an adapter to let the lantern's battery also charge a cellphone.

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Asia had the biggest number of two-wheelers hence amounting for a huge amount of pollution in that zone. Now with so many alternatives, that could be one of the least-polluted areas on earth. Zero S Electric Supermoto is an all-electric motorcycle, designed for street use and can go up to 60 miles at a maximum speed of 60 miles per hr. the best thing is that this will charge up completely in just 4 hours. It has a magnet electric motor which is able to develop 62.5 fl-lbs torque and 31 HP, and a lithium ion battery array of 4kW.

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Old is gold and who can argue with so many stories of using the age old techniques, recycling them to work in the current living conditions and creating a useful alternative to wasting energy. Tibetan designer Taikkun Li is using tourists as an energy source for his Prayer Wheel Energy Generator, envisioned for Tibet. This is how it works - when tourists spin a multitude of prayer wheels, the positive energy can be harvested along Tibetan streets, turned into electricity, and used to provide evening lighting along those streets and inside the adjacent homes.

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Retro is in and so is eco-friendly products and alternatives. Finnish designer Pekka Salokannel has come up with a great concept. It is a solar-powered Gram Speakers which is patterned in the old gramophone record player style that gives such a nostalgic feel. It will be charged up by three layers of solar panels and the batteries will help play music long beyond sunset. The volume can be changed with the touch of a finger.

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We've been harping about serious green products and technology since some time now. Allow me to bring your attention to something lighter yet greener. Sixty five students of the Ocean View Elementary School put up an exhibition of robots, different types of animals and an iPod out of recycled items at the Recycle Art Show. They used materials like plastic, paper, cork and Styrofoam. The body of a music-playing gadget was made from a plastic baby food container, sticky notes, string and two bottle caps. Another kiddo made a dog using 12 diet Coke cans, construction paper and tin foil. A lot of children joined hands in showing adults what they could do if they properly used their brains and did something to help the environment rather than mess it up.

[WhittierDailyNews]

Renault has unveiled the E0 concept car which will be eco-friendly with zero emissions. The design was based on a particular style of Renault, inspired by the architecture of Frank Gary. The car has four seats and is deigned in two different platforms: one contains an electric charging mechanism and other one includes an electric combustion piles which is fueled by liquid hydrogen. The main component of the body work is aluminum and few other light materials. The battery is charged by the solar panel whenever it is possible.

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Abengoa Solar has begun commercial operation of the new PS20, the world’s second largest power tower plant, located at the Solucar Platform, near Seville in Spain. The testing has gone quite well as they found that the PS20 surpassed the predicted power output, thus further validating the high potential of power tower technology. PS20 features a number of significant technological improvements with respect to PS10, the first commercial power tower. These enhancements, developed by Abengoa Solar, include a higher-efficiency receiver, various improvements in the control and operational systems, and a better thermal energy storage system. Plant construction was carried out by Abener.

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The European Union is pulling harder at forcing all force European automakers to find a new refrigerant to use in their vehicle's air conditioners which will be more eco-friendly. Their latest ruling will ban the current R-134a coolant starting in 2011 for both new vehicles and aftermarket solutions. At present, there isn't a commercially available alternative that's ready to use in our current A/C systems, but there are a number of new chemical formulations currently being tested. One alternative is carbon dioxide, the same greenhouse gas that internal combustion engines emit when burning fuels. If used in car A/C units, the CO2 would need to be stored at extremely high pressures to be effective. Although CO2 does contribute to global warming, conventional hydrofluorocarbons are considerably worse.

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Panasonic has launched its new circular fluorescent lamp "Palook Premiere LS" which will be the first energy-saving model in 30 years since 1979, when it released a power-saving lamp called "Palook." It will be able to reduce power consumption by approximately five per cent when attached to an inverter. The luminous area is reduced while increasing the luminance efficiency by using a new fluorescent material with a high luminance keeping the brightness intact. It also has a reduced length of the discharge path by 20cm to cut the power consumption.

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A $28 million state-of-the-art office building, on the site of a former parking lot next to UC Berkeley, will house at least 10 environmental nonprofit groups. The building will be made of 53 percent recycled material and will have four levels. The Brower Center also includes a 180-seat theater, art galleries, meeting rooms, a restaurant and other public spaces. The organizers' hope is to create a place where environmentally minded people can meet, brainstorm and help solve some of the world's most challenging ecological dilemmas.

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Keeping your PC on the sleeping mode to save energy is a good thought but apparently boring. So some researchers from the University of California, namely Ph D student Yuvraj Agarwal, in collaboration with Microsoft Research decided they would give lazy people who cannot stand the sight of sun and prefer to be married to their PCs a way to be entertained when their PCs are sleeping. They introduced Sleep Talking which is a way to cut down on the energy used and also provide some of the most common services we require including network access, the ability to run a virus scan and backup, or even having an instant messaging conversation and receiving a VoIP call.

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When the experts speak, it’s hard to imagine there can be anything wrong. As is proven in the case of this new research where scientist Toshihisa Ueda and his colleagues in Japan have reported the development of a new type of ice that may provide a more efficient, environment-friendly method for putting out fires, including out-of control blazes that destroy homes and forests. Keeping in mind the old theory that firefighters have used water and carbon dioxide (CO2) as fire extinguishing agents for decades, they worked on seeing if carbon dioxide hydrates, frozen crystals made of water and CO2 bonded together, may serve as promising fire-suppressing materials.

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