The first striking point of this villa in the village of Vals in Switzerland is that it has been carved out of a mountain wall. The second most interesting fact is that the designer Jeroen van Mechelen has created a cabinet- cabin in the guesthouse with cardboards. Designed by the renowned architectural firm SeARCH in collaboration with Christian Müller architects this cathedral-like cabin is defined out of a 3 dimensional cardboard matrix. The two complete chapel like ceilings have been carved out of this matrix. The lightweight cardboard sandwich panels were directly CNC-carved from the design files and easily put together by the design team.

[Design]

It’s an old Chinese philosophy that you can take a horse to a lake, but you can’t make him drink the water. Keeping the phrase alive, WattVision has developed this real-time energy monitoring device that actually allows the user to counts the units consumed over every electronic device in the house. This simply means that unless people are actually made aware of the reality, in other words the statistics, the conscience will not prick. Thus no actually change can be made. To be honest, there are several existing energy sensors that can be easily snapped onto your gadget to monitor your consumption. But what makes WattVision different from the rest is an interesting looking structure, smart pricing and easy display. If you talk to the people in their own language, the reciprocation is immediate.

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After being lashed out at in the many Copenhagen summits, China has taken environment consciousness seriously and has a massive budget for the ‘landmark green building project’ being developed for the World University Games coming in August 2011. They have decided on a new set of two charging stations for electric cars at the Universiade Center in Shenzhen. Apart from this they plan on having about 134 pole chargers around the town. The charging stations can be used during the day time, while the pole chargers can be putt o use during the night, for slow or overnight charging.

[Autobloggreen]

Japan is the future of the cell phone industry and developments and innovations from the land of the rising sun have helped change the way we use our phones. As dreamt by Japan’s mobile big shot, NTT DoCoMo, the mobile phone will be an essential part of our lives, more than it is today. The company displays its technology in cell phones at the ‘Future Station’, located in a Tokyo skyscraper. The company anticipates the use of its wearable phone by the year 2020. This phone is to be made out of recycled materials. It’s uncommon for cell phone manufacturers to use recycled materials for production today, however this will not be so in the future. DoCoMo’s phone will also be partially powered with kinetic energy created due to the movements of the user.

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Ever heard of energy created due to the vibrations of a dance floor or train station? It is known as piezoelectric energy. This form of energy is formed due to the conversion of mechanical strain into electrical current. A tiny piezoelectric energy, capable of collecting energy from machinery and infrastructure is being developed by a team of researchers in Europe. These devices can be used to power remote sensing equipment that can detect deterioration of bridges and even wind turbines. Wind turbines are usually located in remote areas and accessing those burns up loads of energy.

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Canada spots its first bifacial photovoltaic solar module with the unveiling of Sanyo Canada Inc. and Avacos Solar Energy’s installation at DuROCK Alfacing International Ltd.'s headquarters. This installation combines Sanyo's HIT (Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin-layer) Double bifacial solar photovoltaic modules and Tio-Coat reflective roof membrane. The Sanyo HIT Double PV is capable of generating energy from both the sides due to which, 30% more energy is generated as compared to common PV modules. The Tio-Coat is a roof coating made of elastomeric urethane. It provides 89% solar radiation reflectivity and weather resistance. Together, the HIT Double PV and Tio-Coat membrane will help provide energy for DuROCK and also reduce the cooling cost of the building. An increased PV module output and higher exposure to solar radiation is gained due to the combination of these two products with its 10kW grid-tied arrangement. According to president of Avacos Solar Energy, Sandro Costa, this is a win-win situation for the client and a great example of how combination of two technologies can help boost the solar industry.

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Maybe you don’t look at your trash can with a twinkle in your eye, but the Strauss family sure do! The garbage sticking out of this trashcan is the amount of waste the family produced in one year. And they haven’t achieved this by digging up their lawn to hide all their waste. The Strauss family recycles. These folks have produced an average of just 2oz of garbage a week. The family has disposed of its garbage wisely by using it as compost and landfill. That’s not all; they have even burnt up their old wooden toilet seat in the living room fireplace. They have been growing some of their own food, reusing shopping bags and have stopped receiving junk mail. Next year, the family aims to produce no garbage at all.

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Solar energy is being used for various purposes all over the globe today with the rise in technology. The sun is being squeezed of its juice to power up homes, cars and even cell phones. The newest application for solar energy is to power up airplanes. Known as the HB-SIA and built by a Swiss team, it completed its first test run in Zurich this December. The plane flew 350 meters at an altitude of one meter and will have its next test run in 2010. Chairman of Sun Impulse and co-founder of this project, Bertrand Piccard, hope’s that this airplane will circle the globe in 20 days by the year 2012. He managed to draw in €40 million of the total €70 million needed from investors like Semper, Deutsche Bank, Toyota and a few others.

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Acclaimed as one the Top 10 ‘green’ in America, rockers CAKE are doing their part to save the environment. They have converted their recording studio in Sacramento to a solar powered building. The studio is a hundred percent solar powered building and has no carbon footprint. According to the band’s front man, John McCrea, they aim to get people thinking using the Internet. Unlike the rest, this band’s website speaks about environmental issues and not just music. McCrea states that music is not enough to render a discussion on a webpage everyday and hence other issues should be addressed too. CAKE will headline the Bill Graham fund raiser event in San Francisco on the 9th of January and will release its sixth studio album soon. Not all bands address social issues as such and some fans are skeptical. However, this should set an example to people from every field to work towards building a cleaner and greener atmosphere.

[Times-Herald Online]

The best way to get something done best is to do it yourself. So true this is, little wonder then that the Solar-Powered Wooden Biplane Model is actually a Do-It-Yourself kit that we have to put together and with the help of solar panels on top of the wings, the plane actually propels itself. I have played with remote controlled and battery operated planes, but this light-weighted wooden biplane measuring 21cm x 19.5cm x 8.5cm, the model cannot just be placed as a decorative on the desk, but also be put to actual use. The small solar panels on the Solar-Powered Biplane Model are powerful enough to work even under lamplight. Suitable for children above the age of 6, it effectively explains and teaches the functioning and requirement of conversion of solar energy to electricity to the young kids.

[EnviroGadget]

Keystone has brought out its solar gadgets charger that like all other chargers, charges the gadgets using solar energy. But what’s different about Keystone solar charger is that it can charge gadgets in flat 4 hours under direct sunlight, and in 8 hours under indirect sunlight. Apart from that it also has a USB slot, so you can easily plug in your gadget to be charged. But the thing that is really different about this device is that you can scribble in your name with pencil in the space provided on the device. So it acts like a luggage tag where you can never lose it, and if you ever did lose the device, some Good Samaritan would definitely return it back to you. Well, I personally don’t see any remarkable innovation in this, but I’m sure the designer had some thing in mind while he thought of this.

[SlipperyBrick]

Many solar panels in the past have been designed to capture solar energy and make electricity out of it. Prism Solar Technologies in Highland, New York has built this innovative holographic thin-film with crystalline photovoltaic cells that are able to capture more sunlight in regions which have low level insolation. The thin-film strips diffract both direct and reflected energy to the PV cell strips integrated between strips of thin-film. Solar modules made in this way are cheaper because they use 50-72% less silicon to make the same energy. The best aspect of this is that the modules use light from absolutely any direction including the back. The application of the Holographic Planar Concentrator™ (HPC) technology leads to reduction in the per watt costs due to less silicon, and also that it can easily capture even a low angle light.

[Cleantechnica]

The lithium ion technology is gaining impetus with the release of such batteries by a whole lot of companies. Panasonic is now working on its 3.1 Ah 18650 lithium ion cells. Panasonic’s newly acquired company, Sanyo, recently released the Eneloop Music Booster, a 9V lithium ion battery made for on-stage use. Panasonic has now planned to produce 3.4 Ah cells having a carbon anode unit in 2012 and 4.0 Ah cells the following year. The 4.0 Ah cell however, uses a new silicon-based alloy for an electrode. These cells will have nickel oxide positive electrodes that are commonly used.

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Accused of being a ‘green hypocrite’ for using a private jet to fly to the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit and giving the world a sermon on global warming, Prince Charles has decided to have his place of dwelling go green. The Prince has planned to install solar panels on roof of the 180 year old mansion, the Clarence House in London. These panels are anticipated to fulfill the heating and lighting energy needs of the building. However, officials state that no such modifications will be done if they harm the appearance of the century old building. This change would burn a £150,000 hole in the Prince’s pocket.

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Shipping containers are used to transport goods all over the world. These bulky and massive boxes made of steel usually go waste when unused. The Subway restaurant company came up with an idea that will help recycle these containers and also save the energy of construction workers rebuilding the World Trade Center in New York. And how is that possible? By building a subway restaurant in a shipping container that will be operated with a crane and lifted into the sky to cater to the needs of construction workers instead of having them use the elevator to ride down during lunch breaks, and back up after they finish. This will also help save time during lunch breaks. This Subway outlet is unique not only in its operation, but also its menu.

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