The New York skyline might just have a diamond in the sky if things go as planned. Mexican architect Luis Durazo came up with the Diamond Tower, a building inspired by a girl’s best friend, diamonds, and 300 meters high and boasting some pretty green features. The building’s exoskeleton acts as a steel lattice and allows in daylight. It also packs wind turbines on the top levels while solar panels cover the building’s façade. Inside, the Diamond Tower will house a museum, art galleries and a lot more recreational areas. Somewhat reminding us of the chemical structure of diamonds, this tower will surely turn into a recognized landmark in the city of New York.

More...

At first look, we thought this one to be a floating solar power station, with all those rows and loads of solar panels. On a closer look, we figured it out to be a boat! The world’s largest solar powered boat, built in Germany has finally set out on a round-the-world voyage. The 31,000 mile long distance will be covered by the boat, completely powered by solar energy. Flagged off from Monaco this Monday, the vessel took a whole 14 months to build. It covers a distance of a whopping 5,780 square feet covered by solar cells with an 18.8 percent-efficiency. All this helps deliver a sweet 93.5kW of power.

More...

The weight and the bulk of the battery in electric cars have been the focus of concern for the automakers especially when a futuristic designed car moves to the production stage. However Volvo has zoomed past this hurdle with its latest move of designing a car’s whole body to work as a rechargeable battery. Volvo is the only automaker along with seven other European institutes that has taken part in this three year project at London’s Imperial College to develop the technology. Though this one is also a concept yet, the car body is shaped to be made of a composite blend of carbon fibers and polymer resin that can store and charge more energy than conventional batteries. The carmaker also claims that the weight of the car can be reduced by 15 percent with such a material, which adds on to its green portfolio.

More...

Tidal power generation is finally making its way onto U.S. starting with Ocean Power Technologies’ tidal power generation systems. Known as the PowerBuoy, this one is designed exactly like its namesake, a buoy, and uses a pretty different technique to generate energy from waves. Unlike the usual tidal energy generators that drive power from a back-and-forth motion, this one uses the up-and-down motion of waves to generate energy. The ocean has an uncountable number of buoys, and each of them replaced by the energy-generating PowerBuoy could sure help produce a whole lot of green energy!

More...

Adobe has made a green move recently, hooking up with Bloom Energy to install fuel cell servers that will help power up around on-third of the company’s electricity needs. Adobe’s San Jose, California, headquarters will have all this green energy to its disposal. 12 fuel cell servers will be installed on the fifth floor of Adobe's West Tower, each of which will contain thousands of ceramic fuel cells, converting fuel and oxygen from the air into an electric current and roughly the size of a van. This initiative will help Adobe reduce its carbon-footprint by a whole 121.5 million pounds in 10 years time. Each Bloom Box, as the company has named it, costs between $700,000 and $800,000 and generates energy enough to light up 100 U.S. homes.

More...

In the future, the way the world generates energy, stores and uses it will be a lot different from the way it does today. Smart-grids in the future will help, as it is slowly being developed with more and more technologies being put to use today. To show their support for the smart-grid concept, seven countries with the environment on their minds and a whole lot of eco-consciousness have joined hands to form the Global Smart Grid Foundation. The GridWise Alliance in the United States, India Smart Grid Forum, Japan Smart Community Alliance, Korean Smart Grid Association, Smart Grid Australia, SmartGridIreland, and SmartGrid Canada will together work towards implementing the smart-grid globally.

More...

Solar cells have their setbacks, one of which is being expensive. The more powerful ones always burn a large hole in your pocket, and to generate all that energy, they need to be thicker too. A new type of solar cell has recently been developed by researchers at the Stanford University that might just help save up on costs in the future. The cell is said to be thinner than the wavelength of light itself! And besides just be shockingly skinnier, the cell can also absorb around 10 times more sunlight than the solar cells today. By stopping the light from bouncing around using light trapping, the ultra-thin cell helps absorb more energy easily.

More...

The New York Jets bring a bit of green to football with the headquarters and training center of the team in Florham Park, New Jersey, going green with some solar power. Tying up with Yingli Solar, the team has put into place NFL’s largest photovoltaic installation ever, a 3,000 panel strong array. The system owned by Syncarpha Capital was designed and constructed by SunDurance Energy, LLC while Evolution Energies, LLC was selected as the project developer. The energy generated by the system will be sold to the New York Jets under a long-term Power Purchase Agreement.

More...

One of the best ways to decrease the use of foreign oil is to pull of cars from the highway and have people use modes of mass-transit instead. Giving commuters a better alternative to driving down to work everyday in their gas-guzzling cars could sure help save the environment from all that burning fuel. Here’s an innovation, a marvel rather, on wheels that could help do the job. The United States might finally have its own high-speed rail service, connecting Washington D.C., Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston if Amtrak’s plans go well. Costing around $117 billion, Amtrak has already requested some $2.5 billion from Congress for 2011. $8 billion from Obama and the rest from private investors might just have this rail system on track. To be completed by 2040, the new railway could take just 84 minutes for a trip to Boston from New York City, unlike the 2.5 hours it takes by the current trains and the 4 hours by road.

More...

Eco-friendly homes are just the thing we need in to save our ever-degrading environment today. Keeping away carbon-emissions has been on everyone’s mind these days. It’s no wonder that every time we see an eco-friendly home, we just can’t stop smiling; especially the one’s as customizable as these! Known as the Be Coc Mobile Home, these ‘homes’ are sort of caravans, powered by solar energy. Complete with a bathroom, kitchen, lounge area, this one works on clean-energy, giving you a luxurious stay, keeping up with the trends and doing the best it can to keep the environment happy.

More...

Infinity, the luxury brand of Nissan, is busy rubbing its palms together, anticipating a super-luxurious electric vehicle. The firm hopes to have the car rolling out of its plants by 2013. Recently, Infiniti's Senior Vice President, Andy Palmer showed of the sketch for the car at the Infiniti Centre Piccadilly in London. A five-seat luxury car, this one’s designed to be quick, clean and stylish, with all the right cuts and chiseling. Nothing more but this blurry sketch has been given out by Infiniti for now.

More...

Homes in the future are sure to be a lot different from the blocks of concrete and wood we live in today. These pieces of architecture will be green, sustainable and self-sufficient, generating enough energy to satisfy needs of the people residing. Take this home for example, the Future Living house by a team of designers who’ve worked pretty hard on chiseling out the design for this green home. Twenty-six designers put their knowledge and skills together for this one. Technological developments today were carefully analyzed to make sure everything this home boasts will come true in the future, 2050 that is. Using wind energy and solar energy to power up with some awesome future-tech, the house also recycles everything it can and flaunts a living bio wall too!

More...

T-Mobile has decided to go green, starting of with a solar cell tower, the first by the company in the United States. Located at Chalfont, Pennsylvania, this solar-powered cell tower by T-Mobile USA has as many as 12 solar panels. Soaking in the sun big time, this one can also help local utility companies with some extra power at times when network demand is low. Efficient enough to be self-sufficient, this one costs a lot more than a regular cell site though. Costs are what make companies think twice before setting up cell towers like these, though in the long run, they sure pull out some substantial and satisfying amount of energy savings.

More...

Besides making sure those annoying burglars don’t try busting into your home and picking up stuff, the new ADT home security system does its share of energy saving too! Basically a home automation system, the new service by ADT scheduled to show up by next month, will hook up a bunch of wireless sensors and some pretty cutting edge technology, with which, users can control their home’s lighting, thermostats and at the same time, keep it secured. The ADT Pulse as it has been christened is packed with iControl’s software, a touch-screen tablet device, and loads of other goodies like weather informants and news applications.

More...

A short while ago, we came across the Life Cube, an inflatable tent designed to be used in disaster struck places as a relief to those left homeless. Here’s yet another effort, green and eco-friendly, that can help victims of calamities shelter. Known as the Cardborigami, this design was put into place by architecture student Tine Hovsepian and draws inspiration from origami, a Japanese art of paper folding. Made from corrugated cardboard, the Cardborigami is fire-proof and water-proof too. It can be carried around pretty easily taken that it’s light and weight and foldable. Setting this one up isn’t too difficult either!

More...