As technology soars higher, we keep coming across newer and cleaner ways to power up our lives. Recently, we caught up with designer Laurence Kemball-Cook’s brain child, the Pavegen system. Simply put, this concept generates energy as you walk over specific energy-harvesting tiles. The Pavegen can easily be incorporated in footpaths and the like.
Solar power has caught on quickly and the world is realizing the true potential of using renewable energy generated from the rays of the sun. And as several companies around the globe are building new technologies everyday to make the best use of solar energy, Sun Invention’s Plug & Save Solar System has literally revolutionized it all! The system is the world’s first mobile solar panel and comes fully equipped with a built-in battery storage and inverter!
Generating energy from gushing water isn’t new. However, the engineers from the PolyU’s Department of Building Services Engineering and the Water Supplies Department (WSD) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government have come up with a fantastic concept that uses the principal of hydroelectricity to generate energy from an untapped and promising source of clean energy, water passing through pipes!
In a world with quickly depleting fossil fuels, looking for alternate ways to generate electricity is the need of the hour! Recently, researchers from the Stony Brook University have come up with a device that generates electricity from vibrations. When extensively used on railways tracks, these simple devices are help generate clean and green renewable electricity!
French automaker Renault has come up with a fabulously green way to shelter the cars that roll out of its assembly lines. The company has recently installed a canopy soaked through with solar panels that has been termed as “the world’s largest photovoltaic system in the auto industry”. The canopy generates green energy and also shelters the company’s cars beneath. Six of Renault’s production sites including Douai, Maubeuge, Flins, Batilly, Sandouville and Cléon will make use of these systems covering 40 hectares or 400,000 square meters in all.
The world’s largest wind-farm, the London Array has finally begun generating energy. Located in the Thames Estuary, the project will be worth 630 MW when completed. Currently, just 15 of the total 175 turbines have been installed, with the rest being set up. The remaining turbines are expected to be constructed by the end of this year.
Nestled in the South Pacific lies a paradise-on-earth, called Tokelau. In essence a group of islands, this beautiful country has now been crowned as the world’s first nation to go 100% solar-powered! Using a one megawatt array spread across three atolls, Tokelau is capable of powering 1,400 residents’ lives with renewable energy, generating enough power to satisfy 150% of their electricity needs!
Siemens has just pulled the veil off its new 6MW offshore wind turbine in Østerild, Denmark and has begun field testing the system. Sporting the world’s largest rotor blades, this turbine has a rotor diameter of 154 metres and can generate nearly 25m kilowatt hours of electricity! Simply put, this direct-drive wind turbine can power up nearly 6,000 homes and will bring to the wind energy industry a new benchmark. Weighing in at 200 tonnes, this 6MW turbine is also the lightest in its class and has been built keeping offshore weather conditions in mind. A technological breakthrough to be precise, this 6MW offshore wind turbine is bound to find many takers across the globe.
American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist better known as the “Wizard of Omaha”, Warren Buffet has now shown his greener side. The billionaire’s Berkshire Hathaway’s subsidiary, MidAmerican, has recently purchased to massive wind farms in California. Generating a total of 300 megawatts of electricity, these wind farms will be part of the Wind Energy Center located in Tehachapi. The energy generated will be sold to Southern California Edison as part of a long-term power purchase agreement. That apart, the project is expected to generate just about enough energy to power up nearly 80,000 American homes. Also, the move could help Warren Buffet offset the pollution his coal trains have been spewing in the environment!
As technology progresses, solar power harvesting systems are quickly receiving long-awaited upgrades. Recently, we stumbled across this revolutionary new solar energy harvester called the V3Solar Spin Cell. Developed by V3Solar, this cone-shaped apparatus is capable of generating roughly about 20 times more energy than the traditional flat solar panel. Using concentrating lenses, dynamic spin, a conical shape and advanced electronics, the V3Solar Spin Cell sports two cones, one of which uses hundreds of triangular PV cells. The outer cone works as a static hermetically-sealed outer lens concentrator.
With a 56% angle, the V3Solar Spin Cell is capable of generating more energy from the rays of the sun than its peers, making it the next best way to power up the world today.
[gizmag]
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