Ohio will now have two more rest stops. And unlike the ones seen, these two new locations to rest your backs will be green! Planned by the Ohio Turnpike Commission, these rest areas will be powered by renewable energy sources. Using wind and solar energy, they will also have an E85. These two service plazas will be built on both the sides of the turnpike with E85 facilities that will enable electric cars to juice up. Besides this, parked trucks in these areas will also enjoy cable and Internet hookups. These facilities with gas pumps, restaurants, and restrooms will open their doors next year.
We’ve seen robots that help around the kitchen and clean up your home too. Here’s a bunch of them that build solar cells. In just around 30 minutes, the squat multitasking robot can build semiconductors for solar cells on six-inch-square plates of glass, plastic or flexible metals. Six of these robots, straight out of a Tim Burton film, work diligently at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy in India plans to make all cell phone towers powered using solar energy. India has 250,000 cell phone towers, each of which use 3-5 kilowatts of power depending on the number of operators using them. Together these towers use more than 2 billion litres of diesel every year for power generation. Apart from this, fuel is also spent for cooling the equipment in nearby hubs. If all these cell phone towers use solar energy then it could save a great amount of fossil fuels as well as reduce carbon emissions. This step could reduce carbon emissions by about 5 million tones as well as save more than 2 billion litres of diesel, which is a very substantial amount.
Ever had problems figuring out bus schedules while waiting at your old run-down local bus stop? Well have your city authorities set up these futuristic bus waiting booths instead! This Red Dot design winner not only keeps u shaded from the elements, it also uses solar energy to power up and display bus schedules. Designed by a Shanghai-based company Yang-Design, this waiting booth displays schedules on an electric screen powered by solar panels fitted on top of it. Two benches provide comfort to your tired legs. Between these, a city information center, a bus schedule screen and a billboard for advertisements are attached.
Solar power will soon be used to juice up oil-fields. Now powering an oil-field with solar panels is indeed a difficult task, much unlike simply powering up your home with a few solar panels. Global oil big-shot, Chevron are planning to install solar panels that will power up its oil fields in Kern River, California. This is the fifth largest oil field in the US. To power it up, Chevron will need around 7,700 solar panels. The system will generate around 740 kilowatts that will juice up oil-pumps and pipelines.
A plasma T.V. uses more juice to power itself up than a refrigerator. Using a 48-inch screen is bound to shoot up your electricity bill. LCD and LED screens are preferred over plasma screens. Maybe plasmas burn a hole in your pocket every time you find a power bill in your letter box, but the technology they use can produce clean fuels too! Don’t try punching a hole in your plasma screen for this. Albin Czernichowski, a professor at the University of Orleans in France came up with this sweet device called the GlidArc reactor which uses an electrically-charged cloud of gas that generates clean fuels from waste.
There is a lot of talk going on about reducing carbon foot-print by bringing in more efficient vehicles and gadgets. However, the energy used in cooking food and the emissions thus caused are never considered to be a problem. In a mini project carried out by a group of 76 students of UMS (Universiti Malaysia Sabah), they have come up with designs of 10 solar cookers designed on the lines of the Kyoto Box invented by Jon Bohmer. When this solar cooker is placed on the ground facing the sun, the heat-trap box design of these cookers does not allow the heat to escape out of the box. This innovative design is built simply using plywood, a glass panel, and newspapers, to be stuffed along the sides which will act as insulators.
Music of the 40’s powered by technology from the 21st century was indeed an eco-friendly sight to see at the LA marathon. The Hybrid Mobile Solar Power System™ was used to power the US Veterans Administration’s entertainment stage at the VA Hospital in Westwood recently which attracted around 20000 people. Singers and dancers, with mikes and instruments juiced with solar energy performed while the marathon proceeded. For a change, the crowd was free from noise, exhaust and the smelly diesel usually used by generators. The 7 performances that took place over 8 hours were powered by a “Hybrid S10” Mobile Solar Power System™ used by Pure Power Distribution.
Here’s a visual treat for those who usually look around and aren’t too busy to notice buildings around them. This system known as Piksol was developed by Drzach and Suchy, two designers who keep an eye open to design and environment friendly concepts. These devices help harvest the energy from the sun, and at the same time, create arbitrary patterns and images on building facades. The Piksol system, coupled with Shadow Casting Panels can also be used to create some beautiful and awe-striking designs and images. These will change throughout the day as the sun travels thru the sky.
Street lights get smart and eco friendly with this new development by BMW and Siemens. These lights use sensors that adjust their cycles according to road feedback. That’s not all. They can also communicate with cars nearby and inform drivers regarding traffic and road conditions. The traffic lights help vehicles use their anti-idling features to the fullest, thus saving a ton of fuel. These lights are smart enough to recognize and learn traffic patterns and adjust their own cycles for a better traffic flow.
Ohio will now have two more rest stops. And unlike the ones seen, these two new locations to rest your backs will be green! Planned by the Ohio Turnpike Commission, these rest areas will be powered by renewable energy sources. Using wind and solar energy, they will also have an E85. These two service plazas will be built on both the sides of the turnpike with E85 facilities that will enable electric cars to juice up. Besides this, parked trucks in these areas will also enjoy cable and Internet hookups. These facilities with gas pumps, restaurants, and restrooms will open their doors next year.
