Wale’s first grid-connected freestanding tidal turbine begins tests
Nothing can stop the United Kingdom from soaking in some green juice, and that includes the tide! Very recently, an underwater turbine off the coast of Pembrokeshire at Ramsey Sound was unveiled. This project is currently on a 12-month long trial period and will generate clean and green renewable energy for homes in St. Davids. Built by Mustange Marin, the structure that stands seven storeys high will generate energy from tidal currents on the sea bed.
Art does not necessarily need to stay static and never-changing. Instead, with a little bit of innovation and a whole lot of creativity, art can be mixed with modern-day technology to churn out installations that are eye-catching and pretty useful too! Jiavu Liu, a student at the Royal College of Art (RCA), designed one such installation called the Within Invisibility, which is essentially an LED installation that reacts to wind pattern data collected from 40 Chinese cities in real time!
India has recently won the appreciation of the world after successfully conducting the biggest democratic elections. The soon to be Prime Minister of the Southern Asian nation, Mr. Narendra Modi, has won the favor of the public not only for his knack at developing cities but also for his green ideologies. Narendra Taneja, convener of the energy division at Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party said, “We look upon solar as having the potential to completely transform the way we look at the energy space.”
Flushing a toilet has been known to serve just one purpose, until now. Besides taking away all your waste to a land where you never have to look at it again, toilet flushes will now help power up homes in South Korea. Scientists in South Korea have developed the means to harvest the mechanical energy generated from the flushing of a toilet and convert it all to usable electricity. From the experiments conducted, these researchers have concluded that the movement of a single droplet is enough to power up a green LED.
Let’s not deny it. Solar plants are a space-taking affair and many a times, most areas don’t have enough space to house these renewable-energy-generating facilities. The Stanford scientists have therefore come up with a way to save space and integrate photovoltaic farms with agricultural areas! A system like this works as a boon for areas like southwestern United States where water is scarce. The system proposed by the scientists will allow solar farms not only to collect sunlight for electricity but also to produce crops for biofuels.
While most multinationals around the globe shy away from taking a greener step, some companies like IKEA are a shining example of how the manufacturing sector can settle for more energy efficient and eco-friendly practices. For the 206th time since its conception, IKEA has shown the world just how environmentally friendly it is with its recent investment in its first wind power facility in the United States! IKEA’s new wind farm is located in Hoopeston and has a 98 megawatt capacity.
There’s nothing better than a cup of joe, except a cup of joe brought to life by the power of the sun! Behold Wheely’s Café, one of the first among mobile coffee-serving restaurants, powered by the sun! This solar powered cart is as revolutionary as revolutionary gets and is an “ecological café bike”. The little bike-cart has everything needed to brew a cup of coffee, tea and serve all of this alongside soft drinks and pastries.
One of the biggest automobile manufacturers hailing from the United Kingdom, Jaguar Land Rover, has recently taken a step towards energy efficiency. The company has topped its new plant in South Staffordshire with the largest rooftop solar array in the UK! The company’s Engine Manufacturing Centre now plays home to more than 21,000 photovoltaic panels on its roof. The solar panels have a joint capacity of 5.8 MW and Jaguar plans to increase this to at least 6.3 MW soon!
We all new plants give out oxygen, better the quality of the environment and work as a food source. What we didn’t know however, is the fact that plants also work as electricity generators! A Dutch start-up called Plant-e has developed a fantastic way to use plants to generate electricity. The principal behind it all is pretty simple. When plants use photosynthesis, organic matter generated is excreted by the roots into the soil. This organic matter is consumed by microorganisms and the byproduct of the entire process is electrons! By placing an electrode in the soil near the roots, small amounts of electricity can be generated.