You have your fuel station, now you will have your energy station. If you own an electric vehicle and you live in San Francisco you can charge your car at any of three charging stations across the city. Coulomb Technologies announced their Smartlet Networked Charging Stations as part of a two-year public demonstration to power the city’s plug-in fleet and car share plug-in vehicles. Isn’t that a radical thought?
Finally the Earth’s southern most continent can boast of green, clean energy. Eight wind turbines are rolling to provide 230V of electricity to charge up the Princess Elisabeth Station. Braving temperatures as low as -60 degrees Celsius and 200mph wind gusts, these Scottish 6 kilowatt turbines will be able to power up the station’s heating, computers, lights and scientific instruments for up to 16 scientists at a time. Along with the usage of solar power, this station is touted to be the most eco-friendly research station in Antarctica. Till now most stations relied on diesel generators because no wind turbines were thought to be robust enough for such extreme conditions. Enduring the most severe weather conditions on the earth, the station is expected to generate highest output of any small wind power system in the world.
[A2mediagroup]
Since the sun has the energy and power to run an entire solar system, it is about time somebody thought about getting their acts to derive a large amount of energy form it. Southern California Edison and solar power plant maker BrightSource signed a deal where more than 1,300 mega watts of energy will be generated from the desert outside Los Angeles. This deal may be able to provide electricity for 845,000 homes. This is of course, if the plan doesn’t go wrong and if it actually works. This is huge and something this huge always has obstacles. Hopefully this one will indeed keep its oath of using solar thermal power to generate electricity.
In the coming month, Sanyo’s parking area in Japan will go green with the Solar parking area to test its solar cells and rechargeable batteries. Located at the premises of Tokushima Prefecture, this solar roofed parking lot is intended to charge up the electric bikes like Eneloop via Sanyo’s HIT (heterojunction with intrinsic thin layer) solar panels and Li-ion battery unit. To promote the use of the same, folks from Eneloop company have donated three vehicles to be used as official vehicles. Since many people are still wary about easy access to charging stations for charging such electric bikes, this kind a green move by a company is a boost for its people to opt for the green vehicles. Fitted with three 210W HIT solar panels and a Li-ion battery unit, the solar parking area will be able to churn out about 690kWh in a year.
Isn’t it annoying when you are stuck in traffic and a bright billboard screws your normal vision even worse than a high beam does? Well, thanks to magink, you might be solved of that torture soon. The company known to develop and provide full colour reflective digital solutions introduced this 3D technology using solar power and light reflecting digital ink to replace the conventional LEDs used on billboards. Lamar Outdoor Advertising used these billboards to promote their run to a greener world using eco-friendly techniques.
Scientists have discovered a very interesting form to derive solar energy. The inspired object is the butterfly wing. As is prevalent on the tiny wonders’ wings, it has tiny scales on the surface which act as solar collectors. Keeping this concept in mind, intelligent researchers in China and Japan have formulated a way to possibly derive solar energy, a way to harvest light. They are planning to work upon the dye-sensitized solar cells which are used in solar cells. So what some scientists did was, take a copy of the solar scales on butterfly wings and used them as a template on the dye-sensitized cell and they noticed that this one’s efficiency was much better than the original ones.
While people continue to race to the future with gadgets and technical truck loads, some people are actually making efforts to save the environment for the rest of the green-loving and nature admiring individuals. Solar Power, a company from Ireland, has claimed to have invented the world’s most efficient solar hot water panel. It will apparently save up to 70 per cent of your water bills. Good news this one with all the recession and market crashing we have been hearing about. The product is 131 % more efficient in the mornings and 70% more efficient in the evenings than other solar panels, say company officials.
I like scientists. They have a way of bringing so many alternatives to make life on earth a comfortable option. A bunch of scientists from the Pennsylvania State University have apparently come up with a way of making fuel by sun, water, carbon dioxide and nanotechnology. They may have come with an option to use sun to make fuel but with a costly alternative. The researches used titanium dioxide, nitrogen, copper and platinum to prepare the experiment and were able to produce methane and water.
Though the future seems to be greener under Obama’s reign, US is already basking under the green limelight. A report suggests that United States has outshined Germany as the biggest producer of wind power for the year that has gone by. And US isn’t stopping there. It is estimated to lead in the solar power too for the current year. Generating 25 gigwatts (GW), the country has moved one slot up past Germany (24GW) to enjoy the top position. With a jump pf 50% growth the country’s wind energy is enough to charge up more than five million homes. And if Obama keeps to his promise then US can bask in almost double the current alternative energy over the next three years. Based on reports by the Global Wind Energy Council, it is known that Spain and China occupy the third and the fourth places respectively. China’s growth is also noteworthy as it has doubled its installed wind power for the forth year running.
[Sciam]
It’s the heaters in winters and the air-conditioners in the summers that pool in to criminally escalate the electrical bills. But Dr. Mike Dennis from a university Down Under has come up with a solar powered air-conditioner to tackle the heat changes in the atmosphere without tormenting bills. This research engineer from Australian National University has designed an effective cooling option that soaks in the sun’s energy to reduce the temperature under the roof. And it not only restricts itself to plunging the temperature in summers but such a solar powered system can also heat up the homes in winters and also render solar hot water all round the year. However Mike’s solar air-conditioning system is still undergoing tests before its actually hits the mark
[ABC News]