Johnny Depp is planning on converting his island home to run on solar hydrogen technology. In 2005, Depp bought the the 35-acre island in the Bahamas for around $3m. The star is third in line to receive a grid-independent solar hydrogen system from Mike Strizki. For those of you who dont know Mike Stirzki, well he is the inventor of the first solar-hydrogen house in New Jersey.
If you live in an all day sunny environment house its time to tap into all that wasted solar energy. Tokyo-based Nihon Telecommunication System Inc. has given householders another option to do their bit to help the planet by developing windowpanes with built-in photovoltaic cells. The electricity produced through the panes will be just enough to power a PC and recharge a cell phone. The electricity will be tapped via USB ports. The new windowpanes are supposed to generate up to 70 watts of electricity per square meter of glass. The solar cells have a power generation efficiency of 7 to 8%. The glass (thickness: 10.5mm) will prevent up to 90% of sunlight coming into a room and therefore reduce air conditioning costs.
With the number of home owners installing solar panels everyday and more communities now reaping its benefits, it’s no surprise that the solar business is booming. The newest adopters are Fresno-Yosemite International (FYI). The airport, which served 1.38 million passengers last year, is situated on 2,150 acres and mostly deals in private air traffic had a large amount of the land around that was sitting idle and undeveloped while the airport was struggling to deal with soaring energy costs. Meanwhile, the airport was launching a trial program to deploy solar panels on the roof of an expansion building which was to house rental car services. The idea clicked — solar power could fuel the airport’s power needs. Not stopping with the rooftops, FYI expanded its solar offerings, placing panels over the equivalent of seven football fields’ worth of undeveloped land. Now, with its construction complete for the time being, finishing last month, FYI has found itself in a new position — green leader. A 2 MW solar facility which was finally put to use last month it now powers the airport’s lighting and the communications tower. While modest compared to some dedicated solar plants, the FYI’s installation is a perfect example of a business putting solar to use.
The town of Okotoks, Alberta, Canada has set a world record as being the first solar powered community of North America. 800 solar panels located throughout the community on garage roofs, and they produce 1.5 mega-watts of thermal power during a summer day and supply heat to the district heating system. The homes are average sized, with low energy demands ranging from 1,492 to 1,664 square feet. The homes have been built using locally manufactured materials, and recycled material too has been used in construction. The homes will be certified to Natural Resources Canada’s R-2000 Standard for energy efficiency, and the Built Green™ Alberta program. An array of solar panels on the roofs of their houses and garages, the solar panels absorb the solar energy during the daytime and heat the glycol solution. The glycol solution travels through the collector loop and reaches an underground heat exchanger within the community’s centralized Energy Center. The heat is then transferred from heat exchanger to the water stored in a short-term storage tank. The glycol solution returns to the solar collector system. The Energy Center has short-term thermal storage tanks and long-thermal storage tanks (Borehole Thermal Energy Storage (BTES) system). During the warmer months the heated water is transferred to the underground borehole thermal energy storage (BTES) system via a series of pipes. The water heats up the surrounding earth increasing the temperature to 80 degrees C (176 °F). The water returns to the short-term storage tanks to be heated again. The heat is stored underground insulated with sand, high-density R-40 insulation, a waterproof membrane, clay, and other landscaping materials.
Every six months or so a new city is announced in the city of Dubai, so in keeping with the times this time its another Eco city that is planned in the already popular list of new eco cities springing up. The Xeritown is planned for Dubailand. The 60-acre city is designed in a way that it will accommodate the elements of the desert rather than overcome them. The city follows a north-south axis to take advantage of the cool breeze coming in from the sea. The buildings, rather than artificial and water intense landscaping, provide shading and structure. Flat circles will hang over street walkways and photovoltaics will be placed on the circles to collect solar energy. A major aim of the project will also be to conserve ecological resources such as water, soil, flora, and fauna.
The amount of energy it takes to cool buildings citywide is enormous, and such energy is usually obtained by burning up some precious resource. Honolulu Seawater Air Conditioning (HSWAC) is set to change that as it is now going to cool down buildings with seawater, rather than using fossil fuel-based air conditioning units. Private investors have put up nearly $11 M, completing the funding effort for the $152 M project, with about half of the final funding coming from investors from Honolulu. The system will pump cool water, about 45° F, from 1,600 feet below the ocean waves. The water will travel through the pump system to an onshore station where it will cool fresh water that circulates in a closed loop through customers’ buildings in downtown Honolulu. Once the cold seawater has done its job, it is pumped back into the ocean at a shallower level, going through a diffuser to ensure proper mixing and dilution to the surrounding sea. Renewable Energy Innovations, LLC, pioneered the system in Sweden and have shown that it works quite well.
The Eco-Home from designers at Diseño Earle is aiming to be the first ‘zero carbon’ footprint home in Andalucia, in Southern Spain. The team put two strict objectives in mind: (1) zero carbon footprint, and (2) reduce operating costs to almost a self-sufficiency level. The home huge covering 6995 Sq feet which will be built with 75% less waste than a traditional design and operate 80% more efficiently than a similar sized home. The most striking feature of the design is the wing shaped roof. Not only does the roof bury and embed the solar panels out of sight, but it’s at the right angle to capture and convert the sun’s rays into energy. In addition, the design calls for space between the roof and home so that less direct heat is absorbed by the home and air can pass over it, cooling the structure in the process.
Malaysian-born, UK-based architect Ken Yeang is setting out to build the world’s first truly green building. Fusionopolis will be Singapore’s most eco-friendly building, what makes it so green is a vertical spine of planting that rises up through the 15-storey building. At 1.4km high, it designed essentially as a ‘normal home’ with ‘generational interaction’ between all family members. Yeang believes a building should function as an ecosystem which explains why there are landscaped garden terraces located on each floor of the tower. Greenery improves people’s sense of wellbeing; research has shown that patients who can see trees through their hospital window recover faster than those who can’t. But making a truly ‘green’ building presents multiple challenges, from drainage and irrigation to picking the right species of trees and giving them sufficient daylight. It’s no easy task finding plants that survive high altitudes. Yeang’s master plan at Rajarajeshwari Nagar in Bangalore, India, is the real deal. A continuous corridor of planting will weave through the 87-acre site across bridges and through tunnels. It works on the same principle as Fusionopolis, except the planting will be horizontal rather than vertical.
Before you seek the myriad of attractions this summer in China, be sure to experience a new kind of wall. The GreenPix or the Zero Energy Media Wall is a landmark in LED display; it is one of the largest of its kind in the world and is made of 2,292 LED lights, which cover 24,000 square feet. The best part of this display… it is one of the greenest with photovoltaic technology providing the power. New York based architect Simone Giostra and British building engineers Arup explain that display works almost like a living organism; it sucks in sunlight during the day and then uses that same power to generate light in the evening.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Japan build a model house called the “Zero-Emission House” in the outdoor car park of the International Media Center (IMC) for coverage by international journalists during the Hokkaido Toyako Summit. This house of the near future is equipped with a photovoltaic power generation system, fuel cells, advanced robots, and other cutting-edge technologies. All home appliances in the zero emission house work with electricity generated by solar and wind energy.